Christmas Read Aloud Linky Party

     So...I know I just blogged about a Thanksgiving Read Aloud Linky Party, but The Third Grade Bookworm is having a Christmas Read Aloud Linky Party.  It is hard to believe that we are inching our way closer to the holiday season.  This is just another reminder that the year is flying by!
     Anyway, so I decided to link up with this blog.  I have too many books to really choose my absolute favorite, but I tried to choose one that would be appealing to most elementary grades, not just my little ones.  One of my favorite holiday books is Merry Christmas Amelia Bedilia by Peggy Perrish.  I love any Amelia Bedelia books!  I love her stories because of the idioms that the author uses.  Many of my average and advanced first graders are able to understand the idioms and decipher what they really mean! 
     Last year my advanced readers read one of the Amelia Bedelia books and then went on a scavenger hunt around the building. Certain teachers gave them idioms.  Then the students had to return to the room and decipher what they really mean.  They had a blast!

I hope your kiddos have fun listening or reading Amelia Bedelia!

Favorite Thanksgiving Book Linky Party

     Teaching Blog Addict is having a favorite Thanksgiving book linky party!  I love books and have a lot of favorites for every part of the year, however, these two are my favorite Thanksgiving books.  If you haven't read these books, you need to!
     The Perfect Thanksgiving by Eileen Spinelli reminds the students of the true meaning of Thanksgiving.  In this story, Abigail Archer's family is "practically perfect in every way".  The narrator's household is a little more hectic, especially on Thanksgiving Day.  In the end the narrator realizes that they are both perfect families because they love each other.  I know all of the turkey activities are fun, as my second book is a silly turkey book, but I think it is important that the students learn to appreciate the things in life that we take for granted, like our families and those that care about us.

     A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman, is a story of the town of Squawk Valley.  They were having trouble finding a turkey to eat for Thanksgiving dinner.  They decided they would trick the wild turkeys by asking for turkeys to act as models for an art show.  Pete the Perky Turkey ends up tricking the people, getting his payment, and heading to the beach!  It is a lighthearted story of a clever turkey!  

    
If you want to share your favorite Thanksgiving books, stop over at the Teaching Blog Addict and  link up!

Giveaway

     One of my favorite blogs, Life in First Grade is having a Giveaway since she has reached over 1,000 followers!  She is giving away Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Centers, Christmas Nonsense Word practice, and Christmas Fry Phrases. 
      I purchased the Halloween nonsense word cards and the kids loved them! I am looking foward to the Christmas edition and the Christmas Fry Phrases!
     Get over to her blog today! Her giveaway ends tomorrow night!  Make sure to follow her blog and her TPT store!

I know Halloween is over, but if you missed her sharing of the witch patterns, I encourage you to take a look, while looking at her blog.  We downloaded the witch pattern and used it with the song Witches' Brew!  My kids absolutely LOVED decking out their super cute witches! Thanks to Leslie Ann's Pattern. She also shares wonderful Reading Street ideas, if you haven't been there, head over there today!

Lapbooks

      So I was reading a post by Tamela from This and That blog, that she posted on the blog Crazy for First Grade.  I was excited to see that other people are doing lapbooks!  Lapbooks are a great way for young children to begin organizing their information about a certain topic.
     A few years ago a teacher on our grade level introduced us to lapbooks and since then, we have done lapbooks for Johnny Appleseed, Scarecrows, Thanksgiving, Voting, Frog and Toad, Solids and liquids, and plants!
     The kids really like doing these lapbooks!  I do not always use my original materials, however, I have taken materials that I already had and pieced them together into the lapbooks.  The two completely original lapbooks that I have done are for voting and solids and liquids.

Here are a few pictures of some recent lapbooks.
Thanksgiving/ Long Ago and Today:

 The front cover of the Thanksgiving Lapbook.  The turkey is glued on the left side only so that it actually looks like the turkey is holding the booklet!  These always turn out really cute! 

The students draw a picture of what they would like like if they were pilgrims and tell what they  would wear and the type of activities they would do.

 The corn is an example.  The students actually make two small corn cobs on which they have to create a pattern with fall colors.  The picture of the right is on the back cover of the lapbook.  The students piece together a puzzle (girl/boy) and glue it on the back of their lapbook.  It is amazing how many children struggle with this activity.  I am guessing that puzzles are not the most popular activities for kids at home now that we have so many electronic games!  This is unfortunate because it really helps with spacial reasoning.

    On the inside flap, the students match pictures of different items from long ago and today.

Here are a few pictures from our Scarecrow Lapbook we just finished this week!

Happy Lapbooking!!