Love is in the Air and a Freebie

We love Valentine's Day.  Mostly because it has chocolate involved...but also because of all of the fun things that we can do in our classrooms.   One of our yearly traditions is to have our students write a book for their families entitled, "Love Is."  They dedicate their book to their families and then each page is dedicated to the different members of their family.  We say they must include everyone that lives with them first and then they can add grandmas and grandpas, etc.
It is a quick write.  Each page begins with "Love is" and then they write what each person in their family does to show true love for their family.  For instance...

Love is when my mom makes me breakfast.
Love is when my dad drives me to hockey practice.

Love is when my brother reads me books.
Love is when my sister shares her secrets with me.

You get the idea!  They come up with the sweetest things!!!  We love reading these books, and so do their families.  They are definitely keepers!

You can grab our "Love Is" book template here for free!  Our Valentine's gift to you, sorry that there is no chocolate attached.  Some day a genius will figure that one out!



Keep On Dancing in Your Teacher Shoes!
Deanna and Jenelle

READ! READ! Read Aloud Chapter Books!

Finding new read alouds is a lot of work!!!  Keeping ahead of all of those awesome readers that you have in your class can be tough.  Not to mention finding books that the other grades don't read.  Then to top it off, you need to pre-read it to make sure that it is completely appropriate.  Doesn't it just drive you nuts when you think that you have found THE book and then when you are almost at the end they write something that you know would put a few parents over the edge!!!  Well, we were thinking that we could be a great resource for each other.  We have compiled our top ten read aloud list and would LOVE if you added any of your favorites in the comment section.

As a side note....we both tend to love books with a good sense of humor.  Most are not very serious, but they are all books that we love enough to read more than once! 

Our top 10 read-aloud chapter books:

1. Roscoe Riley Rules by Katherine Applegate (They LOVE the entire series.)
2. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee (Its a series, but the first one is the best.)
3. The Amazing World of Stuart by Sara Pennypacker (We have only read the first one.)
4.  My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannet (The whole series is great!)
5. Lulu and the Brontesaurus by Judith Viorst
6. Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowery (It's a series but the first one is the best.)
7. The Power of Un by Nancy Etchmendy (This is more of an end of the year second grade choice.)
8. Welcome to the Bed and Biscuit by Joan Carris
9.  Stink by Megan McDonald (The entire series is pretty fun.  Take your pick!)
10. Captain Awesome by Stan Kirby (We have read the first two.  They are VERY quick reads.)
11. Dodger and Me byJordan Sonnenblick

Happy Reading!
Keep On Dancing In Your Teacher Shoes!
Deanna and Jenelle

Baby on Board!

Jenelle is preparing for baby #2, due to arrive on or before February 18th, and is trying to get everything in order for her long term sub.  Things are crazy!

First things first....a letter to let parents know who the long term sub is and what the plans are for after the baby arrives.  Much to her surprise...she actually had to write it herself!!!  Can you believe it.  There was nothing out there to grab and adapt.  Oh the tragedy! No, really...she really thought that this would be the quick and easy part. Since we put our heads together and wrote one, we thought that we would make it available at our TPT store.  Enjoy!

Now on to the next million things that we must accomplish!
Keep on Dancing in Your Teacher Shoes!
Deanna and Jenelle

Achooooooo!

We promise that we haven't fallen off the face of the earth...although in looking at our blogging history you may be wondering.  We came back to school last Wednesday and ever since then have been trying to keep up with our students energy while battling colds from the BLACK LAGOON!  We have a few projects up our sleeves and will have them posted as soon as the tissue box is no longer connected to us and we recover from having subs after a break....Our poor subs...We prayed for them...A LOT!

Keep On Dancing in Your Teacher Shoes!
Deanna and Jenelle