February 2022

Hello and Happy Last Friday of February! Thank you for visiting the blog as I link up with Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites!

Spellie: Wordle for Kids!

I am so excited to try this kid friendly version of Wordle with my students! There are 3 versions: easy, medium and hard. The easy version gives you the first letter of a 4 letter word. Click here to get started!

Very Peri = Pantone Color of the Year

I have always loved the color, periwinkle. I am so delighted that this year's Pantone color of the year is "Very Peri:"

Another Book to Read or Not

I finished the book, Harlem Shuffle,

by Colson Whitehead. It took me weeks to read this book so I love that I finally finished. However, I did not love the book itself. I felt like I was slogging through it. There was little action, and I just could not feel a connection to any of the characters. Please tell me what you thought of the book because I LOVED The Underground Railroad.

Today is a snowstorm in Massachusetts. We had record breaking warmth on Wednesday, and on Friday, 8 to 12 inches of snow. Now I understand why so many of my students went to Florida for school vacation last week.

Thank you for visiting today and make sure to head over to check out more great blog posts:

Hello! February is full of holidays and fun! Today I am delighted to finally link up with Andrea and Erika from Momfessionals for their weekly link-up: Friday Favorites!

New Reading Program: Fountas & Pinnell

This year some teachers in my district had the opportunity to check and pilot Fountas & Pinnell. Right now I am focusing on guided reading as well as interactive read-alouds.

Every day I do guided reading, the kids do one of these activities:

*Read with the teacher.

*Reread and answer questions about a book.

*Listening center.

*Word Work center. (Click here to get a free Word Work Center)

*Big Book center.

My favorite is the Read with the Teacher because this gives me an opportunity to discuss the book with the kids. I also listen to them read to me.

A huge component of Fountas & Pinnell is the interactive read-aloud. Many of the books are long and can take 20 minutes to read. Consequently, I read half of the book before recess and the other half after recess. While I'm reading and recording the book, the kids eat snack. After we will have a brief discussion. I post a lot of the read-alouds on my Youtube channel!

My colleague asked me what my favorite interactive read-aloud has been. This is mine:

If you love love The Dot, then you'll love Ish which is part of a series called Creatrilogy.

Some Grown Up Book to Check out!

I loved The Tattoist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris so I was very excited to read her latest: The Three Sisters. While looking up links to these books on Amazon, I realized there are three books in this series, and I missed one: Cilka's Journey.

If you are looking for a more light-hearted romance book, I really enjoyed: Rescue Me by Sara Manning.

I love how two people decide to "share" a rescue dog that they both fall in love with.

The Mayflower Compact

In Social Studies, we just finished learning about the Pilgrims. We learn about the Mayflower Compact: a promise the Pilgrims made to make good rules in their new home. They wrote and signed this promise on the Mayflower in 1620. My students always ask if the Mayflower Compact is still around, and now I can tell them the answer. I took this picture on a visit to the Commonwealth Museum in Boston many years ago. While I was reading through my blog, I found it.

I love to share with my students about people in history and how they kept diaries so that we can know what life was like. Writing has a purpose!

Lesson: Go back and reread old blog posts to find long forgotten information!

Amazon Smile

One more lesson: If you buy a lot on Amazon, you can have a part of your purchase go to a charity of your choice with Amazon Smile: Shop at smile.amazon.com and we'll donate to your favorite charitable organization, at no cost to you. My donation goes to PAWS of Wakefield, a local animal rescue. This makes me feel a little better about buying items on Amazon.

Make sure to head over to Momfessionals and Erika to check out more blog posts for: