A Passion for Reading

I'm in a bit of a reflective mood today, so I decided to blog about motivation to read. I have a confession to make....and I know as a teacher this is a sacrilege.....I don't really like to read. I know, right!?! Personally, my relationship with reading became a bit strained as an adult. As a child and teen I always had my nose in a book. I can remember getting to school early and sitting in the hallway reading. Sitting at the public pool we'd visit daily throughout the summer---reading.  When I got older and had to read so much for my job, reading wasn't fun anymore. I'd buy books and I'd start books--but rarely get very far in them. However, as part of my job, I believe that it's important to inspire in kids that passion for reading.

 I have written before about the book The Book Whisperer and how much it has inspired me to give kids more independent reading time in class. I adore this picture I snapped this year during silent reading:

She is reading to our plant (which we affectionately refer to as Ivy).  I love the thought that kids will read to anyone anywhere! I facilitate for a student book club-one for K-2 and one for 3rd-5th. This year we had 80 kids participate altogether! Can you believe that many kids volunteer to stay after school to read and discuss books! Most of our list is made up of Bluebonnet titles and the rest are classics that the librarians recommend-so they are even quality books. I love their enthusiasm and discovering new books myself every year. They start asking me the first day of school when are we going to start and complain when I say we are ending for the year. Even my Kinder students would get excited-every day they'd ask--is today book club? :)

 After reading the Book Whisperer and seeing so many people on Twitter taking the challenge of reading a book per day (I can never picture myself being able to do that, but it's a goal to work up to)--I began reading again for fun. Last summer I read about 5 books--I read the Hunger Games series, The Book Thief (which I believe has become my all-time favorite book) and Gone Girl. I started my summer reading list early this year and have already read 2 books (my goal is 10 plus some of the children's literature I need to get a jump start on for book club:

Which I really enjoyed. It's basically like reading a bunch of short stories that are interconnected.

A perfect book for me--I had to read to the end to find out what happened, just enough suspense.

And now I'm reading:

Which so far isn't too interesting, but it's extremely intelligently written (I've even learned some new words) and the attention to the details she has as an author is really incredible.

So how do you help develop that passion for reading in your kiddos?

If I Were You and You Were Me....

We did this activity with mothers in mind for May, but I think it's great for Father's Day as well. It's a really cute little story-the father is tucking her in and says "if I were you, I'd go to sleep". Then they trade thoughts about how their days would go if they were in each other's places. Another way to bring in perspective. It's available on Tumblebooks too.

This is what my kiddos came up with for trading places with mom:

They would both get their ears pierced.

I will hug you and you will miss me.

You would ask for 20 games and I would tell you no.

I will carry you and give you bottles and take you to school.

You will go to 1st Grade and I will cook for her.

I would get you a lollipop.

I will tell you to take care of the babies and I will clean the house.

I will have coffee every day and I will give you piggy back rides. (Love the illustration)

Pyramid Substitutes

Our school year is quickly approaching the final days. We have about 3 weeks left. This is the time I break out the more "fun" themes! I actually polled my kids to see what they wanted our last few weekly themes to be. We have a staff member from Egypt, so that was something they wanted to learn more about. They were surprised to learn their culture had more to offer than just mummies!

For a pep rally during testing our class participated in making a Harlem Shake-type video clip. Since then they have been enamored with it and beg to watch it over and over again. I was pleasantly surprised to find a similar clip from a class in Egypt doing the Harlem Shake just they like to do--hmmm, not too different after all!

Anyway, one of the activities we did after learning about the Great Pyramids was to come up with another material the Pyramids could have been constructed from. There are no rocks, no stones...what could you use. I knew I was in for it when several students asked if they could write a funny answer. I hesitantly answered yes, so that explains some of the options. :)

My favorite answer! :)

New Uses for Everyday Things

I love this activity for critical thinking! You take any object and ask the kids to come up with another use for that object. I demonstrate with a pencil (and yes, you will get tons of answers that have to do with writing or drawing). What I'm really looking for are answers that don't have to do with the typical uses-I can put my hair up with it, I can open a soda can with it, if I had 2 I could use them for chopsticks.

Then I ask the kids to do their own. I like to start with paper clips because they are small and easy for the kids to manipulate. One year I did this activity and a student came up with my favorite answer ever: a hanger for ant clothes!

Here's some ideas my kiddos came up with:

to sharpen a pencil

as a hairbrush

A ladder for little people :)

Year-End Projects

We do projects all year in our class as a way to apply what we have learned. A little more time-consuming and and a little bit messier, but I think a good way to give my students an opportunity to apply their learning in different ways.

A colleague told me about this idea-they did the activity at her son's school. The objective is to find something on the school campus that inspires you and take a photo of it. My friend's son took a picture of a door--how deep is that! Then they take their picture and paint the image, make a collage of it and write about why it inspires them. Usually at this point in the year, they have developed more of an independence so they don't have to ask how to use the paintbrushes or where the paper is. They glue everything on a poster board and voila--an inspiration project.

Flowers inspire me to help the earth and pick up trash.

Miss Trayers inspires me because she is the best teacher. :)

It inspires me because it makes me to be smart and to learn.

The birds inspire me because they are cute. It makes me want to be a scientist.

Our music teacher.

The art teacher inspires me because she wants me to be creative and she teaches me art.

Chrysalis inspires me because it helps me to be a better scientist.

Some of the students did other students who inspire them, but I couldn't post them because it was impossible to remove the names. What do you think? I was proud of them.