Thank you!

Thank you to Charles Sipe and Teacher Certification Degrees for placing my blog on their list of "Top 50 Early Childhood Education Blogs"!  What a sweet surprise to come home to after school!  Anyone who does this for a living knows that the first month of school is the most difficult so it is nice to see September.  The children are starting to "get it"...woohoo!!  It is fun to get to see their personalities come out by this time, too.  We are always a work in progress but it does keep the apple shiny to receive such a special award after a day in the trenches.  Thank you, Mr. Sipe and TCD!!

Story Map Chart and Graphics

Wow!  I feel as if I fell off the face of the earth for awhile there!  I hope you are all having a great start to your new year!  We have completed our 16th day of school and are beginning to get the lay of the land with the new group.  It takes a few weeks but the kids are doing a great job adjusting.  We even completed our first full day of small reading group rotations!  Woohoo!!

I was googling an image for Plaidypus Lost, our third story in the Scott Foresman program, and I came across this post from April at Chalk Talk from last year.  I loved the idea of a permanent Story Map to use week after week with each story read.  I am currently making my chart and will include a photo when it is complete but I am copying the same design shown in the Chalk Talk post.

Here are the graphics and text I am using for my pirate theme this year, which I am loving by the way! I printed the text on colored paper and will use a large sheet of white chart paper for the chart.

Story Map Chart

Thanks to Scrappin Doodles...
Story Map Graphics


I also made these signs to differentiate fiction and non-fiction books that we read in Scott Foresman.  I have used google images to download pictures of the book covers and laminated them.  As we read each story, we will place the cover under the fiction or non-fiction sign.  I have been meaning to do this for the past several years so finally, here they are!

Fiction Non Fiction Signs