Bugs.....In your hair!! I know you itch just thinking about it, and you don't want to talk about it at all! I hate even thinking about it, but I've got a new book to share with you that will have you, and your students, laughing about those bugs (and scratching your head) as you read!!

One of my favorite Author's has done it again! His latest book is hilarious, and the kids in my class love it! What's it about?? Well - LICE, Ick, I know we don't want to talk about that, but take a look at how David Shannon has made an ugly issue easy to talk (and laugh) about!

If you've ever seen them, had them, or had them in your home, you know these little things can take over your life completely. In his usual style David Shannon make shares the problem in a funny but realistic way, that kids will identify with and laugh at.

Even though those little guys are barley visible, they feel like they are huge. What are they doing hanging out on our heads anyway, it's just one big party right!!

Sending them backing isn't the easiest thing to do, but when mom gets out her special lice weapons they will have to go!

This book is another great read from a great author. My students laughed right through it and I did too. It's not the easiest topic to talk about, but many of us as teachers have dealt with them in someway or another. I think the book is a great way to introduce a touchy subject and have a candid talk about how frequent they real do show up.

You can read more about the book and the author David Shannon, watch a video, and find links to purchase the book HERE!

Now here's your chance to win three great books, including this latest, by  David Shannon.

Enter using the rafflecopter below, one winner will win all three titles above, open to US residents only (sorry), prizes are courtesy of Scholastic!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for reading, and Good Luck!

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I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last shared anything here on my blog! It's flown by and I've been overwhelmingly busy. I have thought about and planned to share several times but things just kept coming up, so It's  been a while, but here I am finally with something to share!!

First of all I did a lot of searching this summer and decided that I really wanted to use Interactive Notebooks with my students this year, the plans for both math and reading notebooks have morphed over the past few weeks and didn't turn out as I expected at all, but they've been great! Here's a look at the awesome Notebooks that I've been using for reading, they are made by Michael Friemood and can be found in his TPT store A Home for Teaching Resources.

This product comes with a variety of reading graphic organizers that you can choose from and put them together to make this little reader's notebook. It was perfect. There were 12 chapters so I choose 12 pages, we were working on Character development and compare/contrast, there were several pages for each one. There are also several open ended question pages so I put a few of those in too.

 Each day we read a chapter from the book and filled in a page about the characters, at the end of chapter 3, 6, and 12 we also answered the open ended questions. I choose to make those compare contrast questions so one was comparing the character to  yourself, one was comparing the character to the character of another book, and the last one was to compare the book to another book.

My students loved working in the little books and I could see their thinking developing as we completed each page. Once we finished the book I decided to expand our compare and contrast into a project we could display. We created Venn diagrams in pairs comparing characters from two of the books that we read.

They used their diagram to write a five sentence paragraph that told how the characters were alike and how they were different. Then we used these Character Doodle-A-Face clip art from Krista Wallden of Creative Clips to draw the two characters.

 And here are the finished products hanging in the hall! I think they turned out great and I was so impressed with the work my students did!

I hope to be back soon with information about the Math notebooks we are using, I am loving them! I've also had a lot of fun teaching first graders this year! We do Success Block in our school and I am paired with different grade levels last year I worked with 2nd and this year it's 1st. We've been working on Nonsense words, I've got lots of great activities and some freebies to share!! Thanks for reading, see you soon!

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Where has the time gone?? Has it really been that long since I've blogged?? Yes!! It has, and I can't believe it!! It has been a busy start to the new year, but a great one! I haven't had time to share all that is going on but I will, hopefully soon! For now here is what I am up to Currently.....

I always love hearing my husband playing his guitar, well almost always, sometimes when I really need to concentrate it isn't so helpful, and he is usually always playing when he is home!!

We  had a picnic at the park today, great food, games, family, friends and gorgeous weather!! It was perfect!

Now I am home, trying to get ready to go back to work, realizing how much I still need to do, and feeling a bit overwhelmed. I have two new groups starting tomorrow. A fifth grade reading group working on compare and contrast and a first grade group working on non-sense words. I am making some resources for both and wanting to have it really well planned so they get off to a great start!

I would love to have someone to cook and clean for me, this time of year I always feel like it's never done, and I just can't keep up. I know it will get better as we all settle into a routine but right now it's crazy!! A few more hours in the day would be soooo helpful!!

I would love to jump in the shower and head off to bed early tonight, but it's not gonna happen!! Again back to school season is the season to be totally EXHAUSTED all the time!! I don't feel like I can get enough sleep either!!

My three Love Me's are simple, yet I don't do them! I rarely eat breakfast, I am rushed in the mornings and I just don't! I know it's not good for me and I want to change that but I've tried and failed several times now. I am trying to start this week with at least a nutritious fruit smoothie in the mornings. I would also love to get some planing done during my plan time AT SCHOOL, uh huh, at school!! It never happens because there are always people to talk to, kids to help, duties that need to be done, but I am hoping I can get better at managing that time. I have been in the biggest creative slump for the longest time now!! I want to create but the creative juices just aren't flowing, so I'd love to finish just one product this month!! Any ideas for getting started again???

There you have it, what I am up to!! In the classroom we have been working on setting goals for ourselves and I've created a goal planning sheet I wanted to share with all of you! If you want to get your students involved in planning out their own goals, this works great!

Click on the picture to pick up a copy for FREE! I hope to be back soon, until then Happy Teaching everyone!

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