Ah-Choo!

Author: Lana Wayne Koehler & Gloria G. Adams

Illustrator: Ken Min

Summary: A young boy is determined to get a pet, despite his sister’s allergies that make her sneeze with every trial pet he brings home. Will he ever find a good pet? Or will he run out of letters in the alphabet first? You and your kids will be sure to laugh with each turn of the page.

Updated Kinder Lesson Plans Are Finally Here!

Updated Kinder Lesson Plans

Over a year ago, I decided to revise my Literacy Lesson Plans and try to find a way to avoid having problems with broken links.  Sadly it took a lot longer than I expected (life events and jobs kept getting in the way) but I’m happy to announce that the Updated Kinder Lesson Plans are finally…

Teaching Real-Life Research with Rescued Kittens

Teaching Real-Life Research

Sometimes, unexpected, events lend themselves to a perfect teaching opportunity.  This is the story of how I was able to teach real-life research to my students with two, tiny rescued kittens! Nine weeks ago, someone abandoned two teeny tiny kittens in the parking lot of my school. They were crawling as best they could, lost and…

How to Code a Sandcastle

Author: Josh Funk

Illustrator: Sara Palacios

Summary: Pearl has been trying to build the perfect sandcastle all summer, only to have it ruined each time. Can her robot, and basic computer programming concepts, help her successfully build a sandcastle? You and your child will be sure to enjoy this story, and learn some computer programming vocabulary along the way!

Fiction and Non-Fiction Pocket Chart Activity

Fiction and Non-Fiction Pocket Chart Activity

I was doing some early “spring cleaning” over winter break, and came across an old pocket chart that I used when I was teaching in the classroom.  A flood of ideas came to me while I was on break on how I could use the pocket chart in the library with some of the lessons…