A Book for Vocabulary Work and a Few Other Things

Oh my goodness! I have too many things here to talk about today. That's how it is some days...

First off, I am so excited to announce that I am going back to the classroom this fall at my boys' school. It will create a more hectic pace, but I know I will have more strategies to share with you based on the fact I will be interacting with so many young readers every day.

Secondly, I love facebook today, because a former student's mom (from WAY back in California days) connected with me...she reminded me of how far he'd come and how his third grade experience with me changed the way he looked at writing...so inspiring. I feel so blessed!

Thirdly, I was reading with A yesterday, and I came up with a fun book to do context clue/vocabulary work with. It's called "Dinorella" and is Pamela Duncan Cole's spin on Cinderella, but done with alliteration (most words begin with the letter D). So A picked it out, and WOW! we had some fun, but did a lot of work. It would be a good book to read if your child is working on vocabulary, but don't worry if their fluency falters...it's like a tongue twister, so it is hard to read for an adult, much less a child. There are words like "dowdy" "dastardly deed" and "digested" that have clues either in the pictures or the words/sentences around them that will help them make sense of the words. But A and I really worked on that book, and she's got great decoding and vocabulary background. It gave me the idea to use it next year. I usually use Dear Ms. LaRue (see earlier posts) but this would be a good follow up to use during our traditional literature (fairy tales, folk tales, legends) unit.

Yesterday I also mentioned I wanted to say something about abandoning books. I think I will save that for tomorrow, because I want to do it justice, and my two year old is creating havoc in my kitchen...I am scared to go look at the damage, actually.

Thanks to all my friends for all the congratulations on getting the job...again, I feel incredibly blessed to have such great support - you are the best!