Sunday, July 22, 2012

Common Core Math Workstation & Must Have Picture Books Linky

I am breaking an unwritten blogger rule about posting twice in one day, BUT I feel soooo far behind from being on vacation & feel like I missed out on a ton!  
I went in to work for a little bit before vacation to start organizing my math workstations.  I decided to store them in tubs ice cube buckets like my kiddos store their reading books in (see here).
Before, I was storing them in baggies in my filing cabinet behind each Common Core Standard File Folder.  It just wasn't working!
Once I organized them, I realized I was short a variety of activities for certain standards and had lots for others, like place value.  So, either I could start searching TPT or create some of my own.

Here is a game I created for practice with adding 3 numbers.
Just click on the picture above to get it.


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Lindsey @ The Teacher's Wife is having a wonderful linky about your Must Have Picture Books.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this linky.  My LOVE for Children's Literature began as a child.  I was an avid reader!
My OBSESSION with collecting children's books began during my Children's Literature Class in college - Thank you Dr. Cates!  I remember crying in class when she read, I'll Love You Forever.
Later, I purchased that book for my mom for Mother's Day & years later sang the song to my beautiful children.  The power of books is amazing!  The amount of money I have in books is STAGGERING. I could possibly retire if I sold them all for full price.  With so many books and so many memories, how could I just pick a few?  I decided I would pick a one book for several different categories.


  • Math book - Time

  • Science
Gail Gibbons books are amazing & I use them not 
only in science, but also in teaching 
non fiction text features.

  • Beginning of School
Chrysanthemum is one of my beginning of the year books 
used to teach about our classroom community.  We talk
 about how not to hurt each other's feelings and how 
to get along.  I have a few super cute activities I use 
with this book which  I will share @ the beginning of 
school.  
I also use this at that time during math, where we look 
at the length of each other's names and do graphing & 
counting activities.


  • Writing Features
One of my favorite Writer's Workshop Units is teaching 
Writer's Craft.  I begin this unit with Lester 
Laminack's, Saturdays and Teacakes
but follow it up with lots of other books.  
The Recess Queen provides many examples like:
stacked words
bold words
sound words
ellipses
repeated phrases
Not to mention, this is a great book to talk about being 
the new kid in class or bullying!
  • Just to Read Aloud
The message in this book is heart warming.  
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge likes to spend 
time at the nursing home next door.  He likes all 
the older people, but he especially likes 
Miss Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper because 
she also has 4 names.  When he finds out she is losing 
her memory, he does his best to help her get her 
memory back.
  • Word Work
Twenty-six Princesses is a great book to use for 
Rounding Up the Rhymes 
where you look at, study, and use rhyming pairs 
to help you read & write other rhyming pairs.  
Check out my lesson here.
Also, a great book to use when teaching how to write ABC books.
  • Fairytales

One of my favorite times of the year is when we learn ...
 "What are Fairytales."
I love to compare and contrast different versions of favorite fairytale. Petite Rouge is a spin off of Little Red Riding Hood
 and is a MUST HAVE! 
It is creative and funny, 
especially if you hear me trying to read this
 with a Cajun accent!
  • Vocabulary
Fancy Nancy always uses Fancy words which are often perfect for 
stretching the vocabulary of our young readers and writers.
Check out a free lesson here.

I could go on & on & on!

7 comments:

  1. Hi Tamera,

    I absolutely LOVE Gail Gibbons books. I think she does such a good job of explaining concepts in a way that children can understand. I'm so glad I found your blog. I'm your 200th follower. YAY! Thank you for your Must Have Book List.

    Mona
    First Grade Schoolhouse

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  2. This is a great list of books! :) How could I have forgotten about Fancy Nancy?!

    Angi
    ★ First-Graders from Outer Space ★

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  3. I like how you split up your book list by topics- and Petite Rouge is making it to my wishlist for sure. It'll be great for our Fairy Tale unit this year.
    ~Heather
    The Meek Moose

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  4. I love reading "I Love You Forever" to my little girl. It's such a sweet, tearjerking story!
    Lisa
    Learning Is Something to Treasure

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  5. I just LOVE any of the Fancy Nancy books! She is such a fun character :)

    Make sure to stop by and enter my giveaway
    -Courtney
    2ndgradesnapshots.blogspot.com

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  6. I must check out The Recess Queen! Looks adorable! Glad I found you through this linky! :)

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