Treat Tuesday #175 (Happy Book Birthday)

Treat Tuesday:  Loaded Potato and Cheese Stick

*Ran across this recipe via Facebook I believe.

*There were RAVE reviews and I thought it would be the perfect recipe to post with these three new releases today.

*Happy Eating and as always Happy Reading!

Recipe Site

INGREDIENTS...

Servings: 24 sticks

3 russet potatoes, cooked and cubed.
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup green onion, diced
¼ cup bacon, diced
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
1 block cheddar cheese, cut into strips

Dredge
Flour
Egg
Panko

Oil
Salt, to season

PREPARATION (frying)...

1. In a large bowl, combine cooked potatoes, sour cream, green onions, bacon, salt, and pepper.
2. Mash the ingredients together until most of the potatoes are mashed. (Some chunks are good!)
3. Cut cheese into ¼-inch strips.
4. Take a spoonful of potatoes and make a ball.
5. Place the cheese strip in the middle and wrap the potato around the cheese until it is evenly covered.
6. Dredge the sticks in flour, egg, and panko.
7. Fry in oil that is heated at 350°F/180°C for 3 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Transfer to drying rack and season with salt. (they’ll be very hot so let it sit for a couple minutes before enjoying!)

PREPARATION (to bake)...

1. Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.
2. Transfer dredged sticks onto baking sheet.
3. Drizzle olive oil and salt and then bake for 15 minutes or until cheese is completely melted in the middle and the outside is a light golden brown.
4. Let it cool for a few minutes before enjoying!

Treat Tuesday:  Middle-Grade Novel

Treat Tuesday:  Young-Adult Novel

Treat Tuesday:  Novel Published for Adults

Music Monday #18 (Be Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw)

"Be Humble and Kind" by Tim McGraw

*Last year was the first time I used this musical selection as it had just been released.

*It was my plan to use it again at some point during the school year, but I had a student approach me and ask if I would consider using a song she really liked and had a country "feel".  I asked her what it was and she stated this song.  I smiled and said I was planning to use it.

*I love when students want to have input on the songs we use.  To me that is true learning.  She asked if we could use it soon and I asked if this Monday was quick enough, and the smile told me how she felt.

*Today is our Eighteenth Monday together and that means it is time for another musical selection.

*I truly believe Mondays are my favorite day for our writer's notebooks.  

*Each Monday I present a piece of music to my fourth graders.  I usually present this song via a video so they are hearing and seeing the music.  

*After I share the video, we discuss the song/video for a few minutes as a class.  It is always a joy to hear what my young listeners have to say about the song.  

*They then get busy writing in their notebooks.  We start off at the beginning of the year writing for about five minutes.  This will gradually increase as the year progresses.  

*Here are some ideas I give the writers to think about during their writing time...

*Their opinions of the song.

*Their likes and dislikes of the song.

*What the song reminds them of.

*Any connections they may have to the music.

*What they think the message in the piece may be.

*What listeners can learn from the song.

*A fictional story about the music/video.

*These are just some ideas I give to the writers.  They are really free to write anything they would like as long as it connects to the song.

*After our silent reading, we spend a few more minutes sharing out what we wrote.  

*I keep a collection of the videos on our Schoology Site so that my students can always go back and rematch them anytime they wish.


Our Musical Monday Selections for 2016-2017 
Week #1 - "What I Am" by will.i.am                                                    Click Here for Week #1 Music
Week #2 - "Clay" by Grace VanderWaal                                               Click Here for Week #2 Music
Week #3 - "One Voice" by Billy Gilman                                               Click Here for Week #3 Music
Week #4 - "I Don't Know My Name" by Grace VanderWaal                Click Here for Week #4 Music
Week #5 - "Proud" by Heather Small                                                    Click Here for Week #5 Music
Week #6 - "There's a Hero" by Billy Gilman                                        Click Here for Week #6 Music
Week #7 - "Can't Stop the Feeling" by Justin Timberlake                    Click Here for Week #7 Music
Week #8 - "Thriller" by Michael Jackson                                             Click Here for Week #8 Music
Week #9 - "Beautiful Thing" by Grace VanderWaal                            Click Here for Week #9 Music
Week #10 - "Live Like a Warrior" by Matisyahu                               Click Here for Week #10 Music
Week #11 - "Thankful" by Josh Groban                                             Click Here for Week #11 Music
Week #12 - "Hall of Fame" by The Script and will.i.am                    Click Here for Week #12 Music
Week #13 - "Clouds" by Zach Sobiach                                               Click Here for Week #13 Music
Week #14 - "Hopeful" by Bars & Melody                                          Click Here for Week #14 Music
Week #15 - "Do They Know Its Christmas" by BandAid                   Click Here for Week #15 Music
Week #16 - "My Hero" by Harris J.                                                    Click Here for Week #16 Music
Week #17 - "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong             Click Here for Week #17 Music

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (1/30/17)

Thanks to Jen and Kellee for hosting this idea on their site.  Here is a link to their site...

                

 http://www.teachmentortexts.com/

Books I Read this Past Week…

*It was a busy past week getting ready for my wife's 50th birthday party so not much reading got done.  I'm hoping to get back to the books during this coming week!  

Books I Will (continue to) Read this Week…    

Kids of Appetite by David Arnold

*My Young-Adult Novel

Almost Paradise by Corabel Shofner

*My Middle-Grade Novel

The Sleepwalker by Chris Bohjalian

*My Novel Published for Adults

Friend Friday #174 (Pickle by Kim Baker)

Hi!  I'm Freddy and I read the book called Pickle written by Kim Baker.


I thought this book was funny and creative because the club I might of thought it would be drama or something like that.  


My favorite part in the story was when they had the bubbles part of the story because I thought that was such a creative part.  



The character that I liked best was Oliver because he did DRAMA.  


I think the author wrote this book because she maybe didn't like being a kid in school and wanted to show how fun school could be when you are creative and have some fun.


I would recommend this book to my friends because it could be a thing we joke about after we have all read the book.  


Reading to me is fun and relaxing because it brings me peace and enjoyment at the same time.  Plus I love stories about kids and what cool things they do at their school and then maybe I can do that at my own school.  


*Freddy is a reader.  I mean is reads ALL the time.

*He is very particular about the books he wants to and is willing to read.

*I have made it a goal to "stretch" him as a reader.  

*When I first give me a book stack, he is quite resistant to it.  Once he spends some time browsing the stack, he usually will be between 2-3 books.

*He was intrigued by the title and cover of this book.  Once he started, he could not stop reading until he was done with the book.  He LOVED it.  

*Thank you Kim Baker for writing such a GREAT book for our young readers!  

Trailer Thursday #174 (Starring Jules: As Herself by Beth Ain)

Starring Jules: As Herself by Beth Ain

(Trailer Created by Fourth Grade Reader Eliana)

*It is always so great when readers pick a book off the shelf that isn't necessarily the biggest "hit" of the community.

*Eliana is such a fun reader to work with because she likes all kinds of book and reads all the time.

*I thought her trailer was quite well done and she captured the essence of the book.  

*Our goal is to create a book trailer a week that we can share with our classmates.  

*We are collecting all the trailers we make and putting them into our Schoology Site.

*Each student will have their own album where they can keep all of their trailers.  Then the other readers will be able to browse those trailers and find a new book to read.   

*As the year progresses we will learn what should be included, and not included, in the trailer to make them the best they can be.

Here are Some Other Trailers that Promote the Novel…

Life Lesson #17 (Be Happy)

"Be HAPPY"

*This is the seventeenth Thursday of our school year together and that means it is "Life Lesson" Thursday.

*We are enjoying all of our life lesson video clips this year.  I have found if there are "quotes" involved in the video my students really enjoy those.  

*Each day we focus on making ourselves better and being the best we can.  This simple video captures so much in such a complex way.  It is my hope that my writers will be able to relate to it and capture the essence in their writing.  

*Each Thursday I share a short video clip with my writers.  The clip has some type of "lesson" I want to share and teach my fourth graders.  

*I set aside time during each day for us to work in our writer's notebooks. 

*We talk about what types of writing we can do in the notebook.  Here are some of the possibilities...

-What we notice in the video

-What we wonder about

-Connections we have to the video

-Thoughts, feeling, emotions about the video clip

-Reminders we have from the lesson/message

-Create a fiction story about the video

*Once the video is shared with the writers, we spend a few minutes "talking" about what we observed.

*My writers set up their HEADING in the notebook and we get busy writing.

*During the start-up of the year, I have my students write for about five minutes.  We slowly build our stamina for writing and slowly add time to the writing block. 

*At the end of the individual writing time, we call on a few volunteers to share their actual writing and/or further thoughts about the video we watched and wrote about.

*If there is time, I sometimes share the video clip with my class at the end of the writer's notebook time.  

Life Lessons for 2016-2017…          

Week #1 - Be Brains -                                                Click Here for Week #1 Lesson
Week #2 - Be Kind to Others -                                   Click Here for Week #2 Lesson      
Week #3 - Be Safe -                                                   Click Here for Week #3 Lesson
Week #4 - Be Responsible -                                       Click Here for Week #4 Lesson   
Week #5 - Be a Friend -                                             Click Here for Week #5 Lesson 
Week #6 - Be Courageous -                                       Click Here for Week #6 Lesson
Week #7 - Be Life Changing -                                    Click Here for Week #7 Lesson
Week #8 - Be Spooky -                                              Click Here for Week #8 Lesson
Week #9 - Be Kind -                                                   Click Here for Week #9 Lesson
Week #10 - Be Courageous (To Continue On) -       Click Here for Week #10 Lesson
Week #11 - Be Motivated -                                        Click Here for Week #11 Lesson
Week #12 - Be Inspired -                                          Click Here for Week #12 Lesson

Week #13 - Be Merry -                                              Click Here for Week #13 Lesson

Week #14 - Be a Team -                                            Click Here for Week #14 Lesson
Week #15 - Be Giving -                                              Click Here for Week #15 Lesson
Week #16 - Be SHOUTful -                                        Click Here for Week #16 Lesson

Picture Wednesday #19 (Animal Friends)

"Animal Friends"

*This is the nineteenth Wednesday of our year together and that means it is "Picture Wednesday".

*My class this year loves animals.  Actually most children and/or classes love animals.  When I saw this image while browsing pictures to use I came across this one.

*To me there is so much to observe, study, and think about within this picture.  I hope my writers find just as much curiosity as I did.  

*I set aside time during each day for us to work in our writer's notebooks. 

*Each Wednesday I feature a photograph, image, or graphic.  My goal is to have my writers do some thinking, reflecting, and writing about the image.

*We talk about what types of writing we can do in the notebook.  Here are some of the possibilities...

-What we notice in the image

-What we wonder about

-Connections we have to the picture

-Thoughts, feeling, emotions about the visual

-Reminders we have from the image

-Create a fiction story about the picture

*Once the image is revealed to the writers, we spend a few minutes "talking" about what we see.

*My writers set up their HEADING in the notebook and we get busy writing.

*During the start-up of the year, I have my students write for about five minutes.  We slowly build our stamina for writers and slowly add time to our writing block. 

*At the end of the individual writing time, we call on a few volunteers to share their actual writing and/or further thoughts about the visual in front of us.

Our Images from 2016-2017...  

Week #1 - Back to School -                              Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #2 - Be Kind to Others -                         Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #3 - Be Safe -                                          Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #4 - Be Responsible -                              Click Here to see IMAGE
Week #5 - Animal Friendship -                         Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #6 - A Helping Hand -                             Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #7 - A Running Jump -                            Click Here to See IMAGE 
Week #8 - Stand-UP/Unity Day -                      Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #9 - Home Sweet Home -                       Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #10 - Camouflage -                                 Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #11 - Dream Big-                                     Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #12 - Sidewalk Biking -                           Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #13 - HUG -                                             Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #14 - Happy Frog -                                  Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #15 - Hair Dryer -                                    Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #16 - Goodbye 2016/Hello 2017             Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #17 - Ghost Rainbow                               Click Here to See IMAGE
Week #18 - Winter Drive                                   Click Here to See IMAGE

Wonder Wednesday #174 (Breakfast with Books)

Wonder Wednesday - Book Club in Action

*My readers had their fourth "Breakfast with Books" book club on Friday, January 20, 2017.

*Our fourth selection was Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan.  

*We had our largest turn-out with seventeen out of my twenty-eight students opting in to read the book.



*The readers read the novel during the months of December and January.  We gathered on the morning of the 20th before school to discuss the story and enjoy some breakfast treats.  

*The readers were lucky enough to be able to Skype with both Sarah and Gita.  After filling our plates with some tasty breakfast treats, we spent some time with Sarah sharing our comments and questions.  

*We then took a short break, more food, and then chatted with Gita.  It was such an action-packed hour and the readers enjoyed sharing their thoughts with both authors.