Favorite Fourth Grade Read Aloud Book!

I ordered "The Day the Crayons Quit" from Scholastic Book Order after hearing so many teachers and parents rave about it. I was unsure about how it would go over with the upper elementary crowd but decided it would be a fun read aloud on our first day back to school after winter break.

Oh man, I have never had so many laughs at a read loud. My fourth graders LOVED it. They wanted to see it afterwards to read it over and over again!

It's a story about a little boy's box of crayons who write letters to him one day expressing their outrage toward him in some way or  another. Some crayons are upset that he uses them too much, some crayons are upset that he uses them too little. The author, Drew Daywalt, is incredibly humorous.

This book is a perfect model for letter-writing or personification! After we finished the read aloud, I asked my students to pick a school supply in their desks and write a letter to themselves from the perspective of that school supply. They had a blast with this activity because it really let their imaginations soar!

If you'd like to purchase the book for your classroom or your own children, I can't recommend that you do so enough! I even read it aloud to my coworkers because it was so funny! Find it on amazon here: 

High-Interest Books for new, struggling or reluctant readers

I have a lot of students in my class that are English Language Learners (ELL). As fourth graders, they're drawn to books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Bone, Harry Potter and Dear Dumb Diary. Don't get me wrong, Harry Potter is my favorite book of all time, but I need my kids to be reading on their reading level and the vast majority of my students (22 out of 24, actually) are reading below-grade level.

For the past four years of my teaching career, I have consistently struggled to find high-interest books that intrigue intermediate readers but are also written at a lower lexile level for my ELL students.

SO!!! I would like to share with you this month's most popular high-interest book written for lower-level readers that was a hit in my classroom! My students were dying to have their turn reading this book, I even ordered more copies from Amazon tonight.

The Candy Corn Contest by Patricia Reilly Giff!

The book is called The Candy Corn Contest and it's appealing to all my fourth graders but is written at a 20 DRA level (Grade level 3.2; Guided Reading Level L). The book is a chapter book, is a good length (82 pages) and the text-size looks like a fourth grade-level book. I know that's a lot of details, but if a book looks too "baby-ish" to my kids, they often aren't interested in reading it. And it is, of course, perfect for October because it's about candy corn, but the book takes place in November after Halloween.

Here is the summary from Amazon: 
"It's almost Thanksgiving and Richard Best can't stop thinking about Ms. Rooney's Candy Corn contest. Whoever can guess the exact number of yellow-and-orange candies in the jar on ms. Rooneys' desk gets to keep them all. The only problem is Richard has to read a page in a library book for each guess. Smelly Matthew, who sits in front of him, knows they'll never win. "We're the worst readers in the class," he says. But Richard won't give up. He can already taste those candy corns."

Book Talk Thursday- Baloney!

How stinkin' cute is this book?

I've seen it before at book stores and such, and it's such an eye-catching book. But what made me fall in love was the book's description.

This book is PERFECT for my ELL kids. The majority of my students are in our ELL program (English Language Learners) or have been in the past. So I think they could really connect to this book. But like the description says, everyone can relate to learning how to read! We've all done it.

So, obviously, I immediately checked out this book and added it to my Amazon wishlist because borrowing this book from the library isn't going to cut it. And I couldn't help but write a blog about it for Andrea's Book Talk Thursday!!!

I found this great activity on TPT by Smart Chick Teaching Resources.

The activity she created to go along with this book focuses on context clues. Context clues are useful to all students, we know this. But context clues are invaluable to ELL students. 

Sometimes my students get stuck on a word during a test and freeze up! One time during a test, one of my students had never heard the word "jug" before and she decided she could NOT answer the question because of this. It was a math measurement problem and if she had gathered context clues, she would have been able to easily solve the problem. So every year, context clues is a main focus in my classroom.

With this activity from Smart Chick Teaching Resources, the students fill in a chart during their quest to find the meaning of the strange, outlandish words in "Baloney" by Jon Scieszka. They have to identify the clues that helped them determine their hypothetical meaning of the word.

For example, here is a page from the book-

The students would have to guess what they thought "Torakku" meant and identify the clues in the text and illustrations that helped them arrive to that conclusion.

So glad I found this book and Smart Chick Teaching Resources today!

What I'm Reading Wednesday

I'm linking up with Juice Boxes and Crayolas for this week's What I'm Reading Wednesday!

When You Reach Me Summary:

"Twelve-year-old Miranda has enough to worry about: her best friend, who suddenly refuses to hang out together; a boy she might kind of like; the homeless guy on the corner near her New York City apartment; and her single mom, an aspiring game show contestant. But now Miranda is getting creepy hidden notes that tell her to write down the story of what happens to her -- but not inform anyone. It will take a tragedy to show Miranda that neither the notes nor her friendships are quite what she imagined."

My Thoughts- I just started this book today but did a little researching beforehand. I was recommended this book by a professor when I was in college. It is definitely for the older kids. I think that it's perfect for sixth graders, but could be appreciated by some mature fourth and fifth graders. What attracted me to the book was the setting and the fact that Rebecca Stead, the author, touches on racism. I teach about the Civil Rights Movement and the racism, discrimination and segregation that occurred during that time. It sparks a lot of brilliant conversations between my students and I. Because of that, I think that this book would be interesting to my students since race is such a discussed topic in my classroom during that unit. I'll have to keep you updated on how this book turns out to be!

I am also reading the "Divergent" Series by Veronica Roth. I'm currently on the second book, "Insurgent" and loving it. I'm not reading this from teacher's perspective. I'm reading it for pure enjoyment, but I think that this book would be very enjoyable to a older middle schooler, especially since they're making a movie out of the book!

I am so excited to see the movie! The book reminds me a lot of the Hunger Games, which is one of my favorite series. However, it is different enough from the Hunger Games. I would definitely suggest this as a read for adults, but definitely not for our elementary school kiddos because there's some iffy language and even scenes with drinking involved.

Divergent Summary (in the Author's words):

"In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her."

Choose Your Own Adventure!

I was going through my old chapter books that I had when I was in about fourth grade and I had all these memories coming back to me. It was then that I realized that is what I hope to help my students experience- the love of reading and being immersed into a plot of a great book.

How many of you recognize these from your childhood?!

Oh my gosh I used to love the "Choose Your Own Adventure" Series. I have a few books at home and my local library has a ton.

Now, they don't look all that appealing anymore. I don't know about your kiddos, but mine are obsessed with anything that looks like Diary of a Wimpy Kid lately (Dork Diaries, My Life as a Book, etc.) and these covers look like they're straight out of the 80s (which they are!) But lucky for you, this means that your local library probably has some books that aren't typically being checked out lately.

For those of you who may have forgotten, the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series is a book that allows the reader to determine the plot by making choices and flipping to designated pages to read on in that chosen plot line. For example, in the "Space and Beyond" book, the first decision you get to make is on page two where you have these two options- "If you choose Kenda as your birth planet, turn to page 3." or "If, on the other hand, Croyd attracts you, throw your luck to page 4." Ridiculous, but super entertaining and (I hope) engaging for my class.

So I was determined to use this in my classroom but I couldn't think of any ideas how.

My best idea I've had so far is to use the book to in my persuasive writing unit. This is what I'm thinking-

1. I'll introduce the book and explain how the book is interactive. 

2. Then I'll let the students vote with a hand raise for the option we should take. 

3. We'll read the book for a good chunk of time (whatever is appropriate that day- I'm thinking 10 or 15 minutes with the way my ELA block is set up). 

4. At about that time, I'll wait for a choice where the class is torn almost 50/50 and I'll tell them that it's just too close to call and that they'll have to write me a persuasive paragraph convincing me that their choice is the best decision.

5. Then I'll give them the rubric of requirements for a persuasive paragraph. And then they're off!

I used Heather Matthews' free rubric to create a rubric that best met my needs for this assignment. It was super easy to create and you can create yours too by going to her TPT store HERE.

Back to School Books

Back to school is a magical time in the classroom. I just love all the great read alouds that tie into the themes we teach at this time of year. There are so many great ideas for books to read at the beginning of the year for all grades. This is my all-time favorite read-aloud book for the first week of school for fourth grade.

Photo from Amazon.com

You can find The Name Jar HERE.

I use this book as a jumping off point for my name unit, which is the first unit I teach in Language Arts. Students research the meaning of their name, we make name glyphs and it leads to a lot of great discussions.

For this unit, I go to my local library and check out a ton of baby name books so that my kiddos can start researching. Researching is one of the strands we teach in fourth grade and there's nothing more motivating to research than your own self!

The Name Jar is beyond great in helping introduce making text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections. The kiddos can really relate to Unhei, especially during the first week of school.

I have a packet of activities in my store for this unit! You can check it out {here} if you're interested in pre-reading, during reading and post-reading activities such as vocabulary work, discussion questions, writing prompts, an expository writing project and much more!

What are your favorite read aloud books for this time of year? Link up to the Back to School Books linky party and you could win $50 to the Clever School Teacher.