A New Alphabet Book for You

Happy New Year! Whenever the New Year rolls around, I always wonder, "When is it too late to wish someone a Happy New Year?" and my mind immediately springs to that Seinfeld episode where Jerry ". . .  once got Happy New Year'd in March." LOVE that show!

So on to the topic of today: books. Specifically picture books. You see, the list of books I want to buy is ever-growing and much larger than my wallet, so I just save books in my Amazon cart and forget about them. The list is definitely in the hundreds and grows almost daily. Despite this huge list, I still feel like I have been so behind on checking out new picture books in the last few years, including ones from some of my favourite authors. So today I am going to highlight one that I just stumbled across, even though it's been out for months.

Enter, Once Upon an Alphabet: Short stories for all the letters by Oliver Jeffers.

This is not your average alphabet book. Combining his unique and adorable illustrations with short stories for each letter, Oliver Jeffers creates another must for the classroom library. Beware, as it is over one hundred pages, it's definitely not a sit-down-at-once read-aloud, but it would still be fun to read over several days. It would also be a fun addition to any preschool or kindergarten letter of the week program.

Photos via Oliver Jeffers

I can't wait to find some more gems this year!

A New Year & Some New Units

Well, it is 2014! Hope everyone had a happy, safe holiday, but now it is *almost* time to go back to the classroom. Hopefully everyone is refreshed and ready to head back!

I took full advantage of my break by doing lots of reading, tons of sleeping, a bit of baking, and of course, a little working. I've finished up a few new units:

My New Year's Write the Room

My New Year's Word Problem a Day packets for 3rd & 4th

as well as Valentine's Day for 3rd

Alphabet Mini-Books

and finally, my Winter Printable Pack (10 Differentiated Math Printables) for 2nd Grade.

Click on the pictures if you're interested in any of the packets, and enjoy the little bit of holiday (or weekend for those of us not on holiday) left!

25 Days of Christmas Picture Books - Day 22

Well how did I celebrate the start of Christmas vacation? By watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation! It was a great idea!

So with only a few days left in my countdown, today's book is How Santa Got His Job by Stephen Krensky.

Via Amazon

Students will love reading about all the jobs he had before and all the events that led him to becoming Santa Claus. This is also a great book to teach about cause and effect.

In completely unrelated news, I took the opportunity of Christmas vacation to finish my new (unrelated to Christmas) unit:

This unit contains 27 mini-books for letter practice. The ABC practice book contains one page for each letter of the alphabet, and then there are 26 mini-books, one for each letter of the alphabet. Click {HERE} or the pictures to check it out.

Alright, I am off to enjoy some more relaxation!