Book Love With Book Notes

How do you let your kids spread the word about a book that they absolutely loved? Sometimes things get lost via word of mouth and forgotten after class meetings! Ack! I wanted a way for students to share their love of books with each other beyond those class meetings.

I personally love when I would walk into a Borders (RIP) and there would be book recommendation cards by books...and now Barnes and Noble does the same thing.

Translating that to the classroom is tricky because of TIME and SPACE.

I've been using these book notes and they are EVERYTHING!

They are so easy for your students to use! Just print, fold, and have students write their raving reviews about the books that change their lives. It's so easy to tuck the notes in books and fun to discover as they are starting to reading a book or looking for their next book to read.

We are all about hashtags....are your students? Anyways, they get to leave a note and create a fun little hashtag for the book. It's legit and they love it.

What are some RAD books that you have read recently?!

I just finished Once Upon a Marigold and Princess Academy--kind of on a princess kick after reading LOTS of historical fiction.

There is a book note for every student--seriously--all the fun. Where were these when I was a student?

Anyways, you can find these in my TPT store HERE

Genre-ly Speaking

Let's jump into READING GENRES! Do you teach and discuss reading genres? I feel like with the ever so popular 40 book challenge genre is a buzz word in education right now...and I love it! I think its so good that we get the opportunity to explore to books with our readers.

Gerne is so important because it's a springboard into reading! I wanted to share some of my favorite tips and activities for teaching about reading genres and weaving throughout the curriculum throughout the school year.

#1 Make it RELATABLE

First--the word genre is kind of fancy. But if you break it down and explain that it's really just a genius word for categories then it isn't that intimidating. Just about everything has categories...food, movies, music...and books too!

My favorite tool that we use are genre notes and we use them throughout the year. As a class we brainstorm keywords that could be found in a book summary or events that happen in a book. We make a list of these key words that are dead giveaways as to what a books genre is.

#2 Make it Hands On

If you are going to focus on genres we have to put books in the hands of our students. I round up chapter books and picture books and create genre mystery bags for students to sort, categorize, and discuss.

There are so many ways to spin this activity! Sometimes I have students search through the books for a specific genre, sometimes they need to "gene-lize" all of the books. It's a great way to get your readers thinking and talking.


#3 IRL Practice (In REAL LIFE)
One of my favorite and super authentic ways to help students determine genre is to print up Goodreads and Amazon book summaries. You can as a class go through the summaries and highlight those keywords and clues...it's real life and real easy. After some class practice it's easy to then have students go through summaries on their own.

A bonus to this activity is often students read a book summary and they want to read THAT book. It's a great assessment but also exposes students to different books. Doesn't get better than that!

#4 Talk the Talk

If we are talking about it then your students will see the importance. When we are reading our #picturebookaday picture book you can bet that we are discussing genre. When students share some favorite books--you know that's the perfect time to ask and tell about genre.

During guided reading/reading groups and book conferences have students share what they know! They can share events in books or keywords that they spot in their reading.

Genre should be a talking point throughout the whole year. I love using these genre posters to write down books that students know in that genre. It's also a great resource if they are searching for a particular book to read in a certain genre

What do you do to teach genres?

You can find the GENRE NOTES here in my TPT store
Those student centered GENRE POSTERS? They're in my TPT store too

If you would like a copy of the mystery bag or what's my genre summary pages just leave a comment below with your email and I'll pass them along :)...until I get them uploaded to gmail or my TPT store.

Reading Is My Jam (A reading journal like no other)

Keep reading...

engaging

fun 

relevant

student centered

inspiration

awesome

I feel like each school year I go in with a goal to build my readers UP! Whether they are voracious readers or readers that aren't too sure that they really are readers. Isn't that what we all want? 

To lift up and build our readers?

YES!!!

I really can never contain my excitement but this has been a little project/brainchild of mine for the past few months that I've gotten to work on in-between moving and unpacking boxes. When I was in school I kept a notebook of quotes I loved, authors I couldn't get enough of, and thanks to one of my favorite teachers ever I kept track of all the pages I read. I adored this notebook.

Enter---READING IS MY JAM--A JOURNAL FOR READERS 

((made by a reader))

Chalk full of quotes about reading/books/libraries and unique pages for students to record and journal in...with a little bit...okay...a lot of flair and fun! 

Over 15 journal pages are included and 15 quotes to keep readers inspired throughout the entire school year.

UNPUTDOWNABLE. YUP. Because those books exist. What would be on your list? 

Mine would definitely include Wonder, The Wild Robot, and The One and Only Ivan. 

Sprinkled throughout the journal you can put in fun quotes that students can tailor to their tastes but doodling our making them colorful...also there are black and bold prints included.

In love with the dinosaur...because dinosaurs are awesome!

Anyways! I'm so excited to get this in the hands of so many teachers and readers. You can find this in my TPT shop.

Be sure to click the green star when you hop on over to my TPT shop and follow me!

Get your read on!

Over and out!