Teaching About September 11: My Favorite Read-Alouds

September 11. A day that we will never forget, but a day that most of our young students have never heard about.

I have two books that I read every year on September 11. I love them because they do not go into scary details, but they still make an impact on my students. 

I always open with the book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. The book depicts the story of Phillipe Petit, who walked between the towers on a tightrope in 1974. I first became fascinated with the story of Phillipe Petit when I read Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (an INCREDIBLE book if you haven't read it!!!) When I found the story in children's book form, I knew it would be one of my favorites. This book is great because it will get your students interested in the towers, the importance behind them, and the history that they held. The story ends by noting that the towers are no longer there, but that the memory of what Phillipe Petit did lives on. This ending always opens a discussion about the towers not being there anymore, which leads into the second book that I always read- 14 Cows for America. 

14 Cows for America is a story that holds a special place in my heart because it is the story of a Masai warrior in Kenya who hears about what happened on September 11 and is so hurt for Americans that he wants to give something to them. I have been blessed to have traveled to Kenya a few times and even know a few Masai, so this story means so much to me! I don't want to spoil the story for you, because it is beautiful and amazing (and the illustrations will make you say "WOW"), but just know that it is a story with so much heart and your students will surprise you with the maturity that they show in their reaction to it.

 Every year it always opens up so many incredible conversations about how we can help others who are hurting or sad, and how we can show compassion for others. 

After we read the two stories, we usually spend some time watching videos of Phillipe Petit walk between the towers. My goal is never to make my students upset or sad, just to start planting small seeds of knowledge about the day and its importance. 

I can honestly say that last year one of my kiddos at the END of the year told me that the story we read for September 11 was his favorite story all year. 

Those kids left my class knowing about the towers and that they no longer stand. They would see pictures of the towers in old books or in youtube videos about patriotic songs and they would say "Mrs. Browning, those are the buildings that the man walked between before they fell." One of our students suffered an incredible loss and another students said "we need to give him something for him to feel better just like that man gave away his cows." They may not know all of the scary details of the day and they may not know how many people lost their lives and everything that our country has gone through as a result of that day, but they know the stories. They were PROUD to know the bits of history that we read about. 

Isn't that what we want as teachers? To know that we are giving our students knowledge that they will be proud of, that will shape them and teach them not just content, but character as well? That's what I want, and what I hope to gift them with through these stories each year!

Do you have any September 11 traditions in your classroom? I'd love to hear about them! 

Five for Friday: Back to School (and back to blogging!)

What a week! I have always loved linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday and am setting a goal to get back on a blogging schedule and not miss joining in on the Friday fun!

My life right now is a little crazy, but the absolute best part of it is getting to be this little guy's mom! He is growing so fast! We love cooling off and playing in the pool! 

I have such a rambunctious crew of little ones this year! I needed a creative way for them to keep our rules in mind so I made these fun little (FREE!)  Rules Rings! 

I blogged about my Back to School Favorites and Freebies and I'm giving away a few of my favorite back to school resources! Hop over to this post to enter!! 

Kole and I are anxiously awaiting the arrival of his cousin, Ella! She is due any day and we had fun making some cute onesies for her! 

If you are looking for a few fun new stories, I just got these two and they didn't disappoint! I already have so many great lesson ideas and can't wait to read these stories to my kiddos! 

Back to School: Favorites and Freebies!

I know what you must be thinking...where the heck has she been and why is this her first blog post in MONTHS?!?

Okay, so admittedly I have been awful about blogging. I had to take a break for a while to focus on family and my life outside of my MacBook! But I am back! And I can't wait to share with you some of my favorite back to school goodies!!!

I have a VERY rambunctious group of kiddos this year and found out fast that they were going to need A LOT of reinforcement with our rules this year! ENTER: Rules Rings!
These little rings serve as such great reminders of our rules! I made a color copy for me and then made each kiddo a set with colored cardstock and VOILA! a perfect solution to my little ones' memory problems! Not only will your kids love taking ownership of their rules with these rings, they will love the picture reminders! As an added bonus, try giving out stickers to students to put on the back of specific rule cards when they are doing a great job mastering that rule!
Oh and did I mention that they are FREE?! :)

Another one of my must use beginning of the year resources are my (also FREE) Back to School Reading Surveys for Beginning Readers. I LOVE using these little surveys at the beginning of the year to get to know my new kiddos and learn all about their reading interests! This year I am even making them their very own reading interest packs, stay tuned for more about that later!

If you know much about me, you probably already know that I really really love sight words! Sight word sentence strips are an absolute staple in my classroom and I love creating different themes to use throughout the year! These Back to School strips are such a fun way to introduce school vocabulary and have your students practice their sight word fluency at the same time! 

If you are looking for a GREAT and easy sight word center, check out my growing bundle of strips for over 15 different themes (and many more to come!)

One of my other favorite ways to start of the year is to begin collecting data about my kiddos.  One of my favorite parts of teaching has always been seeing the growth and transformations my students go through as the year goes on. I love using these data collection pages to be able to watch my students learn and grow! They make for great talking points during conferences and you can put them together at the end of the year as a gift for parents! It is AMAZING to see how much your students grow! (Plus, let's be honest, administrators always love to see those data collections!) 

What are your Back to School favorites??

Five for Friday!

How is it already almost mid-February?! Gosh how the time is flying by! I've started Five for Friday posts the past two Fridays but life with a little baby has kept me from finishing them. I'm DETERMINED to get this post done today though, so here we go!

This week was *supposed* to be my first week back to work, but I think God knew I wasn't quite ready to leave my little man. After a team planning day on Monday,  mother nature gave us two lovely snow days on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by our already planned winter break yesterday and today! This momma was pretty happy to only have a one day work week for her first week back! (And of course my little man had to wear his snow day onesie!)

One of the big ways that I prepped for heading back to school was spending a day stocking my freezer with some crock pot meals. I have 15 bags of yummy meals ready to take out, pour in a crock pot, and head out the door. I love how much cooking time it is going to save me from in the evenings because I know I am going to want to snuggle my little man as soon as I get home every day! If you have any good crockpot freezer meals, please share!!! 

Have you ever played Ticket to Ride?! It is easily my new favorite game! We got the board game for my parents for Christmas and loved it so much that I had to download it on our iPad as well! Kole is such a great helper every time I want to play :) 

I finally finished up the 4th case in my Daily Language Detective series and I have to say, I think this one might be my favorite! If you are looking for a great way to practice adjectives, determiners, and conjunctions, head over to my Facebook page for a chance to win a free copy! 

Because I can't get enough of my little love bug, and because he is easily the biggest part of my every day life right now, here are a few of my favorite faces from the last few weeks! :) 

 

Five for Friday: Snow, Sales & Snuggles!

Hey everyone! It's been forever since I've made the time for a Five for Friday post and I've been missing it!

For those of you who missed my last post, I have been MIA the last few months because I have been hanging out with this cutie pie! 

I am absolutely loving being a mommy! 

My sweet boy helped me finish up some new products just in time for the TPT sale!

I can't wait to play these games with my firsties! 

If you are looking for a fun digraphs center, this one is FREE! (I promise to update you with some live photos when I am back at school!)

Has anyone else had crazy weather this week? Here in Georgia we tend to err on the side of caution...they've said snow so many times this week, but the most I've seen of it is this....

Do you use Donors Choose? I was so pumped this week to get a project fully funded! My little sister goes to Clemson and she and my mom just went to the national championship game and they gave out Donors Choose gift cards! Pretty cool, huh??

I am setting some goals for this week to finish up a few Valentine's resources! Wish me luck! :)  

Life updates (& why I've been MIA!)

For weeks I have been telling myself "today is the day I am going to open my computer and jump back into blogging and TPT and creating things for my little firsties"...and for weeks I just haven't been ready!
Here's why--

On December 2, after a week and a half of early labor, my husband and I welcomed the most perfect little boy into the world. I could not have ever imagined a sweeter, snugglier, more calm and better baby. Little Kole has been the best addition to our family and I have jut been soaking in all of his sweetness!
He has already grown and changed so much in his almost 6 weeks here on earth and I have loved watching every moment! And so every time I thought I was ready to open my computer back up, I would just get distracted by his sweet little cheeks and perfect little toes and would just need "one more day" off. Even now I am sitting here typing with one hand while my little Kole is snuggled up in my other arm because when he wants to be snuggled, nothing else in the world is more important than that!

I have 4 more weeks of daytime naps and endless snuggles before I go back to school. And I have to admit, I'm scared. I can't imagine going so many hours without having my baby in my arms and the idea of anyone else getting to watch him grow all day every day makes this momma cry every time! So I'm calling out to all of you who have done it and survived--advice, encouragement, empathy-I'll take any and all of it!

And just because I can't keep so much cuteness to myself--here are some of my favorite moments from the last few weeks with my little man!!

 

 

 

If you love his sweet little face as much as I do, hop over to my Instagram to check out even more precious moments! Thanks for sticking with my through my time off the grid-I'm not promising consistent posts, but as long asI can type with one hand, I promise I'm trying to get back in the swing of things! :)