Wonderland Book Tasting

I did a Wonderland Book Tasting with one of our first grade teachers. I originally got the idea from Hope King and you can find her original blog post here. She has such amazing ideas! I had to do some tweaking since I was doing this activity with 1st graders. I spent some time brainstorming different ways the 1st graders could communicate with each other on whether or not they liked the book. That's when I came up with the Love It and Leave It cards as shown below. The students read the book with their partner for about 3 minutes. Remember we are just getting a taste of the book.  During this time the students are reading the words, looking at the pictures, and deciding whether or not the book is something they are interested in. They then discuss with their partner whether they LOVE the book or would rather LEAVE the book. However, the students cannot just simply say they love the book or would leave it. They have to explain WHY. This can be difficult for 1st graders at first because they have a hard time expressing their thoughts and feelings. However, after just a couple of rounds the 1st graders were improving in this area greatly. Having students justifying their thinking is vital at this age. If we teach our students at an early age to do this it will help them to develop into independent thinkers.

Download these cards for free here.

Here are some pictures from our book tasting. We had such a blast! I started this activity with the intention of just doing it with one class. It was such a hit we ended up doing it with 14 different classrooms! I was so thrilled so many teachers wanted their students to participate.

So how exactly did we choose our books? For first and second grade we did it by authors and the teachers decided on the authors. Below are some of the authors the teachers picked for their book tasting.

1st grade:

2nd Grade:

At the end of the book tasting many of the students were asking when they could go to the library to check out these books. We had such a great time and I am grateful I was able to do this with so many students! If you are wondering where you can get the cool hats, I bought them from Amazon. They are little pricey for paper hats, but I had about 280 students come through this book tasting and the hats are still in great shape!

A book tasting can be done with any age and they are super easy and fun to do. Anyone can do one, including an administrator! :)

                                                                

Fight For Your Students

    I had a student that challenged me in every way possible. I saw greatness in him that he did not see. He was just waiting for me to give up on him and I refused. I fought for him because he wouldn't fight for himself. I pushed him to realize his full potential and he resisted me often, but I never gave up on him. At the time, I didn't know his parents were going through a divorce. His parents put on a pretty good show and he never shared with me what was going on. It wasn't until 2 years later that I found out. He wrote me a letter telling me that I was the only one that fought for him and it helped him get through his parents divorce. He also told me he was doing great in school and it was because I never let him quit. If I had known about his parents divorce, would I have gone easier on him? Absolutely not! I love all my students and my heart hurts for them when they go through difficult situations. However, we can meet students physical and emotional needs without making  excuses for them.  Excuses will only weaken your students, not make them stronger. 

   Why did I share this story with you? Its simple really. We must remember to never give up on our students even when they resist us every step of the way. Take your students where they are and work with them to discover their greatness. Stop wishing they will change and do something about it. Wishing only creates disappointment, because you aren't actually doing anything. Every one of our students deserves someone that will fight for them. I often hear the phrase, "The students should be more tired then the teacher at the end of the day". However shouldn't students and teacher both be exhausted? The students should be exhausted from thinking all day at a higher level then ever before. The teacher should be exhausted because they are constantly working to make sure that each and every one of their students are reaching their full potential in everything they do. It can be a straight up exhausting battle to get through to students the importance of  taking ownership for their own learning and to build up some grit. Grit is pushing through even when it seems impossible. For some students, this battle is a short one and they learn very quickly the importance of fighting through challenges. They know it will make them stronger and smarter.  For other students, it isn't just a battle but a war with some losses and some victories throughout the entire year. However, if the teacher is relentless and will continue to fight for these students, the teacher and student will come out victorious.

   Fighting for your students doesn't mean making excuses for them. Fighting for your students means setting high expectations for every single one of them and pushing them to work hard to meet those expectations. It isn't easy because you will meet resistance. We live in trophy giving, everyone is special without working for it, kind of world. The truth is we have to teach our students the value of hard work and GRIT so the real world is a little bit easier to handle when it is their turn to conquer it!

   Thank you to all of the teachers that fight for their students on a daily basis. Your hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed. You are making a difference!