Laughter as Inspiration and Read Alouds

Weekly Writing Inspiration: Laughter

For the weekly writing inspiration this week, I wanted to focus on laughter and happy thoughts.  I have been keeping my own gratitude list and it has been amazing.  I wrote a post about how my mom gifted me with the joy of laughter at my personal blog for Mother's Day.

To continue the theme, Laura Candler had a happy thoughts journal post recently.  Check it out.  I think using gratitude journals in the classroom would be awesome!  Why not make an end of the year list of all the things to be thankful for?

Poem:  "The Teachers Jumped Out of the Windows" by Ken Nesbitt

This is a cute poem that is sure to get your students laughing.  It has about how all of the staff ran out of the school on the last day of school.  This might spark some interesting class discussion.  It might even be fun to write your own funny class poem about how the teachers at your school will act on the last day.

Quote:  "A good laugh is sunshine in the house."

Click on the quote for a printable copy of the quote.

Picture: Laughter at the Beach

Well, I finally am branching out and trying to use Pinterest.  I found this picture on Pinterest and thought it was wildly appropriate for the topic of laughter and summer both.  Have your students consider why is the baby dressed as a shark.  What is making him laugh?  What might the baby be seeing?  How does this picture make the students feel?

Source of the picture

All Time Favorite Read Alouds

I am linking up with Miss Nelson to mention my all time favorite read alouds. I never realized how much older students still love being read to until my 3rd year of teaching. 

It makes sense, though; I firmly believe my love of reading was fostered by my dad reading to me and my grandmother mailing me books.  My mom wouldn't touch a book, but she could drop me off at B Dalton at the mall for hours and I was good to go!

My Favorite Read Alouds:

1) Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco

I love this story.  I can't get through it without tearing up, though.

2) No Talking by Andrew Clements

Such a great story.  It is great for when the boys and girls aren't getting along.

3)  Loser by Jerry Spinelli

Zinkoff is one of the best characters I have ever met!

4) Sideways Stories from Wayside School

Check out my post on fun activities to go with this book.

Pictures of the books from Pinterest.

Laughs and blessings,

Summer Bucket List linky party

Hadar from Miss Kindergarten, Teri from A Cupcake for the Teacher, and April from A Modern Teacher are having a Linky Party called My Summer Bucket List.

I love lists so here are some of my goals for the summer:

1) Finish my garage. 

We already cleaned it out and somewhat organized.  My husband is re-sheetrocking some of it and adding an attic ladder.  We are going to prime and paint the walls, and then paint the floors.  Then, we will get a real workbench and storage shelves.  I also want to store all my extra teaching stuff and books in one corner (that currently are split between my office and guest room).

2)  Build up endurance at running. 

I started running like a whole week ago so my dog and I sort of alternate running/walking right now.

3)  Keep going to yoga consistently.

  (Maybe some day I will be able to do Crow.)

4)  Keep reading 1000 Gifts and keep up with my own list of things to be thankful for.

5)  Start actually using Pinterest.

Saw lots of great ideas through the linky party where people found great ideas on Pinterest.

6) Experiment/Research digital scrapbooking.  And put pictures in the empty picture frames.

7)  Research and create products for thematic unit teaching. 

Seems like it would be great with older grades and I haven't seen too many resources out there.  I actually saw a great blog post on Friday about someone using thematic teaching in their classroom, and they had great pictures.  I need to refind it.  (Trying to update my blog list.  It won't add more than 25 and adding them all manually seems annoying.)

8)  Also trying to motivate myself to eat better: more salad, less sugar, no artificial sweetener, less bread and gluten, and less dairy.  Struggling to figure out dinners and how to keep it easy (other than my hsuband's suggestion of only eating frozen dinners because no dishes are involved).

9)  Read great books

10)  Enjoy the sunshine.

Have a bucket full of summer blessings!