You Simply Must Read This Book...Bulletin Board Kit and Product Swap!

Jessica Stanford of Mrs. Standford's Class is having her awesome Product Swap, and I'm delighted to be participating again! 

Today, I'm want to share this cute bulletin board resource I got the opportunity to implement in my class this week!!

"Recommended Reading Bulletin Board Kit"

A Language Arts Reading Activity Created by Laura Ellison of Will Grade for Coffee

Check it out in her TpT Store. 

You Simply Must Read This Book! {Bulletin Board Kit}

Words in different Fonts!

Three different frame designs!

How many of you stumble upon the issue of students not being able to find a good book to read...or, at least student who think they can't find one? This bulletin board kit takes care of that situation!
Each time a student reads a great novel, one the student would like to recommend, he/she fills out a book recommendation to tell something enticing or fascinating l about the book.
Included are the bulletin board title words "You Simply Must Read This Book!" on individual pages, each word in a different font. So cute! There are also three different designs of frames included to provide as student printables.
This activity sparks fellow classmates' interests and provides a handful of suggestions to your students for picking out their next novels. Or, if your board turns out like mine, they will have a board full of suggestions!!

See the pictures of my students' awesome new bulletin board!!! 

 I'm LOUD and love COLOR, SOOOO, my title is on PINK paper! 

I love this idea. I actually have students read an independent novel each nine weeks. This week, they completed the activity about novels they really enjoyed reading and wanted to recommend to other students!

When a student is hunting a book of interest, I can direct him/her to this bulletin board to read some of the recommendations from fellow classmates. Awesome! Now, when we go to the libarary, students will be getting in there and checking out books they've been anxious to read instead of spending too much of library time trying to find a book that interests them. 
Hopefully, you have your readers that seem to never have trouble finding a great book, but many of us have just as many or more that fight reading. This could change their minds entirely!
Another cool thing about it is being able to have students contribute to the board throughout the year...
When you've filled it up, replace new recommendations with some of the older ones that most students have already had plenty of time to see! That's my plan... ;) 

Getting students to read is easy breezy if they are reading material of high interest to them. This cool idea not only delivers multiple suggestions, but suggestions are from peers. If students recommend books to other students, as opposed to the teacher recommending books to students, many are more inclined to check them out...I teach middle school, so if one kid thinks something is cool, we all know that another --or two or three--are going to think it's cool. 
So, be sure to get your own bulletin board kit! This is not just for language arts classes either...It's great for any class that incorporates novels/reading into their classes AND---A "SUPER DUPER" bulletin board idea to use in the school library! 
I am actually pondering ideas as I write this post...One thing that comes to mind is asking students to recommend novel titles of particular genres in connections with a new unit or theme in class. For example, we begin a new unit next week that is my FAV! It's our mystery/fantasy unit. Oh my goodness, there are tons of great titles to recommend!! 
Can you tell that I'm excited about my new bulletin board? Um, duh!  
The kiddos finished it yesterday! On Thursday, they wrote recommendations and decorated their frames.  On Friday, we put them on our totally cute bulletin board! Each student did his/her own thing. I tend to get picky about writing, but I let that go with this activity. No "blue/black ink or typed" requirements. For their first time recommending book titles to others, I asked them to think of a book they have read this year or last year (since it's only October) that they REALLY liked. Hopefully, students will add to the board as they come across novels they "really like" and want to recommend! I told them the recommendations should spark student interest and should reveal what was so enjoyable. AND, I did tell them to make it "CUTE"---lol, my kiddos are not exactly used to coloring, so they JUMPED on this! (Okay, so I did throw some tiny guidelines.) Allowing student choice goes miles with my 8th graders. However, it's a plus for all ages. No need for limiting creativity, right? Anyway, some students trimmed excess white paper around the frame; others cut out frames entirely. Ahem, my girls were more particular. Students wrote in pencil, pens, markers, and colored pencils---quite a variety. The activity was an opportunity to say, "Look What I Read that was Totally Awesome!" 

Visit Laura's Blog!

Anyhoo, there you have it! Bet you're wanting your own "You Simply Must Read This Book!" bulletin board, aren't ya? I mean, look at the cute bulletin board my awesome students ended up creating! Swing by Laura's blog to tell her how cool her activity is! I very much enjoyed creating this board with my students and feel it will be a helpful tool throughout the year! FYI, Laura is getting married SUNDAY (Tomorrow)! Deliver Best Wishes when you swing by her blog! 
If you go to the "My Classroom" page on Laura's blog, she has lots of pics of different areas of her classroom---I thought it was insightful and cool to see! It's nice to see how other teachers organize/set up rooms, and a "special page" for it on her blog is a nice feature---hmmm, now I'm pondering ideas for mine! ;) There is also a page/tab especially for 6th grade blogs, so be sure to add yours to her link up if you are a 6th grade teacher-blogger!

Laura happens to be featuring my Writing Adventures Combo Pack resource for the product swap. So, the first 4 peeps who comment below and on Laura's blog can get it for free! BUT, be sure to leave me email address in your comment on my blog if you want it sent to you!!! 
You can connect with Laura via Facebook and find other resources of Laura's in her TPT Store.
THANKS to Jessica for getting this swap together! And, THANKS to Michelle, The 3am Teacher, for the awesome graphic! You can visit Jessica's blog, from the graphic at the top, to see her fab post for the swap and all the link ups of blogs participating. Hope your Saturday is SPECTACULAR! I'm watching a little SEC Football today/tonight! :) 
OH OH OH---For the MAGICAL Product Swap, my TpT Store is 20% off (Most Products...)
A. Smith

Crayons and Curls and Stanford's Product Swap!

Stop by Mrs. Stanford's Blog to see more about this!!

The MAGICAL swap is here!

Hey, everyone!
I've joined in Mrs. Stanford's "Product Swap" and have the opportunity of telling you a little about Cheryl, Crayons and Curls - My Life as a Kindergarten Teacher, and one of her cute, resourceful teaching resources. It is called "I Can Read the Alphabet"and is the perfect introductory pack to letters, designed for Pre-K and Kindergarten! It also makes for a spectacular review for first grade! You can get this resource in Cheryl's TpT Store! Check it out when you click on the cover image!

Crayons and Curls' "I Can Read the Alphabet"

Cheryl created this learning tool to use at the beginning of the year, and it works really well in literacy centers! It consists of 6 student printables to use as assessment worksheets and a mini-book of the letters of the alphabet!

Those participating in the product swap actually walked through a particular product, one step at a time, and below you'll see the different stages of Cheryl's super cute teaching tool!

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed taking a deep look at another teacher-author's work---and it took me back to when I taught Kindergarten as well! "A Little Kindergarten Friend" and I worked through this activity together! :) 

So, here we go! First of all, I printed her alphabet book pack, and you'll see that the mini-book contains two of each page on a letter-sized sheet of printer paper! That's convenient! Print once and you have two alphabet books ready to go!

Cover/Closing Pages of Mini-Book Before Cutting

Letters and Illustrations (2 of each on a page!)

The next step was to cut the pages for the mini-book in half, and putting the true Kinder Artist to work coloring the cover page, each letter page, and ending pages of the book!

Cut pages in half....to have 2 mini-books!

Color each letter and illustration.
Students read each sentence under picture.

If you noticed in the mini-book, students are exposed to a wide array of words that build on their vocabulary! Your kiddos will be exposed to, if they aren't already familiar with, lots of words, as the words are used in a sentence underneath each letter and illustration in the alphabet book, in preparation for the assessment sheets!

After the book was put together, it was time to complete the activity pages/assessment worksheets that accompany the book. There are six worksheets. Students match a the picture on the left side of the page to the correct letter on the right side of the page. For example: an apple would connect to the letter "A" and so on. The sheets break the alphabet into sets of letters, so you will not overwhelm your kiddos! That's important too!

Assessment Worksheets (six total)--Students do color the pictures here as well!

And, more coloring....yay! Students get to color each picture on the worksheets!

To complete the mini-book, I punched holes on the left side and used ribbon to bind the pages. You can easily/quickly just staple the sheets together. This was just what I decided to do! You can see the front and last page of the book below.

Cover Page of Mini-Book

Last Page of Mini-Book

This pack is 24 pages in total! See the preview of one of the assessment sheets that Cheryl has provided on her product page! 

Be sure to swing by her blog at Crayons & Curls to let her know you found out about her cool alphabet teaching resource while visiting Innovative Connections! AND, she has a product review post on her blog featuring one of my grammar resources for reviewing/practicing the parts of speech and combining sentence parts to create sentences, which is great for multiple grade levels!

Please leave a comment below to let us know you stopped by and tell us what you think or how you'd incorporate this resourceful item in your classroom! 
Besides the links to her TpT Store and teaching blog, you can connect with Cheryl via Facebook and Pinterest:

I hope you enjoyed the product swap post today! You can see more of these by visiting Mrs. Stanford's Class Blog!

P.S. If you have not heard, The 3am Teacher is an Awesome Artist and, in fact, she created our awesome magical swap button at the top!

Thanks for swinging by to read today's post! Don't forget to leave your thoughts below!  HAVE A GREAT DAY, A. Smith