A Teachable Moment on my Alabama Vacay!!

Ever been to Gulf Shores, Alabama?

That's where I am now...

Well, sort of...

I am actually at Fort Morgan which is a hop and skip from Gulf Shores.

It is absolutely gorgeous here.

Pic Number 1

Need I say more...

Last night, I got in after dark.

Could hear the ocean, but couldn't see it.

This is what I woke up to this morning.

Coffee on the deck with a fabulous view.

 Loving a cuddle with my cutie niece, Audrey!
Oh and we can't forget Ellie the elephant. :)

After coffee and breakfast, it was beach time.

Rain was predicted but luckily, our only obstacle was the clouds.

The sun did show its brilliant face every once in awhile.

LOVE IT!!!

The waves were kinda outta control

So we moved to the pool!

Played some volleyball and hung out with some of my favorite kiddos.

 Now...
I did mention a teachable moment, didn't I?
So the rain did come.
The wind made a fierce appearance as well.
Thankfully later in the evening.
We looked outside and saw the water decided to claim most of the beach as its captive.
It not only lined the shore, but also carved a path further up the beach.
Like it created a little island.
There in the middle is our belongings.

So we were checking out what looked like a small river.
Only it was the ocean, of course.
As a person in the education field, my mind started wandering to the world of weathering and erosion.
What a perfect example...
So I began explaining it all to my niece and pointing out examples.
I enjoyed it much more than she did. lol
I took a bunch of pictures because if I still had a classroom, I would so be showing them to my students.

The pic below is one example of my teachable moment.

Do you teach weathering and erosion?

What about weather in general?

If so, have you ever thought of going out and taking real-world examples to show your students?

A crumbled wall...

A broken up sidewalk from tree roots emerging from below...

A river bank...

Clouds and/or fog... (Was so thinking like a teacher on the plane when we were flying through the clouds.)

Another great idea would be to have the kids go out and take pictures to bring back to class.

You know you are in the education field when teachable moments pop up everywhere you go.

Even on vacation...

Have a great day!

Antoinette :)

Summer Learning, Picture Books, and Building classroom Library FREEBIES!!!!

Emily and I are taking classes this week through the Summer Academy that our district has provided for us.  Although it does cut our summer a bit short, the resources and information we gain are definitely beneficial.

We were lucky enough to be in the same class where we had the opportunity to peruse a variety of picture books and discuss various ways they can be used for instruction.  I love when presenters give time for teachers to share out ideas.

As you probably noticed in the Picture Book Linky we participated in, Emily and I absolutely LOVE using picture books in our daily instruction.  So we want to share out some of the books discussed in our class today.

A great book to teach the purpose of  punctuation
and what happens if we didn't have it to use.

A book about a dog which is
written as Haikus

Great for connections and is SO appropriate
with our current weather conditions

A book of idioms and some history
behind them.

Also, the lady presenting (my friend Cheryl) shared a bunch of resources for building a classroom library.  They are book lists to go along with many different reading skills and she was oh so gracious enough to share them with us.  Some documents list books which go along with one specific skill while others have various skills combined into one file.  There is also a document which lists picture books to use across the content areas. :)  Click here to access these documents.  We hope you find them useful in building your libraries! :)


In the class I taught today over launching units for reading and writing, a few people asked me if I had recommendations for organizing libraries as well as keeping track of the books.  I gave some suggestions like grouping them by authors, genres, and/or topics.  In my amazing friend Tracy's library, every book has a card containing its information.  She takes a picture of each of her students sitting in a reading chair and attaches those pictures to pocket envelopes which are glued to poster board.  When a child checks out a book, he/she takes the card from the book and places it in his/her envelope.  I think that's a great way to keep track of books.


We would love to hear your amazing ideas.  What do you recommend for organizing and keeping track of books in your classroom libraries?  Also, we are always looking for picture books to use. So any ideas are always more than welcome!


Antoinette and EmilyK