Report cards and the Book Wizard. Mostly I mean Scholastic, but I'm a book wizard, too!

I have been such a bad blogger, but it has been a whirlwind since getting back from break!  First we had mClass assessments, which I loved, but took me 3 days, then finishing assessments and grading for report cards, then the actual report card process!!  I have missed my little blog!

So as if report cards weren't enough this week, I have undertaken the project of adding to my book shopping library.  My kiddos are really so impressive this year when it comes to their reading skills- and they really LOVE to read!  The problem is (and it's a good problem to have), that about half of my kids are wanting to check out 6 chapter books a week.  That's quite the undertaking to read 6 chapter books in 7 days as a first grader!!!  When I first started teaching, I never thought I would have that problem- I'm so proud of them!

Anyway, this isn't very conducive to partner reading or writing about their reading in Daily 5, so I've been working with my AMAZING parent volunteers to remedy this.  I've been trying to supplement with some picture books from levels J-P so that the kiddos are still challenged, but can continue to work on skills with their partners.  It's so hard to teach beginning readers how to summarize with a chapter book when they haven't yet mastered the skill in smaller books!  Of course that isn't to say that I don't want them reading chapter books- I really do!  How do you feel about this?  What are your kids reading?

Back in the day, I used a lot of my bonus points from Scholastic to buy Magic Tree House, Geronimo Stilton, A-Z Mysteries, Ready Freddy, etc., because they really inspired my kiddos to read.  They couldn't wait to get into the chapter books and once they found a series they liked, I couldn't get them to put their books down!  Now I'm going back and looking for popular characters in picture book series.  So far, I've got Piggie and Elephant, Skippyjon Jones, Pete the Cat, Pigeon, Froggy, Arthur, Franklin, and Berenstain Bears.  Oh, and Magic Schoolbus!  The boys are really excited for those to come in!  As one said, "It's fiction because there are characters, but nonfiction because it has facts."  You had to hear the enthusiasm in his voice when he said it!

After my report cards were printed, I went to work on a stack of books that were sitting in my basement, begging to be leveled.  24 hours later, I had leveled 160 books!  Some of these were books from garage sales, some from book orders, and some donated from wonderful families... tons of great books that I know the kids will love!  I will admit that I let them browse through the books on Friday before I was done leveling them so that they are all pumped about book shopping on Monday.

Here's my handiwork:

Sorry if you have to turn your head, but the picture is facing the right way on my computer till I upload it!  Anyway, that's 160 books, even if it doesn't look like it!  I was so proud after working till 7 on a Friday night, that I had to take a picture of it!

I have to say that I love Scholastic.  Not only do they provide some great deals on all of my favorite books, but the Book Wizard is awesome!  They've really expanded their leveled book database and I used books they had leveled to help me with some of mine that weren't listed.  If you haven't tried it before, you really should!

You can search by title (which is how I leveled), or you can search for books similar to a book your kids like.  What really helped me when looking for picture books at particular levels was searching by just that- reading level!  They make it so easy! 

Now I'm going back through book orders and searching for books to add to our collection.  If I can drum up $250 in sales, I can get 2500 additional bonus points!!!!  I noticed this before I sent in January's order, so now I'm sending it in along with February's- wish me luck!  Is it bad that I'm sending home December's book order again?  It had such a great selection and I want the kids to help me pick the books they want me to order!  Plus, December's book orders had the reading levels underneath to help parents and the February book order does not.

Is anyone else as crazy as I am when it comes to ordering books and using up every last bonus point?  How do you get books for your classroom?

I hope I didn't ramble too much!  It's good to be back!