Books, Books, and More Books!

Don't you just hate when you have insomnia and can't shut your mind off?  Here's how it usually goes: It's two o'clock in the morning and I'm churning out hundreds of really great ideas for school and around the house, confident that I'll remember them all, because I'm too lazy to get up and write them down or voice message myself. But the next morning I can't seem to remember them all or even half of them!

Any ways, that was me last night. I do remember thinking about read-alouds for math and science, and trying to remember what titles I have. Now when you have been teaching as long as I have, and you have a major book addiction......well, let's just say I own a lot of books. Don't tell my husband, but I've been known to see a book and to buy it, only to realize some time later that I already owned another copy of it! So I was intrigued to hear about an app for cataloging your collection of books. It's called BooksApp and there's a free version and a version for under $10. It is so cool! You scan the bar code or input the ISBN and then it finds and loads a summary of the book, tags it to subject areas, and even puts a picture of the cover with it!! That's what I'm talking about -- ORGANIZATION, woohoo! Now I'll be able to look under the subject and find the titles I want to go with the standards I'm teaching. Don't you just love technology!!

Speaking of books.....my kids love for me to read to them. When they go to the library, they search for books about the topics we are studying, in the hopes that I will read their books to the class. One of the main reasons is that we always end with a Minds are Blooming Question. Okay, so truthfully it isn't the question that they look forward to, but the skittle from the Blooming Candy Dispenser.

The cup next to the gorilla is the much coveted Blooming Dispenser. If you look closely you may be able to see that the flower on its side has a hole in it. When you twist the top of the dispenser, the hole opens up and a skittle falls out. The kiddos love the mystery and suspense of not knowing what color skittle they will get and what their question will be.The cards hanging on the wall behind the cup are color-coded  and have questions based on the revised levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Here's a better picture of the dispenser.

  Best of all, the dispenser is made from two Styrofoam drink cups, so it's super easy and super cheap! Plus the kids really love it! You can find the directions for making the dispenser, the question cards and the Blooms Flower Pot poster in my TPT store.