Top 5 Blog Posts of 2014

I have been sitting here reading blogs for the past two hours with a purring Boston Terrier on my lap (yes, my crazy dog makes this weird vibration when she sleeps that feels just like a purring cat!)  I love getting great ideas from other teachers--even if the grade level is completely different there is usually something that I can take and adjust to fit in my classroom.  Jivey's Top 5 Blog Posts link up has already given me a few things that I am going to try in the New Year.  Hopefully a few of you out there will get an idea or two from my top five (and if you would like to follow me, that would be awesome!)

Theme is something that I always struggled with understanding when I was in school, and I really wanted to figure out a way to give the kids actual strategies for figuring it out....as opposed to my method of choice as a student which was usually just a fingers crossed guess.  I don't know why this was so hard for me--but I remember the tears and frustration. This post explains how I taught the skill of determining theme this year.

Number 4 is a post about the magic of reading.....a trip to a bookstore in Los Angeles...and ways to try to motivate reluctant readers.

Error analysis was the theme of my 3rd most popular blog post.  Why is it that kids can figure out the mistakes of others, but don't see their own?!?

Number 2 is all about talking!  

And the number 1 blog post was about Wacky Buttons!  My kiddos love collecting these as rewards....I love them because they are unique and rather inexpensive.