Woohoo! Halfway through another week!
Well, it only took 3 weeks before I completed another post. I admire other teacher bloggers who are able to post more consistently than I. How do you do it?!? I don’t feel like I have stopped to breathe in the past month since coming back from Christmas Vacation! However, I have been nominated for the Liebster Award, which is motivation right there! Enough about how I haven’t been blogging and on to the blogging. I am linking up with Mrs.Stanford’s Class for another Hump Day Highlight! She’s so clever! 🙂
I am going to share one of my latest creations we are using in my classroom- Bookagram!
I don’t about you, but I LOVE Instagram. I kind of sort of use Facebook, but Instagram is my social media of choice:) I like it because it is mostly pictures. I really am not interested in hearing what color socks you are wearing or reading long drawn out posts that make me think you should have started a blog rather than posting every detail of your life on Facebook. I apologize if I have offended anyone.:)
What I like about Instagram is that you can just post a pic of those super cute socks and you’ve gotten straight to the point. :)Over the Winter Break, I became more interested in Instagram and made new friends!
One of the ways I have found I connected with people was by myself and others posting pictures of books that we are reading, have finished reading, or are about to read. Every time I saw someone’s post with a picture of a book that I had read, my heart jumped for joy! I immediately needed to throw my two cents in! Whether they wanted it or not. But, I figure if you’re posting on Instagram, you are pretty much posting to the world, so liking and commenting are fair game!
This feeling I got when I saw these posts was the connection we feel with other readers. We have both shared an experience even though we don’t know each other, simply because we’ve read the same book. We’re like best friends now. Just kidding. That sounds a little creepy 🙂 But, sharing the love (or nonlove) for a book is a connection like no other.
I kept thinking about this and it just got my creative juice flowing. Why couldn’t I do something like this in my classroom? I have an amazing class this year and they work so hard (I won’t mention how crazy they might be driving me this week). I’ve been fumbling through the 4th grade curriculum all year after spending so many years in 3rd grade. I love it, but I have to learn EVERYTHING. That becomes overwhelming and sometimes frustrating. So, I try to liven things up as often as possible.
After we came back from break, we published our Book Reviews for our Book Club books. Then, students who finished their Book Review could post a Bookagram.
What is a Bookagram? I am so glad you asked!
A Bookagram is a book recommendation. Social Media Style. Students draw a picture of the cover of the book in the square. You have to remind them to put the title of the book because that’s what you would see on Instagram. It would be a photo. Students tag 3 friends they think would like this book. They can write comments and even create their own hashtags. I had to teach them what those were and hoped my principal or a parent didn’t walk in and wonder why I was teaching my students how to hashtag! 🙂 I don’t think that is in my ELA standards! But, then again- neither is help your kids love reading. Clearly, they didn’t include ME when they created the standards! 🙂
Our Bookagram Wall! 🙂
I was really impressed by my students’ work and our display area came out pretty cute. Most of my 4th graders have either used Instagram or at least know what it is. They got the idea and had a lot of fun with it. However, if you teach older students they might really love it! Last week we had student-led conferences and one of my current students’ older brother was my previous student. Did you catch all that? 🙂 Well, he is now in 8th grade and the family was browsing around the room. When he got to our Bookagram wall, I heard, “Ms. Bullock is so cool!” Mission accomplished. Once again, my heart leaped for joy.
I intend to keep our Bookagram wall going throughout the year. This is a nice way to linger longer with a book and build classroom community as well as get your students excited about reading. Thanks for stopping by and I will work on not going on so long between posts:) I actually have readers now!
Be sure to stop by on Friday! I am reviewing a 4th Grade Math product and offering a giveaway! Also, this product will be part of the giveaway!:) Have a lovely rest of the week!
