Books!

Today due to some pest maintenance, The Ladies and I had to get out of the house for a couple of hours. So we went down to the pet store because what's more fun than petting furry little critters??

The Littles had a blast because there were 3 ferrets in the cage that were just playing with each other like crazy. Middle Child, who is quite sensitive, was upset at first because she thought they were fighting! We saw some cute kitties and since I am most definitely a cat person, I had to pet them all. They are very lonely kitties. Two kept licking my fingers. So cute.

In that same strip mall is a bookstore. It's relatively small as it is Michigan-based only. They can be kind of pricey but teachers get a 20% discount for any books in the Education or Children's sections so sometimes it is worth it to buy books there rather than on Amazon. I wasn't really planning to buy anything today but I found this Words Their Way book there. I had all of the others but this one and the emergent one (because I NEVER plan to teach K-1). With the discount it was cheaper than buying it at Amazon. I used Words their Way for my entire spelling program 3 years ago and it was amazing how much gain my kiddos had with their spelling ability. I have been hem-hawing about using it again with my small fries and seeing this book and realizing what a deal I would get on it with the discount decided that fate!

I also found this book Launching the Writing Workshop. If you are familiar at all with Maria Chang's Classroom Management in Photographs, this is very similar. There are a TON of photos to really help you to see what she is talking about. Since I love to write but always found writing to be the most frustrating thing to teach, because I have always felt kind of lost with how best to set it up, this was the perfect book for me to stumble upon today.

I am quite excited about my purchases. I have all of my WTW stuff up in our storage loft which is fortunate because then I can spend some time planning and getting things set for the beginning of the year. I love it when I find fabulous deals, especially when I'm not expecting to!