Tried It Tuesday...I WONDER if you'll read this...

Since it's Tuesday...I'm linkin' up with my buddy Holly from the Fourth Grade Flipper for Tried It Tuesday.  It's my favorite day of the week for me to share some awesomeness and to read about the awesomeness goin' on in my bloggy buddies' worlds.

                                           

My one and ONLY Awesomeness for the day: My new favorite read aloud of all time

Did I give it away in my post title?  That's right....it's WONDER by R.J. Palacio!  Forgive me if you've already read this gem to your students and know all about its AWESOMENESS.  If you have never heard of this or read this...go as quickly as you can and pick up a copy of this.  Scholastic has a hard copy right now for $12.oo or you can use bonus points for purchase.  Amazon is sellin' it for $9.59 or has a Kindle edition for $7.99.    I would definitely suggest this book for 4th or 5th grade and higher.   Even if you teach a lower elementary grade, I suggest readin' this for yourself.  It's THAT GOOD!

I introduced Wonder by showin' this short video clip to my students from R.J. Palacio's website.

I strongly suggest makin' your way through R.J. Palacio's website to give you, the teacher, some background knowledge before you begin readin' the book.  The FAQ section will answer many questions that you might have.

I can't even begin to describe to you how much my students LOVED this book.  They BEGGED me every second of the day to finish readin' this book to them.  We experienced so many emotions while readin' Auggie's story.   We got down to the last four pages and I was bawlin' like a baby.  Wouldn't you know...my classroom phone rang.  One of my sweet babies answered and it was my Assistant Principal needin' a laptop in the front office conference room.  I thought to myself...there are only FOUR pages left...I'll just finish.  Wrong!  I got down to the last FIVE lines and she called again to let me know I wasn't movin' fast enough for her.  Lol!  I was snot-sobbin' cryin' and could barely see through my tears, but I finished without ruinin' the end for my kids.  I will never let my AP live this down.  I have reminded her every time I see her that I had FIVE LINES LEFT!  I'm lucky I can joke with her about this...she does do my evaluation after all!
I must share some blog posts about Wonder, written by The Wild Rumpus.  I showed the videos to my class that she shared and suggested.  WOW!  That's all I can say.  Talk about sparkin' some phenomenal conversations in my room.  I waited though to share these until after we learned what Auggie looked like in his sister Via's point of view.  I don't want to say anymore because I don't want to ruin it for you if you haven't yet discovered the wonder of Wonder.
Every year our Media Specialist sends out a Google Doc to sign up for books that we'd like to see purchased for our school library.  I jumped on that email so fast and asked for her to please order at least one copy for each 5th grade teacher and if at all possible, a class set for check out.  I WILL be readin' this book EVERY year.