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Show and Tell and Teacher Book Talk Tuesday

As you are reading this blog post, please think of me working in my classroom, readying it for my kiddos to arrive next week. Tomorrow begins the first of four days of professional development and inservice... sigh! Meanwhile, let's get to all of the Tuesday fun!

First up to share with you... 

My house is being painted! YAY! It's been seventeen years since last the old homestead had a fresh coat. Next month's Show and Tell should have the finished product.

Next is all the fun stay-cation activities that I've been doing these final days of freedom.

Feeding the fish at the Pymatuning Spillway. 

I kid you not... there are so many fish that the local ducks can walk on their backs.

Old ladies' luncheons with new recipes to share. This is what I made for the last luncheon: Cowboy Caviar... YUM!

Going for rides all around the county... where we saw this!

Although it was wide, it wasn't very bright. Still it is a promise.

Of course, I MUST share at least one pic of a fuzz girl. This month I have two, both of Lulubelle, the young lady who is always getting into trouble. 

Here she is trying to figure out how to jump on the window ledge. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

Here she is fooling around with a fidget spinner that I didn't know was on my work table. Apparently it was stuck between some papers and books. Lulubelle ferreted it out while I was doing a bit of TpT work!

And now for Teacher Book Talk Tuesday, the last of my Show and Tell items,  and the second week of giveaways (a wonderful children's book and an Amazon gift card).

The book that I am sharing this week is a kid friendly biography about someone I had never heard of but was well-ahead of her time. In fact, she was so far ahead of her time that we don't have a photograph of her, only painted portraits. Yet, Ada Byron Lovelace is credited with writing the first computer program. I stumbled upon the book while searching for STEM titles on Amazon.

This well-written and handsomely illustrated picture book biography details how Ada Lovelace Byron was able to write the first computer program more than 100 years before the first computer was built. Ever since she was a young girl, Lovelace was fascinated by numbers. As she was growing up, she filled her journals with ideas for inventions and equations. Her mother provided tutors to further develop Lovelace's passion for mathematics. When one of these tutors invited Lovelace and her mother to a gathering of scientists, she met the famous mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage. He was so impressed by Lovelace's knowledge that he invited her to his laboratory, where she learned about his idea for an Analytical Engine, a mechanical computer that would solve difficult problems by working them through step-by-step. She realized that this "computer" would only work if it were provided with detailed instructions, and after much work, she succeeded in writing what is now referred to as the first computer program and in creating the profession of computer programming. The descriptive text and dazzling spreads work seamlessly to provide a sense of Lovelace's growing passion for mathematics and invention. The illustrations reflect the 19th-century setting and contain numerous supporting details. For example, gears that will eventually become part of the design of the Analytic Engine are featured throughout: in the corners of the title page, on the pages of Ada's journals, and on Babbage's chalkboard. VERDICT An excellent addition to STEM collections...School Library Journal

I actually received the book yesterday, after more than a month's wait. Apparently MANY people have discovered Ada Lovelace and Amazon actually sold out of the title. Because I just received it, I had to do a QUICK read in order to write my blog post to get published on time. I just had to share this title, especially since school is starting and I will be introducing computer code to my kiddos. I have to share this book with them.  I will be going back to do a more thorough read so that I am more familiar with the material (and just because I like the book). It will be a great read aloud and research motivator. If you are introducing coding to your students, if you are involved with technology, and if you particularly enjoy encouraging girls to "do science" then this book needs to find its way onto your wishlist and into your class library. 

And now you need to find your way over to Kidpeople Classroom where Kathleen will be reviewing a wonderful children's book that you can own (as well as a ten dollar Amazon gift card) via our second weekly giveaway. 

And when you finish entering the giveaway, be sure to find your way over to Stephanie's blog, Forever in 5th Grade to read more Show and Tell posts. It's a great way to keep up with some terrific teachers bloggers.

#FlashFreebieDay

Come Celebrate with Us
and 
Snag Terrific Teaching Products

To celebrate Allie The Gypsy Teacher's Birthday, we are having a FLASH FREEBIE DAY! Sunday, August 13th from 9a-9p EST, Allie will be posting a FLASH TPT FREEBIE on her Facebook page for you to get! BUT each resource will only be free for 30 minutes! So go LIKE The Gypsy Teacher on Facebook, and stay tuned for lots of fun freebies!

Sneak Peak of my Flash Freebie scheduled for 1:00PM EST...

From 1:00-1:30 you can grab this fun and engaging ELA game for your students for FREE. 

Be sure to follow Allie the Gypsy Teacher on Facebook for all of the day's freebie fun!

Back to School Giveaway Part 2

Would you like to win some extra spending money to help you purchase everything you need for your 2017-18 classroom? A group of amazing teachers and I have teamed up to give away TWO awesome gift cards. You can be one of the lucky recipients. Just enter the Rafflecopter below the graphic before midnight on Aug. 19, 2017. Each link counts as one entry so the more that you complete, the greater your chance of winning a gift card! GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teacher Book Talk Tuesday, even more fun this week!

I don't know what happened these past two Tuesdays, but somehow I just did not get my act together to create a post for Kathleen's summer reading linky.

I did make it this week, however, and it's a good thing because it's even MORE FUN, as in nifty giveaway fun! Let's start with my book talk first.

The book I've chosen to share this week is another one that is on my seventh graders' list for the annual county English Festival.

Now you might think this book is a bit gruesome... yeah!

You might cringe at the title... yeah!

However, it does detail a true event, and if you are female and of an age, I KNOW that you jumped rope to this little ditty...

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks.
When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one!

Actually, this rhyme tells an untruth. Lizzie did not whack her parents that many times as revealed in this terrific non-fiction read. I am not quite finished reading the book (I had six books to read for the English Festival and I saved what I thought was the best for the last). BTW, none of my seventh graders chose this book to read over the summer- they all had to read at least one of the books on the list over the summer- because they were completely "creeped-out" by the title. I can not wait to share this book with them once school does begin.

With murder, court battles, and sensational newspaper headlines, the story of Lizzie Borden is compulsively readable and perfect for the Common Core.  

In a compelling, linear narrative, Miller takes readers along as she investigates a brutal crime: the August 4, 1892, murders of wealthy and prominent Andrew and Abby Borden. The accused? Mild-mannered and highly respected Lizzie Borden, daughter of Andrew and stepdaughter of Abby. Most of what is known about Lizzie’s arrest and subsequent trial (and acquittal) comes from sensationalized newspaper reports; as Miller sorts fact from fiction, and as a legal battle gets under way, a gripping portrait of a woman and a town emerges.   

With inserts featuring period photos and newspaper clippings—and, yes, images from the murder scene—readers will devour this nonfiction book that reads like fiction... Amazon.

Although I have not completed the book (my copy is in Kindle format, my Kindle has no charge, and I can't find the chord... sigh... it will soon turn up), I have read enough to experience the thrill of this famous murder coming alive on the pages of this book. The author's voice is just the right blend of narrative and journalistic research. Snippets of personal accounts by witnesses, family members, and neighbors are interspersed within the text and serve as a timeout from the more detailed reading of the crime. It is these snippets that most appeal to me. These are the voices of real people who experienced and lived the excitement and sensationalism of the crime.

While my Kindle still had its charge, I found it difficult to put this book down. I was aware of this murder event from an early double digit age having checked out a book from the library seeking information about the woman whose crime I jumped rope to, and then while still in high school I remember watching this made for TV movie (for whatever reason it left quite an impression on me). I am delighted to have found it on YouTube! Have any of you seen this?


Lizzie Borden and the Trial of the Century is currently leaving quite an impression on me. I can not wait to complete the book. New information, revised evidence, and a fresh forensic perspective makes the familiar tale new again for me. However, don't just take my word for it! Amazon has quite a lengthy book preview posted HERE. Hop over and read the excerpts provided. I think you'll be just as captivated by Miller's telling of the axe murder tale as am I.

Speaking of hopping, be sure to hop on over to Kathleen's blog to see what book she is sharing for her book talk this Tuesday. Not only is she sharing a fun little book, she is giving away one copy of it. Not only is she giving away a copy, but I've joined up with her to include a ten dollar Amazon gift card as part of her book giveaway. That's the fun that I talked about at the beginning of this post. AND this is only the beginning of the FUN because this is just the first of a three week giveaway. You can read more about this triple crown event over on Kathleen's blog, Kidpeople Classroom, and enter the giveaway. Good luck!