Austin Day

 You probably came across this post because you have a child or student named Austin. It has become a very popular name over the past few years. In fact, it was at #80 in the U.S. in 2017, when my son was born. Today is his birthday, and coincidentally also Thanksgiving. We know at least 3 boys with the name in our town! We consider our son to be someone we are definitely thankful for! Anyway, I didn't have the most common name growing up and it definitely wasn't spelled like many others with the same pronunciation. Speaking of spelling, here's a freebie for you! 

Amanda Pertl at A to Z teacher stuff created more Austin Name Printables. Snag them here!

A few weeks before my daughters were born, we had Austin Day. I had purchased a puzzle and name train from a local mom who wanted to pass them on from her ton to another little boy with the same name. This led to me trying to find books with a character with his name, and then shirts and other things. We pulled all of these things out and had a blast that day before it all became about the babies.

Below, find some of the activities we've done and personalized items we've loved. Whenever I see something on Amazon, I grab it fast because I know it may not last!

We are really into geography and travel over here. My husband was in the military in Texas among other places, and the state is one our son can spot easily on a map, despite him never being there or living in the state.

Good Night, Austin by Adam 
Gamble is one of two books listed here where Austin is a place and not a person. Our son knows he is partly named after a Texas city, and he thinks it's fun to learn about landmarks there. 

Speaking of landmarks, Austin, Lost in America is a book by Jef Czekaj. It is a "geography adventure" that helps Austin, a lost dog, find the best place for him to live in the United States. He gets through 49 states before deciding on the perfect home state. Can you guess which one it is?

The Littlest Bunny in Austin: An Easter Adventure by Lily Jacobs

Like other books of its type, this one is created for a major city (some are for states) and it includes landmarks as well as other towns near Austin, Texas. I thought it was fun for my son to learn about the area he's named for. I wouldn't say this book is a must have, but it was a cute Easter basket add.

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Here is an Austin, Texas coloring printable to go with the previously listed books!

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Written by husband - wife pair and former NFL coach tony & Lauren Dungy, the book Austin Plays Fair is one of my son's favorites. It poses the question to kids whether it's more important to win or be honest and follow the rules. Many professional athletes and coaches have gotten caught in scandals, so it's an important lesson to learn young.

Check it out here in read aloud version.

Austin's Adventures: A Friend in Space by Emily Davis

This book us definitely cute. It has rhymes and some kid-friendly information about space included throughout. It's enough to teach kids with some astronomy knowledge something without overwhelming newbies, and we liked the rhymes.

 

Austin's Unlikely Pet by Michelle F. Bradley

This book was fun for my son, who likes the idea of a pet, but not actually having one. Unlike his sister, he's not really a fan of furry things. He's really into funny stories, and this Austin's kind of silly.

A is for Austin by Li'l Llama Custom Kids Books

This one is another one of those personalized books that isn't really personalized. I got this same one for my daughter and the main difference is the name in it. Still, it's good for learning adjectives for each letter of the alphabet and wasn't outrageously expensive like some other "name" books.

Austin, You're My Everything by Miles Tucker

Another cute personalized book here, also available for the name Emma. The pictures are adorable and it has a heartwarming message to make kids feel loved.

This Austin has allergies. He has to advocate for himself and let others know what foods he is allergic to in Austin Goes to a Birthday Party and Austin's Allergies. These books are great social stories to help others navigate this situation and help advocate for others, too. It covers concepts such as epi-pens, cross-contaminations, and symptoms of exposure to allergens in a kid-friendly way. My Austin has seasonal allergies, so he can kind of relate to these concepts, but it's great for him to understand food allergies so he can support friends and family members who have them.

Download printables that go with the books here.

President Austin by Brian Eggleston

This book is a great example of why you should snap up books with your kid's name as soon as you see them. It's no longer available even though I wrote his post about two weeks ago! If you can find it, snag it. This story has a great theme about helping others (the homeless in this case).

If your child doesn't watch The Backyardigans, here's Austin! We printed this out and stuck it in a page protector. My son uses a dry erase marker to practice fine motor skills while also counting!

Here's an "Austin worksheet" Google search.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear Sees Colors

 Today's post is all about colors, and more specifically books with bears and colors! Hope you don't mind my post title sounding like a Wheel of Fortune Before and After puzzle, haha.

Being able to read color words really helps kids with following directions in school and reading many early readers, as well as spelling and writing the words to add description to their stories.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle is an all-time favorite of many kids and parents. It teaches colors and animals and it's a quick, easy read. A quick Google search reveals tons of free activities and printables to do. Click "view web version" at the bottom of this post or here to view the read aloud video!

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Bear Sees Colors by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman is another must-read. We love the recipe this author has for books. The same group of friends, some rhyming and repetition, cute pictures, and a nice theme (message) that kids can relate to.  Click "view web version" at the bottom of this post or here to view the read aloud video!

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We are all about play and experience-based hands-on learning here, but sometimes my son does worksheets when I'm putting the girls down for naps. These free fall color words worksheets were so fun for him to do with his Do-a-Dot markers. I did have to trace the outline a couple of times for him to figure out what the picture was, but he loved them and wanted to do more than one at a time.

Here are some other fun color worksheets.

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When my son was younger, he learned his colors very early. "The Colors Song" from Cocomelon not only helped him learn them, but it also helped him associate foods with their colors. Click "view web version" at the bottom of this post or here to view the video!

Snag a free printable here. Kids can trace and color!

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For more Karma Wilson, click here.

For more Eric Carle, click here.

For more rainbow posts, click here. 

For more book posts, click here. 

For more videos, click here.

For more songs, click here.

Pop-Up Books

Who doesn't love a good pop-up book? They make reading fun for kids and adults! We are going to share some of our favorites as well as some sites to learn how to make your own.

 I Will Never, Not Ever Eat a Tomato by Lauren Child

We LOVE this one. My son wasn't great about eating vegetables as a 6 month old, and we came across this book by accident as it was part of a box of books I randomly bought. It turned out to be one of our all- time favorites and our son also turned out to be an excellent eater! I highly recommend the book, pop-up version or not!

Check out the pop-up engineering video here.

Listen to the pop-up read aloud here.

Check out the TV show episode here.

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The Color Monster by Anna Llenas

This book is great! Like the Little Spot books and others that are similar, emotions are identified by colors. The pop-ups here are creative and adorable. My son loves interacting with them and my daughters can't wait to get their hands on this fiercely protected book! The price for this version is not quite double the price of a regular paperback, but for us it was worth it. 

Here is a read aloud video showing the pop-ups.

Yellow (happiness)

Green (calm)

Blue (sadness)

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This Book is a Planetarium by Kelli Anderson

It's actually many different things - a planetarium, a speaker, an instrument ,a decoder, a calendar, a spiralgraph.... Most of all, it's fun. I can see this being used for travel especially. I imagine my son using in on long car rides, in hotels, and on planes once we start going longer distances from home again. Kelli has thought of it all!

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The Star Spangled Banner by Calvert Gamwell

This one is cute, and a nice and easy way to introduce the National Anthem of the United States. It's currently out of print, so you'll have to snag a used copy. Its pop-ups aren't anything too fancy, but they do show different ways and places people can be patriotic.

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Auntie Annie has free basic printable pop-up cards. With the ability to print in color or black and white and picture directions, this is a great place to get started with making your own pop-ups.

Best Pop-Up Books has it all! From tutorials to a forum to book lists and even some freebies, you can find whatever it is you're looking for here. Paper engineering is a great skill to have to introduce kids into design and the engineering process. It's also a fun way to spice up projects you may assign students.

Learning about Frog Life Cycles with A Frog in the Bog

 Learning about Frog Life Cycles with A Frog in the Bog by Karma Wilson

We are big Karma Wilson book fans over here. We love the repetition and rhyme as well as the pictures. This one was great because we were able to tie in learning about biomes and life cycles in science while reading as well as practice our number words.

See the read aloud here.

Here are some printables I created for us to work with.

We also watched some videos about the tadpole's life cycle into a frog and learned about where frogs live.

Trials of a Tadpole video

I found a song called The Frog in the Bog. It's a little tricky for preschoolers, but it's fun when a puppet is included. 

Read another post about Karma Wilson books here.

Read more animal life cycle posts here.

Roll and Compute Dice Game

 

I spend a lot of my time blogging about books and reading, because that's what I spend a majority of my time doing both in school and at home with my children. However, I'm always looking for ways to modify and adapt materials others have created to make them more accessible for all children, regardless of age and performance level. 

Some kids struggle to add and subtract without tools, and they get confused when using fingers. Try these games to practice adding, subtracting, and comparing numbers while using dice.

Click on the images to download the Google Doc.

Feel free to add, change, or rearrange, but please don't sell the item if you've used my framework. Sharing for free is okay!

Bear Snores On

 

My little guy and I are working on rhyming and reading short, repetitive text. We were given Bear Stays Up for Christmas when he was a baby, and grabbed the rest of these books by Karma Wilson at the library recently. Check out some of the fun stuff we've done after reading them.

As a teacher with a master's degree in special education, I'm constantly thinking about modifications and accommodations to meet learners' needs, so I included some free printables in different output formats, which allow students to show what they know in different ways.

If your class is like mine usually are, there is a wide range of reading and writing performance, so I'm happy to be able to support you and your learner(s) and provide examples of different ways your students can demonstrate what they've learned.

 

This EdWordle is neat and can be used in many ways. Beginning learners can create their own using words they know from the story. Advanced learners can create their own, including only specific parts of speech or whatever you ask them to do, and even put it in a shape related to the story.

Here's another way of meeting standards, using a table to answer a question. You can even edit the Doc to include a row or two to have students add their own answer! 

Watch the read alouds below!

Bear Wants More video

Bear Says Thanks video

Bear Snores On video

Meet biologist Lzzie Daly and watch this video to learn about how she uses technology in the wild to learn about bears!

Spookley the Square Pumpkin, and other Fall Shape books

 Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano

A fall favorite of many kids, this book is also a fun short movie. Even my husband remembers the name and plot of the book! While we were pumpkin picking the other day, I even heard a child telling his father he was looking for Spookley in the patch! The theme here is that it's okay to be different, and that we should celebrate those differences. We love the rhyming, which allows for our son to help us read along. Here is the read aloud if you can't find the movie streaming.

Pick a Circle, Gather Squares: A Fall Harvest of Shapes by Felicia Sanzari Chernesky

The concept of this book is great, especially for beginning learners. However, the teacher in me gets a bit annoyed at seeing pumpkins be called circles when they're really more spherical. The books could mention faces of objects being 2D shapes, but chooses to call the objects themselves two dimensional figures. Anyway, my son and I have been searching out shapes in our environment lately, so it was nice to read on the day we went to the nearby pumpkin patch.

Walter's Wonderful Web by Tim Hopgood

This book is great for learning about shapes, the engineering process for littles, and alliteration. Walter ties to build webs in the shape of a triangle, circle, square, rectangle, and diamond. There are lots of W words in the book, obviously, and it's pretty repetitive so kids will enjoy joining in. Check out the read aloud below.

Want to read more fall / Halloween posts?

Looking for more shape / geometry posts?

Drop a comment below to share more fall shape books you've read!

Fraturtles and Other Books About Twins

I am a twin. People think my girls are twins, and sometimes it's easier to go along with than using the term "surviving triplets" all the time. Anyway, they are fraternals just like me and my twin. They look just like me and my twin, too! Their personalities are flipped from ours, though. Anyway, my son was a few months shy of 3 and books we got for him (and them in the future) refer to twins. We've really enjoyed many of them and wanted to share in case you're having multiples.

Fraturtles by Keith Greenstein

The book listing puts it best: "'How come fraternal twins are called twins when they don't look alike?" That's the most common question fraternals ask (and are asked) when they're young. Not only does Fraturtles answer that question, but it does so through a fun, easy-to-understand story about a twin who comes to realize that having a twin isn't about sharing their looks. It's about sharing their lives.'"

God Gave Us Two by Lisa Dawn Bergren

I don't consider myself a religious person, and although this book repeats its title as a phrase often, I also don't consider it to be a religious book either. Much like the book that it comes after (God Gave Us You), you will feel all warm and fuzzy inside while reading it. Spoiler alert: much like our next book, we find out in the end that the parents are expecting multiples. If you have a slightly older younger child, it's a great way to spill the beans! I think it's way more fun with the printed book, but you can check out a read aloud video here.

Big Brother Peanut Butter by Terry Border

I grabbed this one right before my girls came and we loved the theme! Kids often worry about being a good big sibling, and this one was funny and cute. My son loves food too, so it was great to see foods being used to send a message that loving each other is the most important thing family members can do. Watch a read aloud here.

A Twin is to Hug by Boni Ashburn

This one is a quick and easy read. My three year old was able to read some of it to his sisters and he was so proud! I wish we had this on our baby registry before they were born because it would have helped him understand a little more about what to expect. He handled it well, but sometimes two years olds are centered on how hard it is to share parents and toys with their new sibling(s). This book does a good job of showing that it's hard for the twins to have to share everything (and everyone) with each other! Here it is being read aloud on video.

She's My Twin Sister by Lola Adebayo

Written by a British Nigerian author about her own twin daughters, this story tells how Amel and Amira are similar, but different. This is a common twin book theme! There is an attempt to rhyme, which sort of works despite the rhythm being off. It's out of print, so you'll need to track down a used copy or watch the read aloud video here. You can also find another book called That's My New Friend, which was also written about her girls.

Twintuition series by Tia and Tamera Mowery

I grew up watching their TV series Sister, Sister and naturally I was curious about their new books. I bought them for my niece, who is my twin's daughter, since she thought it was so cool we have more than one set of multiples in the family. My great aunt and great uncle are twins, as are my husband's aunt and uncle. Anyway, I haven't read them yet, but she gave them the thumbs up and something tells me they will be passed down to my girls when they're older. Did you know their little brother was an actor on Full House?

Twins: A Graphic Novel by Varian Johnson

I snagged this one from Scholastic for my niece, who loves that her mom and I are twins. At her age, graphic novels are super popular and she grabbed this one from the stack first. It's about finding your place in middle school and in life as a twin. It's great for kids who aren't twins, too, because it teaches them that it's okay to have different interests than those you are friends with.

The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley

Speaking of Full House, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had a book series when they were younger. Solve mysteries with the sisters as they travel. These books are no longer in print, so snag them where you can! 

Sweet Valley Twins series by Francine Pascal

This one was a favorite of me and my twin when we were middle schoolers. Jessica and Elizabeth are exact opposites, despite being identical twins. It was set in the 1980s and 1990s, but kids today can still relate to a lot of situations they found themselves in. There's also a series for older kids that is set when the girls were in high school, and a TV series was even created later. As you can imagine, you've got to track down used copies.

Check out other twin books I've posted about here.

Do you know of more twin books you'd like to recommend? Please leave a comment below!