Ms. Tanja's Mad Minute

I promised myself that I would blog more this year and yet I am once again falling behind even though I am constantly jotting down notes for posts... So here at least one quick idea that I shared with some of my new students during the past week. Everyone totally loved it. I am calling it the MAD MINUTE or Ms. Tanja's Mad Minute. This is how it works:

I select a couple of favorite books for various reading levels (I started this week with about eight books), set an online egg timer to 60 seconds, and then try within this time to recommend as many books as possible by just saying one or two catchy phrases about each book. Students interested in a book simply raise their hand and I pass the book on to them. It is fast and furious and so much fun! I have now invited students to take up the Mad Minute challenge by sharing some of their favorite books and hope that some time soon I will have my first volunteer.

In case you are wondering what titles I chose for my first Mad Minutes, here the list of titles (so far I did the Mad Minute with my two fourth grade and two fifth grade classes):

Grades 5:

The London Eye Mystery; Stormbreaker; The Strange Case of Origami Yoda; The Butterfly Lion; The Magician’s Elephant; The City of Ember; The Wanderer;

The Homework Machine, Kensuke’s Kingdom, Because of Winn-Dixie, The Willoughbys, The End of the Beginning, Chasing Vermeer, The Magician’s Elephant, Hoot;

Grades 4:

The Lemonade War; Ida B.; The Spiderwick Chronicles; Riding Freedom; The Tale of Desperaux; Kensuke’s Kingdom; The Magic Paintbrush; 

First Apple, The Sleeping Sword; Ida B.; The Magic Paintbrush; Spiderwick Chronicles; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester; Akimbo and the Crocodile Man.