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1 day ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
Three weeks ago was my last day of the school year. The beginning of summer has been filled with a family vacation at the beach, taking kids to lots of appointments and practices, fixing all the things that we put off during the school year, and so much reading. At the end of the school year, my reading life was rough. By the time I grabbed a book to read at the end of the day, I would often find myself falling alseep before I made it through two pages of the book.
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1 week ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
The end of the school year is filled with so many things: emotions, end of the year testing, report cards, field trips, field day, and so much more. With all of these things going on, it can be hard to stick to the routines that our classroom was built upon. The end of our school year was bonkers. It felt like every day for the last few weeks included something that tore us away from sticking to our routines. During this time, I made sure that we always had time for our read aloud.
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2 weeks ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
A beautiful companion to the middle grade book Fish in a Tree.
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3 weeks ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
We have ended each day this school year with a picture book. Here’s the list of the 160+ picture books that we’ve read this school year. The list should be closer to 180, but I haven’t always remembered to add each title to the list. Last week, I shared the list with my fifth graders. It was so much fun to hear the chatter surrounding the books they loved and cherished. The room was buzzing! sharpread | Colby Sharp is a reader-supported publication.
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1 month ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
It seems like I just shared with you the books that my 5th graders were reading to start the school year. Where does the time go? It is wild to think of all the books they have read, how much their reading preferences have evolved, and how much they have grown as readers. It has been an amazing year. Today, I get to share with you the books they are reading to end the school year. sharpread | Colby Sharp is a reader-supported publication.
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1 month ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
I am a couple of weeks away from completing my 18th year of teaching, and 8th year of teaching 5th grade. At the end of my first. year as a fifth grade teacher, I had my students write a letter to themselves as graduating seniors. sharpread | Colby Sharp is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is what I told them before they started writing:This letter is for you to read the week you graduate high school.
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1 month ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
Friday was my son’s last day of high school. It feels like he was just sitting in my 5th grade classroom while I read him and his classmates Holes. He’s spend that last four years with my high school teacher wife. He has had an amazing four years playing in the band, making friends, and spending at least one hour each day learning in his mom’s classroom. School has been good to him. After sending him off to school for the first time, I spent an amazing day with my fifth graders.
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1 month ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
I usually try to make my last book order of the school year right before spring break. That gives us eight or nine full weeks with the books before the end of the year. Unfortunately, I fell a little behind this year, so my last book order of the year just arrived (with five weeks left in the school year). The last couple of years, our principal has given us $200 for classroom supplies. This is in addition to the $250 every K-5 teacher has each year for their classroom library.
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1 month ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
Kate DiCamillo spent Tuesday at the elementary school where I teach. The elementary school where I fell in love with reading as a kid. The elementary school where my five children learned to read. I’ve been trying to process the visit and figure out what I want to say about our time with Kate. It isn’t easy to put it into words. The one word that I keep coming back to is “intimate”. Everything about the day felt: right, important, safe.
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2 months ago | 
colbysharp.substack.com | Colby Sharp
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