The Picture Book a Day Challenge

   I have some of the most supportive colleagues, friends and followers. So many have made a point of reading my blog and recommending it to others.  I can't thank you enough!    A reader pointed out that I don't write negative reviews. That's true. I pick books I like for my students.  I only get them for 180 days and have so much to share. I don't have the time to read them anything but the best I have available. The books I use already have "the Corrigan Stamp of Approval" when I bring them into my classroom.    I don't have a lot of new nonfiction in my classroom. I am working on addressing this. My local library flooded in July. Most of the books were not lost but have been boxed up and put into storage as the restoration company works on the building. I do buy books (my classroom is full of great books) and am saving for some new ones right now. Nonfiction is important to my students and to me. We will have more soon.    Whil...

Mo Willems books are quickly becoming a class favorite. If you haven't read them, you should!    

At my students' request, we started a Mo Willems author study. We read  The Pigeon Needs a Bath. The Pigeon stories are great. They are easy to read and really funny but I am not sure the average reader understands what a master writer Willems is. It is really hard to write like Willems.  

Mo Willems is a favorite of mine. His stories are so clever and engaging. A staff member was walking by my door and overheard my students yelling "No" at each request I read. She wondered what was going on and stuck her head in my door. She is now a fan too!

Adorable story about the value of friendship. HECTOR AND HUMMINGBIRD is set in Peru. Hummingbird gets on Hector's nerves and tells Hummingbird to leave him alone. Hector gets lonely and wishes to see Hummingbird again. The friends are reunited. I love this story because my second graders related to it. Maintaining friendships is difficult for young children and we need more stories about  how to cope with strained relationships.

We read Daddy Honk Honk!   by Rosalinde Bonnet. This 2017 release is a really sweet story set in the Arctic. A fox named Aput reluctantly becomes a daddy to an abandoned bird.  He tries very hard to do right by the baby chick even though it isn't his.  My students love Namuak, the yoga-loving polar bear. That one still makes me chuckle. Bonnet's art work is stunning and the variety of animals she uses really got my student talking and asking great questions about the Arctic. This story is a real treat!

THE CITY KID and THE SUBURB KID by Deb Pilutti is a contemporary retelling of The City Mouse and The Country Mouse . It is a really cute story about two friends who live in different places. The story contrasts city and suburb life wonderfully and is a great way to supplement our study about the different kinds of communities. My students loved the repetitive text. It was an excellent chance to discuss characters and setting. We spent a great deal of time talking about how our small city had features of both the city and suburb. The structure of the book is neat. On one side, you read about Jack who is a city kid getting ready to visit the suburbs. When the reader finishes that half of the story, they flip it over and read about Adam, a suburb kid going to visit it the city. Both think the other has the perfect life but both learn that they love their life too.

I am fighting unseasonably warm temperatures (90+ with no AC) with ADRIFT: An Odd Couple of Polar Bears a new release by author/illustrator Jessica Olien. This is an adorable story about two polar bears who aren't friends--I love this because I tell my students all the time that you don't have to be friends with everyone but you do have to be civil to them. An iceberg breaks off and the two polar bears float out to sea together. My student giggled when the two built a wall separating themselves and mentioned doing that with a sibling. All of my students found the constellation illustrations very interesting. I loved the nonfiction Author's Note about Polar Bears and the melting ice cap at the North Pole. Olien does a really great job of bringing attention to a serious topic in a fun and engaging way.

This is a beautiful new book released this year. Wolf in the Snow  has very few words which is appealing to my class of emergent readers. The pictures do a lovely job of telling the story about a little girl and a young wolf lost in the snow. My students were mesmerized by the illustrations and did not speak during the first reading of the story (that says volumes about the quality of art--they all are talkers). Then, during the second reading, a student actually said, "That's what I love about art. It tells a story that words can't." I was seriously speechless. She then spent her entire free-time trying to recreate some story scenes. Who knows? Maybe someday I will be sharing her stories with my students.

David Goes to School is always a hit. If you have never read this book, it is hilarious. David's antics keep 2nd graders laughing. I use this story to review the rules and later in the year, we revisit it to write a persuasive letter to David that tells him to start following the rules.  My students really like the "Pay attention" page where David is looking out the window at the clouds taking the shape of dinosaurs--many of them told me that they had never noticed that the clouds take on the shapes of animals and other things. I am going to read It Looked Like Spilt Milk real soon.  I am going to try to get more David books this year. He was really well received with this group of students and students asked me, "Are there any more?"

Brrr! Fall is in the air here in Michigan so I picked this book for Day 10.  We are learning about rural communities this week. This is a story about a family who visits a farm to enjoy some fall fun and it gives me the excuse to make either apple pie or applesauce sometime soon.

http://robertmunsch.com/book/stephanies-ponytail We read Stephanie's Ponytail on Day 9. This story is always a hit. "Ugly, Ugly, Very Ugly" is one of the best picture book lines ever. The kids laugh as they say it and really think that they are getting away with something completely inappropriate.  This story is such a great one because the lesson learned comes out loud and clear--Be Yourself, but Munsch communicates the message in a completely funny, non-didactic way.  I loved this story as a teacher and appreciate even more so as an aspiring writer.

I read TEAL by Renee Galvin to my students today. TEAL is about a crayon that doesn't know where he fits in. He wonders if he is blue or is he green.   I used TEAL as a conversation starter. We talked about how Teal is different and that makes him special. I had my students write in their journal after and teared up reading their responses.  TEAL hits a nerve. Fitting in is important to children. TEAL lets us know that sometimes, not everyone feels like they do and it encourages children to include others who are not like them.

I'm late! I'm late! I'm late posting. The reality of juggling a full time job, my boys' school and football schedule, my writing and a daily blog is hitting me but I've got this. Here is my request pile: The books are starting to stack up! We have been studying different kinds of communities since the beginning of the school year. Although my students live in a city, it is a small one. We do not have skyscrapers here but my students are fascinated by them. A friend gave me this book a few years ago and I found it while unpacking all of my stuff. My students loved hearing all about how skyscrapers are made and were interested in learning about each one. I supplemented the book with Google Street View so we could check out the real buildings and I am trying to figure out a STEM activity that will go with it. The enthusiasm for books is taking over my classroom. I have actually had to say, "Please put your books away. It is time to go home!" tw...

Day 6 was the first day I took requests. I have a small stack of story requests forming. All are picture books my students love or books they are curious about. One student begged me to read Sylvester and The Magic Pebble since the first day of school.  Each day he would tuck Sylvester under his chin and ask, "Please Mrs. Corrigan?" Today, I caved. My students loved Sylvester and the Magic Pebble . They couldn't believe that Sylvester was written before I was born. "That's really old," they said. As I read Sylvester, I fell in love with the story all over again. I remember being 8 and loving the book. The pictures of "all the dogs in Oatsville" was my favorite as a child. But today, I read it as the teacher and my tech savvy students were completely fascinated by an almost 50 year old picture book!  I was truly inspired.

As a teacher, of course I want to honor and remember the events of 9-11, but my second graders are still so innocent.  I don't want to expose them to the harshness of the world just yet. 14 Cows for America,  by Carmen Agra Deedy with Wilson Kimeli Naiyoumah and illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez, tells the true story of a Kenyan community's response to 9-11. Gulp. This is a beautiful story I was absolutely honored to share with my class. If you are a softie (like I am), keep tissues nearby. The story is incredibly moving and focuses on rebuilding, community and above all other things, love and empathy. My students were absolutely amazed by the illustrations. We spent more than a few minutes looking up the Maasai people and had to locate Kenya on a map. One of my students suggested we read more stories about Africa too--I am on it!

I have already noticed an increased enthusiasm towards books in my classroom. The books I read to my class are in huge demand.  One student had all four books at his desk. At first, I was a little annoyed he had them  all  but then caught myself. I realized that as a struggling reader, he valued those books so much, he kept them. I need to obtain more copies of the books I share or develop a fair system to ensure all students get to check out the books I've introduced. The challenge has also provided my students with a set of shared experiences that I have been able to reference when needed. For example, my district uses Pearson's Reading Street as their curriculum. During Unit 1 Week 1, we read The Twin Club,  a realistic fiction piece about two cousins who live in different communities. One learning target for the week is to have children identify what realistic fiction is. I was able to use  Norbert's Big Dream and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse  to ...

THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES by B.J. Novak was the perfect way to end our first week of school. After hearing rules and procedures all week, it was time to have some fun. My students loved my robot monkey voice and thought the line "Boo Boo Butt" was absolutely hysterical (okay, I did too).

I discovered NORBERT"S BIG DREAM (by Lori Degman and illustrated by Marco Bucci) at my local library. If you have not read it, you really should. Norbert dreams of swimming across the English Channel. He trains hard (really funny pictures) but realizes he doesn't know where it is. Too funny. I won't give away the ending but this book is a great example of kindness and community. My students didn't know what the English Channel was but that offered a great opportunity to check out Google Maps. They did ask to read it again.

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse is always a hit. Many of my second graders have never read it before and it quickly becomes one of the most sought after books in my classroom library. LILLY'S PURPLE PLASTIC PURSE easily address many ELA standards. I always use it to talk about character and setting (the story has more than 1). Students have lots of opportunities to make text to self connections too.

I won the BOOK OF MISTAKES by Corrinna Luyken from an Anitra Rowe Schulte Twitter giveaway. I decided to use this with my students on Day 1. My second graders loved it and the story generated a beautiful discussion about learning from our mistakes and turning them into something that wasn't even thought about before. Students were captivated by the pictures and repeatedly said, "I love this book." They were also amazed that someone could be both an author AND an illustrator.