The Picture Book a Day Challenge

Field Trip Day! After walking around in the rain all afternoon, my students were pretty tired and cold (and so was I). I decided to get out my favorite Halloween story. THE BIGGEST PUMPKIN EVER is about 2 mice who fall in the love with the same pumpkin. Each takes care of it but each want to use it for a different purpose. This story is so funny. The kids quickly pick up on what is happening a giggle throughout the story. The illustrations are adorable too. While reading, we compared and contrasted the differences between yesterday's Life Cycle book and this one. We had rich a really great discussion about how a lot of times fictional stories still use real facts in the story and that sometimes that can be a little confusing so you have to really turn on your thinking cap to distinguish the difference between the two. I am going to point out that this discussion was not my plan. A struggling reader pointed it out! All in all, the field trip was an overwhelming success. My st...

Still reviewing pumpkin life cycle. My students live in the city and many of them are not familiar with farming so I have learned that this review is crucial. I want to make the pumpkin farm field trip relevant to them so all this front loading is absolutely necessary. LIFE CYCLE OF A PUMPKIN is a great story. It shows what happens each season on a real-life pumpkin farm and what they will see on Friday is the end result of a long, labor-intensive process.

Our field trip to the pumpkin farm is coming and I am trying to review these concepts as much as I can. IT'S PUMPKIN TIME by Zoe Hall is a great book focusing on a brother and sister who plant a "jack o lantern patch." While reading this story, we talked about what plants need to grow. My students connected to this story because it showed children caring for the pumpkins. I love when authors do that because it "plants the seed" (sorry, I had to) in their mind that they can do the same kinds of activities. It also has a diagram that shows how a seed develops underground. I love this so much. Later in the school year, we will plant bean seeds in paper towel and watch them develop. My students always link this book to the experiment.

In preparation for our field trip to the pumpkin patch, we read PUMPKIN, PUMPKIN by author/illustrator Jeanne Titherington. This story takes the reader through the life cycle of a pumpkin. Illustrations are beautiful. The text is simple but uses scientific vocabulary in an easy and accessible way. My students were generally interested in the story. I have purchased several copies of this story through the years and they are currently hiding in my students desk.  We also loved the about the author section of the story where it shows a picture Titherington drew as a 3 year old. That addition is a neat touch. My students really connected to the idea that they could be an author or illustrator too.

SPOOKLEY THE SQUARE PUMPKIN is a wonderful story about a little pumpkin that's different than the others. My students love Spookley's story and readily made connections to their real life. 

BIG PUMPKIN, written by Erica Silverman and illustrated by SD Shindler, is a great story about a witch that grows into a huge pumpkin. The witch wants to make pumpkin pie but her pumpkin is too big to pick. She asks for help but no one seems to be strong enough. I won't ruin the story for you but this is a great story about teamwork and respecting even the smallest of us.

Wooo! My scary story week continues. A couple educators have asked me about reading Halloween stories before Halloween week. Some have expressed concern that it is too distracting. I haven't had that experience. Halloween books engage the reader.  I think capitalizing on student interest is smart teaching, not distracting.  One of my favorite writing assignments is "Once when I was scared...." Every student has something to write about one.  My Halloween books are looked at as treasures in the classroom and I probably won't be putting them away until 2019 because every single student will want to read them.  Pumpkin Eye is a great story that focuses on the sights and sounds of Halloween. The illustrations are funny and although the text is sparse, it is full of great vocabulary words.  I love this book. 

THE LITTLE OLD LADY WHO WASN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING, written by Linda Williams and illustrated by Megan Lloyd, is one of my own childhood favorites. I loved sharing this with my own children and still share it with every student I have! This story gets the reader moving. The repetitive lines and great words like Wiggle, Clomp, and Shake are extremely engaging. While reading, my students and I get up and to them all together. This always ends in giggle fits. This year was no different. 

THE LEGEND OF ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS is seriously hilarious. ..I mean rolling on the floor, belly laugh funny. A student of mine saw it sitting on my desk and begged me to read it.   I was intrigued and read it before lunch instead of after and good thing I did, my students wanted me to reread it to them over and over again.  It is full of incredible vocabulary and awesome illustrations. This book needs to be in front of kids.

  Dinosaurs + Pirates = a book my students want to hear over and over again. I used this to teach the genre "Fantasy" and this book is a perfect tool to use. It is fun to read. It does not rhyme but it has great rhythm and though I didn't plan on it, we read it in a kind of "call and response" style. I see that Penny Dale has more Dinosaur books. I will definitely be on the look out for more. 

Halloween is coming so I decided to break out my spooky stories.  Before I select a book,  I darken the lights, turn on my wax warmer and make scary ghosts noises. My stories are never scary but I like to pretend they are and yes, my students think I'm a little lame.   EXCUSE ME, ARE YOU A WITCH? is so stinking cute. It is about a black cat named Herbert who is tired of living alone and decides to go in search of a witch to live with. My students loved it and we laughed at the cat's poor predicaments as he searched for his home.   The illustrations are adorable. I love Herbert and want so much to adopt another black cat (my beloved Minxers passed over the rainbow bridge last year right around now).  This story is definitely a fun way to get in the Halloween Spirit and is great for kids who love cats. 

We had a busy week this week. At one point, I almost forgot to read a picture book. My students won't let me forget.  "You owe us a story," says one. "Aren't you forgetting something?" asks another. My struggling readers are the students who really seem to look forward to my stories. They are the ones that almost sit on my toes while I read to the class. They are also the ones who keep requesting stories. And yes, they are the ones that need this time the most. One of my students read a book for the first time ever this week. It took her 5 weeks to even try but  this week, she did try and she succeeded. I asked her why now? What changed? She said, "because reading is fun now." She didn't elaborate beyond that. She is a little girl of very few words but it is a start. I can't describe the pride I feel inside towards her. Her progress validated what I have suspected for awhile. After years of teaching to the test, drilling sight words, an...

 I discovered ANIMAL TRACKS about 10 years ago. It was a part of my district's old reading curriculum.  It may be old but I can't let this one go. The story itself is easy to read. Each page is structured like a riddle. My students immediately start suggesting animals that may have made the tracks. My students live in a small city so in many cases, they haven't had the opportunity to consider animal tracks. At recess though, many of my students were on their hands and knees looking for tracks. Some students are unfamiliar with the animals in the book (great blue heron in particular). This book offers an excellent opportunity to build vocabulary and is a great place for me to assess what they know about forest animals too. Later in the school year, my class does animal reports. I let my students pick the animal they are interested in and every year, every animal featured in the book is picked by someone. My students will use ANIMAL TRACKS as it's first source of infor...

WE'RE ALL WONDERS is a picture book inspired by WONDER, the Middle Grade novel by RJ Palacio responsible for the Choose Kind movement. The story is about Auggie. Auggie has an extraordinary face but still rides a bike, plays with his dog and wants to belong. The simple text and brilliant pictures caught my students' attention immediately. I love that the book is written from Auggie's point of view because it made my students feel connected to him immediately . I think that helping my students remember that students who are different inside still have a voice and still have feelings is one of the most important things I can teach my students. At one point, Auggie compares himself to other kids. One of my students pointed out that the pictures of the other students were diverse and that sometimes people use race to isolate each other too. My students agreed that making people feel left out was wrong and that they were going to work at making sure no one in the secon...

I'm Not Reading by Jonathan Allen is about Baby Owl who wants to read his favorite book to Owly. Tiny Chick joins them and brings his cousins. That's where the fun begins. The cousins overwhelm Baby Owl. At one point in the reading, I said, "This reminds of you guys after recess." Several of my students chuckled and agreed. Next year, I am going to read this book as a way to introduce rules and procedures. It does a great job of teaching respect and turn-taking without being too preachy. I also noticed that the author has several other I'm Not... books. I have to find those. My students want to read more from Jonathan Allen.

My library just got SHARK LADY, by author Jess Keating and illustrator Marta Alvarez Miguens.  It is the true story of Eugenie Clark, an incredible female zoologist who studied sharks. I had never heard of Eugenie Clark before reading this book. She is an excellent role model for students of all ages. Jess Keating's writing drew my students right in. My students were wide-eyed and the classroom was in complete silence. The recess bell rang and my students wanted me to finish the story so of course, I did. When we were finished, they clapped. After recess, we read the back section of the book that is chuck full of shark facts. Of course, we had to cross check those facts and my kids were impressed that they could confirm everything they had learned on other websites.  I also discovered a timeline at the back! What a clever addition. Teachers are always looking to get their hands on relevant timelines. And the illustrations are awesome. I had to put the book up on my e...

Oh my,  I had never read WOLFIE THE BUNNY, written by Ame Dyckman and illustrated by Zachariah O'Hora, until I found it at my local library. I am so glad I found it. I seriously had to stop reading it a couple times to laugh. It is about a family of rabbits who adopt a wolf pup. Sister Dot is worried about the obvious--that Wolfie will eat them all but her parents are oblivious to the threat. I don't want to ruin the story but if you haven't read it, go find it and take a look. The illustrations are so clever. I love the pink bunny pajamas. What a nice touch! My students loved the story too.