The Picture Book a Day Challenge

RUBY THE COPYCAT by Peggy Rathmann is so funny. It is about a little girl who starts a new school and copies Angela, a friendly fashionista and classmate. This story generated an interesting conversation. One boy said, "I didn't like this story. It's for girls." I asked him why did he think that and he said that it was because the characters were girls and the story surrounded what Ruby wore.  Just as I was about to go there, one of my others boys said, "No, not really. The story is about being yourself and that's for all of us." "Yeah, but it is about what she wore," said the first male student. "No. That was just one of the ways Ruby copied Angela. She copied her poetry, her Math problems and even lied about the kinds of things she did," second male student answered. "Yes. The clothes were just details gave me....the...theme?" a girl joined the conversation. I asked her what she meant. "Well, I think ...

A few weeks ago I noticed something. The class was choral reading. I dropped off as I normally do and just listened. I realized that my students where raising the tone of their voices at the end of questioning sentences and in some cases, giving their characters separate distinct voices. I pride myself in producing students that do that but that typically begins in March, not November. True, this is a great group of kids but I always like my kids.  Then, at report card time, I tested student fluency. WOW! I have students achieving Spring Benchmark already.  Could it be the challenge? I'm not sure but I kind of think so.  I thought that the interest level in class would drop off but it really hasn't. It's November and I still am getting requests. They love Read Aloud Time and simply won't let me miss it.

A student brought in BEAR SAYS THANKS a few days ago. I wanted to read BEAR WANTS MORE before reading it so we had to wait a little. I knew there were a few Bear books (and have a couple of them somewhere on my own kids' bookshelf) but did not know there was one about giving thanks. Done in rhyme, the story is just as charming as the original and is a great way to start a conversation about Thanksgiving. As an aside, I noticed a ton of supplemental materials on Teachers Pay Teachers that go with all the Bear stories. I will definitely look into that next year.

BEAR SNORES ON, written by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman, is a fun read. I picked this selection because I am working on phonemic awareness. I know, second grade seems a little late to be working on these skills but after seeing fall benchmark assessment results, I know I have to spend some time on it. This story is perfect for teaching rhyming. I read it aloud to my class and dropped off at the end of each line, allowing my students to fill in the blanks with an obvious rhyming word and they nailed it. After that, we took each rhyming word and generated words that rhymed. I know this is a very basic activity but sometimes I find myself slipping away from basic and effective. I start re-inventing the wheel and then, inevitably go back to what works Spending so much time on rhyming has been working for my students. Today, a student of mine came across the word "lumber." She was struggling to work through it and I was in no rush to rescue her. All of the sud...

CLICK, CLACK, MOO, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Betsy Lewin, is a hilarious read for children of all ages.  The story is about a group of farm animals who get their hooves on a typewriter and make some unusual demands of Farmer Brown. Farmer Brown enlists the help of Duck who has an agenda all his own. First and foremost, my students were fascinated by the typewriter. They couldn’t believe that I used one in high school (back in the old days).  One said, “Why didn’t you just use a computer?” That lead to a discussion about life before the computer. I really wished I would have recorded that convo because it was a good one. CLICK, CLACK, MOO is fun and easy to read. It is a great addition to your library and offers an excellent example of an ending with a twist and/or a trickster character.

Clever, funny and unique! Dinner shows up at Fox's door. Fox thinks it is his lucky day but Pig has other plans. MY LUCKY DAY is a funny trickster tale that all my students enjoyed. Kasza's illustrations are hilarious. My personal fave is the pig massage.  If you haven't read this one, you will want to!

ENEMY PIE, by Derek Munson and illustrated by Tara Calahan King, is a great story for second graders learning about relating to others. A boy has an enemy. Dad suggests a surefire way to fix enemy Jeremy once and for all--enemy pie.  While dad makes enemy pie, the main character spends the day with Jeremy and learns that his enemy is really not so bad. This story has lots of tension and the little twist at the end is just what my kiddos love right now. ENEMY PIE definitely has a message but it is so entertaining, students don't even realize they are being taught. I love that.

I have discovered my students need practice rhyming words, so I will be adding poetry to the challenge in the coming weeks. SHIMMER: SONGS OF NIGHT, written by Raven Howell and illustrated by Carina Povarchick, is a beautiful selection I stumbled upon while looking for poetry.  The collection of poems is all about the time between sundown and sunup.  This time is typically scary to young children but this collection points out the magic and wonder of nighttime. The illustrations add a layer to the poetry I love and find myself getting lost in. The clever word play, kid friendly content and whimsical illustrations make this book one that will be hard to top.

DOWNWARD MULE by Jenna Hammond, illustrated by Steve Page is packed with lots of good stuff. The story is a fun way to introduce yoga to your students. MC Sam Mule (clever) is easy to relate to and funny. This is an excellent story about not giving up, being true to yourself and not worrying about what others think. My class loved doing the yoga poses along with the story and have asked me to read it again and again. As a result of reading DOWNWARD MULE, we have done lots of yoga brain breaks in class and that is always a good thing.

TOUGH BORIS, by Mem Fox, is about a mean, tough, massive pirate named Boris. The whole story is about how big and bad Boris is but in the end, he cries when his parrot dies. Our class talked about how crying is okay and that everyone cries (even massive pirates).  The illustrations are a treat. After reading through the story once, my students asked to go back through the story and then found the parrot on each spread. We talked about how the ending in TOUGH BORIS was a surprise twist and that they really liked stories like that. TOUGH BORIS by Mem Fox is a great book to teach adjectives and word choice. I read the story to my students and together we completed a bubble map describing Boris. My students then completed a Bubble Map about themselves.

We started our Properties of Water Unit this week. I read my students THE SNOWFLAKE: A WATER CYCLE STORY today. This story is an exciting find and is the direct result of me trying to find nonfiction selections for this blog! The story begins in January with a single snowflake and follows it through the year as the snowflake changes with the water cycle around the globe.  The illustrations are stunning. The words are poetic and full of relevant, scientific vocabulary (precipitation, condensation, etc). The text ends with a fact-filled Author's Note that my students really enjoyed. I love this story. It is fun to read and teaches the concepts perfectly. What I didn't expect was the onslaught of questions that came after reading it. Be prepared! This story will get your students thinking about water, the water cycle and geography.

MISS NELSON IS MISSING is one of my favorites. I find it super useful after Halloween because my students are just a little wiggly at this point in the year. It serves as a subtle yet silly reminder to students to follow school rules and to respect their teacher. The illustrations are hilarious and add lots of humor to the story. MISS NELSON can easily be used to teach standards. I used a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast Viola Swamp and Miss Nelson. Then I had my students write about what teaching style they preferred. LOL. That assignment was really funny. Even my resistant writers had something to write.