The Picture Book a Day Challenge

Clever and cute, AFTER THE FALL is the next chapter of the Mother Goose Rhyme. It is about Humpy Dumpty picking up the pieces of his life after his big fall. I will admit it--when I first picked this book, I found myself chuckling and thinking, "Wow, what a funny book," but when I read it, I found myself tearing up. AFTER THE FALL is an empowering story about courage and perseverance. It is about a character that is scared to death by his trauma. Knowing that some of my students were going to want to connect this story to their lives, I gave them the journal prompt... After my fall, I.... and they wrote and wrote. I can't share with you their entries but I will tell you my students are amazing and they got the book's message loud and clear.

I used WHAT DO YOU THINK, KATIE? (written by Fran Manushkin and illustrations by Tammie Lyon) from the Katie Woo series to introduce opinion writing.  The book begins as a friendship story. Katie and her friends try to decide what to do and get mad at each other.  At first, Katie is very unreasonable but she works her way through the conflict.  Throughout the story, sidebars teach about opinion writing. At one point, I had my students stop and write whether they agreed or disagreed with Katie and support what they thought. Everyone wrote because it was very obvious that she was wrong and all my students knew it. There are many more Katie Woo stories. I am definitely going to look into buying them.

IKE'S INCREDIBLE INK was written by Brianne Farley, an author from Michigan! My students love Michigan authors. This  is a funny story about a writer who wants to write but is stuck so puts off writing by doing other things...cleaning, talking to friends, and searching for perfect ink. The illustrations in the story are really unique. One of my students started trying to replicate them and her attempts attracted more attention. Pretty quickly, we had a multitude of ink blot characters devleloping. Another student said, "Wow. This story reminds me of THE BOOK OF MISTAKES so we did a side by side comparison of the two books and talked about how they were the same and different.

I discovered THE PLAN at my local library. This heart-warming story is about love, loss, and recovery and it is done one word, one page at a time. The story is structured around a word ladder and uses 10 letters to make 20 words. Not only does this story offer ample word study opportunities, it can also be used to teach children how to draw conclusions. One page hit my students very hard. The page is of a headstone. The text simply says "pain." The children had to use what they knew about the world and explain what they saw.  The MC's mother has died.  It was a somber, sad moment in class but as we continued on, we realized that the mother's legacy inspired the daughter to fly. I chocked back tears throughout the lesson.

DRA2 testing has begun. One of the pre-reading activities is to have each student identify a favorite book and tell about it. At the beginning of the year, many of my students could not list one but this time, they all have one. Many of the books are the books that I read but what is even cooler is that some of the books they say are ones I haven't read. At library time, I will often get "Hey, where are the books like Shark Lady?" Or "Are there any more Norbert books?" So, my students are extending their learning beyond what I have read to them. I know part of this is that they are growing up. I know part of this is that they are reading books at home with their families (my only homework is that they read at least 20 minutes a day) but I do believe that part of it as that they have had sustained exposure to a variety of great books. Every single day. Reading a picture book a day is a habit. I do it now without thinking. At first, I would forget but my stude...

Great compliment to water cycle unit, simple and straight-forward. I have been working on five-finger retellings with my students and this works beautifully. I didn't plan on teaching prediction while reading it but predict my students did so I went with it. I also think it would be neat to compare Sneezy the Snowman to Olaf in Frozen and Frosty. I haven't done it yet but might try it next week. And oh yes, the story made them laugh a lot. Probably not the best story to read when you are getting ready for a test or trying to calm them down but a great choice to get them engaged.

Another oldie but goodie but be forewarned, this story starts conversations, especially with the wicked weather we have been having recently. 

We got walloped by what my dear old uncle calls "an unexpected low-pressure system" today. As my car slid into work behind a large snow plow, I was reminded of the book KATY AND THE BIG SNOW from my own childhood.  I dug it out and shared it with my students who braved today's snow and ice. I distinctly remember studying the little town while I sat in Mrs. Bush's 1st grade room. I loved the illustrations and would spend hours tracing Katy's path, dreaming of what it would be like to live in that town. I was thrilled that some of my students were equally impressed and we spent part of the day discussing snow plows, sleet, snow, ice and the fact that this book (and I) are from the 1900s!

Have you ever withheld a book from your students because you were waiting for the right time to read it to them? Dear Dragon, written by Josh Funk and illustrated by Rodolfo Montalvo, was such a book. My students are cool--they love humor and ask really great questions--I knew they would love this book but I wanted to wait until we started writing Friendly Letters. Today was the day and it was a huge hit. If you have never read Josh Funk's books, you need to. They are a real treat. I was very proud of my students. They picked up on the humor and wit throughout. We spent a lot of time talking about differences. My school is extremely diverse and the idea of different people coming together in the spirit of friendship is one that my students fully embrace. My students also showed a massive interest in finding some pen pals, so I am going to look into that next.

I read this book a month or so ago and forgot to post it. The story is about a little girl and her family's escape to America after being persecuted in their native country. This story is done really well. It captures the desperation that some immigrants experience when they flee to the United States. While fleeing to the United States, they are fired upon, robbed and turned away by another county. Great read for all ages of children (and some adults too).

A CHAIR FOR MY MOTHER is a sweet, relatable story about a family who loses everything in a house fire. They then work together to save their money to buy a chair for the MC's mother, a woman who works long hours as a waitress. I love this book because it so closely matches the lives of my students. It is real. People don't always have what they need but the family perseveres. The message is one of hope and inspiration.

TOO MANY TAMALES is a holiday favorite of mine. Maria plays with her mother's wedding ring while helping make tamales. When her cousins come over, Maria runs off to play with them until she realizes her mother's ring is missing! Panicked, she convinces her cousins to help them look for the ring by eating each tamale. My students love this story. Through the years, I have had parents make tamales with us. This is a neat experience for my students and offers many of them a unique opportunity to learn about another culture. The story offers a great opportunity to teach cause and effect too.

I'm spending the last few hours of Winter Break catching up on some posts. Winter hit Michigan the week before Christmas and what better way to enjoy it than by reading Stranger in the Woods by Jean Stoick and Carl Sans. First, and foremost, I will tell you that I am so biased about this book. I have loved it since it was released in 1999. I love that the creators are husband and wife and that all photographs were taken at Kensington Metro Park near Brighton, Michigan. Kensington was a favorite hang out of mine while I was in college. My students love the story. Several wild animals alert the others that a stranger is in the woods. The stranger turns out to be a snowman adorned with food for the animals. The photographs are just beautiful and capture my students' attention immediately.