Week 2

Tuesday

PANDO by Kate Allen Fox and Turine Tran

One of my goals as a teacher is to read more nonfiction with my students. PANDO is wonderful. Written by Kate Fox, the story begins with a single seed and grows into a massive living organism. Filled with facts, this story is also lyrical and the illustrations by Taurine Tran are mesmerizing.  PANDO sparked lots of conversation. I mentioned that I had never seen PANDO in person but now that I read this book, I wanted to go see it. One student said, "So you can do that? You can actually go visit it?" So we then got on Google Earth to explore a little. PANDO turned into a geography lesson. This is definitely not what I planned, but the interest was


so high, I ran with it. 

Another said, "It's like this book opens up a whole new world." After we were finished reading, a student asked to borrow the book. Within minutes, several students started asking to read it. It is now "checked out" until October. 



Wednesday

NO DAVID By David Shannon

This book is always a hit. David's antics are great talking points to review rules in a fun and playful way. 



Thursday

THE PENCIL EATER by Me. Illustrated by Steve Page

I did not plan on featuring my own book, but my students weren't having it. "We want you to read us your book!" So I finally shared it with them on Thursday. I think one of the funniest conversations I have with my students is that I actually have never met Steve, the illustrator. They just can't wrap their heads around it. I guess I can't either. Steve nailed the vision of my story and my students absolutely love his work. 

THE PENCIL EATER was inspired by my students and their use of pencils. It started out as a joke. "Second graders are pencil eaters," I would say and then one day I sat down and wrote a story. It turned out, publishing wasn't as easy as I thought. It would take me 5 years to get the story published. But, I have shared the process with all of my students along the way and I like to think that they have learned from it too.




Friday--Out sick. The plan was to read 14 Cows for America and 30,000 Stitches. I will write about those next week. 







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