Ten for Ten!

Today is the day for Ten for Ten!  I've given my book list a lot of thought.  I thought, at first, that it would be easy but the more I thought about it, the longer my list of contenders became!  Even though there were several newer titles on my long list, I noticed that I kept returning to the older titles more often.  That is how I narrowed my list.  Every time I thought to myself "but what about..." I would know that it was an important one to keep on the list.  Eventually, I had a list of ten (in no particular order).

1. Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney.  I had a hard time with this one because I love all of the Llama Llama books.  I use them often with my kindergarten writers because Dewdney's illustrations show such great facial expressions on Llama and his Mama.  It shows how important illustrations can be to a story.  And, let's face it, what mom can't relate to Llama Llama Mad at Mama?  I love little Llama's dramatic breakdowns in each story! It's funny when you aren't the Mama in the situation! 

2.  The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  This story is just a classic, great story.  I remember reading it the first time and just getting caught up in the pictures.  I loved the bright colors, the way they were created, the layers of depth in each one, I could go on and on!  My students love it as well.  We always read it at the beginning of the school year and then again in the spring and usually several times in between because it is highly requested each year.  There are so many teaching points in the story as well: the life cycle of the butterfly, collage, instant gratification vs. waiting to find just the right thing, days of the week, word choice, etc.


3. Read To Tiger by T.S. Fore.  I stumbled upon this book because my daughter received it in the mail as part of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program.  To be honest, it sat on the bookshelf for a while before we read it.  She wasn't all that interested in it at first, but then we read it and we both really enjoyed it.  It has so many onomatopoeia words that it is just a fun book to read.  Again, many great teaching points can be found in this story as well but most of all, any child that I've read it to has loved it.  That says a lot.

4. Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge and I Went Walking by Mem Fox.  This was just one pair of books that I just couldn't narrow down.  I love them both for different reasons.  Wilfred is a sweet story about relationships that so many can related to in some way that old and young both enjoy it.  Walking is a story that is fun to read with young children.  It reminds me of Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. in that it has repetitive lines, colors and animals.  Each year my students enjoy this story and we typically make our first class book using this story as our model.

5. The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry and The Big Hungry Bear by Audrey Wood.  Again, this is an author that I had a hard time narrowing down the choices.  Wood has so many great books that I use every year in my classroom and that my own children have enjoyed at home.  This story is a favorite because of the illustrations.  I love that you can read the words and enjoy the story but you can also read just the illustrations and enjoy the story.  When you combine them both, it's amazing!

6. Pete the Cat, I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin.  Honestly, I love all three Pete books, but my favorite is this one.  I love the rhythm of the story, the colors, the illustrations, Pete's attitude and of course, the moral of the story.  I have the song downloaded and on the desktop of my computer because my own children and my students request it so often.  We enjoyed this story so much last year in the classroom that I wrote my own version of the story/song when I got a new pair of plaid shoes!

7. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.  Is there anyone that doesn't love this book?  I use it in my classroom all year long.  I have a chicka chicka boom boom tree in my classroom.  We do art projects surrounding this story.  We sing the song version of the story.  We use the small chicka tree and velcro letters to act out the story.  We make our own chicka books that go into our book boxes.  I love it!




8. No, David! by David Shannon.  David is one of my very favorite story characters.  Kids relate easily to him and all of the troubles that find him.  My students this past year really enjoyed the fact that David Shannon wrote this story about himself as a child and they were very motivated to learn that Shannon wrote his first version of the story as a young child.  It's a great mentor text to use in the classroom!

9.  Tulip Sees America by Cynthia Rylant.  Again, it was a tough debate between this book and Rylant's When I Was Young in the Mountains.  Both are fantastic but the illustrations in Tulip Sees America are what tipped the scale for me.  I love that there are pictures that are close ups, some are scenic illustrations and some are drawn in a way that so clearly shows the vastness of some places in America.  The page that always gets to me is the one with the stormy sky in one of the plains states where you can only see fields for miles and it feels so lonely and isolated that I can't help the catch in my breath each time I read it/see it.

10. Mo Willems might just be my favorite children's author.  He is a master in this arena! His characters are hilarious and so easy to relate to.  I love Elephant, Piggy, Trixie and Pigeon!  His illustrations are geared toward the artistic abilities of children. He has said that he tries to draw his characters in such a way that children can try to duplicate them.  In fact, he has published a step-by-step instruction sheet showing how to draw Pigeon.  You can't help but smile when you read a Mo story!

Time to Read Monday

I love to read!

I have been reading a varied selection over the last two weeks.  I've been reading a couple of Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggy books with my daughter.  They aren't new, but they are new to us and we really enjoyed them!  We read Happy Pig Day, I Broke My Trunk and Should I Share My Ice Cream?, which quickly became a new favorite.  I just love Mo!

We have also been reading the Knuffle Bunny books, also by Mo Willems.  We read the first two, Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny Too.  Each of my daughters picked out one of these books (I see I'm not the only one who loves Mo at my house!) and they have spent the last week pouring over them...even trading them back and forth!  They rarely do this with each other, probably because of the 2.5 year age difference, or maybe because the almost second-grader doesn't want to read the 4-year-old's books!  Anyway, I have enjoyed it, whatever the reason!

I have also enjoyed a few YA books too!  I read Hound Dog True by Linda Urban, which I enjoyed.  It is interesting to me to read a YA book that displays the thinking of a YA so clearly, now that I have a child in that age group!  I often find myself wondering if he thinks like the main character.  I loved how the main character, Mattie, was so easy to relate to in this book as she tried to fit into a new place with new people.  Even though it's a girl in the story, I think boys could relate to her feelings and the dynamics of the relationship between Mattie and Quincy, her maybe-friend.  It was a good read and I hope my son will read it too, as he approaches a move to the middle school this year as a big fourth-grader!

Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm was another good YA read.  I actually read this one before Hound Dog True and found myself comparing the main characters.  The main character, Turtle, was also in a new place, with new people and trying to find her place there.  I enjoyed the setting of this story the most - Key West during the 1930's.  I think the culture of Key West is interesting anyway, but by changing the time to the 1935 gave it yet another layer of interest.

I also enjoyed reading a "grown-up" book too!  I may be a little late to get to this one, but I truly enjoyed reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  It was a little confusing at first to keep up with the time traveling aspect...actually, even later when I was used to it I often found myself trying to put it all together...but it was such a sweet love story that I was hooked immediately.  I was hooked by the book enough that I decided to follow it up with the movie!  Usually, I don't do that because I always like the book more than the movie, and this case is no different, but I did enjoy the movie version as well.  I'd recommend both!

I am currently still plugging away at Debbie Diller's Math Work Stations.  I love all the ideas in it! I am reading it with my page flags in hand because I find myself flagging something on every few pages.  I had to limit myself to flagging only those ideas I thought I would use in the first half of the year for now...I think maybe I'll have to switch flag colors for the second half of the year ideas...if I don't run out first!

I am also reading Sara Pennypacker's Clementine's Letter.  I read Clementine at the beginning of the summer and really enjoyed it.  I have been waiting for the other books to be back on the bookshelves in the library since then and finally, on my last trip, this one was waiting for me!  It is just as sweet and funny as the first.  I can't help but laugh out loud at some parts!  Clementine reminds me of my own children at times, as well as former students of mine.  I often find myself wondering if Clementines thoughts are similar to my children's thoughts...sometimes I think so!  She is such a loveable character.  I look forward to reading the other books in this series.

Happy reading!

Monday - Reading Time!

This has been a great reading week! I was about a third of the way into Same Sun Here by Silas House & Neela Vaswani last week.  I have finished it but I'm not totally sure of my feelings about it.  It was a good book. I enjoyed reading it.  It was interesting in the way the two main characters wrote letters back and forth to each other as pen pals.  It was written in a clear, character driven voice that was enjoyable.  As the reader, it was easy to hear the voice of the characters in your ear as you read.  It was slightly disappointing to me in that I didn't really feel like it built to anything in the story.  There were building events and I felt like the plot rose to something, but then it left me hanging without concluding as I hoped it would.  It was a good read that I would still say is worth reading, it just didn't end in a satisfying way. But, that is just my opinion!

I also read Grandpa Green this week.  This was a sweet story about a young boy and his Great-Grandpa.  It told the story of his Great-Grandpa's life and gave a child's view of his Grandpa Green's aging process.  It was a lovely story and one with unique illustrations that I could see sharing with my kindergarten students.  The illustrations are different from most books and I think the book would evoke some interesting conversations with my students.

I also began to read Math Work Stations by Debbie Diller.  I had gift cards from Barnes and Noble burning a hole in my pocket and after seeing Debbie Diller speak about small groups at the All Write conference, and hearing about her session on math work stations, I had a renewed interest in reading this book.  I just got it in the mail last night and I have just begun to dig in.  Already, I am liking what I am reading.  I was lucky to participate in Math Recovery training early in the summer and I have dates planned to meet with my teaching team in just a couple of weeks to begin reworking and developing a math curriculum.  So, I guess I just have math on my mind lately!  When the package arrived at my doorstep last night, even though I had planned to set the book aside until I was done with my other professional reading on reading and writing, I just couldn't wait.  Those books have been set aside and this one is open next to my favorite chair waiting for me to come back to it.

What's next?  Hmm...I'd like to say I will return to the professional reading I have been attempting on reading and writing...but I'm not sure I'm in that mind set just yet.  I have Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm next in my YA stack and I'm also currently reading The Time Traveler's Wife.  I guess I'll just see what comes up next!  Sooner or later, as soon as I can get my hands on them at my local library, I intend to read the Hunger Games series.  So many books...never enough time!  Happy reading!

Library Day

It's Tuesday again! While I look forward to Slice of Life Tuesday each week, I'm finding it harder to choose a topic for my slice during the summer. 

It's ironic...I assumed that when I had more time on my hands, I could leisurely write my slices and without the pressure of any sort of time crunch.  I was wrong.  It's not as leisurely as I was imagining.  I'm still forced to shove my slicing time into my schedule - around the schedules of my four kids...not too different from during the school year!  Now, however, I find myself struggling more to pinpoint my topic.  Today's topic didn't hit me until I began to type.  I had hoped it would magically appear...viola!

"Mom, look at this one!" Emma said as she held up her Froot Loop.  "It's HUGE!"

"Whoa, it must be your lucky day!" I told her.

"Can we paint our nails after breakfast?" she asked.

"Sure...did you want purple this time?" I smiled, already knowing the answer.  I had painted my toenails purple yesterday and both girls had been begging for purple nails ever since.

"Yes! It really is my lucky day Mom!" she squealed!

"Well then, let's make it even better.  How about after we paint nails, we take a trip to the library?"

"YES!" shouted three little voices.

"Mom, I'm still reading Percy Jackson #2.  Can I keep that one to finish and get the next one too?"

"Can I keep the Dork Diaries book that I'm reading? Can we look for #2?"
"I want a new Max & Ruby book please!"

I was bombarded! All I could do was smile. I love that my children enjoy going to the library, like to read and love to pick out new books!  They had also finished their reading logs for the summer reading program that the library offers, so they were happy to be able to turn them in and find out what little trinket they would be rewarded with.  I love that my kids want to read even without the promise of a reward...but they enjoy guessing what it might be each week!  So we always fill out the slips and return them to find out.

As we stood in the library, it was like a whirlwind around me.  Maybe it's because it's so hot outside or maybe it's that people are stocking up on books before the holiday, but the library was crowded today.  The kids had turned in their reading logs and, in exchange, received a certificate for a frozen lemonade at a local fast food restaurant (good day for it!).  Now, it was time for books!  Of course, when the kids range from ages 4-9, they don't want to read the same books. Therefore, there were three children pulling me in different directions for help, not to mention the list of my own books nagging at me from my pocket and the little sweetie in the stroller who just loves all the colors and sights to see at the library.   

And so it began...

"Emma, you know where the Max & Ruby books are, right?  Take Maddie over there and show her where they are in the W's.  Then come back and we will look for Dork Diaries."

"Matthew, the Percy Jackson books are over here in the R's."

Whew! We were able to find some of what we needed.  Matthew found a new series to try out (The Stink books) and decided to try reading Clementine (I hope he enjoys it as much as I did!), Emma was disappointed that the Dork Diaries book she wanted was checked out but she found a new American Girl book and a few others to keep her interested, and Maddie was tickled with her Max & Ruby books and The Cat and the Hat Comes Back...even though we have it on the bookshelf at home. 

Oh, and I was able to find some for myself as well!  I walked out with Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer Holm and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.  I'm a little late getting to that one, but excited to read it anyway.  I also found the children's book Grandpa Green by Lane Smith because I'd heard about recently.  And, all the while, Avery enjoyed quietly nibbling her fingers and toes as she strolled through the library.

It's a good day when we can go to the library.  There is just something about the choices spread before us, the seemingly limitless words to dive into, and the thought of curling up with some good books once we get home that appeals to us all.

Speaking of curling up...I better get back to my book!

See You At Harry's

I'm very excited to share what I read this week!


I finally got my hands on See You At Harry's by Jo Knowles!  I had intended to read a couple of professional books but when I got the call from the library telling me that this book had arrived...my other reading plans were pushed to the side.


I had to order the book from another library because my local library didn't have this title yet.  It was worth the wait though - it was sort of like waiting for the teacher to get the red and white scholastic bookorder box as a child!


I started reading the book on Thursday and had a hard time putting it down.  As the mother of 4 little ones, I find that my reading time is mostly limited to naptime and occasionally after the kiddos are in bed at night (although usually by that time I'm too tired to do much besides veg in front of the tv).  However, this was a book that I had a hard time closing.  I read it every chance I found...even if it was just a page here and there.


I really connected with this story as a mom, as an aunt, as a person who has lost.  The themes, the characters, the interactions between the characters...it was a great book.  I have to say though, it is a book to read with a box of Kleenex close by, but it's worth it.


I also started reading Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani.  I'm only a bit into the book but so far it is good.  It captured my attention right away because of the letter writing format.  It is also interesting to me to hear the different voices of the characters coming through. 

I could really see using this book to teach writing with voice to students...although it may be too high to use with my own kindergarten students.  I'm still reading it with a teacher's eye - always on the look out for a piece, a mentor sentence or two, that might be good to share with my students.

I look forward to reading further into this book this week. 

I am also still trying to get to the professional reading.  I have some greats waiting in the wings: Growing a Reader by Kathy Collins and The Writing Workshop by Katie Wood Ray.

Happy reading!

It's Monday!

It's Monday! Join Jen and Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts for a look at what everyone is reading!


I haven't done very much reading in the last two weeks.  I've had some great professional development opportunities though!  Two weeks ago I attend a math recovery training.  It was amazing!  Last week I attended the All Write Conference.  It was also amazing!

So, what have I been reading?  Well, my notes, for one thing!  I have looked back at my notes from each workshop several times.  There are just so many great things that I don't want to forget.  I figure rereading will help commit the ideas to memory.

I was able to squeeze in two books this past week.  The first I found in a library give-away stack at the end of the school year.  It was a young adult chapter book that had been in our library but had never been checked out.  Seriously!  Not once!  The name of the story is what really caught my attention though, Jake's Orphan.  I'm not sure what it was about the title, but it grabbed me.  The story, by Peggy Brooke, takes place in the 1920's (not my usual thing) and is about a young boy who is sent from an orphanage to live and work on a farm.  The deal is, if the family likes the way he works, he will be adopted after one year.  If they aren't satisfied with him, he returns to the orphanage.  It is very different from what I am normally drawn to, but it was a good story and an easy read.

The next book is Vulture by April Pulley Sayre.  I was lucky to hear April speak at the All Write conference.  This was a book that she showed parts of and spoke about.  I was hooked by the pictures, the easy text and the way the readers can interact with the text.  I only wish I had gotten my hands on this book before the end of the school year.  There were several boys in my last this year who would have LOVED this book. 

This week:

I'm planning to dig into some professional reading with Katie Wood Ray's The Writing Workshop and Kathy Collins' Growing Readers.  I also have Same Sun Here by Silas House & Neela Vaswani that I hope to start.  HOWEVER, I have requested See You At Harry's from my library and when I get the call that it's in...everything else will be put on hold.  I've been waiting to get my hands on that one after hearing so much about it!

Monday Reading Day!

It's here!  It's the last Monday of the school year!  Even though it's been busy with end of the year "stuff," I was able to do a little reading this week.

First, I finished Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  It was an amazing book!  A friend told me it was a book that would stick with me for a long time and she was definitely right about that. 

One of my favorite parts was the speech by the Principal, Mr. Tushman, at the graduation ceremony.  It fits so well with things I have been thinking about lately and with the end of year reflections and emotions that are always in the back of my mind during the last weeks of school.

          " ...but what I want you, my students, to take away from your school experience is the sure knowledge that, in the future you make for yourselves, anything is possible.  If every single person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder that is necessary - the world really would be a better place.  And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one ofyou, the face of God."

I love this!

I also read the book Clementine by Sara Pennypacker.  This came recommended by a friend as well.  It was a great, quick read.  I laughed out loud several times while reading as I was reminded of my children, and those children I have had in my classroom, over and over again, seeing them in the main character Clementine.  Some favorite parts:

        "But then a great idea popped into my head.  I'm lucky that way: great ideas are always popping into my head without me having to think them up."

        "Then we just sat there together watching the pigeons flock back to our building for the night.  We listened to them cooing above us, sounding like a million old ladies with secrets."

And I absolutely love the way Clementine thinks.  She doesn't love her name.  There is a part in the book where she says that it isn't fair that she's named after a fruit and her brother isn't.  She says since the only thing worse than being named after a fruit is being named after a vegetable, so she proceeds to call him every veggie name under the sun throughout the book.  Spinach, Radish, Rutabaga, Turnip, Zucchini, Lima Bean, Pea Pod, and Celery...I laughed every time!

My professional reading this week?  Um, ahem...right, about that?  I didn't read a single line of any of the professional books I had planned to try to read.  Oh well...maybe next week!

Monday - Reading Time!

Check out Jen & Kellee at Teach Mentor Texts for more great reads!

I love a long weekend!  But hey, who doesn't?  I love them because I have an extra day to do something I want to do.  Not dishes or grocery shopping or planning for school, but something for me.  This weekend I chose reading!  Or maybe, reading chose me.

Saturday morning found my oldest two kids and I at the library.  Here is my week ahead (both came highly recommended):

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems

Clementine by Sarah Pennypacker

Last week, from my last library stack, I read another Mo Willems book.  Can I Play Too?  This may be my favorite Mo Willems book ever!  It's tough to choose just one because I love them all, but as I read it to my kindergarten class and saw them actually rolling on the floor with laughter, it was hard not to be swayed!  In this story Elephant and Piggie decide to play catch, which is fine until their friend Snake asks if he can play too!  It's just hilarious, as you can probably imagine.

Currently, I'm reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  I sort of feel like a late-comer to this book.  I was interested in reading it after hearing a lot about it, but I wasn't really in a rush to seek it out.  I figured I'd get to it over the summer.  However, I accidentally knocked it over on the shelf at the library as I was looking at another book.  I figured it was meant to be!  I have to say, I CAN'T PUT IT DOWN!  My favorite quote:

          "...we should be remembered for the things we do.  The things we do are the   most important things of all.  They are more important than what we say or what we look like.  The things we do outlast our mortality.  The things we do are like monuments that people build to honor heroes after they've died.  They're like the pyramids that the Egyptians built to honor the pharaohs.  Only instead of being made out of stone, they're made out of the memories people have of you.  That's why your deeds are like your monuments.  Built with memories instead of with stone."

          ~ Auggie, page 65

I'm also reading books with my children right now.  My daughter, the first grader, is into Junie B. Jones.  We are currently reading Junie B., First Grader Aloha-ha-ha!  I have to say, so far, I have enjoyed this one more than the others we have read.  My son, the third grader, is reading Percy Jackson The Lightening Thief.  He checked out both the book at the movie at the library this week...I guess he's interested in this one!  And, last but not least, my three-year-old is in love with Max and Ruby.  This week we have been reading Max's ABC's and her all-time favorite, Max's Bath.

Professionally, I am in the middle of a few good books.  I just got Mentor Author, Mentor Texts by Ralph Fletcher.  I'm also reading Katie Wood Ray's Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (and They're All Hard Parts.  I'm gearing up for seeing both of these great author's at the All Write Conference in June!

  

I'm also looking forward to Thursday's Chalk-A-Bration!  Don't miss the chalk poems on Betsy's blog Teaching Young Writers.  Drop by to read, link your own chalk poem or do both on May 31st!  I can't wait! 

Gotta Love Those Books

Books.

I love them!

I still remember that feeling of excitement as a child when my teacher put the new book order forms in my mailbox.  I would scour them and select all the best books.  Then I would formulate my strategy for convincing my parents that I NEEDED them.  I usually won...who tells their child they can't buy new books to read?

I still feel this way.  The prospect of books orders are still fun.  I love it when I prepare one to send home with my students and they get excited to see the order forms in their mailboxes!  I love it when my own children bring them home from their classrooms!  I can always tell when they have brought them home because they will both be sitting at the kitchen table with their pens in hand and their book orders spread open in front of them, circling all the best books, just as I had done years before.

Fast forward a few (twenty-whoa!) years and imagine my excitement when I got a phone call from a good friend.  She has started selling children's books and she called to see if I would like to host a book party.  Of course, my immediate response?  YES!  We quickly worked out all the details, sent out the invitations and then I started eagerly looking forward to all the wonderful books that would soon be gracing my home.

The party was fun, the books were ordered and yesterday was the big day.  Two big, heavy boxes carried by the man in brown arrived at my doorstep. Ahhh...I could almost smell them through the boxes!  But, it was dinner time and there were three children gathered around my knees wondering about the contents of those big, heavy boxes.  So...I stacked them gently in the corner of the living room and I waited.  All through dinner.  All through play time.  All through bedtime routines.  Still longer...through the cereal and bottle and rocking routine for the baby.  And the whole time those two big boxes stared at me and called to me from the corner.  Just like my books used to call to me from my mailbox when the book orders would come in!

Finally, it was time.  I sat in the middle of the floor, with my scissors in hand, and gently sliced through the tape.  I ever so quietly pulled out the paper stuffing, not wanting to wake any of the snoozers in the house (including the hubby snoring on the couch).  I pull the books from the boxes and stacked them all around me, like a nest.  All at once, I was in my glory.

I sat for an hour in the middle of those book piles.  But more importantly, I looked at them all!  It was terrific!  All those smooth, colorful colors, all the bright pages with pictures to explore and words to devour.  The smell of the new books and the crack of the book opening for the first time.  I drank in every last book.  Then, and only then, did I place the books into separate bags and prepare to give them to their rightful owners. 

What a great night it was!  Ahh...gotta love those books!