I found a science museum in my basement

It was in a box labeled "School--Treasures." Inside was the snake skin and snake eggs (hatched, thankfully), the star fish, the sand dollars, the fossils, the skulls and bones, the flamingo feathers, and lots of other artifacts of nature that I've collected (and been given) over the years. A science museum, waiting to happen!

Each of my 5th graders will choose an item from the "Treasures" box and will be charged with writing the informational blurb that will explain it to a visitor to our museum. This will take research (non-fiction reading benchmark), writing (all benchmarks of the writing standard), and scientific habits of mind (scientific inquiry benchmark). Valid content--cha-ching!

It will be months before the art teacher has a display ready for the shelves along the windows in the commons, so we'll have the space we need. Logistics--cha-ching!

In Friday's USA TODAY there was an article about museums that are creating podcast audio tours of their exhibits. We can create a podcast of our museum in GarageBand. Integration of technology--cha-ching!

One model that we will use for our writing will come from online virtual science museums. (The Smithsonian's 150th Traveling Exhibition, and the Field Museum's Sue at The Field Museum are two that I think will give us good writing models.)

But I'd also like to use children's books that model the kind of writing we will do to briefly explain the items in the museum. I think EYEWITNESS books will work well. They have the overview in the top left corner, and each item on the page has a short, explanatory caption.

Do you know any other children's books that would be a good model for our science museum writing, OR books about going to a museum (science or otherwise)? I would appreciate your input!

Great New Nonfiction Picture Books

I just found 2 great, brand-new, nonfiction picture books! The first one is a great one about estimation. It is called GREAT ESTIMATIONS (get it?) and it is by Bruce Goldstone. It has great, colorful photographs and invites kids to estimate something on each page. I like a lot of things about this book. First of all, the cover is inviting. Who wouldn't want to pick it up? Secondly, it really teaches kids how to estimate well. It teaches readers the difference between a random guess and a good estimate. It shows them a strategy and then gives them a photo to practice on. It also includes hints to help you out if you still need help. The photos are very fun. The reader gets to estimate lots of things (macaroni, Cheerios, doll shoes, rabbits). It feels a bit like the "I Spy" books because it is so eye-catching and interactive. You can spend lots of time on each of the pages. Love this one! GREAT ESTIMATIONS 

The other book is called EXTREME ANIMALS: THE TOUGHEST CREATURES ON EARTH by Nicola Davies. This book is a fun book about animals that have adapted to extreme conditions. The book is a great size (small) and the illustrations are fun and comical. Lots of great information for readers about animals and their environments. The book is organized in stand-alone pages so kids can read about one animal at a time if they don't want to read it from cover to cover. I think this is a great nonfiction book for middle and upper elementary kids. It is packed with pretty cool info! (If you get this one, make sure to take off the cover and look at the illustrations underneath. The endpages are pretty fun too!)

Poetry Friday--Aunt Eweginia

As I was getting the classroom ready for school, I came across one of my favorite poetry books and had to reread some of the poems. The play on language is fun throughout the book. It is called WOOL GATHERING: A SHEEP FAMILY REUNION by Lisa Wheeler. Below is one of my favorite poems from the book. Enjoy! Aunt Eweginia Eweginia is a Ewesful Ewe. Just wait, Ewe'll see what she can do. She'll knit Ewe scarves, she'll knit Ewe gloves. There's nothing more Eweginia loves, than knitting white wool Eweniforms or woolen socks to keep Ewe warm. Ewe mustn't watch Ewe see, that's rude. Eweginia knits till she is nude. By Lisa Wheeler By the way, speaking of Poetry Friday, I wanted to share something we do in our classroom every Friday--called "Poetry Friday" actually. I wanted kids to have time to relax and enjoy poetry with friends in the same way that we often enjoy donuts and coffee in the teachers' lounge on Fridays. So, we have Poetry Friday for the first 15-20 minutes at the beginning of the day on Fridays. Parents sign up to bring in a breakfast snack and drink (donuts and juice, muffins and milk, fruit, etc.) Kids come in, grab a snack and have fun with poetry--sitting around reading poetry with friends. I have done this for 2 years and kids quickly come to love poetry when they have this time to eat good food, and enjoy great poetry with their friends. I have about 100-200 poetry books in the classroom so they always find new poems to read. And when you eat donuts while you are reading poetry, you equate the two and begin to love poetry! (the Pavlov effect)

Summer Reading Assignments

I just found Rick Riordan's post about his son's summer reading requirement thanks to Jen Robinson. Rick really focused on the Newbery issue. But, I really took it to be a summer reading requirement issue. I had no idea that some schools were requiring summer reading for kids below the high school level.

Assigning summer reading to students in high school has become quite popular. My high school daughter has had summers when certain books were required or when she could choose from a list of summer reading books. This summer, the school decided not to require summer reading. Guess what?? She read about 10 books OF HER CHOICE...FOR PLEASURE!! What more could we want! She actually read a good variety. She read some good fiction, some beach/trash type novels and some nonfiction. She found a few new authors she loved and read new books from a series that she has always loved. She lived her summer as a reader and in the process grew and changed as a reader. Last summer when she had required reading for high school English, she spent the summer trudging through the 2 required books and hating every minute of it.

I am a teacher and of course I want children to read over the summer. I want them to read all summer. I would be happy if we all sat and read for 10 hours a day, every day, all summer. I think summer reading lists are an attempt to encourage summer reading and I think that there is the hope that kids will come back together in the fall excited to talk about the books. But a summer reading list can take away a child's real reasons to read. It takes away the fun of finding new authors, deciding what to read next, getting excited about a new book in a series, sharing new discoveries, etc. I have never been a huge fan of Summer Required Reading lists. But, now with this first hand experience of watching my daughter this summer, I know that this was a great summer for her as a reader. I am now 100 percent sure that I would rather my child spend the summer being a reader than reading required books on a school list. I want her to read for more than a course requirement.

It defies logic

While gigantic foundations raise millions of dollars to eradicate breast cancer, and pink ribbons become so ubiquitous that they no longer raise much awareness, there is a small non-profit based in Vermont and sponsored nationally by Orvis and The Hartford -- Casting For Recovery -- that works to improve the lives of breast cancer survivors 14 at a time. They teach them fly fishing.

"It's like whispering a prayer
In the fury of a storm"

They gather 14 survivors of all ages and stages in a beautiful natural setting, provide medical and psychological support to help smooth the turmoil of diagnosis, surgery, treatment, and reconstruction, and they teach them fly fishing.

"It's like trying to stop a fire
With the moisture from a kiss"

I attended Ohio's retreat last year as a breast cancer survivor. I was already a fly fisherwoman, so I already knew the healing power of standing in a river completely in the moment concentrating on current, rod, line, possible fish, breezes, and patches of sunlight on the water. I attended this year as a past participant and fishing instructor. This year, I got to stand in the water beside a sister survivor and help her learn to focus on how much her cast was improving, not how much it was lacking. We laughed when she hooked my hat, and when she caught a fish, we both screamed with excitement way out of proportion to the size of the fish.



"I hear them saying you'll never change things
And no matter what you do it's still the same thing
But it's not the world that I am changing
I do this so this world we know
Never changes me" (Garth Brooks)

Your donation to CFR will not change the world. It WILL make a very real difference to a breast cancer survivor who could be your mother, sister, friend, or colleague at work.

Some of My Favorite New Picture Books

Okay, so if anyone asks me how I spent my summer, I guess I have to say "buying books". I have picked up more than I realized over the last few months. I figured I might as well share a few of my favorites! 

THIS IS THE DREAM by Diane Shore and Jessica Alexander was a "must have" for me. It is an amazing picture book about civil rights. The illustrations are brilliant. One of my new favorites! 

HIPPO! NO, RHINO! by Jeff Newman is a hysterical picture book for very young readers--funny for adults too! There are very few words but the pictures are hysterical. A zookeeper incorrectly puts the Hippo sign by the Rhino and the Rhino is not happy! It is a really fun book. 

FOLLOW THE LINE by Laura Ljungkvist is a great book. Each illustration is made from a single line that kids can follow through the book. It is also a type of counting books with counting questions on each page. A fun book for young readers. 

SHIVER ME LETTERS: A PIRATE ABC by June Sobel is one I have added to my ABC Book collection. It is a great book to help young children identify letters and it is quite funny. The pirates look for all of the letter when they realize that they need more than "R". 

I loved BIG SISTER, LITTLE SISTER by Leuyen Pham. A very sweet book about sisters with fun illustrations. A great author photo on the flap too--with her little sister, of course! 

BEACH by Elisha Cooper is a good one, but one I wouldn't have just picked up. It has great, peaceful illustrations, but what I loved was the surprising language. 

HOW TO BE by Lisa Brown is a cute one for preschool and Kindergarten. It invites kid to think about how to "be" different animals and how to be themselves! 

I think that WALK ON! A GUIDE FOR BABIES OF ALL AGES by Marla Frazee is too much fun! Great fun illustrations and a message for readers of all ages. 

Andrew Clements' new book A MILLION DOTS is an amazing book that can be connected to math and large numbers. It reminds me a bit of the million books but has a different take. Great illustrations made of dots and fun number facts throughout the book. 

I am hoping that Lauren Child's THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA wins the Caldecott this year. I am a huge Lauren Child fan and I love this new version. 

And I love PUMPKINS by Ken Robbins. I am trying to add to my collection of great nonfiction--books that can serve as models for my students in their own writing. This one is a great one for that. Great word choice and great nonfiction writing. The photographs are amazing too! 

I would also tell you about WOLVES by Emily Gravett but Mary Lee purchased the last copy while we were shopping together the other day. So.... I have to wait a few days for mine. It is one that we kind of fought over in the bookstore. I loved it (and had it first) but she somehow took it out of my stack when I wasn't looking.

Poetry Friday

Forgetfulness
by Billy Collins

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

PoemHunter.com

Twin Authors

All similarities end with twin and author. Jennifer Roy thought she would be a pediatrician when she grew up. She became a teacher and then a curriculum writer, and then her cousin suggested that she write the story of her aunt. This is the story of the character in YELLOW STAR, the story that has propelled her into the Children's Literature Limelight. It was recently named a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award Book.

Julia DeVillers knew from early elementary school years that she would be a writer, and that's what she became. She, too, has recently been propelled into the Children's Literature Limelight when Disney bought the rights to her book HOW MY PRIVATE PERSONAL JOURNAL BECAME A BEST SELLER. The movie is called "Read It And Weep".



We had a great time at Cover to Cover. Julia shared stories about the making of the movie. She was invited to the set of the movie and had great photos to share. She also shared some of her other great books. Jennifer talked about her aunt's story and the process of writing the book. We loved both authors. This was their very first Twin Author Signing! We think they'd both be great for any conferences or school author visits. We are huge fans! It was great to meet two sisters who were talented and excited about each other's work. Thanks to Sally and the staff at Cover to Cover for hosting this event!

I am officially ready to start school again

I got a letter from one of my students who had a great book to recommend, one that is "funny, somewhat scary, and compelling."

That's right, compelling.

I cannot wait to spend my days with someone who reads COMPELLING books! And whose contribution to my postcard collection is one from the Main Library ("What an awesome place!") of Theodore Geisel, Judy Blume and Maurice Sendak.

I'm ready.

New Website for Literacy Educators

I have been spending lots of time on the new Choice Literacy website. A good friend of ours (Brenda Power) started it and it just "opened" last week. I think it is going to be a great site for teachers, librarians, literacy coaches, administrators, etc. It is a subscription site but if you go to the link, there are lots of free articles too. I think there is a newsletter that you can get to by signing up there. I am loving the articles and the whole idea of it. I have written a few articles for the site so I've spent lots of time reading the articles by the other authors. I would highly recommend it for thoughtful professional reading in the area of literacy. So far the topics are really smart and the articles are a great length for really thinking about classroom instruction. Some great stuff from Ellin Keene, Debbie Miller, Ruth Shagoury and lots of others. There are also video clips, study guides, etc. I haven't had as much time to look at those yet, but it looks packed with good stuff, with more to come. We totally trust Brenda--she is very smart about literacy and learning-- so we wanted to get the word out while this site is brand new! I think it will become a hit pretty fast!