My Halloween Costume-Scaredy Squirrel

I loved my Halloween costume this year. I was Scaredy Squirrel, thanks to Beth at Cover to Cover. She made my costume and it was quite fun dressing as one of my favorite book characters!

I meant to post it last week but am finally getting to it!

Similes and Metaphors

A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as." For example: I am as hungry as a bear.

A metaphor is also a form of comparison, but it does not use "like" or "as." For example: That last math problem is a bear!

Similes and metaphors seem to often be taught in the spring, right before state tests, judging from the number of hits we get on our Poetry Friday post, "Poetry Friday -- Simile and Metaphor Poems." Why not start exploring these forms of comparisons with your students NOW, so they can be using them in their writing all year long and have the difference between the two of them internalized by April??

Here are two great books that explore metaphors and invite you to write more. Both are personal copies.

Courage
by Bernard Waber

Houghton Mifflin Books, 2002

"Courage is being the first to make up after an argument."

"Courage is breaking bad habits."
"Courage is a blade of grass breaking through the icy snow.

Misery is a Smell in Your Backpack

by Harriet Ziefert

illustrated by Jennifer Rapp

Blue Apple Books, 2005

"Misery is when your mom insists on sensible school shoes and you really want flip-flops."

"Misery is two against one -- especially if you're not part of the twosome."

"Misery is learning that you and everyone in your class will be checked for head lice!"

BUYING, TRAINING, AND CARING FOR YOUR DINOSAUR

Beth at Cover to Cover shared this fun book with me this week. It is called BUYING, TRAINING, AND CARING FOR YOUR DINOSAUR. It is written by Laura J. Rennert and Illustrated by Marc Brown. This book is quite fun. This is written in the same format you would find any pet-care book. It tells you how to choose the right dinosaur, how to train dinosaurs, how to bathe your dinosaur, and more. Each page focuses on one piece of advice with so much added information about dinosaurs. As you can guess, this book is quite amusing and I can see it as a really fun one to study in writing workshop. Some pages follow the genre of How-To writing while other pages give advice such as advice for when traveling by car, "Make sure to leave the windows open. Extra leg room, or in this case, head and tail room is always good." Marc Brown's illustrations are too fun--colorful and happy and you often find yourself forgetting that dinosaurs do not really make good pets. Everyone in the pictures seems so happy having one as a pet!

October Mosaic

2 New Nonfiction Books About Animals

I just found two great new nonfiction animal books for kids. I saw LIFE-SIZE ZOO by Teruyuki Komiya at our book fair a few weeks ago. I didn't pay much attention to it but today I actually spent some time with it and I LOVE it! The end pages in the front of the book serve as a zoo map as well as a Table of Contents. Very clever, I thought. So, when you see the Giant Panda cage, you know that the info on that animal is on pages 4 and 5. How could you not love this book right from the TOC? Then each 2 page (giant) spread focuses on on zoo animal. There is a real life photo of the animal--a part of it shown true to size. There is a bit of text to tell a bit about the animal. And then there is a side column that tells about the details in the close up. (This column gives info about the specific animal photographed and then has a section called "Time for Close-Up" which gives kids things to look for with each animal. For example, when we look at the tiger, we learn can see (close up) the black lips, the four huge fangs, and thick whiskers around his cheeks. We can even see that his tongue is rough like sandpaper. Each page also has a few interesting facts about the animal.A few of the pages have fold outs that allow us to see even more of the animal close-up.
I love this book for lots of reasons. It is perfect for little kids--the close up piece is a great conversation starter--so much to look at in the pictures because they are so close up. The text adds a great deal and kids can enter at lots of levels. Younger kids can learn from the photos. Older kids have lots to learn when they add the different sections of text. From looking on amazon, it looks like there is another one coming out in 2010!



The other animal book that I love is FLIP THE FLAPS: ANIMAL HOMES by Judy Allen and Simon Mendez. I discovered this book at Cover to Cover today. The book is organized into places where animals live. So chapter titles include Trees, Stones, Burrows, Ponds and more. Each spread focuses on one of these places and tells a little about the way that it serves as an animal home. On the right side of each spread, the reader finds a "Flip the Flap". On the flap are 3 questions about the animals that live in this place. When you lift the flap, the three questions are answered. Each page also includes other information that adds to the information given on the page. I see lots of possibilities for this book. First of all, it is such a great book to help kids understand the concepts of animal habitats. I also think it is a great format to use as a model for student writing. It is a fun way to think about nonfiction information.

Poetry Friday -- Fall

FALL

by Edward Hirsch

Fall, falling, fallen. That's the way the season

Changes its tense in the long-haired maples

That dot the road; the veiny hand-shaped leaves

Redden on their branches (in a fiery competition

With the final remaining cardinals) and then

Begin to sidle and float through the air, at last

Settling into colorful layers carpeting the ground.

(the rest of the poem is at poets.org)

The round up this week is at Biblio File.

Great New LEGO BOOK Set

I have been looking for good Lego books for years. You would think there would be millions based on how popular Legos are. But I never find them. I had THE ULTIMATE LEGO BOOK a while ago but it is no longer in print. I was browsing Amazon's list of New Releases for Children earlier this week and discovered this set. I ordered it immediately.

It is definitely going to get lots of attention in the library. For a while, I won't put it in circulation. Everyone will want to spend time with it! I think I'll just set these books over by the Legos for everyone to enjoy for a while. I'd like to eventually create a display around Legos and building toys--similar to the amazing displays at The Allen Centre. But I have hard time finding books, etc. on the topic. So, I am thrilled with this find!

The LEGO Books are huge book, as you would expect. THE LEGO BOOK is paired with another called STANDING SMALL (A Celebration of 30 Years of the Lego Minifigure). They are both such great books. THE LEGO BOOK takes us through the history of LEGO. From how they are made to various sets, to the Logo history, to Legoland and more. So much information is packed in. And it has the feel of DK at its best. Great photos and great information--you really get an inside view of design, themes, etc.

STANDING SMALL focuses on the minifigure through history. Some information is shared about how they are made and how they've changed. But the majority of the book focuses on the various minifigures over the last 30 years.

Kids are going to love this book. It opens up so many new possibilities for kids--new ways to think about Legos. I can also see using pages of this with a document camera. Such a great model of nonfiction writing and a topic kids are interested in. I am not someone who plays with Legos but yet I could read this book for hours. I am fascinated by the whole design process and the creation of these.

This set would also make a great gift book. The whole set came from Amazon--shipping included--for less than $30. Well worth every penny!

Two Books For Math Class

Tyrannosaurus Math

by Michelle Markel

illustrated by Doug Cushman

Tricycle Press, 2009

review copy provided by the publisher

Tyrannosaurus Math is a number-crunching dinosaur who starts doing math the minute he hatches from his egg, counting his fingers and toes together to make a number sentence.

As he grows, his math becomes more advanced. Soon he's skip counting, subtracting and checking his work, and drawing a picture in the sand to solve a problem. He makes a pictograph and an array, and finally saves the day with an excellent use of estimation.

This would be a fun book to share with math learners of all ages AND their math teachers!

Also reviewed by Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect

Michelle Markel's blog, The Cat and the Fiddle

Zero is the Leaves on the Tree

by Betsy Franco

illustrated by Shino Arihara

Tricycle Press, 2009

review copy provided by the publisher

In this beautiful little book, the concept of zero is explored throughout a child's school year. First, zero is the number of "balls in the bin at recess time," then the number of leaves on the oak. In winter, zero is "the sound of snowflakes landing on your mitten." In spring, zero is "the bikes in the bike rack on the last day of school."

This book just begs for students to create their own illustrations of zero...and maybe of the other numbers as well!

A Great Read Aloud for November

I am not always a big fan of holiday books. I read them and like them but they are not the books that kids read year round so I don't often spend much energy finding good ones. But my friend Sarah pointed this one out to me and I am so glad she did. TURKEY TROUBLE by Wendi Silvano will be a fun story to read to kids in November. It is a bright colored book that is lots of fun. The story is a bout a Turkey who is in trouble because Thanksgiving is near. And Turkey knows what that mean. So, he works to try to disguise himself so that the farmer wouldn't eat him. The book takes us through lots of Turkey's ideas and the responses from the other animals on the farm. There is a little bit of predictability in the text and fun in the illustrations. You can't help but love Turkey and hope for the best. A great addition to our Thanksgiving book collection!

What's Inside?

What's Inside?

by Giles Laroche

Houghton Mifflin, 2009

Review copy received from the publisher

This is the perfect book to invite children to think about both ancient and modern architecture.

On one page, there is a multi-media illustration of an architectural structure made with intricate bas-relief cut-paper collages. (Laroche says on the back flap that creating this book "was somewhat like building the actual structures themselves: Each illustration involved many stages of drawing, cutting, painting, and gluing, and often ended up with seven or eight layers.") The illustration of the structure is accompanied by a short, descriptive paragraph of text and the question, "What's Inside?" When you turn the page, there is another illustration, and another short, descriptive paragraph of text about what can be found (or was once found) inside the structure. For the reader who wants a little more information, there are factoids in the sidebar that tell the name of the structure, its location, the date of construction, its height, the materials used to make it, its status today and a little known fact.

The structures range from Egyptian tombs and Mayan temples, to Independence Hall and a Shaker barn, to the Sydney Opera House and the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia.

The final illustrations cleverly invite readers back into the book to make connections and to find architectural details in the structures.

An illustrated glossary of architectural terms is included.