I just discovered these sweet little "Green Start Books" that I love! I just picked up a few to add to baby presents. These books are little board books, made from 98% recycled materials. They are great little books--about the size of an average board book. The pages are sturdy and the illustrations are quite fun.
Each book deals with some aspect of our Earth. The two that I just picked up are called IN THE GARDEN and BABY ANIMALS. They are both done so well for young children. The text is simple and predictable. The books invite interaction. And even though they are short, they teach so much. As I mentioned, I am buying these for baby gifts but I think they are also perfect for new readers. These would be great for 1st and 2nd graders since the text is supportive and the topics are interesting. Hopefully, they'll add more to the collection. I am excited about this new series.
Fractions are on stage in fourth grade -- it's that time of year when every skill that's been mastered (hopefully) so far gets a part in the play. Multiplication and division are still the stars, but they wear different costumes and are sometimes unrecognizable at first. The reason for understanding factors and multiples stands proudly in the spotlight with its chest thrust out, and the moment when the audience can anticipate the moves of every character on the stage, knowing almost before they do who's greater, lesser, equal, improper or mixed...oh, that moment...it is among my favorites every year.
Numbers and the four operations of mathematics come to life for Mary Cornish in her poem, Numbers. I give you two stanzas; click through to Poetry 180 for the whole poem.
Numbers by Mary Cornish
I like the generosity of numbers. The way, for example, they are willing to count anything or anyone: two pickles, one door to the room, eight dancers dressed as swans.
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.
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There's an amplitude to long division,
as it opens Chinese take-out box by paper box, inside every folded cookie a new fortune.
The band RMT came to our school today to celebrate literacy through song. I had heard about what a great show this band does and I thought that reminding kids that songs tell stories made sense for the day. The band is a popular Central Ohio band and they have an amazing program called Songs of America. The show is almost an hour long and it tells the history of America through song. It was a GREAT way to celebrate literacy. First of all, the energy was amazing. The show has the feel of a very fun concert! The songs were put together to show the history of our country. As the band played, they told the pieces of history that were needed to understand the importance of the music they were sharing. Giant wall-size slides played behind them--showing the times and events in history that they were sharing.
Kids and teachers sang along, clapped along, and danced along. There was such a good balance of types of music shared. My favorite was the last song of the show that they wrote themselves called "American Song". (This is the last song on the clip below and also one that I am buying from iTunes next time I shop there.) The kids left smiling, laughing and, of course, dancing.
My ten-year old daughter saw this same show on Veteran's Day last year. I must say that this is a great show to celebrate any day. A great holiday show or a great show for anytime of year. This is a fun show for kids of all ages and for adults. The YouTube video below shows clips of the show but imagine 500 smiling, singing, dancing children in the audience when you watch it. If you have any money left for a show like this, I would definitely recommend getting them to your school or library.
I am trying to figure out how to do things like this on a smaller level in the school library having bands, artists, speakers, scientists, etc. in for school library events. A few whole school events like this one but then grade-level or interest-type events through the year during lunch recess, etc. So much learning and fun from events like these.
I think this was, by far, my favorite celebration of READ ACROSS AMERICA since the tradition began!
It's the time of year in 4th grade for fractions and fractiousness. I prefer the fractions. The Lion's Share is a great fable that gets readers to think about fractions AND good behavior.
The Lion hosts a dinner for all of the animals. Ant is on time; the other animals are not. Ant is shocked at the appalling table manners of the other animals. When it's time for dessert, the Lion serves a cake and says, "Please help yourself." The Elephant sets the tone by taking half the cake as his serving. Each animal in turn takes half of what is left, and then criticizes Ant when the crumbs she's left with fall apart, leaving none for the Lion. Ant apologizes to Lion and offers to bake him a special cake from her grandmother's recipe. Not to be outdone, each animal in turn offers to bake double the number of cakes of the animal before him, leaving Elephant with quite a task!
In the end, Lion and Ant share the special strawberry sponge cake...half and half.
As you know, we have great children's librarians at the Dublin Library. This week, George came in to share books and songs with our K-2 students. As usual, he was a hit . George actually has Rock-Star Status with our K-2 students. It was a fun afternoon as he got kids excited about our upcoming Pajama Party Story Time at the Dublin Library. George shared many new books, several that I hadn't seen. One that he shared was SPOT IT! FIND THE HIDDEN CREATURES by Delphine Chedru. I have already had requests for it so I ordered one right away.
Kids love the I SPY books and I love new and unique ways that authors create seek and find books for kids. A favorite newer series of mine is SPOT 7. In the SPOT 7 books, readers have to spot 7 differences between two seemingly identical photos.
There are lots of things to like about this new SPOT IT! book. First of all, the hidden items are fun to find. Instead of photos, the illustrator creates a colorful pattern on each page. The pattern/illustrations repeat across the page but when you look more closely, you find what is hidden. The text is very simple. The book starts out telling the reader to "Find the owl who needs her glasses..." and then continues this list type book with a new item to find on each page. Some pages are easier than others but it is quite a fun book. I can see kids of all ages liking this one. I can see why George chose to share it and why it has been the most requested book since his visit!
Almost half of this month's pictures feature snow and ice. We begin with a photo I call, "Art Imitates Life," and end with the drift of snow beside my car in the school parking lot. (A plow-made drift that was beautifully sculpted by the most recent few inches of snow that were delivered with a brisk biting west wind.)
My desk full of piles stressed me out on the day of our Valentine parties.
(Remember, that was the week I was out on Monday for mentor training, we had snow days Tuesday and Wednesday, we came back for Valentine madness on Thursday and then had PD all day on Friday?)
My desk full of piles stressed me out again the following Friday.
(That was the Friday that followed the week described above and then Presidents' Day off and another snow day on Tuesday (thank goodness because I was stranded in NYC) and the author visit on Friday and the Dublin Literacy Conference on Saturday.)
Remarkably, there are also flowers this month. You can see them in the desk piles (how about that stunning orchid that a student who moved to another school gave me?!? I hope I can keep it alive...I've never had an orchid before...) and as a centerpiece for the author visit breakfast. My favorite, though, is the crocus that a squirrel must have transplanted into the geranium that lives on my front porch in the summer and my classroom windowsill in the winter. In spite of the piles of snow outside the window, we had a sign of spring-to-come.
Last year's February Mosaic was quite different from this year's. Sigh. And with March just a day away, it seems completely unlikely that we will EVER see buds and blooms and sprouts again. But since the crocus in my classroom can believe in spring, I guess I can, too!
I rarely listen to commercial radio, but when I do, it always seems like there is a song waiting there just for me. It last happened in September of 2009.
Enjoy the words, and if you want to hear it, go on over to YouTube.
Jone has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Check it Out. I missed browsing last week's roundup because of the Dublin Literacy Conference (and the ensuing chaos of "the week after," which included an evening of culture [the Peking Acrobats--wow!] and an evening of rescheduled-because-of-snow parent conferences). I'm looking forward to TWO weeks worth of poetry this weekend!
The Dublin Literacy Conference was a huge success. The energy started with Friday night's dinner. The speakers and committee went out and had great conversations (as well as great desserts). It was a great way to start the weekend.
Kevin Hodgson was another one of our wonderful speakers . He ran sessions for teachers and a very popular Stopmotion session for families. Many of his blog fans were VERY excited to meet him in person at the conference! Kevin posted several reflective posts about the conference--one about the family stopmotion session and one on the conference in general. He also shared his thinking around a conversation he had with Tim Tyson in "When a Whole School Blogs".
And, in his post, " 'I Don't Do Tech.' Really?!?!", Tony at LearnMeSumthin' shares the highlights of the day which include sessions and informal conversations.
As you can see, the day was filled with friends and learning!
Disclaimer: All blog posts, opinions, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes are our own.
Franki and Mary Lee are both teachers, and have been for more than 20 years.
Franki is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Beyond Leveled Books (Stenhouse), Still Learning to Read (Stenhouse), and Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop (Scholastic).
Mary Lee is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud (Stenhouse) and has poems in the Poetry Friday Anthology, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books), Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, National Geographic Books of Nature Poems, The Best of Today's Little Ditty (2014-15 and 2016), Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poems are Teachers, National Geographic's The Poetry of US, and IMPERFECT: Poems About Mistakes.
Each book deals with some aspect of our Earth. The two that I just picked up are called IN THE GARDEN and BABY ANIMALS. They are both done so well for young children. The text is simple and predictable. The books invite interaction. And even though they are short, they teach so much. As I mentioned, I am buying these for baby gifts but I think they are also perfect for new readers. These would be great for 1st and 2nd graders since the text is supportive and the topics are interesting. Hopefully, they'll add more to the collection. I am excited about this new series.
