So fun to read aloud! So fun to know the back story behind the popular game!
And isn't it true that everyone wants a worthy opponent?
Rodzilla
by Rob Sanders
illustrated by Dan Santat
Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2017
review copy provided by the publisher
There are plenty of visual clues to help readers predict the true identity of Rodzilla. By the time the truth is revealed, it is not really a surprise, but still fun, all the same.
This book is sure to be a favorite of the toddler set, and anyone who once was one!
I Like, I Don't Like
by Anna Baccelliere
illustrated by Ale + Ale
Eerdmans Books, 2017
review copy from the library
The child on the left page likes shoes (getting shoes, wearing shoes, playing dress up with shoes). The child on the right page (shining the shoes of others) does not like shoes.
The child on the left page likes soccer balls (playing with them).
The child on the right page (sewing soccer balls by hand) does not like them.
This book prompts powerful conversations about child labor and the rights of children worldwide.
The reality of living in homeless shelters often means that families must be split up with fathers staying in a men's unit, and mothers and children in a separate unit. The little girl in this book holds tight to the notion that hers is still a family, even if they are separated at times.
My fifth graders wondered how homelessness could happen, and were able to understand the illustrator's choice to use a very childlike style in order to reflect the point of view of the child in the story.
is not really the title of a movie
but if it were I would be sure to see it.
I love their short legs and big heads,
the whole hippo look.
Hundreds of them would frolic
in the mud of a wide, slow-moving river,
and I would eat my popcorn
in the dark of a neighborhood theatre.
When they opened their enormous mouths
lined with big stubby teeth
I would drink my enormous Coke.
I would be both in my seat
and in the water playing with the hippos,
which is the way it is
with a truly great movie.
Only a mean-spirited reviewer
would ask on holiday from what?
Surely you've seen videos of the premature baby hippo at the Cincinnati Zoo, Fiona? No? Well, let's take care of that with my favorite one where she learns to use the ramp into her pool.
I'm sorry I didn't get around to all the the end of Poetry Month posts last week. This weekend feels like there's more elbow room than I've had in months. To that I say, "WHEW!"
I discovered 3 new nonfiction books that I am excited to share with my students.
I love anything by Suzi Eszterhas so when I saw she had a new book I ordered it immediately. Moto and Me: My Year as a Wildcat's Foster Mom is Suzi's newest book and this one is a bit different. It is a narrative with more text than many of her other books. The photos are amazing as always and this book tells the story of one wildcat-Moto-and how Suzi cared for him after he was separated from his mother. It is a great book and a great addition for readers who know Eszterhas's work or for readers in the middle grades who are ready for a bit more text in their nonfiction reading.
125 Pet Rescues is new from National Geographic Kids and it is great fun.
Each page gives the short story of a pet that has been rescued. There are lots of dogs but also pigs, goats and snakes. Each story is a paragraph long with details of one animal's rescue and new life. The photos are happy and the Table of Contents will be a huge help to readers. There are so many possibilities with this book for minilessons in both reading and writing.
Shell, Beak, Tusk: Shared Traits and the Wonders of Adaptation by Bridget Heos shows the ways that animals around the world adapt in order to survive. The thing I love most about this book is the way that it is organized to compare the same adaptation on different animals. The book will introduce readers to some animals they may not be familiar with.
As I get ready for summer reading, my stack of professional books is growing. Right now, these are the 4 I am looking most forward to reading.
I read Ralph Fletcher's Joy Write last weekend and loved it. It reground me-brought me back to the roots of writing workshop and helped me realize what we've lost with the additions of mandates and testing and units of study. It helped me remember what it is that is important. I read it quickly and want to reread it this summer to really think about the year in writing workshop and to think about joy in the writing workshop.
The others are on my stack but I haven't had much time to dit in yet.
Writers Forward by Patty McGee. I have been doing more with feedback and love the way it looks like Patty approaches it in this book. The chapters I am most excited to read are "Integrading": How to Live in a Grading World and Still Gibe Feedback and When It Is Time to Stretch and Grow: Feedback for Goal Setting. Really, when I look through the Table of Contents, they all look like fresh new thinking that will help me be a better teacher of writing.
And I love everything written by Vicki Vinton and am very excited to read her newest book, Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading. Vicki always reminds me how to let go and let the kids do the thinking and she helps me to find ways to help them read with deeper understanding. I am so excited to read her newest thinking!
And I purchased Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had by Tracy Zager in February but knew I needed to wait until summer to really dig in and start to think about next year. This book is packed with so
much that I want to give it the time and energy it deserves. I think it will be a critical book for me.
Which professional books are on your summer reading list?
I saved this song for last because, as you can hear, it is simultaneously a goodbye song and a love song to the world. The world she sings about in this song is the natural world, but it is also the world of humanity.
Malvina loved this world (these worlds) enough to fight for all she found to be right and true, using her musical and writing talents. Her name needs to be added to our list of women heroes who
Persist (like Elizabeth)
Inspire (like Malala)
Speak (like Maya)
Influence (like Sonia)
Defy (like Rosa)
Fight (like Hillary)
Empower (like Gloria)
Focus (like Michelle)
Rule (like Ruth)
Sing (like Malvina)
My poem today was doubly inspired by a month spent with Malvina and the book I'm currently listening to, The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History by Thor Hanson. My wish for the future of the human race would be that we could come to know about ourselves the things that scientists know about life in general on this planet. Maybe if we could build our human society to be in tune with the scientific principles of life, we could keep the whole planet alive.
Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.
Children's songs, songs about current events, the environment, politics, and gender inequity -- I've gotten to know Malvina Reynolds, but today's song makes me laugh. It's as though Malvina Reynolds has gotten to know ME! Add blues to her list of musical genres. My version of this song doesn't match her rhythm well enough to be sung, and I certainly could have written a more sobering and depressing version about my March, but I couldn't resist capturing a snapshot of the past couple of days.
The Fifth Grade in May Blues
Do you think you've hit bottom?
Do you think you've hit bottom?
Oh, no.
There's a bottom below.
There's a low below the low you know.
You can't imagine how far you can go...down.
Every once in awhile your lesson hits home
It clicks, it’s fun, but don’t forget...next time you’ll go...down
Do you think you've hit bottom?
Do you think you've hit bottom?
Oh, no.
There's a bottom below.
You watch the Kleenex fill up the trash can
Wash every surface with Chlorox and then (on the weekend)
you go...down
Do you think you've hit bottom?
Do you think you've hit bottom?
Oh, no.
There's a bottom below.
You’re patient and kind and your voice is kept low
You’re frustrated and angry and then you yell...you’ve gone...down
Do you think you've hit bottom?
Do you think you've hit bottom?
Oh, no.
There's a bottom below.
There's a low below the low you know.
You can't imagine how far you can go...down.
Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.
Along with all of the songs she wrote about the issues of her times (still current now), Malvina Reynolds also wrote songs for children. In the documentary Love it Like A Fool, she mentioned that it irked her that men were taken seriously when they were any age, but with her white hair and her songs for children, she became known as "The Singing Grandmother." Anyone who's been listening along through this month knows without a doubt that Malvina Reynolds was much much more than a "Singing Grandmother."
Pennies
The beaded coin purse
full of loose change,
mostly pennies,
bulged on the kitchen counter
beside the mug full of leaky pens and
pencils with dried out erasers.
In the top dresser drawer
beneath silky slips
that hadn’t been worn in decades
was stashed a plastic bag of pennies.
All wheatheads,
collected because perhaps they’d become valuable.
Mom’s laudable thrift,
learned at the knee of necessity
makes my lack of frugality
appear extravagant.
Her someday was always out of reach.
Mine jingles in my hand.
Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.
Through her music, Malvina addressed issues of diversity and collaboration, as well as economic and labor issues.
Riddle Poem
What is bigger than all its parts,
full to the brim of stops and starts,
more colorful than the boldest rainbow,
only silent when buried in snow,
less significant than it wants you to believe,
a problem to solve, a tragedy to grieve?
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.
