The Children's Baking Book

I received a review copy of THE CHILDREN'S BAKING BOOK from Dorling Kindersley this week. I cannot keep enough kids' cookbooks in the library. The kids love them and they are often checked out. My challenge is finding cookbooks with things that kids can actually make on their own. At first glance, this one looked like a great one.

Each recipe is on one two-page spread. The set-up of each spread is the same--a large photo of the item to be made, a list of ingredients and tools and step by step instructions paired with photos. There is also information for some recipe variations for each recipe. Recipes are usually 5-7 steps. The recipes are easy enough for kids to try but not so simple that they don't take some work. Included in the book are cookies, doughs, cakes and pastries. The first few pages give some tips on how to use the book and each section includes a section-specific page of tips. The directions are written simply and clearly and the photos help with the explanations.

(The only thing that is a little tricky is the fancy cursive font used in the ingredients and tools list.)

I gave the cookbook to my 10 year old last night. She woke up this morning wanting to bake. We told her that she needed to pick something she could do on her own. She has never baked anything completely on her own but she bakes with me once in a while and she has attended some great baking camps at our local bakery, OUR CUPCAKERY. So, she has a bit of experience. When she began putting sticky notes on all of the recipes she wanted to try, we laughed--there were more marked than unmarked. And I had to agree--there were many recipes that I want to try. These are definitely recipes meant for people of all ages.

Ana chose to make "Simple Sponge Cake". We agreed on the recipe but I knew she would need a bit of help. As I said, the directions are simple, but not easy. Patience in waiting for the cake to cool before she could add the filling was the biggest problem she had. Really, I didn't have to help much at all. Measuring the butter, and a few little things were all that were needed. And the cake was beautiful and delicious! (But I must admit, I didn't let her use my new mixer...)

I love this cookbook. I think I am going to have to purchase another one so that we have one at home and we have one in the library for the kids at school. I think Ana will be making lots of the recipes in the book and I feel confident that she can do them on her own AND they'll be things we can all enjoy. If I can talk her into the pizza dough, maybe she can start making dinner once in a while.

This is a great book. Great recipes and she knew that she made something good--not a little kid recipe. She worked hard but made something that we all enjoyed. Enough sophistication to the recipes with enough support for kids her age to be able to be successful. A perfect combination!

Poem #13--Definito

I never intended for my students to write a poem a day with me, but one student's idea took hold: we're writing a poem a day about each other.

Each day, we draw a name and everyone writes a poem about that person. That person writes a poem about me.

At the end of the year, we'll have a book of poems about all the members of the class. A collection of memories. Handmade heartfelt gifts to each other.

I've taught a few short forms so far: 15 Words or Less, Haiku, Limerick, Acrostic, Chain, and Free Verse. 6 forms; 6 tools in their poetry-writing toolbox. Today, after a discussion of line breaks in Free Verse, one student asked if he had to write in the form I taught. "Of course not!" I replied. "Pick the form that works for what you want to say!" And that student went off and wrote a fabulous acrostic that captured the essence of his friend.

Here's a new form for me, and one I might teach my students -- the Definito. Heidi Mordhorst invented this form back in November. It has 10 lines in 3 stanzas -- 4 lines, 4 lines, and 2 lines, ending in the word being defined.

I had blood drawn today, which is a tricky proposition since only one arm can be used, and the key vein in that arm endured chemotherapy 12 years (YAY!) ago. Only the best phlebotomists are successful drawing blood from me. Today's phlebotomist was a real pro, and this poem is his definition of what makes a true phlebotomist.

It's about the needle

and it's about the tourniquet.

It's about the alcohol

and it's about the tap-tap-tap on the vein.

It's the difference between

drawing blood as a PART of your job

and drawing blood

AS your job.

Stick-meister:

Phlebotomist.

Mirror Mirror by Marilyn Singer

I am totally fascinated by Marilyn Singer's new book MIRROR MIRROR. I love any book that takes a new twist on fairy tales. That is the first thing that drew me to this book. I was excited to find a book that looked at two sides of some of our favorite stories--and through poetry at that.

But, when I actually sat down with the book, I was blown away. Really, who can do this kind of writing? Marilyn Singer is brilliant. Not only does Marilyn Singer think about two sides of a fairy tale. Not only does she do this with poetry. But, she ALSO does them in reversible verse. Each poem is written to be read top to bottom. Then it is rewritten from bottom to top, which gives it a whole new meaning. The book flap says, "Once upon a time, Marilyn Singer wrote a poem that could be read both up and down so that it would have different meanings in each direction. Then she challenged herself to a game--could she write more poems like it?" She must have been pretty darn impressed with herself when she finished this book.

Really, this book is quite fun. I can't imagine the process that Marilyn Singer went through to create these poems. A fun challenge for a poet. (I was going to challenge Mary Lee to write a reversible poem as part of her April challenge as a joke but she actually already did:-)

I think this is a great book for every classroom and library. Kids who love fairy tales will love it. It is great as part of a poetry collection. And what an amazing mentor text--wondering how someone thinks of these things. The joy in playing with words. So many possibilities!

Poem #12--On the Way Home From School

On the way home from school

I drove past

a very recent car accident.

Pieces of bumper

were scattered

in the intersection.

A bicycle lay on its side

but the cyclist seemed

in better condition than

the driver of the

mangled car.

Emergency vehicles were not there yet

but lots of people were

milling about.

I drove slowly past

thinking about how quickly

a life can change.

Thinking about driving home

to my college dorm

after a day of student teaching.

Driving the

bright green

Chevy Monza

my dad named Kermit.

Working on memorizing a poem

as I drove.

Deliberately

pausing

at the 4-way stop at the top of the hill.

Stopping before the last line of the poem.

Saying out loud,

"I have wasted my life" *

and looking up to see

the other car

running through the stop

smashing my driver's side door

changing my life

in

an

instant.

I no longer memorize poetry

while I drive.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

* Dang. I can't find (or remember) the poem I was trying to memorize. Seems like it had the word Minnesota in it, and the speaker was lounging in a hammock. Sound familiar? I'll keep looking...

I FOUND IT!!!

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.

James Wright

COUNTDOWN (The Sixties Trilogy)

Because I am a HUGE Deborah Wiles fan, I had to have an ARC of her new book, COUNTDOWN. I have been reading so much about it and once it ended up on Betsy's very early Newbery prediction list at Fuse #8, I knew I had to have it. So, Sally at Cover to Cover let the Central Ohio begging blogger group borrow her copy. Even though I don't want to let it go because I LOVE it, I will be passing it along to Bill at Literate Lives tomorrow. I hate the fact that I'll have a few weeks without the book.

This book takes place in the early 1960s, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And although the setting and history are critical to the story, the real story is about Franny and her family. (It isn't often that I read a book with a main character named Frances, either!). As we have come to expect from Wiles, the characters are the best. Such amazing characters. Such amazing relationships and such real issues.

The brilliance in this book is the way that Wiles embedded primary source documents throughout the story of Franny. She embedded real words, photos, and more at the perfect point in the story. When I first looked through the book, I thought they might be distracting but they are placed perfectly and the pieces she's chosen help you understand exactly what the characters are going through and what those days felt like to people living through it. It is really brilliant. I didn't know much about the Cuban Missile Crisis but my thinking is that if our kids could learn history in this way, it would make so much more sense.

This book is up there as one of my favorite books of all time. If I were in a 5th or 6th grade classroom, it would definitely be on my read aloud list.

There is so much to love about the books. For me, as always, it was primarily a great story about great characters that I came to love. But the brilliance in craft was key. The documentary style pieces helped to create an understanding that readers could not have done otherwise.

The even better news than the fact that this is an amazing book is that I read that it is the first in a trilogy about the 60s. I just can't wait.

Really, this is a must, must, must read. I can so understand why Betsy included it on her Newbery list so early in the year. I am not alone in my love for this book. It has already received 3 starred reviews (Kirkus, Booklist, and the Hornbook)!!! And Monica at Educating Alice gave it a great review on her blog too. Really, go preorder one right now.

Poem #11 -- Sunday Night Inertia

Bees have no problem

Leaving work for tomorrow.

Tonight I'm a bee.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

Poetry and the SMART Board--Part 2

We had a great time with Poetry and the SMART Board with 1st Graders today. One of my favorite books for young children (and everyone else) is TANKA TANKA SKUNK! by Steve Webb. This book is great fun--it invites word play and chanting. The kids love to chant and clap along to the rhythm of the words. Since I only have a short time with the kids, the things we do are quick. We read TANKA TANKA SKUNK! which they already love. Then we used the SMART Board and sorted the students names into 1, 2 and 3 syllable columns. Each name immediately became an object that we could move around the board.

Because there are so many repeated words in TANKA TANKA SKUNK!, I taught the kids to duplicate and we wrote our own versions of a piece of the chant. A new chant that followed the rhythm of their favorite page. We used students' names--plugging them in where they would work to meet the rhythm. The kids had a ball and it was interesting to see kids enter at different places. For some kids, syllabication is just starting to make sense. For others, they loved the challenge of figuring out all of the possibilities for filling in a spot in the chant.

Again, I left the board filled with names available during choice time in the library. Kids had a great time using the names to create their own rhythms using TANKA TANKA SKUNK! as a model.

Now it is time to find other ways to increase the power of these shared reading experiences with the SMART Board. As these words and illustrations become movable objects, kids can do such amazing works using the SMARTBoard as a tool. Again, the power really came when the kids were using the board without me. After I model a few options for them to begin, I can see them using it in lots of ways during choice time in the library.

Poem #10 -- Life Lesson

Be careful when

indulging in

extravagant

self

pity.

The Universe

is more than glad

to give a new

per-

spective.

A hole in your

hot water tank...

now there's a REAL

life

worry.

photo and poem by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

I played with rhythm today.

Seemed appropriate since the hot water tank played with the rhythm of my LIFE.

Poetry and the SMART Board

We are getting ready to have the SMART Board in the library moved to a different location so we haven't used it much. But this week, the 2nd and 3rd graders used it for Poetry Writing and revision. What a powerful tool for Writing Workshop. I can see the possibilities of a SMART Board in a workshop classroom.

Today, I taught a lesson similar to lessons I've taught before. I think I originally got the idea from Georgia Heard, author of FOR THE GOOD OF EARTH AND SUN. She suggests a collaborative poem and I have always found the lesson to be a powerful one--one that really moved kids in their poetry writing strategies. This is a whole group lesson in which everyone contributes a line or phrase about something that is common--the morning, a tree, an experience--something that everyone can write about. You can get the phrases in several ways. Everyone can write a bit about the topic and then choose a line they love. Or they can just brainstorm lines. There are several ways. Following the sharing of lines, everyone can use the common language to create a poem. It is always amazing how different each poem is when they all come from the same list of words.

Well, the SMART Board made this lesson far more powerful than it's ever been. Taught so much about poetry but also gave such great messages about revision and playing with language. One group wrote about our school's courtyard. We looked at it for a while and came up with phrases of things we noticed. Anyone who had a line to contribute to the SMART Board did so. I typed them as kids shared. One class came up with this list:

benches waiting for people
the trees are moving all around
a nest in a tree is in a battle for life or death
bushes barely moving
there is a birdhouse
colorful
shrubs weeping
tulips peeking
I saw a splash of pink and yellow
red, yellow, pink
the tree is waving hi

We then played with the lines, combining them in different ways to create different poems. Since each line automatically became a text box, I typed the lines on the left side of the board. They could be easily dragged over to the right side in any order, thus creating a poem. The end poem that this class came up with, using these words as an anchor was:

Plants

the trees are moving all around
bushes barely moving
splashes of green
shrubs weeping
and
tulips peeking

This whole lesson took less than 15 minutes.

My favorite part was the work that happened after the lesson. I left the page up with the lines available for students who wanted to play with the words a bit more. About 4-5 kids per class (many from our SMART Board Team) chose to continue the work with poetry on the SMART Board. They discovered more about spacing, white space, adding and deleting words, etc. One group decided to begin a whole new poem--using the colored markers to add new phrases. The SMART Board allowed for great revision play and word play--which is exactly how we want writing to feel. This lesson is an old one and the use of the SMART Board was nothing that exciting. But the tool did invite some amazing collaboration and because I have taught similar lessons many, many times over the year, I was amazed at how the use of the SMART Board really lifted the level of collaboration as well as the willingness to play with the language to create something new. And, in the process, they also learned so much about the workings of the Board itself--the problem solving was fun to watch as they discovered new things and gave things a try.

Poem #9 -- More About Those Xs

photo by sczoron

Second grader came up to me

on the playground yesterday,

"Teacher, Teacher! There are so many Xs in the sky!"

I looked up,

and there were two immense contrails

making a huge X in the sky.

And then I turned and saw another...and another...and another...

five Xs in the blue spring sky.

I asked him how he thought they got there

and he said something about airplanes,

but I said I thought a leprechaun put them there

(X marks the spot for treasure)

and he ran off yelling about Xs

and treasure

and I was the rich one.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

I wrote about this yesterday in haiku form. Today's poem is actually the text of an email to a friend telling the whole story. Because she loved it so much (especially the last line), I decided to make it into its own poem.

The Poetry Friday Roundup today is at Paper Tigers.

Here's a reprint of a bunch of the Kidlitosphere (and other assorted) NaPoMo projects that I'm following:

Gregory K. is once again hosting 30 Poets/30 Days with previously unpublished poems by favorite children's authors.

Tricia Stohr-Hunt is interviewing 30 children's poets, beginning with Mary Ann Hoberman, the US Children's Poet Laureate. The Poetry Makers list is stellar!

Jone MacCulloch shares Thirty Days, Thirty Students, Thirty Poems: original poems by students.

Jama Rattigan is posting original poems & favorite recipes by some of the Poetry Friday regulars.

At A Wrung Sponge, Andromeda is writing a "haiga" (photo and haiku) each day. Her photography is simply stunning. The haikus are amazing, too!

Kelly Fineman at Writing and Ruminating will continue the Building a Poetry Collection series she began last year -- selecting a poem a day in a kind of personal Poetry Tag (see Sylvia Vardell's version below) and providing analysis. I call this The University of Kelly Fineman because I learn so much in each post!

Sylvia Vardell is inviting poets to play Poetry Tag. She will invite poets to "play" along by offering a poem for readers to enjoy, then she will "tag" a poet who shares her/his own poem THAT IS CONNECTED to the previous poem in SOME way—by a theme, word, idea, tone-- and offers a sentence or two explaining that connection. What a creative idea!

Laura at Author Amok is highlighting the poets laureate of all 50 states this month...well, all the ones that have a poet laureate... Fun Fun!

Laura Salas is posting a children's poem per day from a poetry book she loves.

Lee Wind is publishing many new Teen voices during April for National Poetry Month. GLBTQ Teen Poetry.

Bud the Teacher gives a picture prompt every day during April and invites readers to post the poem it inspires in the comments of his blog.

ORIGINAL POEM-A-DAY CHALLENGE

Checks these blogs daily for new original poems by the following people:

Susan Taylor Brown

Jone MacCulloch

Elizabeth Moore

April Halprin Wayland

Liz Scanlon

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

If I missed your project, please let me know and I'll add it to my list!

Poem #8 -- When Recess Duty Becomes a Blessing in Disguise: A Haiku

photo by FrancoisRoche

Teacher, Teacher! Look!

There's lots of Xs in the sky!

How did they get there?!?

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

Poem #7 Read Aloud Revelation--A Metaphor Poem

Metaphors are wiley creatures,

Usually only found by teachers.

Today one let us glimpse its glory:

"All I'm saying is your life's a story."

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

Background:

My fourth graders are reading along as I read aloud 43 Old Cemetery Road, Book One: Dying to Meet You by Kate Klise and illustrated by M. Sarah Klise. (I reviewed it here.) If you know the "Regarding the..." series by the Klise sisters, you have an idea what this book is like -- told entirely through letters, newspaper pages, documents, etc.

Back bulletin board in our classroom:

Currently devoted to similes, metaphors, and idioms written on sentence strips along with a hodge-podge collection of common and uncommon homophones and homographs written on index cards.

Blurted out yesterday during read aloud:

"I think I hear a metaphor!"

The passage containing the metaphor:

"All I'm saying is that your life is a story, and that you are the main character of that story. Is your story a comedy or a tragedy? Is it dull? Or is is a compelling, spine-tingling drama? My point, Iggy, is simply that each of us is the author of his or her own life. So if you're telling me that you've changed, I'm pleased at your authorship."

Poem #6 -- REVERSO!

Back in March, I wrote this Samantha Bennett (That Workshop Book) quote in my writer's notebook:

"When we are thoughtful about the way the day begins and ends, so much more is possible in the middle."

I can't remember where I saw it -- Creative Literacy? Authentic Learner? The blog of someone who was/is reading it in a group or for a class. I wrote it down because I've struggled all my livelong career with the routines at both ends of the school day -- especially the end. So many days end in a whirlwind rush that leaves me exhausted and crabby. I'm constantly working to calm the end of the day down. I've got read aloud tucked in at the very end of the day now, and I like ending our day with our knees pulled together in a tight circle as we share our thoughts around the book we're reading together.

At any rate, operating on the principle that sometimes all it takes to be a poem is short lines, I wrote the quote this way:

When we are thoughtful

about the way the day

begins

and

ends,

so much more is possible

in the middle.

I'm not sure what made me read it from the bottom up. Maybe it's because I've been so fascinated recently with Marilyn Singer's poems in Mirror, Mirror. It made a little bit of sense read bottom to top, so I played around with it and got these two poems. They're a bit clunky, but it was a thrill to even come close on such a complicated form!

In the middle

so much more is possible.

Ending

and

beginning

a day is

when we are thoughtful.

When we are thoughtful,

a day is

beginning

and

ending

so much. More is possible

in the middle.

Poem #5 -- Visitor

If not for Girl Scout cookie sales,

She wouldn't come back to see me,

Wouldn't come telling her theater tales,

Wouldn't help bring back the memory

Of times when life was easier:

A whole world contained in one room

With one set of memories linked to one teacher.

From across my desk, I watch her bloom.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

KITCHENAID

Kohl's was having a sale and
I wanted a new mixer.
The one I received as a wedding present twenty plus years ago
Could no longer keep up with my baking.
Happy Birthday to me! (from my parents:-)
Everyone had suggestions on what to bake first with the
New red mixer. We decided on cupcakes from
A favorite baking blog
I follow.
Delicious!

Poem #4 -- The Last Day of Spring Break

Reality hits.

Back to work: grading, planning.

The end is in sight.

This haiku goes out to all the teachers who today will drag out the bag of school work they brought home and do at least a little bit of it. It even goes out to those amazing souls who didn't start their vacation until they had everything in place for the first week back. They, too, will have to set their alarm tonight for the first time in a week.

Poem #3 -- Abecedarian Cupcake Lessons

ABECEDARIAN CUPCAKE LESSONS

After

Baking dozens of

Cupcakes this week, I've learned a few Life Lessons:

Delight in the process as much as the product.

Each ingredient is as important as the next.

Forget about the clock,

Go with the flow,

Have fun.

Improvise

Joyously (and cover your mistakes with frosting).

Keep working until the

Last bowl is clean and dry and back on the shelf.

Measure ingredients with precision, but do

Not forget that there are times when

Observation is more

Powerful than

Quantifiable amounts or

Results.

Stop

Tasting the frosting when buttercream becomes

Unremarkable.

Value your

Work enough to make the

eXtra effort worth the time

You put into the project. Be

Zealous, but never a zealot.

cupcakes, photos and poem by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

Poem #2 -- Learning

photo by: Riviera Fitness Centerpoint, AL

LEARNING CURVE: SPINNING CLASS

Week One:

Fell off the bike.

(You can't coast.

She told us that.

I tried anyway.)

Week Two:

Couldn't keep up.

(My legs burned.

Sweat poured.)

Week Three:

Stayed on the bike.

Stayed with the class.

Went shopping for cycling shorts.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

The rest of the story: didn't buy cycling shorts, but after Week Four can tell a difference in my kick when I swim my mile. The best of the story: did a two-hour ride yesterday on a moving bicycle in the sun under the bright blue April sky along the river. The thrill of classroom learning pales in comparison to the application of learning in the real world.

The Poetry Friday roundup this week is at Book Aunt.

Poem #1 -- Teaching

photo by Creativity+ Timothy K. Hamilton

YOU ARE A TEACHER

You are a teacher

a believer in potential

a guide

a mentor to children of many backgrounds

and diverse cultures.

You lead them

and love them

and you seek to send them

on the most beautiful path they can walk.

Who is guiding you?

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

(found poem -- in an ad for Alma Flor Ada's Smiles and Butterflies newsletter)

March Mosaic

March's mosaic features lots of small surprises: a tail and a nose peeking from under birthday wrap, a ladybug walking across the snow, a hawk in the tree across the street, the first spring blooms, geese on a rooftop, tree trunks that look like elephant legs, goldfish in a TV set.

Every month, I've got lots of snapshots and only a few really well-composed, crisply focused photographs. I'm pretty sure that's what it will be like when I roll out April's 30 poems -- there are bound to be some lame clunkers, but I'm hoping for a few I can really be proud of.

Here's the schedule of Poetry Month Events around the Kidlitosphere:

Gregory K. will once again host 30 Poets/30 Days with previously unpublished poems by favorite children's authors.

Tricia Stohr-Hunt will interview 30 children's poets, beginning with Mary Ann Hoberman, the US Children's Poet Laureate. The Poetry Makers list is stellar!

Jone MacCulloch shares Thirty Days, Thirty Students, Thirty Poems: original poems by students. Jone will also again offer the Poetry Postcard Project where original student poems are sent out on decorated postcards. Request yours now.

Jama Rattigan is posting original poems & favorite recipes by some of the Poetry Friday regulars.

At A Wrung Sponge, Andromeda will share a "haiga" (photo and haiku) each day.

Kelly Fineman at Writing and Ruminating will continue the Building a Poetry Collection series she began last year -- selecting a poem a day in a kind of personal Poetry Tag (see Sylvia Vardell's version below) and providing analysis. I call this The University of Kelly Fineman because I learn so much in each post!

Sylvia Vardell will be inviting poets to play Poetry Tag. She will invite poets to "play" along by offering a poem for readers to enjoy, then she will "tag" a poet who shares her/his own poem THAT IS CONNECTED to the previous poem in SOME way—by a theme, word, idea, tone-- and offers a sentence or two explaining that connection. The poets have responded enthusiastically: J. Patrick Lewis, X. J. Kennedy, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Avis Harley, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Joyce Sidman, and more!

Laura at Author Amok is highlighting the poets laureate of all 50 states this month! Fun Fun!

Laura Salas will post a children's poem per day from a poetry book she loves.

Lee Wind is publishing many new Teen voices during April for National Poetry Month. GLBTQ Teen Poetry.

ORIGINAL POEM-A-DAY CHALLENGE

Checks these blogs daily for new original poems by the following people:

Susan Taylor Brown

Andromeda Jazmon

Jone MacCulloch

Elizabeth Moore

April Halprin Wayland

Liz Scanlon

Blog Vacation

For the first time in four years, we're taking a vacation from the blog during our spring break from school. We're setting aside our day jobs and our joint hobby so that we can:

plan our presentations for WLU and Choice Literacy
do taxes
make 90 90th birthday cupcakes
shop for a new kitchen floor
read
read some more
spend time with friends

work on final paper for library course
breakfast and lunch with friends
plan some summer workshops
read
exercise
put lotion on my face twice a day
shop
get a few rooms clean
try to figure out Evernote

Mary Lee will be back with her Poetry Month Original Poem-a-Day About Teaching Or Learning on April 1, and we'll be both be back to work and to the blog on Monday, April 5.

Poetry Friday -- Cake

three-layer from-scratch chocolate cake by Mary Lee Hahn...so's the photo

From CHOCOLATE CAKE

by Michael Rosen

(the whole poem is here)

...you know how the icing on top
is all shiny and it cracks as you
bite into it,
and there's that other kind of icing in
the middle
and it sticks to your hands and you
can lick your fingers
and lick your lips
oh it's lovely.
yeah.

Anyway,
once we had this chocolate cake for tea
and later I went to bed
but while I was in bed
I found myself waking up
licking my lips
and smiling.
I woke up proper.
'The chocolate cake.'
It was the first thing
I thought of.

I could almost see it
so I thought,
what if I go downstairs
and have a little nibble, yeah?

It was all dark
everyone was in bed
so it must have been really late
but I got out of bed,
crept out of the door

there's always a creaky floorboard, isn't there?

Past Mum and Dad's room,
careful not to tread on bits of broken toys
or bits of Lego
you know what it's like treading on Lego
with your bare feet,

yowwww
shhhhhhh

downstairs
into the kitchen
open the cupboard
and there it is
all shining.

So I take it out of the cupboard
put it on the table
and I see that
there's a few crumbs lying about on the plate,
so I lick my finger and run my finger all over the crumbs
scooping them up
and put them into my mouth.

oooooooommmmmmmmm

nice.

Then
I look again
and on one side where it's been cut,
it's all crumbly.

So I take a knife
I think I'll just tidy that up a bit,
cut off the crumbly bits
scoop them all up
and into the mouth

oooooommm mmmm
nice.

Look at the cake again.

That looks a bit funny now,
one side doesn't match the other
I'll just even it up a bit, eh?

You know the rest, right? Go ahead and admit it, you've straightened up your share of cakes in your life!!! :-)

Today, the first day of spring break, in between reading poetry posts, I'll be baking this cake for a friend's birthday party tonight. The roundup is at The Drift Record this week.

ToonDoo Spaces

My fourth graders have been creating cartoons at school and at home in our password protected ToonDoo Space for several months now. It has given them an alternative way to publish their writing in a "public" space where their classmates can comment on their work. They have made toons about themselves, about their theme, about how to have good sportsmanship in P.E., about their cat, and about books they've read. They've made up stories about ninjas, space travel, the Oscars, superheroes, and the Olympics.

We've had great conversations about Internet safety, commenting etiquette, and appropriate social networking behavior.

Recently, the staff at ToonDoo Spaces asked if my class would create a testimonial for them to run on a loop in their booth at a conference in Singapore. When I pitched the idea to the class, the response was a unanimous "YES!"

Each child created three slides in Keynote, created some toons especially for their slides, and worked to clearly communicate what they like best about ToonDoo. Having an authentic audience outside of our class lifted the level of their work in a way I never would have expected.

My favorite story from our testimonial project is the slide that shows the graph. The student who created it found a slide with a placeholder graph in the masters for the theme he had chosen. He was going to use that slide in his set. "You can't use that slide," I told him. "That's fake data. That doesn't say anything real about ToonDoo. If you want to have a graph, you have to gather some data."

So he did.

He interviewed the class, tallied up his results, went back to the slide with the graph, and with just a little help from me, got it to show his REAL data. How often do we get to hand a child a challenge that perfectly matches their skills and their will to meet or exceed our expectations?

Fun stuff.

Here is a short version of what we sent to our ToonDoo friends:

Artsy-Fartsy

Artsy-Fartsy

by Karla Oceanak

illustrated by Kendra Spanjer

Bailiwick Press, 2009

review copy provided by the publisher

Greg Heffley and Ellie McDoodle, move over -- Aldo Zelnick is here!

Aldo's grandmother, an artist, gives him a sketchbook at the beginning of summer break so he can keep track of all his artsy-fartsy ideas. Aldo does plenty of sketching, but he's also interested in words, thanks to his neighbor (a retired English teacher), Mr. Mot. It's Mr. Mot who gets Aldo started keeping track of all the interesting "A" words he uses, beginning with "artsy-fartsy". There's even a word gallery at the end of the book with all of Aldo's "A" words. Most of the words are defined (except for words like "antidisestablishmentarianism," which he has no idea what it means but likes it because it's so long), and some are illustrated (like the toilet beside "ad nauseum").

In this first book in the series, we meet 10 year-old Aldo's family -- his grandmother the painter, his mother the birder, his father, whose hobby is baking, and his 14 year-old athletic brother. Aldo's best friend Jack is a rock hound. They all live in Colorado.

Aldo and Jack make a fort at the edge of the park near their house, under a big blue spruce whose branches grow almost all the way to the ground. Aldo leaves his notebook in a crook of the branches. When he comes back, he finds drawings in his notebook! Someone has found their fort, found his notebook, and DRAWN IN IT!

Finding the culprit (who strikes again at least once more) is the main story line in ARTSY-FARTSY, but there are plenty of entertaining sub-stories. In one, Aldo, who would rather watch TV and play video games, is forced to play baseball. It starts badly (and humorously) but has a surprising turn in the end.

Aldo is a character I like a lot, and I think kids will like, too. The second book in the series, BOGUS, is due out this spring, and promises to be filled with "more hand-drawn comics, rock-candy B words, and accounts of his everyday adventures." Looks like Aldo's dad's baking will be a key part of the story in BOGUS.

Feeding the Sheep

Feeding the Sheep

by Leda Schubert

illustrated by Andrea U'Ren

Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010

review copy provided by the publisher

This is a seemingly simple story with lots going on. A great book to read and re-read, over and over.

On one level, it's the story of how a sweater gets made, from the feeding of the sheep, to the shearing, cleaning, drying, carding, spinning, dying, and finally the knitting.

It's also a story with satisfying repetition. "What are you doing?" the little girl asks, over and over again, and her mother patiently tells her each time.

It's is a story that has a rhyming phrase on every page of text: "Snowy day, corn and hay," when the sheep are being fed; "Deepest blue, messy brew," when the wool is being dyed.

There are lots of parallel stories going on in the pictures of this book -- what are the dog and cat doing? Is the crow in every picture? Does the little girl ever slow down and rest? (Yes, and the reader takes a deep cleansing breath along with the mother in the full page spread midway through the book where dog, cat and little girl are all quietly napping!)

And this is a story about farm life throughout the seasons. Careful attention to the details in the pictures reveals that the seasons are changing from winter to spring, summer, and fall. It's snowing again by the time the little girl is wearing her new sweater and feeding the sheep for herself.

Like I said, seemingly simple, but with LOTS going on. Dare you to read through it just once!!

Congratulations, Philippa Stratton--NCTE's Outstanding Language Arts Educator

I was thrilled when I heard that Philippa Stratton is this year's Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts. This award is given each year by NCTE's Elementary Section Steering Committee. The recipient is celebrated at the Annual Convention's Elementary Get-Together--a great way to kick-off the conference each year.

Every year, when the NCTE Outstanding Language Arts Educator is named by the Elementary Steering Committee, I want to cheer! Every one of them has impacted my learning and thinking in some way. We are so lucky in the field of elementary literacy to learn from so many amazing people.

This year's award winner, Philippa Stratton, is the editorial director at Stenhouse Publishers. We LOVE Philippa. Mary Lee and I both know her through our work with Stenhouse but, before we began writing and before we knew Philippa, we learned so much because of all that she did for our learning as teachers. The announcement on the NCTE website states, "In many ways, Philippa essentially created the idea of the 'professional book' for teachers, an innovation that has had an enormous impact on how teachers learn and view themselves as professionals for nearly three decades." Philippa has worked with many authors including Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins, Ralph Fletcher, Georgia Heard, Harvey Daniels, Stephanie Harvey, Marie Clay, and Regie Routman.

Anyone who has worked with Philippa feels very lucky to have worked with her. She seems to bring out the best in people and has worked her whole life to bring the voices of teachers out into the world. Her belief in teachers and teachers as learners and professionals drives all that she does. And the philosophy she has about classrooms is clear in all of her work. If you have ever read a professional book, you've most likely been impacted by Philippa. I have learned more from professional books and teacher-authors than I have learned from anything else throughout my teaching career. Before Twitter and Facebook, these professional books connected me with the people who were thinking about the same things I was thinking about in the classroom. These professional authors became my first Professional Learning Network--one that I continue to rely on.

Can you imagine the world as teachers without professional books as we know them? Can you imagine your classroom without the influence of people like Regie Routman, Donald Graves, Lucy Calkins and Ralph Fletcher? Can you imagine your professional life without the anticipation of the next professional book that will help you grow as a teacher? I certainly can't. Philippa has had an incredible influence on my work and the work of almost every teacher I know. Her work has helped us stay grounded in what we believe and helped us to trust ourselves as learners and professionals for the last 3 decades.

I can't wait to join in the celebration at NCTE's Annual Convention in Orlando this coming November! I am pretty sure it will be a standing-room-only event!

I'm Gonna Verse You!

POETRY MONTH

I'll verse you in checkers,

I'll verse you in chess.

It's me versus you

to see who's the best.

I'll verse you with verses

I'll write one a day

It's me versus verses:

You observe while I play.

by Mary Lee Hahn, copyright 2010

I can't quite believe I'm going to do this: I'm challenging myself to write a poem a day about teaching and/or learning during Poetry Month (April). If so many of you can do a Slice of Life every day in March, surely I can write something that will pass for poetry every day in April!

You can be a casual observer, you can join Franki and put on a cheerleading skirt, or you can verse me and write your own poem about teaching and/or learning. I'll post it here, or link to your post.

Stacy has the roundup today at Some Novel Ideas.

The Night Fairy

The Night Fairy

by Laura Amy Schlitz

illustrated by Angela Barrett

Candlewick, 2010

review copy provided by the publisher

I wish I could send this book back to my 9 year-old self. I would have loved everything about it -- its small size, its thick pages, the shimmery end papers, the illustrations, the dedication to ME!!! ("This one is for Mary Lee..."). I would have set aside THE BORROWERS (after all, I would have been in my 10th or 12th reading of it) and made a space in my imagination for fairies. Flory, the spunky, prideful, demanding, brave night fairy whose wings are accidentally (we find out later) crunched by a brown bat, would have become one of my Favorite Characters Of All Time.

The garden in this book would have been as exotic to me as a night fairy who learns to survive without wings. I grew up in a small town in a very dry region out west, and although we had trees and green grass in town, I never experienced lushness until I was an exchange student to Germany in high school. There were only a few squirrels in our town at that time (living in the big old elms near the elementary school in the center of town) and I had never seen a hummingbird like the one Flory so wants to ride, nor a preying mantis like the one she fends off with a big thorn.

I smile to think about my young self reading this book, because I envision my old self as the old woman who tends the garden. I'm pretty sure young me couldn't have imagined growing up to become that old woman! My garden isn't as big as the one in this book, but it's got the squirrels, the flowering tree, the bird feeder, hummingbirds that visit, if not nest, and occasionally a preying mantis. And I like to think there's a spot out there where a night fairy could survive until her wings grew back.

The Night Fairy Website

Other reviews:

Book Aunt

Fuse #8

Educating Alice

The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary by Jeff Kinney

We are having a Selections Book Fair at our school this week. What great timing because today, the newest book-THE WIMPY KID MOVIE DIARY by Jeff Kinney was released! Love having a hot-off-the-press book! Especially this one.

I have to admit that I have not read all of the books in this series. To keep up with reading for a K-5 library, I tend to only read 1-2 books in most series. I've read one to two and enjoyed them. But this book is different and I think it is my absolute favorite!

This is not really a book about Greg. Not totally. Instead, in this book, Jeff Kinney tells about the process of turning his book into the upcoming DIARY OF A WIMPY KID movie. I have not yet read the book--it just arrived at 2:30 Tuesday. But, I did spend lots of time looking through it and I am really excited about the possibilities.

To have a resource like this about how a movie is made--what could be better? I have been doing a bit with movie-making, stop motion, etc. in the library and kids are doing amazing things. This new Wimpy Kid book will be a fun addition to the things we know about movie-making.

The book begins at the beginning and how Jeff Kinney created the book. Actual journal pages and drawings are included. It also tells the story of how the actor who plays Greg, got the part. Then the story goes on from there.

This book is packed--199 pages packed--with color photos, pages from scripts, call sheets, Jeff Kinney's illustrations and more. Whether you are a fan of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series or not, this is a GREAT book!

So far, my favorite pages are pages 40-43 where we learn the secret of the moldy cheese in the movie. I won't give away the movie secret but you will definitely want to read those pages soon after you get this book.

I am excited to dig into this book and read it cover to cover. So many great pieces to share with kids about the characters, the process of this movie and movie-making in general. I imagine we'll see a lot of transfer from this book to the kinds of possibilities our kids see in their own movie making.

I CAN HELP by David Hyde Costello

I picked up I CAN HELP by David Hyde Costello at Cover to Cover yesterday. What a great book for new readers. I am always looking for books that new readers can read on their own but I am picky about them. I want the story to be good and the pictures to be important and I want these simple beginning books to be books worth reading. Well, this one certainly is.

The book is filled with simple, repetitive text. On each page, an animal needs help and another animal offers to help. The book is filled with simple dialogue between characters. For example, when the monkey is falling from the tree:
Uh-oh. I am falling
I can help.
Thank you, giraffe

This is a great book. Illustrations tell a great story and the surprise ending made me laugh out loud. I just wasn't expecting it and it is very cute!

This is a great book for reading aloud to young children and also for K-1 classrooms. Perfect for kids just learning to read.

Trust That Your Child Will Make it Through That Reading Phase

As a parent, you will only live through your child's fourth grade year one time. As a teacher, I've lived through fourth grade more than 20 times. Trust me when I tell you that in almost every case, your child will make it through "That Reading Phase."

Some children come into fourth grade, find the graphic novels in the classroom or school library, and proceed to exist on a reading diet comprised almost exclusively of graphic novels. You might think your child will never read a book with pages full of text, but what you're missing is that your child is reading voraciously. And in about January or February, your child will be full to the brim of graphic novels and ready to try some of the other books that the teacher or his/her friends recommend.

Other children come into fourth grade and pick right up with the series they were reading in 3rd grade: Geronimo Stilton or Magic Tree House or Rotten School. That's fine. That's why I have these comfortable, familiar friends in my classroom library. I also have a few books in lots of other series so that when they're ready, I can introduce them to new characters who will become comfortable, familiar friends. I don't have a problem with readers who love a series. Lots of adults are series readers. But it is my goal in fourth grade to teach children the strategies they will need to choose a stand-alone book and enjoy characters and stories on a one-book basis. I model this during read aloud time when as a class we enjoy a book together. Parents can help to balance a series reader's reading diet by reading aloud to their child.

Many children come into fourth grade lacking the reading stamina it takes to sit still and concentrate for 30 or more minutes of silent reading. They read picture books and browse the nonfiction books and I despair that they will ever sit still for anything longer than 32 pages of words and pictures. But then March rolls around, and I look up from my desk and there they are, thoroughly engrossed in THE YEAR OF THE DOG, and hoping that I have THE YEAR OF THE RAT for them to read next, and excited to hear about WHERE THE MOUNTAIN MEETS THE MOON.

One of the things that works in favor of prying your child out of "That Reading Phase" is that in fourth grade, the social nature of reading starts to catch up with their reading ability. They want to read the books that are being made into movies, and they want to read the books that their friends are recommending. They love to talk about books and have opinions about books. Fourth grade is a perfect time to start a parent/child reading club with some of your child's friends. If you start reading and discussing books with your child now, you will open doors for conversations you never would have been able to have without the help of the story or the characters in the books.

If your child is currently in a reading phase that you are feeling will never end, try to relax and live with it for a few more months. Keep them reading and reading and reading, even if it's not the kind of book you want them to to be reading for the rest of their lives, or even a year from now. Take them to the library and require them to bring home a variety of genres. Listen to books on tape in the car. And finally, remember that your child will never get too old for read aloud. One of the best gifts you can give to your child is to read to them from both the books they love and the ones you love.

This post is a part of Share a Story, Shape a Future, an annual blog event to promote literacy, celebrate books, and provide resources for parents, teachers, and readers everywhere. This year's theme was "It Takes a Village to Raise a Reader."

Each day a different kidlitosphere blogger served as host for the posting of several other bloggers. Visit the host blogs' sites to find a complete blog roll for each day.

March 8th: The Many Faces of Reading

Host: Terry Doherty at Scrub-A-Dub-Tub

Topics of the day encompassed the relationship aspect of helping children learn to read: parent-child and teacher-parent partnerships, literacy outreach; and libraries, to name a few.

March 9th: Literacy My Way/Literacy Your Way

Host: Susan Stephenson at The Book Chook

Creative literacy in all its forms (writing, art, computers) was the topic of the day.

March 10th: Just the Facts: The Nonfiction Book Hook

Host: Sarah Mulhern at The Reading Zone

This was the day for exploring the different genres of nonfiction (biography and memoir, science, nature, math, etc), as well as the use (or not) of historical fiction.

March 11th: Reading Through the Ages: Old Faves & New Classics

Host: Donalyn Miller at The Book Whisperer

Bloggers shared thematic book lists that include newer titles and the classics we loved as kids.

March 12th: Reading for the Next Generation

Host: Jen Robinson at Jen Robinson's Book Page

On this day, talk is about how to approach reading when your interests and your child's don't match. It may be that you don't like to read but your child does, how to raise the reader you're not, and dealing with the "pressure" of feeling forced to read.


** The Share a Story, Shape a Future logo was created by Elizabeth Dulemba, children's book author and illustrator, and SaS/SaF contributor.

Book Fair-Better Than Working In an Ice Cream Shop

This week, we are hosting a Selections Book Fair at our school. I cannot say enough about the amazing selection of books that they provide for a book fair. And I was able to add several of the titles that kids are currently excited about. The library is filled with kids' favorite characters and authors. It is also filled with new books, ready to be discovered. The excitement is nonstop.

When I first took the job as librarian at an elementary school, Lester Laminack told me that I would love it--that it would be like working in an ice-cream shop and that every day, I would be making people happy. A good comparison, I thought. I think of this chat with Lester often and I was reminded of it again today. The looks on the kids' faces when they enter the book fair are no different than I imagine they would be if they were entering an ice cream shop. They are beside themselves with excitement. I must admit that by 1:00 each day, I am wiped out. 25 excited children every hour for several days in a row and I need some extra caffeine to keep up.


This is the perfect time of the year for a Book Fair. A change of pace and scenery is such fun. Anticipating spring reading is also fun. But I forget my favorite part about book fair. I love listening in on the kids when they shop. I love this week because it gives me a break in routine to really listen in and to notice things that I don't often have time to notice as we rush through 45 minute classes. I notice the ways so many of them are talking about books! I loved that a child who didn't know many books or book characters not too long ago, screams across the library, "Mrs. Sibberson--is this the new Mo Willems book?" when he notices CAT THE CAT. I love watching a child sit on the floor for 35 minutes straight reading the new Babymouse book cover to cover, thrilled to have discovered one she hasn't read and looking up every so often to make sure no one will stop her reading. I love seeing fans of THE LIGHTNING THIEF hover around a new graphic novel about Zeus and looking at the back cover to see that there are more in the series about Greek Mythology. And I love that two older girls found a book they had never heard of (I hadn't either) but previewed together and are now dying to read it. It reminds them of one of their favorite authors and they are anticipating finding another author to love.

There is nothing like the anticipation of reading a great book. I think that is what book fair is about this week. Kids know that whether they buy a book or not, we will get many of these new books for our library.

Really, Lester's thinking about an ice cream shop rang so true today. The thing about ice cream is that it is gone after a few minutes. But a good book? Not so much.

Dying To Meet You

Dying to Meet You (43 Old Cemetery Road: Book One)

by Kate Klise

illustrated by Sarah Klise

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., 2009

review copy provided by the publisher

I love the Regarding the.... series by the Klise sisters, but sadly, I have never been able to get my fourth graders to share my love. I think I'll try this book as my next shared read aloud, and then we'll see if I can hook some readers into the Regarding the... series! (or at least the second book of this series -- Over My Dead Body)

Dying To Meet You is written like the Regarding the.... series, billing itself as "a collection of actual letter and documents written over the course of one summer and pertaining to the strange events that took place in a certain house located at 43 Old Cemetery Road in an otherwise quiet town called Ghastly, Illinois." As in the Regarding the.... books, the reader has to make lots of inferences, but the pages aren't quite so packed with information that might be pertinent to the story (or that might be there just to amuse the reader). The story line is more straight forward, and the letters and documents are more clearly linked.

A famous children's author moves into a Victorian mansion to finish the book he's working on. Unfortunately, he has a bad case of writer's block, and also unfortunately, he finds that the mansion is already occupied by a ghost and an 11 year-old boy who has been mostly abandoned by his globe-trotting parents. The writer, the ghost and the boy are at odds at first, but wind up working together towards a common goal.

One of my favorite things about this book are the puns with the names: Ghastly, Illinois; a children's book writer named I. B. Grumply; Anita Sale, a real estate agent; E. Gadds, a lawyer. And on, and on.

A very fun read for 3rd-6th graders.

Reviews: 100 Scope Notes, Dr. Quinn's Book Blog, TheHappyNappyBookseller, Literate Lives.

Kate and Sarah Klise's website.