CAKE POPS: Can You Believe I Made These?

This post is dedicated to my friend Lori Sabo (Lori's Lessons) who inspires me to make things!

Can you believe I made these????

One of my summer goals is to learn to bake some new things.  This week, my daughter and I tried a new lemon cupcake recipe (which was delicious) and we made our first batch of Cake Pops.  My daughter made them at a baking camp last year and we loved them. I later discovered the Bakerella blog which I visit often as well as the accompanying book, Cake Pops:  Tips, Tricks and Recipes for More Than 40 Irresistible Mini Treats, both by Angie Dudley.

I absolutely love this book--these fun cake pops have so many possibilities and the author makes it so easy to learn to do them. I figured that it would take a few batches before mine were presentable, but they worked the first time.  We definitely made the basic cake pops for our first try but with the presentation tips that Bakerealla includes in the book, we created a very fun treat to give away or to serve. This time, we used chocolate cake with basic sprinkles. We tried a few kinds of sprinkles--some worked better than others.  But we have a plan for our next batch and I feel confident that I could make these for a future event.

If you are looking for fun things to try this summer, I would definitely recommend this book. The product is a fun one (although they do take a bit of time) and it was a fun project to do together.  Hopefully, I'll attempt one of the more complex cake pops later this summer, but for now, I am happy to have this new fun treat on my list of things to bake!

#bookaday -- Two (more) For My Classroom Library

Cinderella Smith
by Stephanie Barden
illustrated by Diane Goode
Harper, 2010
review copy purchased for my classroom library

I'm really good at keeping my readers going in series books. I love them (you might have noticed that if you were paying attention on Wednesdays in April and May), and most of my 4th graders love them. But when a student is ready for a stand-alone novel, or when I'm ready for a student to break into stand-alone novels, I sometimes have a hard time suggesting books. Cinderella Smith will be at the top of my pile of recommendations next year.

Cinderella got her nickname NOT because she has a wicked stepmother or awful stepsisters, and NOT because she sleeps on the floor by the fireplace, and NOT because she had to do lots of horrible chores. She got her nickname because she loses her shoes. In this book, Cinderella has more problems than just lost shoe problems -- she has new teacher problems, sitting at the smart boys' table problems, and friendship problems. But she's got lots going for her, too. For one thing, she understands how to use a PROCESS to solve a problem, so she sets out to help the new girl, Erin, figure out if the two step-sisters she has not yet met will be wicked.

Cinderella Smith is a great new character, perfect for 8-10 year-old girls.



Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie
by Julie Sternberg
illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Amulet Books, 2011
review copy purchased for my classroom library

This novel in verse is another great book to have on hand for readers transitioning to stand-alone books. Eleanor has lots of adjusting to do in an August that's "As bad as pickle juice on a cookie. / As bad as a spiderweb on your leg. / As bad as the black parts of a banana." She manages to have a good end to her summer, giving readers hope that their own pickle-juicey problems will get better.

Franki reviewed this book earlier this month.

May Mosaic

Fun month -- nut butter tasting, Orlando, a retirement, line drawings and nets in math, Race For the Cure, Time With Teacher, the requisite peonies and iris, retirement party, never-ending rain, camp, a baby opossum in our back yard, the best scallops I've ever eaten (Barcelona -- birthday celebration), Mulch-o-Rama in the land lab at school, a bridal shower, a wedding (unrelated to the earlier bridal shower), a towering TBR pile, and school out before the calendar page turned to June!

#bookaday -- Mal and Chad

Mal and Chad: The Biggest, Bestest Time Ever
by Stephen McCranie
Philomel, May 2011
review copy purchased for my classroom library

One of the last things I heard as I walked my students to the bus last Friday was, "Can I come back and visit you next year and check books out of your classroom library?" It was a rhetorical question; my students have seen 5th graders coming back to browse my shelves all year long. I have the best books, that's all there is to it. It's my goal: something to tempt every reader and if I don't have it, I'll scour the library and bookstores to get it.

My graphic novel readers are going to LOVE Mal and Chad. A reviewer on Amazon puts it this way, "Imagine "Dexter's Laboratory," "Jimmy Neutron," and a dash of "Calvin & Hobbes" and you've got a pretty good idea of what "Mal and Chad" is like." Mal is the super-brilliant inventor boy, and Chad is his talking side-kick dog. Their adventures include a time machine and dinosaurs, underwater exploration in the kitchen sink thanks to a mini-mega-morpher and some magic lollipops, and a little bit of a crush on a girl who can throw a flaming dodge bomb in dodgeball.

At the beginning of the book, Mal's teacher is trying to get him to write a short essay on what he wants to be when he grows up. What Mal finally comes up with is this: 

"I spent the whole week trying out different jobs, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up. Then I realized that finding a job wouldn't answer the question of what I want to be...it would only answer the question of what I want to do. In the end, I found out that being the person you want to be is more important than getting the job you want to get. And if that's the case, why wait until I'm an adult? I'm going to try to be the person I want to be right now." 

Yes, I'll be using this book in our study of theme. (It's stated, not implied, but it's a good one, isn't it?!?)

#bookaday -- ML's TBR Pile

Yes, it's a towering stack, but I've already read the three thinnest, I've thrown one out because it's the second in a series, and I'm more than halfway through The Wednesday Wars. (Clever and practical of me to have borrowed the middle of the pile from the library, eh? I have to read some books I missed -- Jennifer Holm, Gary Schmidt -- so that I can read the next in the series...because you know how I am about reading series in order!) And did you notice the ADULT reads  there at the bottom of stack -- Geraldine Brooks' new one, Caleb's Crossing (I LOVED People of the Book and March) and an anthology of poems by the Poets Laureate. I'll have to add to the pile in order to have enough to make it through Mother Reader's 48 Hour Book Challenge next weekend, and to last me for two weeks when I go home to visit Mom.

Then again, life might conspire to prevent me from finishing a book a day EVERY day of summer break. Hanging over my head are the two journal articles I still need to complete, and the ppt presentation that needs polishing. I have a bit more paperwork and classroom put-to-bed work that needs to be done at school, and the other 1/3 of the land lab needs to be mulched. The 2/3 I mulched last week with the help of 10 of my students looks great, doesn't it?

My own flower beds need attention (I did get the herbs planted today before it got too hot), there are piles to excavate in my home office, and (YAY!) a birthday cake to bake for a weekend celebration.

Hooray for summer break!

Goodbye, Badbye

P.S.S. I love Kidblog! 

FINALLY!!!

Poetry Friday: Annie Dillard

There's a real power here. It is amazing that trees can turn gravel and bitter salts into these soft-lipped lobes, as if I were to bite down on a granite slab and start to swell, bud, and flower. Trees seem to do their feats so effortlessly. Every year a given tree creates absolutely from scratch ninety-nine percent of its living parts. Water lifting up tree trunks can climb one hundred and fifty feet an hour; in full summer a tree can, and does, heave a ton of water every day. A big elm in a single season might make as many as six million leaves, wholly intricate, without budging an inch; I couldn't make one. A tree stands there, accumulating deadwood, mute and rigid as an obelisk, but secretly it seethes; it splits, sucks, and stretches; it heaves up tons and hurls them out in a green, fringed fling. No person taps this free power; the dynamo in the tulip tree pumps out ever more tulip tree, and it runs on rain and air. (p. 114)

Along with intricacy, there is another aspect of the creation that has impressed me in the course of my wanderings...Look, in short, at practically anything--the coot's foot, the mantis's face, a banana, the human ear--and see that not only did the creator create everything, but that he is apt to create anything. He'll stop at nothing.  (p.138)

What I aim to do is not so much learn the names of the shreds of creation that flouish in this valley, but to keep myself open to their meanings, which is to try to impress myself at all times with the fullest possible force of their very reality. I want to have things as multiply and intricately as possible and visible in my mind. Then I might be able to sit on the hill by the burnt books where the starlings fly over, and see not only the starlings, the grass field, the quarried rock, the viney woods, Hollis Pond, and the mountains beyond, but also, and simultaneously, feathers' barbs, springtails in the soil, crystal in rock, chloroplasts streaming, rotifers pulsing, and the shape of the air in the pines. And, if I try to keep my eye on quantum physics, if I try to keep up with astronomy and cosmology, and really believe it all, I might ultimately be able to make out the landscape of the universe. Why not? (p.141)

from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard.



Yes, I'm playing a little fast and loose with the idea of poetry here, but I've been listening to Pilgrim at Tinker Creek on my commute to and from school for the past few weeks, and Annie Dillard's words are the poetry I've been hearing as I drive through this wet, green, lush, pulsing, growing spring. The mystery of the earth re-making itself has pushed to the back of my mind the (too much) to-do lists that come with the end of the school year.

And now, suddenly, it is here. The end of the school year. Our last day. The mystery and miracle of watching children accumulate another year of knowledge, skills, manners, personality will be put on hold until the end of August. All of my intimate knowledge of the intricacies of this group of children -- their handwriting, the way their smiles come slow or fast, how much I need to suggest or tease or pressure them to do their very best -- this all will be lost by the end of the summer, in order to make room for the next batch, brood, class.


Heidi has the Poetry Friday roundup today at my juicy little universe.

PAM ALLYN'S BEST BOOKS FOR BOYS

Another great professional book to add to your summer reading is PAM ALLYN'S BEST BOOKS FOR BOYS: HOW TO ENGAGE BOYS IN READING IN WAYS THAT WILL CHANGE THEIR LIVES. This book is packed with great titles and information on helping boys engage in books, to become part of the culture of literacy. Pam Allyn is so knowledgeable when it comes to books and boys that she is a perfect person to write a book on this topic.  I learned about her commitment to boys and literacy years ago when I read about her Books for Boys program at the Children's Village.   I was thrilled to see that she brought her understanding about how to connect boys and books to this new resource for teachers and parents.  This is a must-have resource for anyone interested in connecting boys to books. 


We had the opportunity to interview Pam Allyn about her new book.  Here is what she has to say:

What prompted you to write this book?

Pam:  In my travels to classrooms around the country, the boys themselves ask me to please share with people the books they love. They are not finding a reading place in their classrooms. I was compelled to share this message by them.

What is your current thinking on the issue of Boys and Literacy? Why is this an issue that we need to pay attention to?

Pam:  My current thinking is that we are in a very rocky place right now and that if we don't act quickly, we are going to see the results of poor statistics for boys in our prisons and our unemployment lines.



I’ve followed your work with the Boys’ Village over the years. Can you share a bit of the work that you’ve done there?

Pam:  I started the books for boys campaign there nearly a decade ago to create a reading culture on campus there. This is a residential school for New York's foster care kids. It's ended up being all male just because that's where the need is. I started very simply: putting books in the boys' hands. I was amazed at how powerful the "right" book was to turn them on to reading. And by "right" I mean the book that connected with the boy's own passion or interest. I then recruited community members to come in and read to the boys. The read aloud plays a very central role in the initiative.

If you were to list 2-3 things that have made the most difference in turning the village into a reading community, what would those be?

Pam:  One thing is that we never just throw books at kids. We really think a lot about the match up between boy and book and what is going to create that dynamic spark. The second thing is that we surround the reading with community. The boys there are lonely enough. We want them to see that reading is a way to be together. We've started Book Clubs and Poetry Slams that help the boys to see that by reading, we come together.

I love this line in the introduction of your book: “My work alongside teachers in schools across the country and the globe has taught me that simple changes in what we provide for boys and how we talk with them about the choices they make as readers can and will have profound impact on the outcomes we want for all readers.”  What are some first steps teachers can take in order to better support boy readers in the classroom?

Pam:  As teachers, we often ask questions we already know the answers to. I would encourage teachers to start with questions that are true and authentic. For example, simply asking our students: “What most interests you and how can we match those interests to what you read?” is a far more powerful question than: "Who is the main character in the book I've assigned?"

Can you talk a little bit about the categories of books that you share in your new book?

Pam:  The categories in the books came directly from boys, teachers, librarians and parents i interviewed over these last years. The boys always want to be sure I've got the graphic novels in there, and poetry!

How did you go about choosing your “Best Picks” for each category? 

Pam:  This was so tough! I kept asking my wonderful editor if we could add pages onto the book! That's how difficult this was! For every great book in here, there are lots more out there! But I distilled them down to the great hits; the ones I loved the best because they were the ones that got the boys to read.

Can you talk about a few new books or authors that you think are especially appealing to boys who struggle with reading—a few must-read books for teachers to get started reading the books on your list?

Pam:  The Big Nate series by Lincoln Pierce is funny and also well combined with amusing illustrations. We Are Not Eaten by Yaks by C. Alexander London is a terrific romp. Both of these books in series are great for reading aloud. I truly love Charles Smith's  photographic picture book version of Langston Hughes' poem "My People". I love the image of the small boy in a reflective stance.

What suggestions do you have for ways teachers and parents can go about finding good books for the boys in their lives who don’t yet live their lives as readers?

Commit to this journey together. Let your boys know that you are inspired by them and that you want them to be inspired by books. Visit Indie bookstores together and talk with the shop owners. Browse together online at amazon and other great sites such as James Patterson's readkiddoread.com site. The journey towards the great book can be as motivational as the treasure we find at the end.

Pam's insights have so many messages for parents, teachers and librarians.  You can read more about the new book at these blogs:
Carol's Corner
The Boy Reader
Snapshots of Mrs. V

Planning for Summer-Learning, Reading, Balance and Baking

It is hard to believe that Friday is our last day of school!  Summer is quickly approaching and, as always, I have way too much planned. I realized that I am the kind of person who creates impossible to-do lists.  Mine are never quite doable or finishable. There are always too many tasks for the time allotted. But my lists give me a vision and things to look forward to:-)

This summer, I am excited about the learning opportunities I have. In June. I'll be speaking at Lakota Literacy View which is an amazing summer institute in Ohio.  I have attended in the past and am excited to be part of it again this year. Even though I'll be facilitating workshops for most of the time, I'll have the opportunity to hear keynotes by Sharon Taberski, Lester Laminack, Katie Ray, Penny Kittle, and Matt Glover. And I know I'll learn so much from all of the teachers there. I am excited to kick off my summer learning at Lakota.

When I get back from Lakota, I'll have a few days before I leave for All Write Consortium Summer Institute.  The institute is only 3-4 hours away and the list of speakers was too good to pass up. Speakers include Cris Tovani, Debbie Miller, Ann Marie Corgill, Terry Thompson, Lester Laminack, Jeff Anderson, Ruth Ayres, Georgia Heard and Katie Wood Ray.  2 days filled with this great thinking. I am excited because there are 7 of us from Dublin attending the institute. And lots of Twitter friends are going too. It will be a fun group and a great few days!

Choice Literacy workshops begin in June in Tacoma. I'll also be doing Choice Literacy workshops in July in Michigan and Wrenthem.  It is always fun to get together with the Choice Literacy gang and I always learn so much from the participants, as well as from our informal conversations after the workshops end each day.  It feels like a great summer camp for grown-ups--being together with like-minded educators from around the world.

In July, I'll be attending November Learning BLC again.  I am really excited about it this year. Since it is my 2nd year there, I think I'll try to be a little bit less overwhelmed by the pace of the day.  I am excited to hear some new thinking by speakers I heard last year and I am also excited to hear some new voices.  There are so many people there that I heard last year that I now follow on Twitter, blogs, etc. that I think it will be a different experience. And now that I am more familiar with the shopping and restaurants in the area, I am set:-)

I think there should also be lots of time for reading this summer. I am going to attempt Donalyn Miller's #bookaday challenge, although I am sure some days will be easier than others. My 11 year old seems somewhat interested in giving this a try too so I think there'll be lots of family reading time!  On top of #bookaday, Columbus Kidlit bloggers will be participating in Mother Reader's 6th Annual 48 Hour Reading Challenge in which we will dedicate 48 hours to reading (with a little bit of book shopping in there too). If I counted correctly, there are 83 days of summer.  So, I am building my summer reading list.  Some top picks for summer are (just to name a few...):
So, What Do They Really Know by Cris Tovani (Stenhouse, July)
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Entwined by Heather Dixon
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger
Juniper Berry by M. P. Kozlowsky
Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George
The Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer Holm
Jeremy Bender Vs. The Cupcake Cadets by Eric Luper
The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander
The Loser List by
Bird in a Box by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Breadcrumbs by Ann Ursu
Mindset by Carol Dweck
Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal

I'm also hoping to learn about some apps for the iPad (I am totally underutlizing my iPad!) and how to use the Color Nook that I purchased for the library. My goal is to find some great ebooks and to learn to download ebooks from the Dublin Library.

And, I am hoping to get this foot back in order so that I can get moving again.   I am hoping for exercise and balance.  The summer seems set up in a way that it might be possible. Time for work and reading. Time for exercise. Lots of time to spend with family.  And some time to learn a few new recipes--I am going to work on cupcakes (thanks to recipes from Jen Allen and hopefully Mary Lee:-)) and basic Cakepops from Bakerella.

So, that's my summer to-do list.  My thinking ahead about all that is possible. Maybe that is why I like to-do lists....they help me think about all the things I would love to do if I had time.  A good balance, I think.