Some New Books in Our Favorite Series

It has been a great few months for new books about some of our favorite characters.  I love getting new books in the classroom.  I especially love getting books by authors we love and about characters we love.  Series books are key for 3rd graders. I've seen so many kids become readers because of a series they fall in love with. So I like to keep our popular series baskets up to date.  It is fun to see 3rd graders anticipate an upcoming book. It is even more fun when a student comes up to me and says expectantly, "The new Magic Bone book is out and we don't have it yet," then waits patiently while I order it on Amazon.

These are a few of the new books in our classroom--books that are about characters we already love!

Lulu's Mysterious Mission--This may be my favorite book in the series. It took me a while to get used to the new illustrations but I ended up loving them!  A really great read!

The Pigeon Needs a Bath! Who can't love the Pigeon every time?

Judy Moody and Stink: The Big Bad Blackout The cover of this one is quite a treat-glows in the dark!

Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot (Book 1) I love absolutely any book that Dan Santat illustrates and the new illustrations in this series are incredible!

Whatever After #5: Bad Hair Day  Half my class fell in love with this series

early in the year.  A perfect fairy tale series for 3rd and 4th graders.

Go Fetch! #5 (Magic Bone) This is a series my students taught me about.
They LOVE it. A funny concept and perfect humor for 8 and 9 year-olds.

Babymouse #18: Happy Birthday, Babymouse What could be better than another Babymouse book!

Invasion of the Ufonuts (Adventures of Arnie the Doughnut)  These Arnie chapter books are quite a hit.  Perfect length and hysterical illustrations throughout.

Princess Labelmaker to the Rescue: An Origami Yoda Book A few of my kids have just discovered this series and were thrilled to see this one at our book fair.




*Confession:  Today, a student came up to remind me that the we didn't have the newest Stick Dog. I said, "Oh, I'm not sure we'll get that one. Our book budget is about finished." Then I laughed out loud.  Where did that even come from?  What does that even mean? I ordered the book.

Professional Reading: Math Workshop

I returned to the classroom last year after 4 years as an elementary librarian. The two years before I became a librarian, I taught only Language Arts and Social Studies and shared my classroom with a colleague who taught the Math and Science. So it had been six years since I'd paid much attention to math.

I've always loved teaching math (which surprises lots of people) and I am actually a better mathematician than I am a reader and writer.  I've always loved math and love to watch the discovery on kids' faces as they explore numbers and problem solving and critical thinking.

So I wanted to jump back in and was happy to see that there were lots of amazing resources out there.   I picked up several professional books on math teaching that I planned to read last summer. Then I got a concussion and my reading life was put on hold.  Over the year, I continued to pick up great books and took recommendations from smart friends and colleagues.  So, my stack has grown and grown.  There are books on my stack that I've already read, books I want to read cover to cover and books that I want to dabble in to get the info I'm looking for.

I moved from teaching 4th grade to teaching 3rd grade this year and the math teaching is a little bit different. I find myself looking more in the K-3 resources these days.

Our district is moving to a Math Workshop and as much as I overall like the way math went this year, there are lots of things I need to change.  I am really thinking hard about better routines, more intentional conversations and the role of student choice in Math Workshop.

Books I've read and loved in the last year or two:

One of my favorite reads over the last few years was  Math Exchanges: Guiding Young Mathematicians in Small Group Meetings by Kassia Omohundro Wedikind. I think I read this one once I learned I was going to be teaching 4th grade. (I blogged about it when I first read it.) It was an amazing read and not only changed my ideas about small group instruction in math, but also my thinking about talk and story in the math classroom.  I'm hoping to revisit the book--I recently got a copy of Kassia's DVD How Did You Solve That?: Small-Group Math Exchanges with Young Students and am excited to watch that this summer.

I spent a great deal of time with Number Talks, Grades K-5: Helping Children Build Mental Math and Computation Strategies two years ago and really learned lots about routines and the importance of these number routines. I feel like I need to revisit pieces of this book now that I've taught a year in 3rd grade. I think revisiting the specific 3rd grade sections will help me be more effective with this routine.

I also spent time with What's Your Math Problem? Getting to the Heart of Teaching Problem Solving which helped me think about not only good problems but how to assess problem solving and how to help my students reflect on their own work.

I spent some time with Number Sense Routines: Building Numerical Literacy Every Day in Grades K-3 before I went back into the classroom but it seemed a little primary for 4th grade. Honestly, I forgot about it until I saw the ad from Stenhouse on the accompanying video (Go Figure!) from these authors and I am VERY excited to reread this one from a 3rd grade perspective.  Thinking about routines is definitely one of my biggest goals for next year and this book and video seem perfect to add to my thinking.

Books I'm Most Excited to Read

At MRA this year, we somehow started talking Math and Brian Wyzlic  invented #nerdymathclub.  He recommended 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions [NCTM] and I ordered it right there and then.  I am excited to read this one and learn more about good math discussions.

Another book that lots of people I trust are talking about is Putting the

Practices Into Action: Implementing the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice, K-8.  The focus on The Common Core is an important one for me right now as I want to see what others are thinking about the standards and how best to teach in our current era.  I love that this one focuses on Standards for Mathematical Practice rather than content standards.  I am sure it will give me lots to think about and revise.

A brand new book that I am VERY excited about is Intentional Talk: How to Structure and Lead Productive Mathematical Discussions. Stenhouse has been putting out amazing math professional books so I pretty much trust anything they have on their list. Plus, this book is about talk and I know how important that is. I have read so much about intentional talk in the literacy classroom.
Guided Math in Action

Minds on Mathematics: Using Math Workshop to Develop Deep Understanding in Grades 4-8 looks like one that will help me tweak workshop structure a bit. Even though it is written for grades 4-8, I think the chapters on work time and conferring will help me a lot. I am not sure who recommended this one to me but it is close to the top of my summer stack.

Finally, I picked up Guided Math in Action: Building Each Student's Mathematical Proficiency with Small-Group Instruction because of the focus on small group instruction but looking through it, it will also help me think through workshop in general, observation of students and quality learning opportunities.

There are more on my stack but these are the few I really want to dig into this summer.  I'm open to any other suggestions that will help with Math Workshop in Grade 3!  What are you reading?

Also, we are hoping to have some Twitter Chats around math over the summer. Keep an eye out or the hashtag #nerdymathclub (thanks, @brianwyzlic) if you'd like to join us!

Poetry Friday

Dear Jonah B, Grade 4,

Thank you for this heart-faced wonder of an owl,
and for the nighttime breezes swirling around the words.

I hope it made you as happy to write it
as it makes me to read it.

Yours in Poetry,
Mary Lee


PS -- Kudos to Jone (Check it Out) for doing this Poetry Postcard project every April with the students in her school!


In the spirit of Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind), one of my Poetry Month writing partners (along with Carol/Carol's Corner), I am going to embark on a bit of "line lifting." Instead of finding my poetic inspiration in photos or research about places, I'm going to borrow bits of writing and build my own around them. I think of "line lifting" a little like quilting. That borrowed scrap of someone else's words gets pieced into the quilt of my poem. You'll be able to find these poems throughout the week on my website.


FREE

I am as still as a tree
when you give me the news.

You set it free?
How could you?!?

I'm not ready --
this is happening too fast!

Hold steady.
Come to the window, you asked.

So I did.
I saw her fly.

I grinned.
It was the right time.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014




Katya has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Write. Sketch. Repeat. Welcome back, Katya!

April Mosaic

April showers brought out the night crawlers and we FINALLY got some flowers. Other than that, the month seems to be about coffee, chocolate and a haircut.

Maybe the lack of photo variety was a result of that poem-a-day thing I did.

Not a bad combination, all in all.

The set can be seen full size on Flickr.

Celebrating Jen Robinson with a donation to RIF!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Will Clayton

Even though our blog birthday was on January 1, we are celebrating it all year! On our 8th Birthday, we decided to celebrate 2014 by celebrating others who inspire us every day. Each month, on the 1st (or so) of the month, we will celebrate a fellow blogger whose work has inspired us. We feel so lucky to be part of the blog world that we want to celebrate all that everyone gives us each day.

Our year-long blog birthday celebration continues as we honor blogger and reading champion, Jen Robinson, of Jen Robinson's Book Page.

We have known Jen since we began blogging in 2006. Jen's blog was one of the first we read and one that became a kind of mentor blog for us.  In July of 2006, Franki noticed her "Cool Girls in Children's Literature" and "Cool Boys in Children's Literature" lists and decided to start a similar "100 Cool Teachers in Children's Literature" list. Jen and other bloggers in the newly named (as of June 5, 2006, with thanks to Melissa Wiley) Kidlitosphere linked to our blog and our list. We think it's fair to say that this blog is what it is today because of that launch by Jen.

Although not a librarian or teacher herself, Jen is one of the most active proponents of reading, not just in the Kidlitosphere, but the big wide Blogosphere. She reads avidly, review thoughtfully, all while raising her very own bookworm.  She is a resource for both parents and teachers and works tirelessly to support readers everywhere.

To honor Jen's passion for putting books in the hands of children we will be making a donation in her honor to Reading is Fundamental (RIF) this month.

Thank you Jen for for sharing generously and for all you do for readers and reading!

Our Wonderful World.30

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

30. People

Carol Wilcox at the Denver Botanic Gardens

Our Wonderful World

When
and
where
and
how
and
what
are absolute and true.

But none of it would matter much
without the likes of you.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

WHEW! We made it! A month of wandering the world, wondering about wonders, and writing poetry. 

Awards for collaboration, commitment, camaraderie and creativity go to Carol Wilcox and Kevin Hodgson. We stayed together through thick and thin, through narrative and haiku, through rhyme and free verse. Thank you, thank you, thank you for coming on this journey with me! 

There are wonders to be found everywhere we look in our world. The ordinary variety can be found close to home. Scattered throughout the world are ancient, modern, engineering, and natural wonders amazing enough to make "The Lists." 

But none of the wonders experienced on their own are nearly as wonderful as they are when you can ooh and ahh with a fellow wonderer. It's this realization I tried to capture in my Hallmarkian poem today.

Thank you Carol and Kevin for writing with me EVERY single day (and also to Carol V., Catherine, Collette, Margaret, and Jone for joining in occasionally).

Kevin has a sound poem, "The Wonder of People," with which to end our month.

Carol has two poems today, one for the Poetry Club, and one for ME! Thanks, Carol!!

Happy National Poetry Month 2014!

Our Wonderful World.29

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

Wikimedia Commons by Worm That Turned

29. Imagination

Because the whole time
you are gluing paper to sticks,
it is neither paper nor sticks.

It is wings and sky,
soaring and flight.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

Here's to the impulse behind every single one of the wonders this month -- to the human imagination -- the ability to see beyond!

Carol has a very opinionated chocolate poem from yesterday at Carol's Corner.

Kevin has a haiku Notegraphy for imagination at Kevin's Meandering Mind.

Carol's imagination poem is at Carol's Corner.

Catherine joins us with an imagination poem at Reading to the Core.

Our Wonderful World.28

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

28. Chocolate Cake

Abecedarian Cake Love

A
birthday
cake --
decadent,
elegant,
frosting
gobbed
high --
I
justify
knifing
loose
my
notch --
objectify
perfection,
qualify
restraint,
savor
tastes
until...
voicing
with
eXuberance:
YUMMY!
amaZing!

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

This is not the first time my cake-baking has found its way into my poetry. Here's my Birthday Cake poem from NaPoWriMo12. And if you've visited this blog with any regularity, you've seen my cake in many a monthly photo mosaic.  My cake even showed up in a post on structure vs. freedom.

In a couple of weeks, I'll be baking a carrot cake for my friend Lisa's birthday. Change is good, and it's loads of fun to spell out her name in little cream-cheese-frosting carrots! Stay tuned for pictures!

Today Kevin tells the story of the last chocolate in the tin at Kevin's Meandering Mind.

Jone joins in with both a sunrise poem and a chocolate poem at Deo Writer.

Our Wonderful World.27

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

27. Sunrise

It's a
daily wonder
most people sleep right through.
I've sung sun's praises since childhood.
Still do.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

I'm a morning person. I love sunrise. We're good friends. I actually love the darkness right before sunrise almost as much as the sunrise itself. Anticipation, expectation...then...renewal.

And what I said about singing sun's praises? I meant that literally. I remember, at about 5 years old, running out into the middle of the back yard and belting out "Heavenly Sunshine" (a Bible School song) first thing on summer mornings. I remember standing at the kitchen sink with mom, singing "You Are My Sunshine." I remember, as a high schooler, playing my guitar and leading the Easter Sunrise Service congregation in "Morning Has Broken."

I grew up in a place where the most distinctive feature of the landscape is the horizon. Drive five minutes out of town in any direction and you can see all 360° of it. The upshot of this is that I grew up watching the sky, the sun, the clouds. Some people feel an emotional pull to mountains, some to ocean. But I feel most myself when I'm in that spacious open land with nothing around me and the bright blue bowl of the sky above me.

We're winding down the Our Wonderful World project and Poetry Month 2014. I'm glad I saved some personal wonders for these last four days. The big wide amazing world is one thing, but our small particular dear-to-us worlds are even more precious. Because they are ours.

Kevin has a sunrise/sunset mirror poem for today.

Carol's sunrise poem is at Carol's Corner.

Our Wonderful World.26

Details of my Poetry Month Project can be found here.

26. The Polar Ice Caps

The Birdhouse in the Sycamore Tree

The summer between 5th and 6th grade,
I fell out of the sycamore tree
that stood in the alley
outside the back garden fence.

There was a birdhouse in the sycamore.
I wanted to get it down.
I had climbed up to check it out
and the rope that tied it was weathered into a
rock solid knot.

I got the silver bottle opener –
the one with the shiny sharp triangle
for poking and prying –
out of the kitchen gadget drawer.

I climbed the fence and then into the sycamore
with the bottle opener
clenched between my teeth.

I remember the surprise I felt
when the branch broke,
but I don’t remember falling
or hitting the fence on the way down.
I came to with the bottle opener
still between my
(unbroken)
teeth.

My right arm was a different matter.

I began 6th grade,
already awkward and buck-toothed
with a full cast on my right arm.
I’m right handed.

And on the first day of school,
Mrs. Bonner,
cold as the polar ice caps,
made me pass out the Scholastic book orders.

I struggled with those tissue-paper fliers,
stared at and and snickered at
but stubbornly refusing to ask for help.

I can’t remember if I ever got the bird house
out of the tree,
but I’ll never forget how Mrs. Bonner
treated me.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014

I couldn't bear to write about human destruction of the polar ice caps.  Kevin came through. He wrote a passionate ode to the ice caps that includes a fierce warning to humankind. Powerful.

Carol's polar ice cap poem is just as powerful as Kevin's, but in a "take you by the shoulders and shake you" kind of way.

Carol has an abecedarian for Victoria Falls over at Carol's Corner.