Top Tens for 2014: Fiction Picture Books

It's that time again for the end of year stats generation and reflection. I love running reports on the different types of books that students have checked out over the past year from our school library. Usually there is a direct correlation to lessons I have had in library or that teachers have had in class. Sometimes the books that make it to the top ten are totally random. For picture book fiction, there are no surprises. In kindergarten, I do a Mo Willems unit to introduce or continue the idea that books and reading are fun. Last year, I also separated our early readers from the rest of the picture book collection to encourage emerging readers to make choices they could actually read. Seven out of the top ten books fall into the early reader category. And five out of those seven are by Mo Willems.  The Blessing Cup by Patricia Polacco is a picture book for older readers. Because it is on the RI Children's Book Award list, it is widely read this year. And Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds probably made the list because I read it as part of our Caldecott book award unit in second grade last year. The take away from this top ten....the Mo Willems and early reader section lessons are a success, but I need to push more non-early readers too so students get exposed to amazing literature from a wider variety of authors, reading levels, and themes.

1. In a dark, dark room, and other scary stories Schwartz, Alvin, 1927-

2. Bink & Gollie DiCamillo, Kate.

3. Green eggs and ham Seuss, Dr.

4. Happy Pig Day! Willems, Mo.

5. I am going! Willems, Mo.

6. Pigs make me sneeze! Willems, Mo.

7. That is not a good idea! Willems, Mo.

8. The blessing cup Polacco, Patricia.

9. Creepy carrots! Reynolds, Aaron, 1970-

10. A big guy took my ball! Willems, Mo.

Fables, Captain Underpants, and the Common Core

Me: Who can give us an example of a lesson or a moral?
2nd Grader: Always buy preshrunk underwear.

Here is the backdrop for this conversation. Second graders are studying fables in library. We learned that fables are short, have animal characters, and have a lesson or moral. We read several examples of fables from around the world and now they are beginning to create their own fable in groups. The first step was that students had to come up with a lesson or a moral in their group. I asked students as a class to give an example of a lesson and one student answered, "Always buy preshrunk underwear." I thought, "Wow, this kid is a genius!" That night at dinner, I was telling my family the story and my son informed me that the student didn't think it up on his own, it was from Captain Underpants. I admit, I was a little deflated thinking that the kid wasn't going to be the next great philosopher like I thought. But...as I started to think more about it, this was still a good thing. While Captain Underpants isn't considered exactly exceptional literature with it's constant poopy and underwear talk, the student did actually read the book. He did understand the story he read. He was able to think critically and compare a story he read with traditional literature. And in terms of standards, he actually met the Grade 2 Common Core Standard RL.2.2. "Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral."  I might even go so far as to say that he is exploring the Grade 4 Common Core Standard RL.4.9 "Compare and contrast the treatment of similar themes and topics and patterns of events in stories, myths, and traditional literature from different cultures." The moral of this story is, if you don't let kids explore the books they want to read, they'll never read on their own.  And if they never read on their own, they'll never be able to connect it to all the great stuff they are learning in school and at home. The other moral of the story, school libraries are awesome places that have fun books to read that also support the Common Core Standards.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight in Kindergarten

Kindergarteners are working on our annual puppet performance to be shown at the Art Show in May. Students will be making a lion puppet in art. In library, we are reading fiction and nonfiction books about lions and other animals. We are in the process of learning the words to The Lion Sleeps Tonight by The Tokens for our puppet performance. While the art puppets are being made, we created stick puppets to practice our moves. Below is a list of books we are reading as well as a video of the Tokens performing the song live. Students will see the video below at the end of the project. I think they will get a kick out of what the real performers look like especially after they become so familiar with the song.

Honey, Honey, Lion! by Jan Brett	Lions by Derek Zobel
Dandelion by Don Freeman	Ten Apples Up On Top by Theo LeSieg
Honey Badgers by Margo Gates	How to Hide a Lion by Helen Stephens

Escape difficult situations with your library book!

Reenactment

As we finish up our first quarter in the Francis library, I've been reading tons of library book journal responses. Below is my absolute favorite.

 

Help! Has reading your book helped you in any way? Why or why not?

Yes because my Mom’s annoying friends’ kids came over and they make a huge mess and I kept picking up every mess they made. Then I just had it. I took my book, locked myself in the bathroom and read in peace and quiet.

Q1 Library Journal in Review

When third-fifth graders enter library class, they spend five minutes writing in their weekly journal. Each week they respond to a different question about the library book they read the week before. As quarter one comes to a close, I am currently in a journal reading marathon. Overall, I am very impressed with students' thoughtful responses to their library books. It is also fun to see what students are actually reading. The rule is, if you didn't get a chance to read your library book, respond to something else you have read either at home or at school. See below for this quarter's questions and a sampling of journal responses.

Favorite Nonfiction Topic
What is your favorite nonfiction topic to read about? Why is it your favorite topic?
Animals are my favorite topic because I live with pets and where I live, outside, it’s like animal kingdom. Outside we have birds, fish, frogs, bunnies, woodchucks, squirrels, and skunks. Plus I love animals!

Why should I read this book?
Give 2 reasons why I should or should not read your library book?
You should read Doll Bones because it is descriptive and adds some scary things into the adventure. You should also read it because it is a RI Children’s Book Award.

Author Visit
Pretend the author of your book is visiting the school. Think of a question(s) you would ask him or her about the book.

My book is How to Speak Dog: A Guide to Decoding Dog Language by Aline Alexander Newman & Gary Weitzman,

• How did you know dog languages?
• How did you think of this on your own?
• Do you have a trained dog to help you?
• Do you like the book you wrote?

Picture & Caption
Draw a picture of the most exciting part of your book. Write a caption under the picture.

Title
Think of a new title for your book. Why do you think this is a good title?
The new title for my book is the “The Quest for Pi.” I chose this because in Navigating Early there is a story behind the number Pi and it is a main focus of the story.

Legos in the Library: Final Slideshow

This is our last week for the after school program, Legos in the Library. Students'  creations were inspired by Legos, literature, and building with friends. At the beginning of each class, students had ten minutes to work from the same handful of bricks and build a different product. Next, we read a story and built creatures, vehicles or "thingamabobs" based on that theme.  First, we read The Adventures of Beekle by Dan Santat and students built their own imaginary creature. Next, we read Journey by Aaron Becker and they built their ideal vehicle for traveling. Finally, we read In a Dark Dark Room and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz and students built something scary. Each week I took pictures of their creations and compiled a slideshow (below) to showcase their work. Enjoy!

Book Fair Week in Review

Week in Review

This week was our Scholastic Book Fair which generates a ton of money for library books. Our PTO works tirelessly to make a spectacular event. Since the book fair is in the library, we have library time in the classroom. The great thing about this is that we get more time to explore literature which helps students build their literacy and writing skills and inspires many to choose these and similar books for their personal reading in the future. Read about our week below.

K: We finished up our Mo Willems unit by reading Knuffle Bunny Free. Students were given a new location that Knuffle Bunny traveled to and wrote about it.

Grade 1: We continued our exploration of stories with chicken characters. Last week we read Interrupting Chicken and described two of the characters. This week we read The Adventures of Louise the Chicken and wrote about something Louise did in the story.

Grade 2: We continued reading and discussing fables. We read Aesop’s The Monkey and the Camel and a “modern” fable, Dr. Seuss’s Gertude McFuzz. Students compared what was the same and different about the two fables.

Grade 3: We began our biography puppet project. We started by talking about how to find biographies in the library, and read and compared two environmentalist biographies, The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau and Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa.

Grade 4: We began our folktales from around the world shadow puppet project. We read a sample folktale, Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza, filled out a thinking map about the story, and came up with ideas on how we could transform it into script format.

Grade 5: We began reading stories about mermaids to inform and inspire students before they begin their mermaid art project. We read an adapted version of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. In the coming weeks, we will compare that with Robert San Souci’s Sukey and the Mermaid and Nicholas Pipe.

Unusual Animal Friendships

Students in Mrs. McKinnon's class are exploring unusual animal friendships. We started off with Tara and Bella, an elephant and dog who became friends at an animal sanctuary. Then we read Owen & Mzee and talked about possible reasons why they bonded. Finally, we read the following from Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom - Koko the gorilla and the cat, a seal and a photographer, and a snake and a hamster. This week students picked two animals they think could possibly make an unlikely friendship and will begin doing research to write their own animal friendship story.

See below for videos of our favorite friends.

Hamster and the Snake



Leopard Seal and Photographer



Koko and All Ball, the Cat

Legos in the Library

magical ship with reactor

Our PTO sponsors an after school program in the fall and spring. This year, I am hosting Legos in the Library. Each week we explore a different theme based on a story from the library. Students will use their imagination to build characters, settings, or whatever inspires them based on our weekly story theme. We’ll label and photograph the Lego creations each week. For a grand finale, the photos will be compiled into a Lego multimedia presentation to share with each other, friends, and family. Stay tuned for that. For now, here are a couple of pieces from week one inspired by the book The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat.

Construcktor

The Head

Blue Cloud

Ice Pop, Bluey, & Fred

Mo Willems in Kindergarten

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Rocket Ship!

Students in kindergarten are listening to Mo Willems' stories from the Elephant & Piggie series, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and Knuffle Bunny books. Last week in library, students created their own version of a pigeon book cover by filling in the blanks, "Don't Let the Pigeon _________ the ________!" Below are some favorite pigeon gems.

Don't Let the Pigeon Sit on the Cat!

 

Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Fire Truck!

In art, students read Knuffle Bunny and drew a picture of what their own Knuffle Bunny would look like. See below for the bunny cuteness.

Survey Says....

During the first week of school, I gave students in grades 1-5 a survey to measure how many people had either computers or digital devices at home and how many read e-books on their devices. The results would help determine whether we should purchase more e-books for our library. Over 86% of students have either a computer or digital device at home. Of those students between 38% and 54%, depending on grade level, read e-books on their devices. At the moment, we have a several e-book titles in our collection plus a subscription to Tumblebooks. Based on these results, we will purchase more to keep up with demand. I don't think e-books will ever replace print books, especially at the elementary level. But, if kids are reading on devices, we'll need to give them digital reading options.

Library Class is Back!

Had enough of summer brain drain? Don't worry, library class is back! Students in grades 1-5 will watch the panda PowToon video below for an intro and recharge of what we do in library. Looking forward to a great year!

P.D. Eastman Kindergarten Celebration

We have been exploring P.D. Eastman over the last few weeks in kindergarten. My hope is that students who are emerging readers will be familiar with good, fun,  and readable options as they enter first grade. Last year, I separated "easy readers" from the rest of the picture books. I let first graders know about this section during the first week of school so they know where to find books that will help their reading skills blossom. So, this year, we are ending with a P.D. Eastman celebration as a segue into first grade. We have read the following books either written, illustrated, or both by P.D. Eastman:
Go Dog Go
Sam and the Firefly
The Best Nest
Flap Your Wings
Fish Out of Water
Are You My Mother

For our final celebration, we made party hats reminiscent of Go Dog Go's party hats that appear throughout the book. My favorite line from the book, "Hello again, and now do you like my hat?" "I do! What a hat! I like it. I like that party hat."

Since three out of the six books we read have a bird theme, we will have a spoon and egg race.

Students will get "doggie bags" with a summer reading list, and some writing supplies.

And finally, P.D. Eastman cowrote the screenplay for the 1951 Oscar winner for Best Animated Short Subject film, Gerald McBoing-Boing. Students will watch this 7 minute film originally written by Dr. Seuss.

Life as a Kid Infographics

Fourth graders finished up and presented their Easel.ly infographics which compared life as a kid in the United States with life as a kid in another country. Students gathered their information from CultureGrams, filled in a Venn diagram graphic organizer, and then transferred the information to Easel.ly to create an online infographic. See below for some examples.


easel.ly


easel.ly


easel.ly

Prelutsky Multimedia Poems

Second graders explored Jack Prelutsky poems in library several ways this spring. I already posted about our haiku riddles and Scranimal poems. As our final project to our Prelutsky poetry unit, we created a multimedia version of poems that we had originally read reader's theater style. Students were given one or two lines of poetry and illustrated their part. We recorded the audio in class using PhotoStory. Watch the poems below.






Mrs. Silveira's class

Mrs. Macnie's class

Mrs. Paiva

Scranimals in Second Grade

Students in second grade have been exploring Jack Prelutsky's poetry. Recently we read Scranimals which explores the world of Scranimal Island and it's odd creatures. Creatures in the poetry collection are combinations of a plant and an animal. Students tried their hand at creating their own Scranimal. See examples below.

Pupshroom by Amanda

Oh, pupshroom your such a cutey,
With your big eyes and your beauty.
You might cry, you might moan,
But you will be on your own.
I love you, you love me,
And we are just meant to be.
Even though I might love you,
I will still always eat you.

Frapple by Jake

The Frapple sits by the water
Of an apple, of a frog
It looks so tastey
I so want to eat it
Bye bye frog
I'm going to eat you
Oh no! He got away.