Interrupting Chicken

  

Today I read 'Interrupting Chicken' by David Ezra Stein to the grade 1/2 classes.  They LOVED it! The depth of colour in the illustrations of the little red chicken's bedroom contrasted with pages of less colourful, more traditional looking fairy tale pages,  the endearing little chicken, the use of speech bubbles, and (of course) the interrupting, won them over immediately. Stein's little red chicken captures the impulsive young interrupter perfectly.  The group of 6 and 7 year olds were grinning right away when the father asked his little one not to interrupt the story right on the cover of the book. Asked what they thought might happen, the children immediately said "He is going to interrupt" with broad smiles. They could all relate. This is a fun read aloud for both the audience and the reader. Jumping in with the excited interruptions made my day. It would be a fun book to practice and read together as a reader's theater with your child reading the little red chicken's part. I have some writing ideas too: perhaps a little red chicken's "I will not interrupt" pledge - could be hilarious, or a version with spoilers for different fairy tales (what are your favourites), a book review or a trailer. When I 'Googled' for a cover photo, I found David Ezra Stein's webpage including this video of him talking about the book...

 

and this great book trailer (with a real chicken)...

 

 I was also reminded of one of Stein's other books that is a wonderful lesson about what a smile can do:

You can borrow both of these books from our school library.  Drop in and visit for more recommendations any Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday after school. 

A New Pete the Cat - Fabulous!!

 

I have long been a fan of Pete the Cat.  I read Pete the Cat : I Love My White Shoes every year to the incoming kindergarten class than then place my Pete doll prominently on the classroom shelf to remind students that "it's all groovy" and there is no need to cry over little (or not so little) surprises. We read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons as we begin to learn about subtraction (and remember that even if we lose something - "it's all cool"). The simple, brightly coloured illustrations combined with a handwritten style font appeal to readers young and old bringing the unassuming, cheerful, Pete the Cat to life.

Now Pete has returned to remind us that we have control over how we perceive the world and how our preceptions colour our day. Rather than rose coloured glasses, Pete gets a set of cool blue glasses from his friend Grumpy Toad.  Pete finds himself experiencing the cat 'blues' for the first time in his life and doesn't know what to do until he bumps into Grumpy Toad - who is NOT grumpy. The magic sunglasses are the key, helping each animal Pete meets along the way to "see things in a whole new way" - until the glasses break. Pete discovers that he doesn't need the glasses after all and that he has control over his own outlook. I can't wait to share this one with the class on one of our 'grumpy' days. Pete reminded me that sometimes I need to cross over to the sunny side of the street too!

National Geographic Kids

National Geographic Kids website Retrieved from http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/

This free website has many resources for research as well as pleasure. We have been using it with Susan's class to research temperate rainforest animals and Louisa's class to learn about the arctic. The students enjoyed the site and found it easy to navigate. The animals and pets tab led to many resources they wanted to explore including animal facts, habitat maps and videos. While the animal selection for the arctic was limited, it did include the snowy owl which we didn't find on the World Book Kids site.  This led to a great discussion about using different resources when we research and how some are better for one project, but not so good for another. The many high quality nature videos (after all, what National Geographic is all about) are another great resource. The students loved the 'Quizz your Noodle' games (piggy backing on the trivia fascination that fuels Guinness World Record Books).  The Canada section is very limited, but does provide a good map. This is a user friendly, high interest resource that is great for introducing students to research.  It is also a great site for educational games and videos.

Primary/Intermediate/Teacher resource

Blackout

Rocco, J. (2011).Blackout.  New York: Hyperion Books.

A gem!! This Caldecott Honor Book depicts one night without electricity in New York with bold, two page spread illustrations in a graphic novel style (multiple frames, speech bubbles, text boxes with short descriptions). The shadow play throughout the story gives a feeling of youthful joy.  The youngest child in a family is looking for someone to play with but everyone is too busy - until the lights go out.  Then not only the family, but the neighbourhood, comes alive with roof top parties, free gelato and singing in the street.  When the lights come back on everyone returns to their routines - until the young child flicks the switch.  This beautiful book truly evokes the feeling of a neighbourhood brought together by a minor crisis and reminds us of the importance of taking time out to be together.

Primary (and grown-ups)

Watch the book trailer including clips of New Yorkers remembering the blackout of 2003.

National Film Board Website

National Film Board Website Retrieved from http://www.nfb.ca/

This website is a wonderful resource for fun and educational films. This year I have used the stop motion animation tutorial, Animate Everything, with both Div. 6 & 7.  Div. 7 has explored 'balance' with videos like High Steel and Marianne's Theatre.  On the home page you can choose from channels like 'Animation', 'Kids Movies' and 'The Green Channel'.  In the wonderful 'interactive' section (accessible from the home page), you can access interactive films like "Out My Window" that lets you explore the views from various high rise windows around the world and here about those peoples' lives or "Waterlife" that documents environmental concerns about the water of the Great Lakes. With no subscription, you have access to over 2,000 films. If you create a password account, you can make play lists to keep track of your great finds and, if you feel 'techy', you can cut portions of films to create shorter clips.  With my education account, I have access to another 500 films. This is a great resource for entertainment and enrichment, but remember, it is not geared specifically for children and there is mature content on the site.  As with all web use, be sure to monitor your childrens' viewing.

All Ages

Guyku

Raczka, B. (2010). Guyku: A year of haiku for boys. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. (illustrated by Peter Reynolds)

Divided into seasons, this short book of short poems about boys playing outdoors is a gem. Raczka's afterword notes that his inspiration was his own boyhood outdoors, and it shows.  The poems bring back memories of classic outdoor activities that every child can connect with - climbing trees, skipping stones, roasting marshmallows, splashing your sister....  He also notes that Haiku is the perfect 'boy poem' - it is about nature, "a place where guys love to be" and written in present tense, "guys are always interested in what is happening right now".  Peter Reynolds calls the book an important "invitation for boys to swim in the 'poem pond'".  Let's share the invitation!

Primary, Intermediate (as an invitation to poetry writing), Teacher resource

Fancy Nancy: There's No Day Like a Snow Day

 

O'Connor, Jane.(2012). Fancy Nancy: There's No Day Like a Snow Day. New York.: HarperCollins.

I have never been a "Fancy Nancy" fan, but I picked this book up at the most recent Scholastic Fair and Nancy won my heart. Jane O'Connor's clever use of "fancy words" to increase children's vocabulary made the librarian and literacy teacher in me grin.  Nancy and her sister get ready to "frolic" - fancy for having fun - in the snow. Even though they have to wait all day to go to the sledding hill ("Grown-ups don't get snow days. That is a sad but true fact of life."), they find other ways to have fun in the snow while they wait. A lovely read aloud and a great early reader, the stickers for creating your own 'fancy' snowperson are an added bonus. 

Primary (and fun for older students to reminisce about snow days)

I am I

Fitzpatrick, Marie-Louise.(2006). I am I.  New Milford, Connecticut: Roaring Brook Press.

I showed this incredibly beautiful book to Susan, Louisa and Jennah's classes before Remembrance Day using the document camera.  The story of two boys living on opposite sides of a river in an imaginary landscape and declaring themselves king of all they see spirals into a sad tale of war and destruction. Their proud, defiant and hateful words turn to barbed wire and eventually a fire-breathing dragon that leaves their world scorched and barren. The boys' remorse is genuine.  Their tears become a rain storm and germinate new life.  In the final illustration the boys face each other in a cobbled front yard bringing the story back to reality. The amazing, double page spread illustrations tell the story with very few words. The wonderful imagery in this book inspired thoughtful and insightful discussions in every class.

Primary, Intermediate picture book, Teacher resource

You Will Be My Friend

Brown, P. (2011). You Will By My Friend! New York: Little, Brown and Co.

Over the years I have learned three important lessons about making new friends.

                      Lesson 1: Always be yourself.

                      Lesson 2: New fiends appear when you least expect it.

                      Lesson 3: Do not scream, "YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND!" at people. Trust me, that 

                      never works.

Lucy bear wakes up one morning determined to make a new friend. At first she is too exuberant, ruining things by accident.  Next she tries to fit in by copying others - also not popular. Then she tries threatening or ordering people to be her friend. When she has finally given up, a friend appears. This colourful, cartoon-like picture book uses boxy illustrations and large speech bubbles to express Lucy's excitement and frustration.  It is a great conversation starter for talking about strategies for making friends - ones that work, and ones that don't.

Primary

Who Likes the Rain?

Kraner, Etta. (2007). Who Likes the Rain? Toronto, Ont.: Kids Can Press. (E-book retrieved from Tumblebooks).

This year our school purchased a subscription to Tumblebooks (ask Kathy or Carla for the password to use them at home).  I have been using them in my Kindergarten classroom.  Last week we watched and listened to "Who Likes the Rain?".  This wonderful mixture of fiction and non-fiction describes children playing in the rain and explores all the reasons we like rain. When a child states "I like the rain because the worms come out.  I wonder why the worms come out?", the next page explains why worms come out when it rains. Every reason for liking rain is a starting point for another age appropriate scientific explanation. The children were mesmerized and learned a lot.  Afterwords we did our own writers' workshops about why we like (or don't like) rain. This is a great book acknowledging our natural curiousity and introducing the idea of inquiry learning (asking "wonder" questions and then looking for the answers).

Primary

Who's In My Family

Harris, Robie. (2012). Who's In My Family: All About Our Families. Sommerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press.

This detailed picture book with gentle illustrations explores the diversity of families. The illustrations are filled with people of different ages, nationalities, genders and abilities while the simple text reveals that families eat different foods, enjoy different activities, have different numbers (and genders) of parents and children and may contain different nationalities. Robie Harris certainly appears to have covered all the possible permutations and combinations of family. Families have happy times, sad times and angry times, but in the end "most of all and most of the time, and no matter what - children and grown-ups and their families really do love one another!"  This book is a wonderful tool for teaching about diversity and beginning discussions about tolerance. Even though all families are different, "every day and every night and all around the world, families talk, laugh, sing, play, cuddle up, tell stories, read books, and make sure their children are healthy and safe and loved".

Primary

Bink and Gollie

DiCamilllo, K. & McGhee, A. (2010). Bink and Gollie.

Bink and Gollie won the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award in 2011. This lovely picture book is divided into chapters and illustrated in a graphic novel style with full page, mostly black and white illustrations with the colourful Bink and Gollie really 'popping' and short captions or speech bubbles. The endearing, mismatched friends get up to all sorts of adventures from shopping trips to mountain climbing.  Gollie's intellect and imagination make a perfect foil for Bink's irrepressible fun-loving style. DiCamillo's understated humour coupled with McGhee's expressive illustrations bring the two lovable and engaging characters to life. Despite Bink and Gollie's differences, they discover that compromise, and pancakes, are the key to lasting friendship.

Primary, Late Primary, (Intermediate students enjoy the illustration style and Gollie's dry humour too)

Visit Bink and Gollie's Website at http://www.binkandgollie.com/

World Book Kids

World Book Kids Retreived from  http://www.worldbookonline.com/kids/home

World Book Kids is an online encyclopedia linked to our school district's electronic resources .(You do need a username and password to access it from home. Ask Kathy.)  This encyclopedia provides great resources for school projects as well as general interest.  The information on the World Book Kids pages is written at an appropriate reading level for students in grade 3 and up and have a read aloud feature too (although I had trouble using it on my old laptop at home). All the links are checked and deemed appropriate for elementary school children.  Many of the linked articles are at higher reading levels and may require some help from parents. The site also includes videos and photos for most topics. One of the great features is the 'Compare' feature where you can choose two animals or two places and compare them.  The site creates bar graphs which compare common attributes. This feature is limited as not every animal is included. The science projects section contains projects with clear and simple explanations using everyday materials (usually).  There are not many experiements for simple machines, unfortunately. The Games and Activities section has some more experiments in the activities part  under the 'be it' category. Most of the games are not very interesting, but there is one about the provinces tcould be useful for memorization. The Maps section has printable outline maps. Each article or resource has a "cite this" area that provides references that can be copied and pasted into projects. Photographers have given permission for you to copy the pictures in the Pictures section - remember to give credit.  If you can't find the topic, animal, person or place you are interested in, ask Kathy or click on the words 'online research' on the library home page.  There are some other resources we can try.

Primary/ Intermediate

Otto the Book Bear

Clemenson, Katie. (2011). Otto the book bear. Uxbridge, London: Random House Children's Books.

Otto the Book Bear, written and illustrated by Katie Cleminson, is a variation on the theme of illustrations that come to life and walk out of their books. Otto is a bear who loves when his book is being read, but gets lonely when he is left on the shelf so he leaves his book at night and explores the house where he lives - he even writes about his own adventures sometimes.  One day, big trucks take everything away from his house - but Otto is not in his book!  Left alone and with no home, Otto leaves to look for a new home.  He feels small and lost in the big city but eventually finds friends and a new home at the public library. His adventures remind me a little of Cordouroy. Cleminson's black line illustrations washed with soft colours give a gentle feel to the book and the white space around the illustrations and text give the reader's (or listener's) eyes a rest, making it accessible for a very young audience. A great read-aloud or early reading book as the pictures give a lot of clues to the text and really help to tell the story.

Primary

Island Santa

Mcfarlane, Sheryl. (2012). Island Santa. Victoria, BC: Children's Health Foundation of Vancouver Island.
(Illustrated by Sheena Lott)

Today I had the exciting job of helping with a book launch in our library.  Author Sheryl McFarlane, illustrator Sheena Lott and philanthropist Jeneece Edroff all arrived at South Park with film crews from CTV and Chek News and support staff from The Children's Health Foundation of Vancouver Island.   Louisa's class were treated to the first reading of the brand new book by the author and got to see the original illustrations presented by the illustrator herself.  After the story, Louisa's class got to ask Sheryl and Sheena a few questions.  They had spent a lot of time learning about good questions and thinking about the first two pages of the story that I had read them as an introduction. The questions were thoughtful and topical - Sheryl and Sheena were pleased and impressed.  Then the students got to meet Jeneece, one of the people who inspired the book, and ask her questions too. It was wonderful to see how inspired the students were by Jeneece's thoughtfulness and determination to raise money to 'give back' to those who have helped her.  Jeneece raised money to build a house where families with children who need medical care can stay while their child is in hospital. Here is a link about the house they built, Jeneece Place.

The book, Island Santa, is based on the true story of Kaare Norgard, a man who travelled to the islands and lighthouses around Vancouver Island at Christmas time to deliver presents to isolated families. He dressed as Santa and decorated his boat with lights.  Children could hear the boat approaching because Kaare played Christmas carols over the loud speakers. Louisa remembers seeing the "Santa boat" when she was little. Kaare Norgard's family donated a large amount of money to Jeneece place and the book is a thank-you to his family.  Sheena Lott's detailed water colour illustrations bring the west coast to life and echo the emotions of the story which follows Sam as he helps on the Santa boat through long days and a brutal storm on his way to visit his sister who is in the hospital over Christmas and his parents who are staying at Jeneece Place. This touching story of people helping each other and finding ways to give when it really matters inspired the children at South Park Family School and I am sure will inspire many others.

Primary

Sheryl McFarlane wrote about the launch at South Park in her blog.
Here is a link to the CTV newscast of the launch.
Here is a link to the Chek News segment:

http://www.cheknews.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=136

When you click on this page there will be 8 boxes under the playing window. The last box has Jeneece’s face in it and says coin drive.

13 Words

 "13 Words" by Lemony Snicket, the author of  "A Series of Unfortunate Events", is a clever exploration of beautiful words. While the story does not have much of a plot - in fact it is rather silly - the illustrations by Maria Kalman are bold and colourful with clever details that draw the reader's eye to look closer and the reader's mind to add more details to the story. At the end of the book, Lemony Snicket uses the same 13 words to create a different story.  A great way to introduce some new vocabulary, this book lends itself perfectly to children creating their own stories using the 13 words. After reading it to one class,  a student responded to a complement about her hat by saying, "Thank-you, I thought it had panache"!

(Primary and Intermediate as a writing starter)