Curiosity Day!

Curiosity Day 2015

September 19th

Curious George was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941. Books about Curious George, including the seven original stories by Margret and Hans Rey, have sold over 75 million copies!

My 2-year-old grandson loves to watch the show with the man in the big yellow hat and the mischievous monkey, George! We have several books about Curious George and he enjoys looking at the pictures and talking about them. One day, he will be able to read about George on his own!

Curiosity Day is an annual event in Boston, Mass. Together, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and WGBH, Boston’s local PBS station, have helped thousands of kids, parents and grandparents celebrate a love of reading and learning. The popular event draws thousands of attendees each year.

Teachers and parents can download an event guide HERE! You will find great ideas for promoting the love of reading and Curious George in your classroom or home. 

Storybook Pumpkins Oh My!

Do you recognize some of your favorite books and characters?  These fabulous pumpkins were created by elementary students and displayed in the library!  What a wonderful idea!

The Read Aloud Isn't Just for After Lunch

Download Poster

What a beautiful and inspiring quote by Mem Fox.  Her words express what I see as my mission; to help teachers and children fall in love with books.  If you fall in love with books, you make the journey of learning much more rewarding and less stressful.  I hope to ignite that emotional spark!

I just did a presentation on Read Alouds and how they can strengthen writing.  The resources for this presentation are listed on my Presentations Page.  I used the book Fireflies by Julie Brinckloe to show how vivid language in the form of similes can take writing to the next level. We can teach figurative language in writing workshop.  That makes so much more sense than teaching it separately.  You give your students a "hook" to remember similes.  When they think of similes, they will remember this beautiful book.

I also added nonfiction books and websites for research.   Firely.org is a great website for learning about fireflies.  Here are a few books that I used:



Lester Laminack is the go-to guy for understanding the power of the read aloud.

“To make read aloud intentional I believe that we must be as thoughtful in our planning as we are when selecting manipulatives for mathematics or when establishing the flow of a classroom. We must select the books we will read with the same care we take in designing centers or in setting up a science lab. We must be as diligent in considering our reasons for reading aloud as we are in selecting the focus of a mini-lesson in reading and writing workshops. In short, we must pay careful attention to our intentions for the read aloud. So why do we read aloud to our students? What are our expectations for the experience? What result or product do we hope for? How will our students be different for living through these experiences with us? Are we hoping to motivate them to explore a topic or genre? Are we inviting them to meet a new author or illustrator? Are we leading them to compare the organizational framework of this story with a favorite known by all? Are we simply reading today for some future benefit, investing the time now to connect future instruction later? Are we reading to introduce specific vocabulary that will be essential in understanding the concepts for a unit of study in a subject area? Are we reading to contrast the multiple meanings of troublesome words? Are we reading to raise awareness of a targeted issue? Are we reading to model a specific reading strategy or skill? Are we reading to draw them in, to lure them into wanting to read more for themselves? Are we reading to bank images and language we will draw upon in an upcoming study?”
-Unwrapping the Read Aloud, 2009

The Thankful Tree

I just love Little Page Turners adaptation of the wedding keepsake tree found on Style Unveiled!  She added the word "thankful" to the top of the page and created a wonderful keepsake for children and parents!  Their little fingerprints will be treasured for years to come.  Children should sign and date their creations!  As a mom, I can tell you that this would be hanging on the wall somewhere in my house if my children had done this in elementary school!

A few of my favorite fall books that would go well with this activity:

by Cynthia Rylant

Children just love Lois Ehlert's books!

Use these nifty pigment pads for fingerprints!

Or, make your own pads with paint and sponge pieces.

Baballa.com

I Want My Hat Back

         

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen is a wonderful addition to your library!  I read this book to a class this past week and they were a sight to behold!  When they figured out what was going on, their reaction was priceless!  

Common Core Connection:

 R.CCR.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

The Down Under Teacher has great posters to go along with the teaching Inferences!  Check them out here!

Have Fun Teaching has several Inference activities!

Napping House Video

Here is a great video to go with the book The Napping House by Audrey Wood.  This video has the words at the bottom of each picture so that it makes a great shared reading or listening center video!  My last post contained other links and a freebie that you might enjoy, too!

Story Conflict

I found a great post by Pat Johnson and Katie Keir that discusses four types of story conflicts. The blog,  Catching Readers Before They Fall has a list of picture books that can be used for the four areas listed below.

Person vs. Person

Person vs. Self

Person vs. Nature

Person vs. Society

While you may not have to teach this standard, I believe the list is a good one and worth a look!

You can preview the entire book, Catching Reader's Before They Fall for free at Stenhouse.  I already have and found it to be worth adding to my list of books to order soon!

I found this post from my Choice Literacy Newsletter.  Every teacher should subscribe!  There are plenty of good free articles, even if you can't afford to join as a member.

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site

You are going to love this Website:  Carol Hurst's Children's Literature.  Teachers in grades K-12 will find useful literacy information.
This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.  Here, you can search the complete table of contents for specific topics. 
For example, I searched for read alouds to use in social studies.  The headings I found: U.S. History, World History, Geography, Cultures, Social Skills, Transportation, and Other.  Under each heading were book lists with grade levels and brief descriptions.  Here is a link to fiction and non-fiction books on World War II. 
We can match the books to our S.C. social studies standards, and add them to our reading lessons.  The only thing left to do is check with the media specialist and see what we have in the library!  Remember, at the elementary level, the books may be in the leveled bookroom!
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