Nonfiction Monday - Egg to Chicken and More

B and I recently ordered books through her classroom book order and I was not at all disappointed with this nonfiction collection we purchased. It's a series of books about Lifecycles written by Camilla de la Bedoyere, published by QEB Publishing Co, and sold through Scholastic.

This series includes these titles-Egg to Chick, Seed to Sunflower, Tadpole to Frog, Joey to Kangaroo, Pup to Shark, Caterpillar to Butterfly, and Joey to Kangaroo. The entire collection is filled with all of the nonfiction features you would want your children to be using. The photography is fabulous and bright. The Contents, Glossary, and Index have enough "white space" for reader to interact with. I loved this, across from the contents there is a chicken photograph with this caption, "Words in bold are explained in the glossary on page 22." I immediately wanted to go and see what the glossary looked like. The books are easily accessible to all readers. The page heading is large with an amount of text below it summarizing the rest so our youngest readers could read this small amount and understand the page without being overwhelmed with captions, labels, and more text. I can't wait to add these books dispersed among my nonfiction tubs in my classroom library, if B doesn't notice they are gone.

PS - My quick internet searching found each book quite expensive, sorry. Look for them through Scholastic book orders in paperback.

Nonfiction Monday is being rounded up at - The Miss Rumphius Effect.

A Star in My Orange

The front cover of this book with it's subtle monotone orange hues grabbed my attention. The title A Star in My Orange, Looking for Nature's Shapes by Dana Meachen Rau is filled with photographs of nature. These photographs are showing the reader patterns and shapes found in nature if we are looking. Just looking at this book made me stop and look around my immediate environment to see what things I could find that were shapes or patterns. When we think of the word shape, I would bet many of us start thinking about proper geometry terms. This book doesn't do that. The shapes referred to within this text are more open, descriptive language to describe what is being seen with the photograph - star, swirly, curly, twirly, and spinning. Here's an example of the text...

"I see lots of little shapes in a turtle's shell,

and a bees honeycomb,

and a fallen pinecone."

The Earth Book

Today we had a stay-cation spring break adventure to Franklin Park Conservatory here in Columbus, Ohio. There's something about having it rain outside while being surrounded by gorgeous plants from different habitats and watching butterflies flutter by. This is where I found another Todd Parr book, The EARTH Book. The first page cried, take me home...

"I take care of the earth because I know I can do little things every day to make a BIG difference." That's an important message for students, children. A message about doing little things, little things do make a difference. The book then follows with a pair of simple things that can easily be done by anyone and then an explanation of why we would do these things and the impact they would have on something in our environment. For example, "I take the school bus and ride my bike because I love the stars and I want the air to be clear so I can see them sparkle." The book even comes with your very own green poster that can be torn out. This is perfect for all ages with written text and picture clues.

The book is full of the vibrant illustrations you have come to expect from Todd Parr and I was glad to see the book was printed with recycled materials and used nontoxic soy inks. I'm going to add this, along with a previous post 10 Things I Can do to Help Save My World, to my Earth Day collection.

My Goldfish

Pets. Students love to write about pets. I've discovered over the years it doesn't matter how old the students are pets can be a popular topic. They are easy to love, fun, and often full of adventures. Right now, we are a house full of pets. An English chocolate lab, a guinea pig, a rabbit, and one fish. Then my middle daughter likes to stretch the pet list to include the classroom pets which are a turtle, a baby guinea pig, and one large goldfish. It makes her list so much grander. My dog loves food so there are many stories I could tell about a loaf of bread disappearing or a box of farm fresh eggs bouncing through the kitchen.

My Goldfish, by Barroux is a great mentor text for pet writers. The writing of this book describes the goldfish with personification. It really made me think differently about a goldfish.

"My goldfish

is the strongest goldfish

in the world."

"My goldfish

has a beautiful voice.

When he sings,

the whole world listens."

The illustrations also enhance the uniqueness of this book. In hues of orange and blue, the author/illustrator increases the reader's comprehension. For the strongest goldfish page, the goldfish is outside of his big bowl, holding it up in the air with it's mouth closed. For the beautiful goldfish page, there is another fish bowl next to it just filled with fish listening to the beautiful singing. If you want to raise your writer's thinking about pet writing, this book can do that.

That Workshop Book - Reflection #6

This post concludes my blogging requirements for The Literacy Connection course I am doing this year but doesn't conclude my thinking about That Workshop Book by Samantha Bennett. I am looking forward to watching Samantha Bennett is classroom at the end of April with my friends Katie and Karen. How lucky are they! What I then like about the organization of course work through The Literacy Connection our day of observation is followed by a Saturday of lecturing and further teacher learning with Samantha Bennett. I hope to gather more thoughts and ideas from her specifically about kindergarten and her thoughts on the structure of workshop on an every other day schedule.

As I was flipping through the book again last night and pondering what did I want to reflect on I found myself wandering to third grade. Reader's Notebooks are a great tool for students and teachers to use to organize their thinking and learning during a year together. You can pay a chunk of money to have them pre-assembled for you or you can use a 3 or 5 subject notebook, sold cheap at a back to school sale and adjust it to your own needs. I always preferred the second choice and then had money to spend on Time for Kids or National Geographic for each student. Samantha Bennett stretches how we think about using a readers notebook in a section titled, The Reading Notebook Revamped (p.85).

So, often in education we have to prove students are learning and growing a year for a year. Unfortunately, school districts pay loads of money for standardized testing and formulas that are hidden in a little black box. I understand we have to make learning visible and I think we as educators need to think further how to make this learning visible in authentic and meaningful ways, beyond our classrooms. Samantha Bennett has a chart (p. 86) that is titled, Documentation of Conversation About Making the Invisible Visible. There are three columns with these headings - How a Readers Grow, Evidence Might Look Like?, and Implications for Planning, Instruction, and/or Assessment? The, How Readers Grow, column is essentially what we want readers to be able to do, our learning targets with a bigger picture in mind. A picture with them truly reading and functioning independently.

I think creating a chart like this would help any teacher think through the structures and tools used by the classroom community. As educators we need to show authentic growth and we need to make a Reader's Notebook work to it's fullest potential to benefit the students. This chart will help you get started on your way.

On The Other Side of the Door {Poetry Friday}

On the Other Side of the Door

On the other side of the door
I can be a different me,
As smart and as brave, as funny or strong
As a person could want to be.
There's nothing too hard for me to do,
There's no place I can't explore
Because everything can happen
On the other side of the door.

On the other side of the door
I don't have to go alone.
If you come, too, we can sail tall ships
And fly where the wind has flown.
And wherever we go, it is almost sure
We'll find what we are looking for
Because everything can happen
On the other side of the door.

-Jeff Moss

This poem hangs on the outside of my classroom door and has for a few years. I chose this poem years ago because I wanted parents and children to read this with hope for what could occur in our classroom while we are together. I have to admit, I had "forgotten" it was there, it just wasn't on my mind currently as I think through each day. When I was listening to Ann Marie Corgill at the Dublin Lit Conference she shared this poem hangs outside her door and I could say me too! I can't do what I do with children if they don't come to the other side of the door. I've always thought about the children sailing and flying. As I reflect now, maybe it's me who can't sail and fly without the children. The students are guiding my own growing and learning. They drive me to read, reflect, and rethink again what we are doing. They are showing me what young learners need and pushing me to start a list, What to do in kindergarten, year two.

Poetry Friday is hosted at Becky's Book Review.

Billy & Milly Short & Silly

We know about short stories. We know about collections of short stories. Billy & Milly Short & Silly by Eve B. Feldman is unlike any other short story collection I have ever seen. It's a collection of 13 short stories, very short stories. Stories written with just three or four words. What makes the choice of words used even more interesting and intriguing for readers young and old? Each story is written with rhyming words. Here are two examples -

Stoops Hoops Scoops Oops

Ape Cape Escape

Some of the stories are on a two page spread. However, a few of them carry over to a third page which I think will lead to more anticipation for the readers. I'm not familiar with Tuesday Morning as an illustrator but found these pages of mixed art media just delightful. They are monochromatic and the characters are drawn to match the words showing expression and humor. Kindergarteners love to identify rhyming words, we will have a lot of fun with this book!