It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Thanks to Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers for hosting this meme!

Favorite Book of the Week!

Grace and I are huge fans of Elephant and Piggie!  We own about half of the books in the series, so of course, we had to preorder the final book!  I think the final page is the perfect conclusion to this incredible collection!  Thank you, Elephant and Piggie, for helping my daughter to fall in love with reading!

New Middle Grade Novels

I agree with all of the book buzz on Twitter - I loved Raymie Nightingale!  The characters reminded me of India Opal and her friends in Because of Winn Dixie.  Everyone needs friends like the Rancheros!  Kate DiCamillo's character development is beautiful as the story evolves. I would highly recommend this book as a read aloud!  

I enjoyed Maybe A Fox, especially the alternating perspectives between Jules and the fox.  This book was a page turner for me!

I love Fenway and Hattie!  I've been recommending it to all of our third grade teachers as a read aloud for next year.  I think it would be a wonderful read aloud in any grade, especially as an introduction to an alternate perspective.  One of my favorite elements of this adorable book is that it is narrated by Fenway, the energetic Jack Russell terrier!  Thank you to Kali Wallace @kaliphyte for sharing the book love!

New Picture Books

I love the message of this beautifully designed picture book!  Ideas Are All Around is the perfect title to share in writing workshop to encourage students to open their eyes to the ideas surrounding them everyday.  

Hermelin is an adorable mouse detective, who solves mysteries in his neighborhood.  I love the design of the picture book, which is perfectly narrated by Hermelin.  Students will love this book!

Currently Reading

Grace and I are enjoying the adventures of Red Riding Hood in this true story by the amazing Liesl Shurtliff.  This book may be my favorite in the collection!  

Jacob is just starting the Mystery of the Missing Fox by Maine author Tamra Wight.  I can't wait to get my hands on it when he's finished!  If you have not checked out the Cooper and Packrat series, I highly recommend it!  I have my fingers crossed that we can arrange an author visit with Tamra to our school next year!

Jacob recently finished A Whole New Ballgame by Phil Bildner.  He would highly recommend that teachers include this title in their classroom libraries, especially for sports fans!  I'm looking forward to reading this book this summer.

Professional Reading

Yesterday I started Who's Doing the Work? after reading all the excitement on Twitter about this new book by Burkins and Yaris.  After chapter 1, I am hooked! This book is stretching my thinking and confirming my beliefs about scaffolding.  I agree this book should be in the hands of all elementary teachers!  I'm looking forward to sharing more about it when I am finished.

Next in my stack is DIY Literacy which I hope to start later this week!

Currently Reading

Thank you to Susan Dee @literacydocent for sending me a copy of this incredible book!  I read half of it this weekend and wish I didn't have to put it down to go to school today.  My heart is breaking for Annabelle and I can't wait to find out how her problem with Betty is resolved.  Thank you for sharing this book love!  I will be passing this book on to fifth grade teachers when I am finished.

March Madness Nonfiction - Celebrating Our Champion!

On Wednesday, April 13, our entire school community gathered in the gymnasium to announce the champion of our March Madness Nonfiction Picture Book bracket!  The energy was amazing as kids (and teachers!) were cheering for Growing Up Pedro or Tarra & Bella.  Some students even made posters rooting for their favorite book!

This assembly was truly a collaborative effort and involved participation from all classes.  One of the members of our support staff is a varsity basketball coach, so we asked him to be our master of ceremonies.  Jason did a phenomenal job setting the tone for the event!  He even created a special playlist of basketball related songs to create an energized atmosphere!

We started by announcing the 14 picture books that were part of the bracket.  Each class selected a student representative who marched in our parade of books in front of the school.  Jason announced each title and author while the students cheered for some of their favorite books from our tournament!

We had two classrooms decorate a box for the finalists which we used to reveal the results.  

For the main event, we selected two teachers who were passionate about the final titles.  Mary, one of our third grade teachers and huge fan of Tarra & Bella, created masks for two of her students to showcase their favorite book.  Sydney, one of our fourth grade teachers and a huge fan of Pedro, wore baseball attire during the announcement of her favorite book.  She even threw a first pitch in honor of Pedro!  The entire school community was waiting to hear the results of our nonfiction tournament!

Finally, it was time for the big announcement! Jason led the whole school in a countdown for the big moment.  At the count of one, Valerie and I ripped open the boxes to reveal helium balloons floating out of the box for Growing Up Pedro.  As you can imagine, cheering erupted in the entire gym!

The best moment of the assembly for me was when I shared a special message from Matt Tavares.  A few days before the assembly, I e-mailed him to let him know our school had selected his book from a collection of sixteen outstanding titles.  It was such an honor to read aloud his response to our entire school.  By looking at the faces in the audience, I could tell how special our students felt to hear from the author of their favorite book.  Thank you so much, Matt!  

At the end of the event, I asked the students to raise their hands if they wanted to have another March Madness bracket next year.  The vote was unanimous!  We've already started to collect potential outstanding titles to share with our students next spring.  

Here are a few of our top contenders for March Madness 2017!

It's hard for me to express in words what this March Madness bracket meant to our school. For the past six weeks, we've been energized about read aloud, picture books and nonfiction.  Kids couldn't wait for their teacher to share a new book each day!  Our students were passionate and jubilant, not about basketball, but about books!  This event brought our school community together in such a powerful way.  As one of my colleagues shared, "this is the most awesome thing we've ever done! "  I can't wait to see what next year brings!  Stay tuned!

Nonfiction Picture Book March Madness

In the spirit of the annual March Madness basketball tournament, my colleague, Valerie Glueck and I designed a literacy related March Madness bracket of nonfiction picture books to foster a love of nonfiction in our reading community.

Our Reading Tournament kicked off on March 4th with a collection of sixteen outstanding nonfiction picture books.  Teachers in every classroom at Williams Elementary School read aloud eight picture books from one side of the bracket with their students. Classrooms discussed not only the content and structure of the text, but also their favorite features. After the texts had been read aloud, students voted between pairs of books to determine which nonfiction books would move on to "The Elite Eight".

After the winners of round one were determined, teachers then read the four books from the other side of the bracket.  Students participated in rich classroom discussions in order to select our "Final Four" Nonfiction Picture Book Champions.  Here are the four final texts in our March Madness bracket which will be announced at school this morning!

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March Madness has not only created an energy and excitement for read aloud; it has also exposed students to more nonfiction, which can be a neglected genre.  Teachers have used our March Madness bracket as a springboard for discussions of text features and structures, vocabulary and author's purpose.  The fifth grade teachers shared that our nonfiction study has led to deep discussion about a variety of topics with students.  Most of all, students have been surprised by the fact that all of the books are about real people and events!  Readers have been inspired to look up extra information about topics after read aloud.  One teacher shared that her students can't wait to find out which book they are reading each day.  Students have found a renewed curiosity in a variety of topics through the tournament.  A fifth grader shared, "The books were interesting because I learned new things like in How to Swallow a Pig. I learned a lot about animals I didn't know.  It was fun to read the books and it was exciting!"  Another student explained, "The titles give you a lot to think about like No Monkeys, No Chocolate.  So I like that these nonfiction books really make you think about things for a while and then sometimes your thinking changes." We love that our students are becoming reflective and inspired by the books in our collection!

Another exciting feature for students and staff has been the connection with some of the authors through Twitter. Melissa Stewart created a nonfiction blog post about our nonfiction book bracket encouraging schools across the country to follow our lead in reading aloud more nonfiction.  http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-madness.html  Twitter has allowed authors to follow the progress of their books through the bracket.  After the initial posting, Matt Tavares, author of Growing Up Pedro tweeted, "Going against @duncantonatiuh in the first round? That's gonna be tough. Go Pedro!" It's exciting to see the energy from our project extending outside the walls of our school!

Regardless of the final champion, the staff has enjoyed the opportunity to celebrate reading as a school community. Our students are the real winners as they've developed a greater appreciation for nonfiction!

Next Wednesday, I am looking forward to announcing our final champion and sharing pictures from our school wide assembly!  Stay tuned!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Thanks to Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers for hosting this meme!

I finally finished Finding Serendipity this week.  I love this book not only for the action-packed adventure, but also for the strong connections to becoming a writer.  I tabbed many pages for strong examples of Words of the Wiser for writers.  I plan to recommend this book to teachers at our next children's literature study group!

I was surprised to see in the author's note that Angelica Banks is actually not one writer, but two - Heahter Rose and Danielle Wood!  I hope to read A Week Without Tuesday later this spring!

Goodreads Summary:

Something is broken in the land of story. Real and imaginary worlds are colliding—putting everything and everyone in grave peril. Tuesday and Baxterr, at the request of the Librarian, and with the help of Vivienne Small, venture to find the Gardener—the one person who can stop this catastrophe. On their way, they'll meet friends and foes, and discover strengths they didn't know they had. Will they be able to save the land of story? 

New Book Purchase

This beautifully illustrated picture book tells the story of Anne Frank from the perspective of the tree outside her window.  Using this text as a read aloud will certainly inspire students to ask questions about Anne and World War II.  The Tree in the Courtyard is a wonderful mentor text for word choice and personification (or anthropomorphism).  One of the features that will make the greatest impression on readers is the explanation in the Afterword of how saplings from this chestnut tree have been planted in a number of American locations that are noted for freedom and tolerance.  I think this is a beautiful text to pair with a biography of Anne Frank or to include in a unit of study on World War II.  I look forward to sharing it with teachers!

 Recent Notice and Note Read Alouds

I was excited to share Last Stop on Market Street this week in a few third grade classrooms to launch the Words of the Wiser signpost.  I hope to craft a blog post soon to share some classroom examples of my recent work with the Notice and Note signposts in third and fourth grade classrooms.

I've been a huge fan of Wolfie the Bunny since last spring!  I pulled it back out this week to share in classrooms this week for the Again and Again signpost.  I'm sure it will be a bit hit!

 Currently Reading

I was hooked by this book in the very first chapter! You don't need to be a dog lover to fall head over heels in love with Fenway, the energetic Jack Russell terrier.  I love that this story is told from his perspective!

 On Deck

I've seen rave reviews for this title, so I moved it to the top of my TBR stack!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Thanks to Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers for hosting this meme!

Favorite New Picture Books

There are so many things I love about The Bear Report!  First of all, I think it's an outstanding mentor text for informative writing in the primary grades.  Sophie is struggling with a homework assignment asking her to write facts about polar bears when Olafur arrives in her living room.  As they explore the Arctic together, Sophie learns first hand many facts about polar bears.  I love that the text is told through a conversation between Sophie and Olafur.  The Bear Report would be an outstanding choice for encouraging students to look closely at the illustrations to gain a deeper understanding of the text.  I can't wait to share this beautiful book with our primary teachers!

I've seen this title included on many lists as a recommended read aloud title for encouraging a growth mindset in our students.  I could not agree more!  I love that it reminds our students that learning a new skill requires courage, grace and determination.

Recommended Early Reader Series

Grace and I have been checking out lots of early reader series in the last few weeks.  Here are some of our new favorites!

We loved that this book included three short stories.  It's a perfect transition for Grace, as she needed to make predictions and inferences in each story.  She also loved the characters!  I hope Eve Bunting continues to add titles to Frog and Friends!

Bink and Gollie is also organized as a collection of three short stories.  Because each story includes a great deal of dialogue between the two main characters, Grace and I took turns reading the lines of the characters, which was a great way to practice fluency!  We loved the personalities and shenanigans of Bink and Gollie!

We are huge fans of Elephant and Piggie books, so it's no surprise that we are now in love with 

Ballet Cat!

 Currently Reading

I've been working my way through this incredible adventure for the past few weeks.  Our schedule at home has been so busy that I haven't had as much time to read as I would like.  I know that middle grade readers would love the adventure and strong characters in Finding Serendipity.  

My goal is to finish it this week and begin working my way through my growing book stack!  I'm not sure where to begin, but I think Fenway and Hattie and Maybe a Fox will be moving to the top of the pile!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

Thanks to Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers for hosting this meme!

Unfortunately, I did not get my books posted last week, so here's what I've been reading during the last 2 weeks!

I would love to use this book in classrooms as a mentor text for personification!  I'm sure that many children will relate to the dark in the closet, the dark in the basement and of course, the dark in our bedroom!  One night Laszlo meets the dark when the lightbulb in his nightlight burns out.  Jon Klassen's illustrations add to the perspective in this great text!

I love every book in the Ordinary People Who Change the World series.  I am excited to use this text in a fourth grade classroom this week to launch the Notice and Note signpost of Words of the Wiser.  I think students will have a lot to say about the use of our power to lead and help others.  I plan to look closely at a few pages in the text, especially the last page which states the wise words, "When others see your example, they'll stand with you.  It's the only way the world ever gets changed.  Together."  I hope to have students connect these Words of the Wiser to their own lives!

I am a huge Melissa Stewart fan!  I absolutely love the text and layout of this book.  Each page has a beautiful simile about the many uses of feathers, as well as a text box describing an example of a bird using its feathers for each specific purpose.  I love the scrapbook design, complete with pins, decorative edges and clear tape!  The labeled sketches are absolutely beautiful. I would love to share this book with students as a mentor text for word choice.  

Out of the Woods is a memoir based on a true story from the author's grandfather.  Set in the early 1900s, Antonio worked at the hotel his mother managed.  One day a great fire spread through the area and forced all of the people of Gowganda into the lake to safety.  The author described how all of the animals of the forest joined the townspeople in the water as the fire tore through the forest.  The beautiful illustrations and moving story make for a great read aloud.  I'm so glad that our primary school librarian shared it with me last week!

I can see why this book gets rave reviews!  I love the pairing of beautiful poems with informational sidebars about winter.  The poems represent a variety of narrative styles from first to third person, which would be neat to share with students.  I would love to use any of the poems in this book during writer's workshop, especially when studying word choice and figurative language.

I can't wait to share this book with the teachers at our primary school!  Each page includes a letter to an animal with a question and the animal's informative response.  Creature Features is a fun read aloud, but it is also a great mentor text for informative voice.  I'm sure students would love to use this structure to create their own informative writing piece!

My daughter, Grace, and I finished the second book in Ellen Potter's Piper Green series.  We loved Too Much Good Luck as much as Piper Green and the Fairy Tree.  Piper is hilarious as she struggles with a new student and a personality conflict with her teacher.  I am highly recommending this series to teachers in our primary school! 

I finished The War That Saved My Life last week.  What a beautiful book that pulled on my heart strings until the very end.  I was anxious to discover if Ada and Jamie would stay with Susan in the end. I could not agree more with Shelia Turnage's review, " I love Ada's bold heart, keen wit, and amazingly fresh point of view.  Her story was riveting.  I was with her every step of the way."

Currently Reading

I received an advanced copy of A Week Without Tuesday at nErDcamp Northern New England in January, so I decided that I needed to get my hands on Finding Serendipity first.  I am loving Tuesday's quest to find her mother in the place that stories come from.  I reread page 81 a few times savoring every word.  The passage when the librarian explains to Tuesday how writing really works would be perfect for close reading.  I absolutely love the message that the magic of writing a story comes from within the author!

Can't Wait to Read

This week I won a Twitter book give away from Kali Wallace (@kaliphyte) for one of the titles from the @TheSweet16s! It was a tough choice because I would like to read them all, but I picked Fenway and Hattie! I can't wait to read this book and share it with students and teachers!