Getting Lost in Pictures

I like to feature an author each month to expose students to various authors, build excitement for books and let students know that if they like one book they should look for more books by the same author. This month I am featuring Jan Brett. She has been a favorite of mine for a long time.

I love the stories Jan Brett tells. Stories that take us into nature, to foreign lands and times. I love rereading about mischievous trolls and Hedgie the hedgehog, both reoccurring characters in Jan Brett books.  I find myself lost in her magical illustrations. I especially enjoy the boarders Jan Brett includes in many of her stories. The illustration themselves tell a story or lend themselves to predictions of what is to come. For beginning struggling readers this feature allows for tremendous practice of using pictures when reading a story.

This month we have used Jan Brett's books to delve into characters. Talking about characters and building on what we can write about characters. We have asked ourselves: What do they want? What do they like? How do they act? These questions have helped us expand on what students say about characters  and what they write about characters.

We have also enjoyed reading Three Snow Bears, a version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have used this book to practice retelling a story. This version takes place in the arctic with polar bears and an Inuit girl who rides with a sled dog team. It was a perfect opportunity for me to bring out my toy sled dog team and little figurines along with my Inuit doll from the Fairbanks University Museum in Alaska.

I am anxiously awaiting the arrive of Jan Brett's new book Animals Santa. I am sure I will find myself lost in the pictures of this new book, as I have with all her other books.

All Hallow’s READ

"It was almost Halloween, but that pumpkin just sat."

We kicked off our All Hallow's Read week with 6 staff share reading Erica Silverman's book Big Pumpkin. What a great patterned story of a witch who can not pick her over grown pumpkin, yet wants to make pumpkin pie for Halloween. We donned our book character costumes to share a scary, ok not so scary, book for Halloween. 

As a way to build excitement with reading and books,  we are sharing Halloween and pumpkin stories we read with our class with the whole school by adding the name of the book on a pumpkin cut out. The cut outs are added to a growing pumpkin patch in the hall. Out pumpkin patch is half way filled. I can not wait to see it grow this week. 

 My students will continue enjoying Big Pumpkin with retelling the story and making small puppets that the students will share with their families at the end of the week.  I love this time of year. At home I have bats hanging in my chandelier, a giant spider web in the entry, a scary cat and bones spooking up the mantle. I love that this time of year does not have to be all about the sugary treats, but also have the treat of a great spooky story.

The Interactive Bulletin Board

We are the reading room, in which I do not need to plan bulletin board space for math, daily schedule, calendar or science. This leaves me the luxury to use a lot of space for reading strategies and for anchor charts. 

In the past I have created anchor charts with students and displayed them. Yet I questioned how much they were used once they were posted. This year I incorporated the anchor charts as part of the bulletin board. A goal for first and second graders is to retell stories, which includes the characters, the setting and the events of the story. Thus our bulletin board reflects these elements of a story.

Using mentor texts, second graders have investigated characters and the settings of stories. We have now added our thoughts and examples found on our anchor bulletin board. 

On top of the chart are questions we can ask to help tell or write about characters.
On  the side are examples from anchor test. 

As a group we read Toot and Puddle by Holly Hobbie and discovered that asking questions about what characters like, what they want and how characters act, guide us to be able to tell a lot about characters in stories.

We enjoyed Peter Brown's story Mr. Tiger Goes Wild. We found that the setting can change in the same story, Mr. Tiger lives in the city yet leaves for the wild. Students are now including the setting of their books when retelling the story.

One of my favorite aspects of this bulletin board is the stickies, which are easily inter changeable as we continue reading more. We will continue our learning as we work on retelling events of our stories. 

Our Featured Author

When I moved into my room at school a year ago I was pleased to see a book display case left behind. It is the perfect height for my young students. I pondered all last year how best to make use of this potential display of books. After all, books is what we are all about.

This year I have chosen an author to feature each month. These books will be used in our mini lessons to discuss character, setting, events and author's message. Featured authors will  also provide the opportunity to share great literature and build language with my youngest students.

This month I am thrilled to be featuring Jeff Mack. Kids love the the illustrations, love the speech bubbles in some of his books and love the humor in his stories.  Jeff's book Good News Bad News, a wonderfully illustrated tale of a rabbit trying to have a picnic with a rat. The repetitive simple text, in match with the hilarious illustration of they pair's continued "bad news", draws readers in and is a perfect match to have readers tell a story in their own words. 

Another favorite in our room is  Frog and Fly. This book containing six short stories written in speech bubbles is a favorite with the beginning readers. 

I hope some student choose to explore this little series. They are great to build independence and are stories we would want to read again and again. 

             

                                        

Check out Jeff Mack's website for more book ideas and then head to the library for what will be an enjoyable read. 

http://www.jeffmack.com

Summer Reading

One part of summer break that I so look forward to is the stack of books waiting for me. How I treasure the evenings reading on the porch or reading away a rainy morning content with a cup of tea. Along with the adult literary titles, I have a collection of YA books in my stack as well as the growing stack of professional book I could not fit in the school year. Summer is a great time to really read, digest and reflect on these professional books.

This summer I started my professional reading with No More Summer Reading Loss by Carrie Cahill,  Kathy Horvath, Anne McGill-Franzen and Richard Allington, a book from the series Not This But That from Heinemann Publishers. This great little series provides a look at the current research and practical uses on various topics.  It doesn't seem like the time of year to be reading a book on summer reading loss, I know. Yet I realize now that this is a good time of the year to be thinking about next year's summer reading for my students. 

I had ended this school year with students decorating bags to fill with books of their choice to take home to keep and I enclosed a letter to parent stressing the importance of summer reading. Hooray, this is one point made in the book. We have covered providing access to books for kids and have engaged the parents some what. However, I had a nagging feeling as I excitedly talked up various books to students, as they filled their bags,  that I was not really doing enough. Would they read the books over the summer? Would parents buy into the importance of summer reading? Or would it be like in my own house, where my kids start the summer with a book they are excited about, yet when that one is finished it is hard for them to continue the momentum. Or even worse would they not even look at their new books?

The book No More Summer Reading Loss brings up a great point, preparing for summer reading actually happens all year. If students have gained stamina, and practice independent reading they are likely to  see themselves as readers and continue that practice in the summer. By giving students choice and guiding them to engaged reading we are helping our students see themselves as readers. Building motivation is essential. Teaching with best practices builds this motivation. When we  provide choice to students, use shared reading experiences, allow for independent practice, teach strategies, share our own reading habits and build in time to reflect on new learning we are nurturing our student as readers. Which will naturally continue when we wave them off for the summer. 

Knowing my students have benefited from these best practice this past school year, I am now imagining them excited about their books and perhaps even rereading them. I will continue this summer to look for exciting new titles to introduce them to in the fall. I will also reflect and think how I can include more collaboration between students, sharing books they have loved. How can I build engagement in free reading time? How can I provide more support over the summer next year? How can I further engage parents? So much to think about, I just hope the summer does not slip away too quickly.