Classroom Book of the Week

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR CAROLYN COMAN AND ILLUSTRATOR ROB SHEPPERSON

2012-01-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

KN: The concept of a memory bank implies that memories are valuable. Please expand on that idea.

CC: Beyond valuable, memory and dreams are incredibly delicious phenomena, the richest territory in the universe for an author and artist to mine. I felt like I’d fallen into a tub of butter getting to imagine the places and workings of memories and dreams and forgetting and remembering. Entering The Memory Bank was like an extended journey to the back of my brain, where practically all of the good stuff resides.

RS: Wow. This question stumps me. Isn’t reading experiencing memory?

KN: Abandonment is one of human kind's deepest fears. How did you decide that Honey would be abandoned?

CC: Very little is decided consciously, at least in the beginning of creating a story. Ideas and images present themselves, and often come as a surprise. We understood, at some level, that our main characters, Hope and Honey, were up against a tough situation. And we needed something striking to jumpstart the story and get them on the road to the Memory Bank (and Dump). More than anything we played with options. When this notion of abandoned-by-the-side-of-the-road came to us, we knew we knew we had gone a little (too) far, sailed right over the top. We more or less dared ourselves to pull it off.

RS: Children feel abandoned everyday, dontcha think? A mother that we know has such trouble when dropping her daughter off at preschool that she brought an alarm clock. The mother would set the alarm for 1 minute, explaining to her daughter that she had to leave when the bell rang. I wonder what the daughter thinks now (she must be 20) whenever own clock goes off in the morning…
But that doesn’t answer your question does it? We didn’t ‘decide’ as much as follow the story.

KN: Carolyn, please talk about your creative process. Do you use outlines, or other aides? If so, how and when?

CC: The Memory Bank was my first book of true collaboration/co-creation. Rob and I made it together simultaneously, and our creative process developed and unfolded along with the book. We flew by the seat of our pants for the most part, trusted our instincts and didn’t analyze a partnership that was clearly working. The story grew out of an on-going conversation conducted in words and pictures—thousands of emails sent over a period of about 18 months. Sometimes Rob started the conversation with a picture, sometimes I did with a snippet of text or a question. Then we proceeded back and forth, building on anything that caught our fancy, that made us laugh or seemed to have juice. Bit by bit characters emerged, the places and workings of the Bank became clear. Later, editorial help from Stephen Roxburgh and Arthur Levine helped us refine the fundamental narrative drive of the story, the separation and reunion of the two sisters. Probably our main aides were the working dummies we created (with the help of ace Art Director Helen Robinson) so that we could see how the pictures and text were flowing together. Another aide for me was coffee. Rob and I tended to work at night.

KN: Rob, please talk about your creative process. Do you experiment with materials, perspective, and/or other artistic elements?

I didn't experiment so much with materials, as with layout and perspective, with the Memory Bank building dictating where to place the "viewer". Generally, I considered the page a stage and followed the text’s stage directions, although I used quick pencil sketches for the Memory Bank because Carolyn and I were having an avalanche of story. When we were working, there were three in the room: Carolyn, me, and the Bank.

KN: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

CC: Creating this book was the most fun and best time I’ve ever had making a book. I’m forever spoiled by having had simultaneous visual expression in the creation and unfolding of a story.

RS: What Carolyn wrote.

THE MEMORY BANK

2012-01-01T05:37:00.000-08:00

BY Carolyn Coman and Rob Shepperson
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-545-21066-9

FROM THE FLAP: The Clean Slate Gang and The World Wide Memory Bank Are At War.

Lollipops have been found clogging the great machines that take in and store all the memories being formed in the world. Bonfires have been set. Practical jokes are gumming up the works. And the mischief is getting more serious.

Caught in the middle is Hope Scroggins, who’s been summoned to the bank for failing to record New Memories. And THAT’S because her hideously awful parents told her to FORGET her beloved little sister, Honey, who is out there somewhere, needing her.

Somehow Hope figures out that the World Wide Memory Bank holds the key to finding Honey, and maybe even a chance at happiness! But can she find it in time, before the Clean Slate Gang takes away her last, best shot at finding her sister?

KATE’S TAKE: A Roald Dahl-like fantasy that will make you cry, laugh, and yearn for more.

DREAM JOURNALS Visual/Spatial, Verbal/Linguistic, Intrapersonal

Have students fold an 11 by 18 sheet of white paper in half and fill it with seven sheets of lined paper. Ask them to decorate the cover. Then, have them take it home and record their dreams for a week. Next, ask students to use of of their dreams as a story starter in writers’ workshop.

GRAPHIC STORIES Visual/Spatial, Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal

Ask students to take a story they have written and depict the five plot points: the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution graphically. Then, pair students up. Ask one student to hold up his or her graphic story, and ask the partner to verbally retell the story based on the pictures.

LOLLIPOP FRACTIONS Visual/Spatial, Logical/Mathematical, Interpersonal

Divide students into groups of three, and give each student an eight-by-eight inch circle. Some groups of three will work with 1/8, ¼, and ½ while the other groups of three will work with 1/6, 1/3 and ½. Each student decorates their lollipop. After they decorate their lollipop, they must cut it into one of the above mentioned fractions. Each person in each group is assigned a different fraction. Then, each student must trade lollipop sections with each person in his or her threesome to create a whole lollipop with three different designs.

MEMIE BOXES Visual/Spatial, Verbal/Linguistic, Intrapersonal

Ask each student to write down his or her first memory, a memie. Then, show students how to fold origami boxes, and have him place his or her memory inside the box. You can find an origami diagram for a box here: http://en.origami-club.com/rectangular/long-box/long-box/index.html These make great parent gifts. Thanks to Carolyn Coman for this activity.

SUCROSE MOLECULES Visual/Spatial, Interpersonal, Naturalistic

Working in groups of three, have students create a 3-D model of a sucrose molecule. Give one student twenty-two small Styrofoam balls, give another student eleven medium-sized Styrofoam balls, and the third student twelve medium-sized Styrofoam balls. The student with the eleven medium-sized balls should paint them pink, while the student with the twelve medium-sized balls paints his purple. The third student can help the other two students paint their Styrofoam balls. Then, using toothpicks and the diagram at http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/sugar.html each student should assemble a 3-D diagram of a sucrose molecule.

BOOK BUDDIES
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
Writing Stories: Ideas, Exercises, and Encouragement for Teachers and Writers of All Ages by Carolyn Coman

THE PINSTRIPE GHOST

2011-10-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

By David A. Kelly
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-375-86704-0

FROM THE FLAP: What’s the most famous ballpark in America? Yankee Stadium! And Mike and Kate are going there for three whole days. But even before the first pitch, the cousins hear a strange rumor—Babe Ruth’s ghost is haunting the new stadium. Chilly air comes blasting down a service hallway before every home game. The gusts are followed by a series of thumps and bumps. Is it the Babe searching for his missing locker?

Catch all the Ballpark Mysteries!

KATE’S TAKE: The Yankees and ghosts! This autumn dynamic duo is a must have for the primary classroom.

GHOST STORIES Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial

During writer’s workshop, ask students to craft their own ghost story. When they’re finished ask them to make an illustration for their story.

HOMER HITTERS Logical/Mathematical and Visual Spatial

Ask students to make a graph of how many home runs five of the Yankee’s starters hit in 2010. Then find the maximum, minimum, range, mean, median, and mode.

Robinson Cano 29
Curtis Granderson 24
Alex Rodriguez 30
Nick Swisher 29
Mark Teixeira 33

PINSTRIPE MAKE-A-WORD Verbal/Linguistic

At one of your reading stations, give students the letters that make the word, “pinstripe.” Challenge them to make as many words as possible by mixing up the letters. Then ask them to sort the words into two groups, those with the short i sound, and those with the long i sound.

PINSTRIPE PATTERNS Visual/Spatial and Logical/Mathematical

Ask each student to draw a picture of him or herself wearing a pinstripe shirt. Challenge them to use complex patterns such as ABBA, ABBB, or ABBC.

VENDOR MATH Logical/Mathematical and Interpersonal

For one of your reading stations, have students pretend to be running a hot dog stand. They’ll need to decide what items are for sale and how much they cost. In order to keep the activity accessible for all students, set a price limit such as $5. Then, give each student money and have them buy items from the stand. Give them challenges such as buy as many items as possible, spend exactly $4.50, save a dollar and so on.

BOOK BUDDIES

-The Astro Outlaw by David A. Kelly
-Babe & Me: A Baseball Card Adventure by Dan Gutman
-Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse by David A. Kelly
-The L.A. Dodger by David A. Kelly
-The Fenway Foul-Up by David A. Kelly

INTERVIEW WITH NANCY BO FLOOD

2011-09-12T00:55:00.000-07:00

KN: How did this story come to you?

NBF: I lived on Saipan for about ten years, teaching and working with students, especially guiding their own writing about their island. I also worked with the man, Filipe Ruak, who survived hiding in the caves with this family during the war and then "saved the dances." His dance group was make of young men who danced the traditional dances, an important part of their culture. Dancing is part prayer, part being physically fit, part community connections.

Filipe Ruak shared many stories about his childhood. When I said I was interested in writing a novel about the story of his people and how they survived the war, he asked me to do that. Filipe Ruak and his courage to tell his people's story is the reason I wrote Warriors in the Crossfire.

KN: Is Suicide Cliff a national monument?

NBF: Yes, Suicide Cliff is a national monument. You can stand at that cliff's edge, look straight down nearly a thousand feet, see the ocean crash against volcanic boulders and imagine. Slender white birds, fairy terns, swoop and circle the face of the cliff. Islanders believe they are the spirits of the people who died there.

KN: How did you decide which Japanese characters to include in you chapter headings?

NBF: The Japanese characters, the kanji, that begin each chapter were carefully selected. I wanted each character to reflect the heart, the theme, of each chapter. Sometimes I think of the nesting dolls in which one fits into another. The kanji character fits into the "little beginning poem" which fits within the chapter.

KN: How did you develop the father/son theme?

NBF: The father-son relationship seemed essential to Joseph's learning about the deeper meaning of being a warrior. Joseph needed to understand the wisdom of his father and his Japanese teacher, Sensei, to let grow from being a boy and becoming a man.

KN: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

NBF: I did indeed swim with the turtles and sharks. I wanted to have the courage to hold onto a turtle by its shell and RIDE. I didn't have the courage to do that but I did paddle my kayak over the reef and wait for the sharks to come near (out of curiosity not hunger!). I put on my mask and snorkel and felt the terror of being in the deep dark water with a shark swimming beneath me.

WARRIORS IN THE CROSSFIRE

2011-09-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

By Nancy Bo Flood

Publisher: Front Street

ISBN: 978-1-59078-661-1

FROM THE FLAP: Where could they hide? The Japanese would shoot anyone in the caves. The Americans would eat the children. Who could they trust? Joseph didn’t know. There was no one left to ask. The explosions kept coming closer.

In the final months of WWII, the tiny South Pacific island of Saipan provided a vital buffer between Japan and the advancing American forces. Japan vowed to defend these islands to the last man. One of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific war ensued—more than 30,000 Japanese and Americans lost their lives. These numbers do not include the natives who were killed—the Chamorro, Rafalawash, and Rapaganor—all caught in the crossfire.

Based on historical events, this story unfolds through the eyes of Joseph and his half-Japanese cousin, Kento. These clear-voiced characters move convincingly through war and mounting pressure to take unimaginable horrors of Suicide Cliff, they discover, within themselves, what it means to become warriors. One boy’s journey through this little-known chapter of history illuminates the rich texture and culture of the island.

KATE’S TAKE: A harrowing WWII journey that celebrates family, friendship, and honor.

BOATS THAT FLOAT Visual/Spatial Logical/Mathematical

Divide students into pairs. Give each pair a 12 by 12 inch piece of aluminum foil, ten tongue depressors, and a glue stick. Ask each pair to design a boat. Place each boat in a tub of water and see how many pennies each boat holds. If you want, have students graph the results and calculate the mean, medium, mode, maximum, minimum and range of pennies held by each pair’s boat.

IMPRESSIONISTIC POEMS Verbal/Linguistic Interpersonal Intrapersonal

Write a brief poem modeled after the poems that lead into each chapter. Have students read their poems to the class. Although Ms. Flood’s poems are free-form, haiku and diamante poems work well with this activity, too.

KANJI CHARACTERS Visual/Spatial

Give students a paper, brush, and black ink. Ask them to choose a Kanji character that speaks to them. They may choose one from the book, or pick one on line at http://www.japanese-symbols.org/popular-japanese-symbols . Then, ask them to paint the symbol.

TURTLE AND SHARK ORIGAMI Visual/Spatial Verbal/Linguistic

Rewrite chapter two, Turtle and Shark, from the turtle or shark’s point of view. Then, fold an origami shark or turtle to accompany your story. http://en.origami-club.com/sea/index.html

WIND IN THE WILLOWS Musical Interpersonal Intrapersonal

Gather the class in a circle and ask one member to step forward and name a song, musician, or type of music that the individual likes. Anyone else who likes the named song, person, or music steps into the circle. Repeat until everyone has had a turn. No one may step into the middle and repeat something that has been said before.

BOOK BUDDIES (These are all listed in the back of Ms. Flood’s book)
A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Harry Mazer
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salisbury
House of the Red Fish by Graham Salisbury
Under the Blood-Red Sun by Graham Salisbury

A PLACE FOR FISH

2011-05-22T14:05:00.000-07:00

By Melissa Stewart
Publisher: Peachtree
ISBN: 978-1-56145-562-1

FROM THE FLAP: Fish make our world a better place. But sometimes people do things that make it hard for them to live and grow.

In simple yet informative language, A Place For Fish introduces young readers to ways human action or inaction can affect fish populations and open kids’ minds to a wide range of environmental issues. Describing various examples—from Florida’s spotted trunkfish to the Atlantic salmon—the text provides an intriguing look at fish, at the ecosystems that support their survival, and at the efforts of some of the people to save them.

In the back of the book, the author offers readers a list of things they can do to help protect these special creatures in their own communities.

Artist Higgins Bond’s glorious full-color illustrations vividly and accurately depict their fish and their surroundings.

KATE’S TAKE: Splash into summer with Melissa Stewart’s, A Place for Fish. Stewart’s dual-level text is perfect for book buddy programs or classrooms with a large spread in ability levels.

CATCH BASIN LABELING PROGRAMS Naturalist and Interpersonal
Are you looking for a low cost field trip for the end of the year? Participate in your town’s catch basin label program or have your class start one in your community. Storm drains do not flow into a city’s water treatment plant, they flow directly into the surrounding bodies of water. So help your city spray paint, “No dumping. Drains to lake/creek/river,” signs on your town’s catch basins. Check out Santa Rosa’s city site for more details: http://ci.santa-rosa.ca.us/DEPARTMENTS/UTILITIES/STORMWATERCREEKS/OUTREACH/HOMEPOLLUTE/Pages/CB_Labeling.aspx

FISH LIFE CYCLE DIAGRAMS Naturalist, Visual/Spatial, and Linguistic
Have students diagram a fish’s life cycle. The University of Michigan has an excellent link for intermediate teachers that includes worksheets: http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/flow/pdf/U3/FLOW-U3-L3-MICHU-08-403.pdf

MAP IT OUT Visual/Spatial and Interpersonal
Divide your class into partners. Give each group a photocopied map of North America. Assign each pair of partners a fish that is in Ms. Stewart’s book. Next, have each group shade in the area on their map where their assigned fish lives. If a group finishes early, have them research some basic facts about their fish.

ORIGAMI FISH Visual/Spatial
Check out this step-by-step engaging video to show your students how to fold origami fish: http://www.activitytv.com/751-goldfish
Be sure and use origami paper. Regular paper is too thick.

SHARK BAR GRAPHS Logical/Mathematical and Visual/Spatial
Give students a sheet of graph paper. Have them title their graph Shark Population Decline in the Atlantic Ocean since the 1990’s. Then have them label the side with numbers from 0 to 100%. I find that using 5% increments works well. On the bottom of the graph, ask them to make a column for each of the following sharks: blues, great whites, hammerheads, threshers, and tigers. Ask them to record the following information:

Blue Sharks: 60% population decline
Great White Sharks: 79% population decline
Hammerhead Sharks: 89% population decline
Thresher Sharks: 80% population decline
Tiger Sharks: 65% population decline

BOOK BUDDIES:
-A Place for Birds by Melissa Stewart
-A Place for Frogs by Melissa Stewart
-Project Seahorse by Pamela S. Turner
-Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion by Loree Griffin Burns
-Trout, Trout, Trout: A Fish Chant by April Pulley Sayre

THE CANDYMAKERS

2011-04-23T03:59:00.000-07:00

By Wendy Mass
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 978-0-316-00258-5

FROM THE FLAP: In the town of Spring Haven, four children have been selected to compete in the national candymaking contest of a lifetime. Who will make a candy more delicious than the Oozing Crunchorama or the Neon Yellow Lightning Chew?

Logan, the candymaker’s son, who can detect the color of chocolate by feel alone?

Miles, the boy allergic to rowboats and the color pink?

Daisy, the cheerful girl who can lift a fifty-pound lump of taffy as if it were a feather?

Philip, the suit-and-tie-wearing boy who’s always scribbling in a secret notebook?
The contestants face off in a battle of wits and sugar, but soon they realize that things are not what they seem, and they find themselves in a candy-filled world of surprises, suspense, and mouthwatering creations.

In this charming and cleverly crafted story, award-winning author Wendy mass cooks up a delectable concoction of mystery, friendship, and juicy revelations.

KATE’S TAKE: A sweet treat(couldn’t help myself)for middle grade novel enthusiasts just in time for Easter!

CANDY OF THE CENTURY: Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial
Ask students to write an essay describing their candy of the century—be sure to include a creative and original name. Then, give them white model magic so they can build and decorate their masterpieces.

CRACK THE CODE: Verbal/Linguistic
Miles often speaks backwards. Spice up some comprehension questions by writing them out backwards. Students have to decipher them before answering them in complete sentences. I’ve made an example you’re free to use. I’ve posted it after the Book Buddies section.

GRATITUDE NOTEBOOKS: Intrapersonal and Verbal/Linguistic
Give each student a small notebook and sometime during the day, have them write down five things they’re grateful for just like Logan lists five things he’s grateful for every night before bed. This is a good activity to do right before or right after a transition.

MUSICAL MOMENTS: Musical and Interpersonal
Philip constantly writes melodies down in his notebook. Working in pairs, have students write four measures of music. Then, they can play their compositions on a glockenspiel or a xylophone.

OBSTACLE COURSE: Interpersonal and Bodily Kinesthetic
Since Daisy is a spy, she has to do lots of physical training, but she’s not used to working with teammates. But in order to win the contest, she ends up having to work together with the other contestants. In the gymnasium, divide the class into two groups. Have props spread out from one end of the of the gym to the other, a few hula hoops, jump ropes, exercise rings, a scooter per team, and put a large exercise mat in the center of the gym. Students have to work with their teammates to get the whole team from one end of the gym to the other. They may not step on the floor unless they are inside a hula hoop, and the hula hoops can’t move. If someone steps on the floor, the whole team goes back to the start.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
-My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald
-The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler
-The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

CRACK THE CODE QUESTIONS
1. Ohw si rouy etirovaf retcarahc dna yhw?
2. Dlouw uoy tnaw ot eb a yps ekli ysiaD, yhw ro yhw ton?
3. Fi uoy dlouc yalp yna tnemurtsni sa llew sa pilihP hcihw eno dlouw uoy yalp dna yhw?
4. Yhw seod seliM kniht tuoba eht efilvetfa?
5. Od uoy kniht nagoL lliw esoohc ot evah niks shparg enod to ega 41, yhw ro yhw ton?

THE DANGER BOX

2011-03-13T04:10:00.000-07:00

By Blue Balliet
Publisher: Scholastic Press
ISBN: 978-0-439-85209-8

FROM THE FLAP: A boy in a small town who has a different way of seeing. A curious girl who doesn’t belong. A mysterious notebook. A missing father. A fire. A stranger. A death. These are some of the things you’ll find within the danger box, the new mystery from Blue Balliet. Open with care.

KATE’S TAKE: This mystery pulls readers in and doesn’t let go until the last page.

CODE CRACKERS Visual/Spatial, Verbal/Linguistic, and Interpersonal

Ask each student to write a question about a story element in the book. Then, have each pupil rewrite the question using the code on page thirty-eight of the book. After the questions are rewritten in code, ask students to exchange questions and have them crack the code and answer the questions.

DARWIN DIORAMAS Visual/Spatial

Ask students to create a diorama of Darwin’s trip to the Galapagos Islands based on information found in the book.

GAS GAZETTES Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Verbal/Linguistic

Ask each student to write a “Gas Gazette” about him or herself at the beginning of the school year. When you send home your newsletter, include one of the “Gas Gazettes” with each newsletter. This is a great way to introduce the “star of the week” if you implement Responsive Classroom techniques.

HOMETOWN HOTSPOTS Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal

Ask pairs of children to build a scale cardboard model of a famous town or state landmark. When all the models are built, students can take a walking tour of the town or state. Special thanks to Derek O’Riorden for this great end of the year activity.

LIKELY LISTS Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal

Next time you study biographies, ask each student to make up a list of words that describes their famous person. After students have presented their biography book reports, number the lists and post them around the room. Ask students to write down the name of the famous person that each list describes.

BOOK BUDDIES
-Charles and Emma: The Darwin’s Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
-Masterpiece by Elise Broach
-The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
-The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin
-The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

INTERVIEW WITH KIM NORMAN, AUTHOR OF TEN ON THE SLED

2011-02-21T14:11:00.000-08:00

1. I love the alliterative action that occurs when each animal escapes the sled. Would you please talk about why you chose to use alliterative phrases when each animal exits the sled?

I confess, I'm a sucker for alliteration. If I'd been a 1950s movie star, I'd definitely have been one of the alliteration queens like Marilyn Monroe or Diana Dors. Also, I knew this would be a way to strengthen the educational opportunities within the text, which already has several lesson-friendly elements such as numbers (counting-down) and science (arctic animals.)

I never make education the main focus of any of my books; it's always about simply creating a fun book, at the start. But once I've gotten down the bones, I do try to think in terms of educational possibilities. Choosing alliterative verbs serves several functions. First, it adds to the quality of language. To me, sounds are as important in language as meaning, especially because I mostly write picture books, which are meant to be read aloud.

Secondly, I think of verbs as the engine of any sentence. The stronger the engine, the farther the "car" (the sentence) will take me. I always tell older elementary students during author school visits that I'd rather use a single strong verb than a weak verb propped up by an adverb. And, of course, choosing a different verb for each animal also stretches the vocabulary in the book. Even if it's a verb with which the young reader is unfamiliar, LIza Woodruff's marvelous (and hilarious!) illustrations make it clear to the reader exactly what's happening in each scene.

2. In addition to alliteration, each spread uses different action words that rhyme. Would you please talk about one rhyming action pair that was particularly challenging or one rhyming action pair that you thought of immediately?

That wasn't too hard, although it might have become a bigger challenge if I'd had to write more than ten stanzas. Some couplets were easy because certain words about a sled race, (snowing/going, riding/gliding) were easy to rhyme. Two couplets that were hardest to come up with were,

"Great thunder! Duck under!" (where Liza shows the sledders ducking under fir trees)

and "We're lighter! Hold tighter!" (immediately after the heavy walrus has "whirled out.")

Reading the words now, paired with Liza's illustrations, those couplets seem very organic to the story. But the words came long before the illustrations were drawn, so it wasn't as obvious back then. I had to think in terms of visual scenes, asking myself, "What else could happen during this race?" In picture book writing, the author always has to come up with visual variety in the actions so that the illustrator isn't just drawing the same scene over and over again.

3. How did you come up with the idea of having the snowball race the sled?

I wish I could take the credit, but it's all thanks to my lovely critique group, which includes clever Joe Kulka (www.joekulka.com) an illustrator in my group. The first draft I submitted to the group was much more stagnant and true to its inspiration, "Ten in the Bed." I had everyone falling off the sled, but not much else happening. Joe read the manuscript and said, "This is fine, but let's remember this is a sled, a much more dynamic setting than a bed." Then he described how he would illustrate the story; that he'd show the ejected animals collecting into a big snowball which begins to race with the sled. I quickly rewrote, based on Joe's brilliant suggestion. I think it was at that point that I came up with the alliterative "falling-off" verbs, but I can't remember exactly. Perhaps I had already employed that device in the first draft.

4. I know you live in Virginia, but have you ever been sledding?

Not often, I confess. I like to brag that we have the best sledding hill in town, right behind our house. That's true, but since we live in a town on a relatively flat, tidal plain, it's pretty anemic in comparison to magnificent Alaskan mountains. Coincidentally, as I write this, there are sledders behind my house, since we had a little snowfall last night. That's another reason I don't often get to enjoy sledding, since snow is not as common here in southeastern Virginia as in Maine, where many of my relatives live.

5. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

Just that I'm pleased to be featured on your blog, Kate, and really grateful for the clever lessons you created to go with my book! Thank you so much!

It's my pleasure. Thank you, Kim, for the fantastic book!

BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT

2011-02-07T00:22:00.000-08:00

By Rob Buyea
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 978-0-385-73882-8

FROM THE FLAP: It’s the start of fifth grade for seven kids at Snow Hill School. There’s Jessica, the new girl, smart, perceptive, who’s having a hard time trying to fit in; Alexia, a bully, your friend one second, your enemy the next; Peter, class prankster and troublemaker; Luke, the brain; Danielle, who never stands up for herself; shy Anna, whose home situation makes her an outcast; and Jeffrey, who hates school.

Only Mr. Terupt, their new and energetic teacher, seems to know how to deal with them all. He makes the classroom a fun place, even if he doesn’t let them get away with much… until the snowy winter day when an accident changes everything—and everyone.

Rob Buyea’s engaging first novel features seven narrators, each with a unique story, and each with a different perspective on what makes their teacher special.

KATE’S TAKE: This book is a must read because it’s heartbreaking, heartwarming, and inspirational in every way.

COLLABORATIVE CLASSROOM COMMUNITY Interpersonal and Intrapersonal
Mr. Terupt’s students read The Summer of the Swans, by Betsy Byars, and then they regularly visit their school’s collaborative classroom in small groups. This is a great way to develop community, enhance self-esteem, increase communication, and eradicate stereotypes.

DOLLAR WORDS Logical/Mathematical and Verbal/Linguistic
Mr. Terupt assigns each letter a value, and challenges his students to make as many dollar words as possible. Here’s a sheet you can copy and paste, to have a ready-made activity for your class:

Name: ________________________________ Date: ___________
DOLLAR WORDS
Each letter of the alphabet is worth a certain amount of cents. A is worth one cent, B is worth 2 cents, C is worth three cents and so on. First, fill in the value of each letter. Then, create as many dollar words as you can. Who will be the first person to find a dollar word? Who will create the most dollar words? All words need to be spelled correctly and be school appropriate.
A=1 B=2 C=3 D=__ E=__ F=__ G=__ H=__ I=__ J=__ K=__ L=__ M=__
N=__ O=__ P=__ Q=__ R=__ S=__ T=__ U=__ V=__ W=__ X=__ Y=__ Z=__
DOLLAR WORDS
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This activity comes from Rob Buyea’s novel, Because of Mr. Terupt.

PLANT POWER Naturalist
Mr. Terupt’s students learn about phototropism, the direction of plant growth is determined by light source, geotropism, roots grow downward and plants grow upward even if a plant is turned sideways or upside down, and then concocted their own mixtures to see which ones would make their plants grow best. Pair up your kids in partners, and make sure you have a class control plant, one that gets to sit on the windowsill, right side up, and receives water every day. Each pair can plant a seed. Then, to study phototropism, put the plant in a box and punch a hole in the box. How does the plant grow? For geotropism, have students place their plants on their sides and watch what happens. As for students creating their own concoctions, ask them to bring in a list of ingredients they plan to use, a few days ahead of time. That way you won’t end up with a visit from the fire department. Poor Mr. Terupt!

SHAPE POEMS Visual/Spatial and Verbal/Linguistic
Because of Mr. Terupt celebrates each child’s individuality, and so does this activity. Have students sketch a full-body, self-portrait of themselves, on an 8x11 sheet of white paper. Next, ask each student to brainstorm twenty descriptive words that describe themselves and write them around their silhouette. After you’ve checked the spelling in pencil, have them trace their work with a Sharpie.

WORRY DOLLS Visual/Spatial
Some of the students make worry dolls in Mr. Buyea’s book, and your students can too, with these easy directions: http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/do/worrydoll.html

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
-Rules by Cynthia Lord
-The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
-The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
-Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

THE RABBIT PROBLEM

2011-01-30T15:07:00.000-08:00

By Emily Gravett
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 978-1-4424-1255-2

FROM THE FLAP: This book is based on a problem that was solved in the 13th century by the Mathematician Fibonacci, but it is NOT (I repeat NOT) a book about math. It’s a book about rabbits… Lots of rabbits!

KATE'S TAKE: Creative, challenging and fun. How long will it take your students to crack the code?

CLASS COOKBOOK Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal, and Visual/Spatial
Ask students to bring in a copy of their favorite recipe. Have them type up their recipe and decorate their page with a border.

CLASS NEWSLETTER Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal
During the month of July the rabbits in Fibonacci’s Field publish a newspaper. Have each student write a short blurb for a class newsletter.

CRACKING THE CODE Logical/Mathematical
Students love cracking Fibonacci’s code. Give them the book and the following worksheet and let them go at it!

FIBONACCI’S CODE

Fibonacci, an Italian man who lived in 1202, discovered a mathematical code and presented it to western scholars. Indian scholars studied this code as early as 200 B.C. With the help of Emily Gravett’s book, The Rabbit Problem, you can crack Fibonacci’s Code.

Look at the book. At the top of each calendar page, she lists the rabbit population. Copy each month’s population below:
January ____
February ____
March ____
April ____
May ____
June ____
July ____
August ____
September ____
October ____
November ____
December ____ (Put the first number here, not zero.)
Now, if all the rabbits stayed, what would the next month’s population be?
January ____
How did you crack Fibonacci’s Code?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

FAMILY TREE Intrapersonal and Verbal/Linguistic
When the rabbits have their first babies in March, they create a family tree. Ask each student to bring in the names of their relatives and ancestors to create their own personal family tree.

PLANT GRAPHS Naturalist and Logical/Mathematical
During the month of June, the rabbits plant lettuce and carrot seeds. Have some students plant three pots of lettuce seeds while other students plant three pots of carrot seeds. Give one pot light and water, and another pot water but not light, and the last pot light but not water. Ask students to chart the growth of each pot. Compare and contrast the growth of the three pots and the growth of the lettuce to the carrots.

BOOK BUDDIES
-Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin by Pam Calvert
-Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry by Cindy Neuschwander
-The Lion’s Share by Matt McElligot
-The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
-The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures by Malba Tahan

2011-01-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

By: Kim Norman
Publisher: Sterling Books
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7076

FROM THE FLAP: Join ten adventurous friends as they speed down a snowy slope on their giant toboggan. How many of them will end up together at the bottom of the hill? With plenty of slipping and sliding, gliding and riding, this raucous race promises to have a very bumpy ending.

KATE’S TAKE: Kim Norman takes readers on a whimsical, rollicking, winter ride.

ALLITERATION PARTNERS Interpersonal and Verbal/Linguistic
Write the name of each animal on ten separate index cards. Then write each animal’s action on ten other index cards. Give ten children animal cards and ask them to find their action partner whose card will start with the same first letter as their animal does.

Seal and spilled, hare and hopped, sheep and shot, walrus and whirled, fox and flipped, squirrel and squeezed, wolf and wiped, moose and muddled, bear and bailed, reindeer and running

POPSICLE STICK SLEDS Visual/Spatial
Each child will need six Popsicle sticks and a 3x5 index card. Before you give the children the Popsicle sticks, you should make these adjustments: cut the ends off at forty-five degree angles from two of the sticks and cut one stick in half. Three of the sticks will remain unaltered. Ask the students to paint all of their sticks red. Then have them place one of the short sticks on the bottom of their index card, and one short stick at the top of the index card. Next ask them to glue the three unaltered long sticks on top of the two short sticks. After the top of the sled has dried, students can glue the runners(the sticks cut at 45% angles to the bottom of the sled.

TEN ON THE SLED BOOKS Visual/Spatial and Verbal/Linguistic
Give each child a ten-page mini book with the simple sentence: There were ____________ on the sled. Have the children write in the missing number words 10-1 and illustrate each page. On the last page the sentence should look like this: There _________ _____________ on the sled. Students can write in the word was on the last page.

TEN ON THE SLED MATH Logical/Mathematical
Now that the kids each have their own sled, you can use teddy bear math manipulatives to have the students tell addition and subtraction stories. For example, there were ten bears on the sled and four fell off. How many are left? Kids reenact the stories with their bears and write the algorithms on their white boards.

TEN ON THE SLED SING-A-LONG Musical and Kinesthetic
Have ten kids sit one behind the other on the rug. Ask the whole class to sing the words to the book and ask kids to roll off the sled.

BOOK BUDDIES
-Christopher Counting by Valeri Gorbachev
-Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh
-Ten in the Bed by Jane Cabrera
-The Baker’s Dozen: A Counting Book by Dan Andreasen
-Who Invited You by Candace Fleming

HAPPY SNOW DAY NEW ENGLAND! I'M OFF TO JOIN THE SNOWBALL FIGHT RAGING IN MY YARD.

MAX

2011-01-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

By Bob Graham
Publisher: Candlewick
ISBN: 0-7636-1138-7

KATE’S TAKE: A fun take on what it truly means to be a superhero.

FROM THE FLAP: As the son of legendary heroes Captain Lightning and Madam Thunderbolt, Max is destined to be a superhero one day too—that is, once he learns to fly. But despite his parents’ valiant coaching and encouragement, Max can’t seem to get off the ground. Will Max ever learn to leap tall buildings in a single bound? Or will he be doomed forever to life on land?
Bob Graham has created a book for anyone who knows the highs—and lows—of learning to do something for the first time.

BEAUTIFUL BIRDS Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial
Ask students to draw a picture of something that they want to learn how to do on the white side of a piece of origami paper. Then, fold this piece of a paper into a bird shape. Make a mobile with the class birds. http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-twirling-bird.html

BIRDS IN A BUSH MATH Logical/Mathematical
Give each student a mat with a green circle on it. The circle represents the bush. Then, give each student ten manipulatives. Ask students to place the manipulatives on the bush. Next, ask students to remove a certain number of birds from the bush. Write the subtraction algorithm on the board and ask students to copy the problem down on their white boards.

CARTOON SEQUENCING Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial
Fold a piece of 8 x 11 paper into six rectangles. Leave one square blank. Write one of these five sentences in each of the blank squares: 1) Max is born, 2) Max walks and talks, 3) Max can’t fly, 4) Max goes to school, 5) Max flies and saves the bird. Give each student a copy of the paper and ask them to cut out the five rectangles and sequence them. Then ask students to illustrate each scene.

HEROIC DEEDS CLASS BOOK Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial
Give each student an 8x11 piece of paper with this sentence starter, “I did something heroic when ________________________________________________________________________________.”
Have them write a kind, small, deed they did that helped someone. Ask them to illustrate their sentence and bind the papers into a class book.

MAGIC CARPET COOPERATIVE RACE Interpersonal and Kinesthetic
Divide the class into teams of four kids. Give each team three large squares of cardboard. Set up a start and a finish line. Each team has to use their magic carpets to “fly” from the start to the finish. Everyone must always be on a magic carpet square, or their team will return to the starting line.

BOOK BUDDIES
-Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
-Mighty Max by Harriet Ziefert
-The Featherless Chicken by Chih-Yuan Chen
-The Lion and the Mouse by Gail Herman
-Tiger on a Tree by Anushka Ravishankar

GUINEA PIGS ADD UP

2010-12-15T00:45:00.000-08:00

By Margery Cuyler
Publisher: Walker and Company, Bloomsbury
ISBN: 978-0-8027-9795-7

FROM THE FLAP: Mr. Gilbert tells our class that soon we’ll have a pet. A garter snake? A hermit crab? We wonder what we’ll get.
What starts as an innocent search for the perfect classroom pet turns into a furry fiasco when one guinea pig turns into two, then five, then twenty! The students love their newfound friends, but how can Mr. Gilbert stop the guinea pigs from taking over the classroom.

KATE’S TAKE: A humorous way to spice up a math lesson.

CLASSROOM PET BOOKS: Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial
Give each student an 8x11 sheet of paper with this sentence starter: If I could have any pet, I’d get _________________. Have them complete the sentence and illustrate the pet. Bound the pages together into a classroom book, and send it home with each child to read.

MATH MADNESS: Logical/Mathematical
This story lends itself to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Show the students how to do each type of number story. Then, ask each student to write a pet number story.

PET STORE: Visual/Spatial, Logical/Mathematical, and Interpersonal
Give each student a dollar in paper coins. Mark each coin with a q for quarter, d for dime, n for nickel and p for penny. Ask them to draw a picture of their ideal pet, or use color copies from the classroom book activity. Have each student label their pet with a price under a dollar. Display all the pictures on the chalkboard and ask students to come to the store and purchase a pet. One of the students can be the shopkeeper and be responsible for making the correct change. Special thanks to Mr. Hacket for this activity.

PET CHARADES: Kinesthetic and Interpersonal
Ask students to sit in a circle on the rug. Give each student a chance to come to the middle of the rug and imitate an animal without speaking or making noises. The rest of the students can guess which animal the student is impersonating.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: Verbal/Linguistic
At the end of the book, the author hints at another pet problem. Ask students to write a sequel to this book and make sure their characters solve the new problem.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell
-I Love Guinea-Pigs by Dick King-Smith
-Oh, Theodore! Guinea Pig Poems by Susan Katz
-Princess Justina Albertina: A Cautionary Tale by Ellen Dee Davidson
-Sammy: The Classroom Guinea Pig by Alex Berenzy

CLARICE BEAN, DON'T LOOK NOW

2010-12-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

By Lauren Child
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 978-0-7636-3536-7

FROM THE FLAP: Always remember: It’s the worry you haven’t even thought to worry about that should worry you the most.

That’s what Clarice Bean’s copy of the Ruby Redfort Survival Handbook says, anyway—it’s crammed with useful information about getting out of tricky situations, like “How to Deal with Alien Life Forms” (give them the slip and run like crazy).

Clarice Bean has quite a few worries of her own, such as Worry No. 19: Robert Granger—will he ever leave her alone? Or Worry No. 9: largish spiders. But lately, she’s been more concerned with things like Worry No. 3: change, and how it sometimes comes along when you least expect it.

KATE’S TAKE: Lauren Child’s outstanding voice and her tongue-in-cheek humor make for an engaging, fun read.

DON’T LOSE SLEEP OVER IT, KID CLASSROOM BOOKS: Verbal/Linguistic, Intrapersonal, and Visual/Spatial
Give each student an 8x11 sheet of paper that has a lined bottom half, and a space for a picture at the top. Have each student write about their worst worry and end his or her entry with Ruby Redfort’s advice, Don’t lose sleep over it, kid. Send the book home with each student to share with her family and/or guardians.

LIONS AND TIGERS AND BEARS OH MY! (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)
Ruby Redfort’s Survival Guide has lots of tongue in cheek “useful” advice about how to avoid large predators such as lions and bears. Play charades and ask the students to act out various predators and have the rest of the class guess which animal each student is impersonating.

PEN PALS: Interpersonal and Verbal/Linguistic
Clarice Bean and her classmates visit elderly people in a nursing home. Ask a local nursing home for the names of residents who might like to participate in a pen pal program. Have students pick a name from the list and write a letter to that individual.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES: Interpersonal
On page 21 in the book, there’s an illustration of different facial expressions and what they actually mean. Compare and contrast two photos of people’s facial expressions and have students talk about the emotions each person is feeling. Then, ask them to share about a situation where they felt one way about an event that was happening and a friend or a sibling felt a different way about the same feeling. Here’s a link if you’re interested in finding out more about the Second Step program http://www.cfchildren.org/programs/pbis/

SCENE SNIPPETS: Interpersonal and Verbal/Linguistic
Clarice Bean and her friend participate in acting class. In small groups of four or five students, have kids act out various scenes from the book. Afterward, have the whole class sequence the scenes from the beginning to the end of the book.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Clarice Bean Spells Trouble by Lauren Child
-Lilly and the Pirates by Phyllis Root
-School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari
-The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
-Utterly Me, Clarice Bean by Lauren Child

BY THE WAY:
I apologize for last week's missed post. An illness knocked my family and I off of our feet. Thanks for your understanding.

CLEVER JACK TAKES THE CAKE

2010-11-22T01:13:00.000-08:00

Written by Candace Fleming
Illustrated by G. Brian Karas
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-375-84979-4

FROM THE FLAP: What would you do if you were invited to the princess’s tenth birthday party but didn’t have money for a gift?

Well, clever Jack decides to bake the princess a cake.

Now he just has to get it to the castle in one piece.

What could possibly go wrong?

Here’s a deliciously fresh and funny picture book by the creators of the bestselling Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!

KATE’S TAKE: Sometimes a book makes me want to jump for joy, which is exactly what I did after I read this book.

FRACTION CAKES: Interpersonal and Logical/Mathematical
Cut out several different colored, large circles. Cut each one into different fractions such as: ½, 1/3, ¼, 1/5. Give each child a slice of cake. Then ask them to walk around the room and find the rest of their cake. When all the cakes are whole, ask them to line up in order from the smallest piece of cake to the largest piece of cake. Point out how with fractions the larger the number in the denominator, the smaller the fraction or the slice of cake is.

READER’S THEATER: Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal
If you’re looking for a story to act out as a class, this is a great pick. There’s a role for everyone and the dialogue is short and snappy.

STORY ELEMENTS LAYER CAKE: Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial
Give each child four strips of lined paper. Each strip of paper should have one of four story element headings: main character, setting, problem, and solution. Ask the children to write the appropriate information onto each strip of paper. Then, have them arrange these strips, the cake layers, in order from top to bottom on a piece of construction paper. With their pencils, they can outline each cake layer and top it off with a strawberry. Finally, they can outline their cakes with black markers.

THE TROLL’S BRIDGE: Interpersonal, Kinesthetic, Logical/Mathematical
Jack has to pay the troll, half of his cake, to cross the bridge. Set-up a small balance beam or a line of duck tape that crosses the classroom rug. Ask one student to be the troll. Give other students play coins that add up to a dollar. If you don’t have enough play coins, you can make them out of construction paper and write Q for quarter, D for dime, P for penny, and N for nickel, on each coin. Then have each student ask the troll how much money he or she needs to pay to cross the bridge. After the student pays the troll and the troll returns the correct amount of change, the student may cross the bridge.

WALTZING WITH BEARS: Kinesthetic, Musical, and Interpersonal
When Jack stops to dance with a bear, he loses his gift for the princess—his cake. Usually though dancing is a cause for celebration, not mourning. Show students the basic waltz step and ask them to dance around the classroom, or better yet, the gymnasium, while playing Priscilla Herdman’s “Waltzing with Bears.” Here’s the musician’s site http://www.priscillaherdman.com

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Happy Birthday to You by Dr. Seuss
-Jack and the Beanstalk by John Cech
-Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young by Jack Prelutsky
-The Three Billy Goats Gruff/Los Tres Chivitos by Carol Ottolenghi
-The Lion's Share by Matt McElligott

AN AWARD FOR CLASSROOM BOOK OF THE WEEK

2010-11-21T12:05:00.001-08:00

Dear Readers,

When I opened my e-mail, I was thrilled to learn that Guide to Online School's list of the Top 50 Early Childhood Education blogs featured my blog. The list of all the winners can be found here: http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/tips-and-tools/early-childhood-blogs.

It's so refreshing to know that other people find the blog useful. Thank you all for your support.

Best wishes,
Kate

MAX'S WORDS

2010-11-15T01:14:00.000-08:00

By Kate Banks
Publisher: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
ISBN: 0-374-39949-2

FROM THE FLAP: Benjamin collects stamps. Karl collects coins. When their younger brother Max decides to collect words, one word leads to another until Max has a story worth telling. Now all he needs is pictures.

Enter Boris Kulikov in a brilliant collaboration with Kate Banks that attests to the wonder of words.

KATE'S TAKE: A fantastical tribute to imagination, collections, and a can-do attitude.

COIN COLLECTIONS: Logical/Mathematical and Visual/Spatial
Max’s brother collects coins. Give each student a dollar’s worth of cut-out paper coins. Label each coin with a Q for quarter, D for dime, N for nickel, and P for penny. Then ask them to draw a picture of their favorite pet and label it with a price under a dollar. Hang the pets up at the front of the classroom and ask students to come shopping at the pet store. In order to take their pet home with them, the students must give the proper amount of change to the cashier to pay for the pet. Many thanks to Andy Hacket for this activity. Check out his blog here http://www.mrhacket.blogspot.com

COLLAGE TALES: Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial
Word process words in different colors and cut out for kids. Ask students to choose ten cut-out words and create a sentence. Then, have them glue their sentence to the long side of a piece of 11x18 piece of construction paper. Last, ask them to illustrate their story.

COLLECTION BOOKS: Verbal/Linguistic, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, and Visual/Spatial
Give students an 8x11 sheet of paper that has space for writing a sentence at the bottom of the sheet. Ask them to finish the following sentence: If I could collect anything in the world, I would collect_____________________ because____________________________________________.
Have them illustrate their sentence and bind the papers in a book to send home with students.

CROCODILE AND ALLIGATOR SEE-SAW BOOKS: Verbal/Linguistic, Naturalist, and Visual/Spatial
Collate an eight-page book for each students, and ask them to fill in the blanks.
Page 1: Crocodiles and alligators hatch from __________________(eggs) but,
Page 2: crocodiles have a _______________(v-shaped) snout, and
Page 3: alligators have a _________________ (u-shaped) snout.
Page 4: A crocodile’s fourth tooth_____________( sticks out) when its mouth is closed, but
Page 5: an alligator’s fourth tooth is ___________ (hidden) when its mouth is closed.
Page 6: Most crocodiles live in ________________ (salt) water, but
Page 7: most alligators live in __________________ (fresh) water.
Page 8: Crocodiles and alligators are _________________(reptiles).
After they have filled in the blanks, ask students to illustrate the books.

FAMILY LETTERS: Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal
Ask students to write a letter to a family member or a friend who lives far away. Ask parents to send in an addressed envelope and give students a stamp to affix to their letter. Relatives are always thrilled to receive the kids’ letters.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Alligator Tails and Crocodile Cakes by Nicola Moon
-Max’s Dragon by Kate Banks
-Snap! A Book About Alligators and Crocodiles by Melvin Berger
-The Coin Counting Book by Rozanne Williams
-Word Wizard by Cathryn Falwell

FOLLOW THE LINE

2010-11-08T01:13:00.000-08:00

By Laura Ljungkvist
Published by Viking
ISBN:0-670-06049-6

FROM THE FLAP: Follow the line on a journey from the city to the country, from the sky to the ocean, from morning till night. In this stunning counting storybook, Laura Ljungkvist uses her trademark continuous line to create an array of crisp, innovative, detail-packed pictures.

Each scene contains questions designed to get children counting, thinking, and observing. Young counters will enjoy following the very same line all the way through the book, from front to back.

KATE’S TAKE: Line up some fun activities with Laura Ljungkvist’s Follow The Line.

HOW MANY? MATH Logical/Mathematical and Visual Spatial
Ask children to solve these math problems which are based on spreads in the book, and ask them to draw a picture to illustrate each problem.

1. A house has two rows of windows. If there are three windows in each row, how many windows are there all together?

2. There are four blue fish in the ocean and three red fish, how many fish are there all together?

3. There were nine trees in the forest, two fell down. How many trees are standing in the forest?

4. There are three apple trees and twelve apples. If each tree has the same amount of apples, how many apples are on each tree?

LINE CLASSROOM BOOKS Visual/Spatial and Verbal/Linguistic
Draw one line on a sheet of 8x11 paper. Draw a different line for each child in your class: squiggly, jagged, curved, straight, vertical or horizontal. Ask them to turn the line into a picture. On the bottom have them finish the sentence starter: I turned my line into _______________________. Special thanks to Ingrid Holmes for this activity.

LINE DANCING Kinesthetic and Musical
Do a line dance with the kids. This site http://www.helenandnitalinedancing.com/Videos.html has a great line dancing video to the tune of Grand Old Flag.

LINE MIRRORS Kinesthetic and Interpersonal
Ask kids to stand in a line. Have a child step out of the line and face their peers. Ask the child to lead the class in simple movements such as tapping, patting, or stretching. Everyone in the line mirrors the leader’s actions. This is a great way to build confidence in the leader and classroom community.

LINE PATTERNS Logical/Mathematical and Visual/Spatial
Give the students small strips of paper of various colors. Ask them to form a pattern with the strips of paper. Students might choose to make a pattern out of straight lines, or they might choose to form shapes with the strips and make a pattern with shapes.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Harold And The Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
-Ish by Peter H. Reynolds
-Follow The Line Around The World by Laura Ljungkvist
-Follow The Line Through The House by Laura Ljungkvist
-The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds

ANNA MARIA'S GIFT

2010-11-01T02:34:00.000-07:00

By Janice Shefelman
ISBN: 978-0-375-95881-6
Publisher: Random House

FROM THE FLAP: After her father’s death, Anna Maria is sent to the Pieta, an orphanage in Venice. She misses her father, but at least she will always have the violin he made for her. When she plays it, she hears his voice.

Luckily, the Pieta is not just any orphanage. It’s also a famous music school, and the teacher there is the great composer Antonio Vivaldi. Anna Maria quickly becomes his favorite student. But not everyone at the Pieta likes Anna Maria. Soon she has a rival—the talented, cruel Paolina, who throws Anna Maria’s violin into a canal. With the help of her beloved teacher, and new friends, Anna Maria searches Venice’s bridges, streets, and canals. Will Anna Maria find her father’s violin? Can she ever be happy in Venice without it.

Inspired by a real orphanage, this lyrical story by Janice Shefelman perfectly captures the beauty of Venice, the joy of music, and the way a little kindness can help make a scary new place feel like home.

KATE’S TAKE: Great characterization, and a peek inside Italy’s impressive musical culture.

FOUR SEASONS SKITS Musical, Intrapersonal, and Verbal/Linguistic

Divide the class into four groups, one for each season. Have each group listen to The Four Seasons by Vivaldi. Then, ask each group to design a two to three minute skit that’s inspired by the music. If you have any musicians in the class, they might choose to play musical accompaniment for their group’s skit.

GREAT GONDOLAS: Visual/Spatial, Logical/Mathematical and Interpersonal

Ask students to work in pairs and give each pair a 10x10 sheet of aluminum foil. Ask them to construct boats out of the tinfoil. Then place pennies inside each boat to determine which boat is the strongest. Boats with the most surface area are able to hold the most pennies.

INSTRUMENT-SHAPED POEMS Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial

Have students write a poem about an orchestra instrument. Then have them outline the shape of the instrument on the paper. Next have them copy their poem along the outline of the instrument.

SILVIA OF THE CELLO PARAGRAPHS: Verbal/Linguistic and Intrapersonal

Author Janice Shefelman explains that most of the orphans did not have last names. So, they were given the last name of whatever instrument they played. Ask students to think about a talent or a hobby that best describes them. Ask them to write a paragraph explaining why they chose this last name.

VENICE VIEWS: Visual/Spatial

Anna Maria thinks the city of Venice floats on a lagoon, but her guardian informs her that Vienna stands on thousands of posts set on the bottom of the lagoon. Give each student a blue 11x18 sheet of construction paper. Ask them to cut out different shaped houses from various shades of construction paper and make views of Venice.

BOOK BUDDIES

-Gabriella’s Song by Candace Fleming
-I, Vivaldi by Janice Shefelman
-Mole Music by David McPhail
-Zin! ZIn! Zin! A Violin by Lloyd Moss
-Zoe Sophia’s Scrapbook: An Adventure in Venice by Claudia Mauner

INTERVIEW WITH THE PERFECT PUMPKIN PIE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR DENYS CAZET

2010-10-31T02:54:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I just want to let you know that this was my first phone interview, and I had a blast. Denys Cazet is as whimsical and passionate as his books.

Happy reading,
Kate

1. I love the alliteration in the title The Perfect Pumpkin Pie. Did you choose to feature pumpkin over apple because of alliteration?

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that the fall season lends itself to Halloween. An apple pie simply doesn’t have the same power as a pumpkin pie.

2. Mr. Wilkerson speaks in fun rhyme which balances the bitterness of his words. Could you please tell us about how Mr. Wilkerson came to speak in rhyme?

Rhyme is funny. When Mr. Wilkerson dies, he gains a slight sense of humor even though he remains aloof. He’s dead but doesn’t know it, and he reduces all the aspects of life into one thing—an insatiable appetite for pie. Mr. Wilkerson is wandering because he left something undone in his past life, and he’s lying. He’s not going to go away whether or not Jack and Grandma make him a perfect pie. In fact, I’ve thought about writing a sequel where Mr. Wilkerson becomes a part of Jack and Grandma’s family.

3. Jack’s grandma is a strong, spunky character. She’s determined not to be out done by Mr. Wilkerson. She’s not afraid of him, she’s not afraid to taste a pie he’s smashed his face into, and in the end she succeeds in baking the perfect pumpkin pie. In a biography written about you found at the following link http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1785/Cazet-Denys-1938.html , it mentions that your characters are always based off the wonderful people in your life. Is Jack’s grandma based on one person in your life or a conglomeration of different people?

I had two grandmothers. One was very sweet and according to her the sun rose and set on my shoulders. After all, I was the only boy in a large extended family. My other grandma was a very strict, no-nonsense kind of lady. She ran the show, and nobody questioned it. She had one of those looks that said, “Don’t say another word.” Even though she was strict, she still made me pancakes in the morning.

4. I also that you saw a real estate ad for an old farm, formerly owned by bakers, listed for $1 and you asked yourself what if they sell the farm and the bakers’ ghost still lives in it? At the time the work in progress was Halloween Pie. Am I correct in assuming that’s the one and only book we’re talking about, The Perfect Pumpkin Pie? Could you please tell readers about your revision process?

Yes, it’s the same book. The baker apparently disappeared in the late 1800’s. However, every year lo and behold around Halloween, people could smell pumpkin pie baking on the property. I love Halloween and the Mexican celebration of The Day of the Dead.

I write many drafts. Then, I revise more based on suggestions from my editor. After I’m holding the book in my hands, I wish I would have revised it two or three more times. Sometimes I think The Perfect Pumpkin Pie is too long to be classified as a picture book, and that the book is better classified as a story book. I love writing and storytelling, although both arts differ from one another. In this book, I tried to include an element of storytelling so that when the book is read, it feels more like a story being told.

5. Is there anything else you would like to tell us?

Please read my book Will You Read To Me. A little pig writes a poem and asks his parents if they’ll read it to him, but the parents are too busy eating. So the pig walks to a lake where he sees his reflection and reads to himself. In so doing, his belief in himself is reinforced.

As a teacher, librarian, parent, and a writer, I feel that what’s happening to children’s literature is very disturbing. As mentioned in this New York Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/us/08picture.html picture book sales are down 25-30% because parents want their children to read longer books. There’s an assumption that picture books are inferior to chapter books which means that people don’t understand what a picture book is. Picture books often have more advanced vocabulary than chapter books, and the visual clues help students figure out unknown words. When I was a school librarian, the pictures in the Tin-Tin books helped reluctant readers become fluent readers.

School testing is narrowing choices for teachers and students, which means that as a country we are drifting away from a liberal arts’ education. We need to expand choices to improve education, not narrow them. Furthermore, we are all different. When we test, we’re looking for similarities and if someone is different and doesn’t fit a certain definition, they’re labeled as deficient.

THE PERFECT PUMPKIN PIE

2010-10-24T04:06:00.000-07:00

By Denys Cazet
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9780689864674

FROM THE FLAP: When he was alive, Mr. Wilkerson was an ill-tempered, disagreeable, sour, and impatient old man. Once he died, he got better.

But not much.

Now he is back and very, very hungry.

When Jack and his grandma move into the old Wilkerson house, they find out just how hungry, and why.

At least they think they know.

It has something to do with the pie.

A perfect pie.

KATE’S TAKE: Clear your calendars. You'll want plenty of time to flavor and savor The Perfect Pumpkin Pie.

FAVORITE PIE CLASSROOM BOOK Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal

Give each student an 8x11 sheet of paper with the following sentence starter: My favorite kind of pie is _____________________. Have them illustrate making and/or eating their favorite pie. Compile a classroom book and send it home with the students.

FAVORITE PIES GRAPH Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal

Mr. Wilkerson’s favorite pie is pumpkin pie, but what’s the class’s? As a class brainstorm four different kinds of pies. Make a large bar graph on the board. Give each child an index card with their name on it, and ask them to add it to the graph. Afterwards, each student can make their own perfect pie graph.

FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS SITTING ON A GATE Kinesthetic, Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal

Act out the popular FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS rhyme:
Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, “Oh my! It’s getting late.”
The second one said, “There are witches in the air.”
The third one said, “But we don’t care.”
The fourth one said, “Let’s run, run, run.”
The fifth one said, “It’s Halloween fun.”
WOOOOO went the wind, and out went the lights.
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

PERFECT PUMPKIN PAINTINGS Visual/Spatial

Mix canned pumpkin and cinnamon into orange paint. Then ask each child to paint his or her perfect pumpkin. Special thanks to Diane Esser for this activity.

PUMPKIN PIE RHYME Verbal/Linguistic

Mr. Wilkerson speaks in rhyme. Print out one of his speeches and leave six spaces blank, one for each rhyming word. Give the children a word bank and ask them to fill in the missing words. Then, ask them to write the six words in alphabetical order. I’ve typed out one of Mr. Wilkerson’s speeches below:

“Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkin pie!
I must have one before I die.
It must be round and brown as toast,
Or I’ll haunt this house a hungry ghost.
It must be perfect or a ghost I’ll stay,
And haunt this house, and never, ever go away!

BOOK BUDDIES:
-The Bake Shop Ghost by Jacqueline K. Ogburn
-The Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman
-In The Haunted House by Eve Bunting
-Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper
-Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie (Picture the Seasons) by Jill Esbaum

BALLET FOR MARTHA: MAKING APPALACHIAN SPRING

2010-10-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

By Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan
Illustrated by Brian Floca
ISBN: 978-1-59643-338-0
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

FROM THE FLAP:

Martha Graham: trailblazing choreographer
Aaron Copland: distinguished American Composer
Isamu Noguchi: artist, sculptor, craftsman

Together they created an American masterpiece: Appalachian Spring. In the tradition of their award- winning Action Jackson, acclaimed authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan tell the story behind the scenes of this classic ballet from the first spark of imagination through the music’s composition, Martha’s intense rehearsal process, and on to its first performance on October 30, 1944 at the Library of Congress. This book puts you in a prime seat at that performance, watching as this iconic dance unfolds.

Ultimately this is a book about collaboration, and the authors’ collaborator is Sibert Honor artist Brian Floca, whose vivid watercolors bring both the process and the performance to life.

Also included are extensive source notes, biographies of each of the three principal collaborators, and a full bibliography.

KATE'S TAKE: If you want to incorporate, movement, music, and art into your curriculum, don't miss this book.

INTERESTING INTERVIEWS Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal
Have students write, conduct, and record interviews of people who were alive during the 1940’s.

STORIES AND MOVEMENT Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, and Verbal-Linguistic

Copland wrote many pieces of music including Billy the Kid, Rodeo, Hoe Down, Music for a Great City, Of Mice and Men, Fanfare for the Common Man, A Lincoln Portrait. In small groups ask students to create a scene to accompany one piece of Copland’s music. Students could choose to interpret the music through choreography like Martha did, or they could write out dialogue for their stories. Either way they get to collaborate to create art just like Graham, Copland, and Noguchi.

NINETEEN FORTIES NON-FICTION Verbal/Linguistic

During the 1940’s, society marginalized many groups of people including women, people of Jewish faith, and American citizens of Japanese heritage. Ask students to write a report on a famous person or group of people who triumphed despite the discrimination that occurred during that era.

STAGE DIORAMAS Visual/Spatial and Bodily-Kinesthetic

Isamu Noguchi built models of his set for Appalachian Spring before building the set. Ask students to make a set diarama of their favorite tv show, movie, play or book.

STORY SETS Visual/Spatial and Bodily-Kinesthetic
Ask students to collaborate in groups to design sets for their Copland stories.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Aaron Copland by Mike Venezia
-Kids Dance by Jim Varriale
-Martha Graham, A Dancer’s Life by Russell Freedman
-The Children of Topaz: the Story of a Japanese Internment Camp Based on a Classroom Diary by Michael O. Tunnell
-The East-West house: Noguchi’s Childhood in Japan by Christy Hale

INTERVIEW WITH WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO HUMPTY AUTHOR, JEANIE RANSOM

2010-10-13T05:56:00.000-07:00

1. Joe Dumpty's voice is fantastic. Please tell us what strategies you used to create such an authentic voice.

Thank you! Unfortunately, I don’t know that I have any strategies for creating an authentic voice --- not anything I do consciously anyway. I do know that for me, writing a story in first person seems most natural. I’ve heard editors say that if your story doesn’t seem to be working in third person, try rewriting the story in first person, and vice versa.

2. How did you decide which Mother Goose characters to include and which characters to exclude?

When I first starting writing the book, I included just a few basic Mother Goose characters. But as the plot thickened, as they say, I made a list of other characters I could weave into the story. From that list, I played around with which characters would best help advance the story. Of course, I couldn’t use everyone, but that’s what sequels are for.

3. I love that spider turns into a good guy, and Miss Muffet turns out to be corrupt. Was it your intention to switch their roles?

I really didn’t have any intentions when I started the story. In fact, these two characters were pretty much true to their traditional roles in the Mother Goose tales. But somewhere in the revision process – and it was quite a process! --these minor characters wrote themselves into major roles. I’m a strong believer in letting my characters take the lead in creating the story. It’s fun to see what they come up with, but I must admit, Little Miss Muffet took me totally by surprise!

4. Having a deadline of five o'clock definitely ups the ante. Are many mysteries races against the clock?

I can’t really speak with any authority, since this is the first mystery I’ve written, and I tend to read more suspense novels than I do mysteries. However, I knew that because I was writing a picture book, I had to get a whole mystery set up and solved in just 32 pages. I decided that having a deadline was one way to accomplish that.

5. Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

I’m happy to say that this past summer, WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO HUMPTY became available in paperback. As for Detective Joe Dumpty, he’s busy working on his next big case. I’m not at liberty to discuss it right now, but I’m sure you’ll be reading about it at some time in the not-so-distant future.

CALVIN CAN'T FLY: The Story of a Bookworm Birdie

2010-10-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer Berne
Publisher: Sterling
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7323-5

FROM THE FLAP: Calvin was born under the eaves of an old barn with his three brothers, four sisters, and sixty-seven thousand four hundred and thirty-two cousins. Calvin may be one of many, but he’s certainly different from the rest.

While the other little starlings learn to swoop and hover and fly figure eights, Calvin buries his beak in books. In the library his mind soars, taking him places his wings never could.

KATE’S TAKE: A fun fall read that celebrates books and being one's self.

FALL FUN BOOKS: Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Intrapersonal
Give each student a piece of paper with the sentence starter: In the fall I like to_____________. Ask each student to finish the sentence and draw a picture to go with it. Then, have students illustrate their sentences. Put each sheet in a three ring binder and make a class book to send home with the students.

FORMATION TAG-Bodily/Kinesthetic and Naturalist
Discuss the possible reasons why starlings might fly in formations. One reason is to protect themselves from possible predators such as hawks. Take students outside to play a game of predator vs. prey tag, hawks vs. the starlings. As the starlings try to cross from one line to the other, they’ll learn the benefit of flying in a group vs. flying solo.

STARLING BLACK BIRDS-Musical and Bodily Kinesthetic
These lyrics are adapted from Music Together
Starlings black birds-put hands in your armpits and flap wings
Crow flying round-flap arms out at your side
Nut hatch hopping down the tree-have one hand hop down your opposite arm
Chickadee, dee, dee, dee-hold both hands out front and open and close fingers to thumb like a bird beak, using quick, small motions
Caw, caw, caw, caw-do same motion as chickadee but open the beaks wider and at a slower pace
Repeat chickadee line and actions four times
This is a fun song to sing in a round, too.

STARLING STAMPS-Visual/Spatial
Starlings form all sorts of amazing formations while flying through the sky. Ask each student to outline their favorite shape on a large piece of sky blue construction paper. Make bird stamps out of a potato or apple and have kids stamp multiple bird shapes inside their outline.

STARLING SENTENCE SEQUENCING-Verbal/Linguistic
Divide a 8x11 sheet of paper into 6 parts. Trace a flying bird shape into each section. Write one of the following six words on each bird: Starlings fly south for the winter. Make enough copies for the class. Ask each student to cut out the six birds and glue them in order onto a long strip of paper made from a 11x18 sheet of construction paper cut in half length wise and stapled together. Ask students to glue the birds down in order on their paper.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss
-How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills
-Swimmy by Leo Lionni
-The Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
-Wolf! by Becky Bloom

I MUST GO DOWN TO THE BEACH AGAIN AND OTHER POEMS

2010-10-04T02:19:00.000-07:00

By Karen Jo Shapiro
Publisher: Charlesbridge
ISBN 978-1-58089-143-1

FROM THE FLAP: I must go down to the beach again, where there’s water, sand, and sky…

It sounds familiar, but it’s not quite what your parents memorized in school.

In this delightful collection of poetic parodies, Karen Jo Shapiro has taken 23 classic poems spanning nearly five centuries and given them a kid-sized twist. Channeling wordsmiths from Shakespeare to Blake, Dickinson to Poe, this celebration of poetry and parody is sure to spark your imagination.

KATE’S TAKE: A whimsical introduction to the classics.

CLASSICS TIMELINE: Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal, Visual/Spatial
Karen Jo Shapiro introduces fifteen classic poets in English and American Literature. Break the class into pairs and give each pair an index card. Ask each pair to write down some basic biographical information on a specific poet, including date of birth which can be found in the back of Ms. Shapiro’s book. Have students arrange themselves in chronological order without speaking. Then ask each pair to present their poet’s biographical information to the class.

GUESS WHO: Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal
Ask students to dress up as one of the fifteen classic poets, memorize the classic poem mentioned in Ms Shapiro’s book, and prepare five clues to read out loud to the class. Invite each student up to the front of the class to recite his or her poem and read his or her clues. Ask the audience to guess which poet the student is imitating.

MACBETH MADNESS: Interpersonal, Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial
Break the class into small groups, and ask each group to act out a scene from Macbeth. If you have more time, put on a class play of Macbeth complete with scenery.

PERSONAL PICKS: Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial
Ask students to choose one of Ms. Shapiro’s poems and write their own poetic parody of her work. Have them illustrate a picture to go along with their poem.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Come Fall by A.C.E. Bauer
-Macbeth by William Shakespeare
-My Letter to the World and other Poems by Emily Dickinson
-Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach
-Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

EXCITING NEWS!

2010-10-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

I've got great news.

Choose to Read Ohio linked to Classroom Book of the Week. Here's the link: http://oh.webjunction.org/ctrogiant

If you want to read The Giant of Seville post on this blog, please visit November 1, 2009.

Have a great weekend!

Kate

WILLOUGHBY AND THE LION

2010-09-26T03:58:00.000-07:00

By Greg Foley
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN 978-0-06-154750-8

FROM THE FLAP: This is the story of Willoughby, whose new house feels too small and very lonely.
It’s also the story of an enchanted lion and spectacular wishes come true: of roller coasters, and fast, fast shoes, and enormous crowds of people.
But most of all, it’s the story of one important question: What is the most wonderful thing of all?

KATE’S TAKE: Stunning illustrations and a heart-warming read.

ANIMAL CHARADES: Kinesthetic and Interpersonal

At the end of the book, Willoughby becomes true friends with the lion. Gather students in a circle on the rug, and ask them if they could have any animal as a true friend, which one would they choose? Then, one-by-one ask students to move like their animal on the rug, and ask the spectators to guess which animal their classmate is imitating.

MAKE A WISH CLASS BOOK Intrapersonal, Visual/Spatial, and Verbal/Linguistic
Give each student an 8 x 11.5 sheet of paper with the following sentence starter: If I could wish for anything in the world, I would wish for ___________________________________________. Ask students to fill in the blank and illustrate their sentence. Put all of the work in a three ring binder and send the binder home with each individual student.

THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT Musical
Sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by Robert John. http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/robert_john/the_lion_sleeps_tonight.html

WISH MATH Logical/Mathematical
Give each student ten manipulatives and a white board. Ask them how many wishes Willoughby had at the beginning of the book. Counting down from ten, subtract each wish. Ask students to model each problem with their manipulatives and write the number sentence for each problem.

WISH SCAPES Visual/Spatial
Give each student an 11x18 sheet of black construction paper. Ask students to illustrate their wishes using white chalk. Then give students white and gold paint to mimic the illustrations in Willoughby and the Lion.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
-If I Were a Lion by Sarah Weeks
-Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
-Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
-Willoughby and the Moon by Greg Foley

INTERVIEW WITH COME FALL AUTHOR, A.C.E. BAUER

2010-09-22T14:08:00.000-07:00

1. Your characters are so deep and complex. Please tell us how you get to know your characters so well.

Thank you, Kate. When I start writing a story, I usually begin with the characters. I have a general idea about the kind of person I want to write about, but to make that person come to life, I conduct an interview. That is what I did for Lu and Salman, two of the main characters in Come Fall. I asked them a whole lot of questions and I let myself write pages and pages to explore where they were coming from. Most of that material didn’t get used in the book, but it did provide the basis for a few scenes.

I didn’t interview Blos, at first, because I thought he was going to be a minor character. I modeled him on several people I had known at various points in my life, and his personality came to me almost whole. I knew he lived by rules and parameters he had set for himself, and so I was able to fit him in situations following those rules. It wasn’t until I began redrafting that I realized how important he was to the story, and that is when I asked him questions.

Puck was altogether different. Like Blos, he had a minor part in the story at first. As his part grew, I envisioned him acting the way he did in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. So I reread Shakespeare’s play, as well as Kipling’s Puck stories and other authors’ take on the character. Then I imagined what it must be like to be a servant to two extremely strong-willed and powerful sovereigns. His character came quickly after that.

2. Since you know your characters so well, they each have a distinctive voice. Please tell us how you honed each character’s voice.

Blos’ voice actually arrived whole. I found his to be the easiest to write—I knew him the minute I started writing about him, perhaps because I have known people like him in real life. My main objective was to keep him consistent and in character. For example, he was not good at recognizing other people’s emotions, and so I had to be careful when he observed people’s reactions.

Puck, too, arrived whole, but for a different reason. I stole him from Shakespeare. My challenge was to keep him playful and trickster-like while staying out of trouble with the king and queen. My favorite passages were when he lied by misdirection yet spoke the literal truth.

Lu and Salman required more work. Their interviews gave me their initial voices. As I wrote their scenes, I tried to keep the observations, the tone, the manner of speech consistent with each of their points of view. What matters to a boy who has spent his life in foster care will be different from what matters to a girl who feels like she has too many brothers. I tried to let each character tell the story in the way which made sense to them.

3. In a Blos Pease way, I counted how many chapters each character had, and looked to see if there was a pattern that dictated when you switched voices, but I couldn’t find one. Please talk about how you organized Come Fall.

You didn’t find a pattern because there really wasn’t one. Initially, I chose a voice for a particular chapter based upon what made the most sense for that scene. When several characters were featured in the same scene, I chose a voice different from the one the reader had last heard, to mix it up.

Once I had a working draft of the book, I created an outline—one sentence per chapter—and noted which voice I used for each chapter. That’s when I consciously balanced the voices. I wanted the reader to hear from each of the characters in the beginning. I had written fewer chapters with Blos’ and Puck’s voices, so I made sure these were spaced somewhat evenly throughout the story. And then I considered whether I had too many scenes in a row in Salman’s or Lu’s voice, and how best to balance their points of view without confusing the reader or slowing the pace of the novel.

Although I did count the chapters each character had, I didn’t use any mathematical formula. I built the novel like a musical composition, or a painting—I was balancing almost by feel.

4. This novel is a tribute to gardeners, bird-watchers, and forest lovers. Do you have a special affinity for gardens, birds, and/or forests?

I am a terrible gardener. I cannot exaggerate how bad I am at caring for plants, which is why I consider a beautiful and bountiful garden to be magical. But I have a lifelong love of forests—I spent large portions of my childhood in the wilds of Quebec, and I go back there as often as I can.

Although I find all birds interesting, I am particularly enamored by crows. I enjoy watching them squabble around our backyard bird feeder. They can be noisy and bullies, but they are some of the most intelligent birds around. They are capable of solving problems and in some cases using tools, and have been known to befriend people.

5. Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

I rewrote the novel a great deal. Although the interviews were helpful to start me off, I had to reconsider my characterizations and my structure with each rewrite. My editor had a great deal of input. Some characters, like Queen Titania, didn’t quite settle into who they needed to be until the last few drafts.

The rewriting stages are when I truly craft a novel. The first draft is just a structure to hang characters on. As I rewrite, I make more sense of the order of things, the way the story best unfolds, and the way I want to introduce the characters to the reader.

Thank you so much for inviting me to be interviewed. You had some very interesting questions!

COME FALL

2010-09-20T06:08:00.000-07:00

By A.C.E. Bauer
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-375-85825-3

FROM THE FLAP: Heading back to school is never easy, but it’s especially difficult when you are doing it alone.

Lu Zimmer—kind of pretty and very quiet; this year a little lost now that her best friend has moved away.

Salman Page—knows how to stay under the radar at a new school, a lesson he had to learn early as a foster kid.

Blos Pease—literal to a fault. He gets queasy when things aren’t “just so.”
Puck—the mischievous messenger of the faerie realm who likes to meddle in the human world.

Bird—a large black crow whose attraction to shiny things brings them all together.

Three very real kids, a very unreal spirit, and a wily crow spring from the pages in this feel-it-in-your-heart-tale of finding and losing friends. A.C.E. Bauer has once again created complex and absorbing characters, all trying to define themselves as they navigate the fragile beginnings of friendship.

KATE’S TAKE: A magical romp through the woods complete with student writing prompts and samples.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal
Split students up into small groups and ask them to act out scenes from A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.

BOOK BUDDIES Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal
In Come Fall, the characters meet each other through a designated buddy program. Pair up your student with a book buddy-another student in a younger classroom. This is a great way to build school community, and increase student confidence.

ORIGAMI DREAMS Visual/Spatial and Intrapersonal
Give each student a piece of origami paper. Ask him or her to write one of their dreams on the white side of paper. Have them fold the paper into a bird. Hang the birds up around the classroom.

PHOTOS PLEASE Visual/Spatial, Verbal/Linguistic, and Naturalist
Take a nature walk with the class and ask each student to take a photo with a digital camera. Ask them to write a poem about their picture.

RUMINATION AND WRITING WITH MRS. R. Verbal/Linguistic and Intrapersonal
Ask students to complete one of Mrs. R.’s writing assignments from the book. The great thing is you can use the character’s writing samples to provide scaffolding for your students.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-A Backyard Vegetable Garden for Kids by Amie Jane Leavitt
-A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare
-A Place for Birds by Melissa Stewart
-Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach
-I Must Go Down to the Beach Again by Karen Jo Shapiro

INTERVIEW WITH CANDY BOMBER AUTHOR, MICHAEL O. TUNNELL

2010-09-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

1. Thanks for joining us Professor Tunnell. A tremendous amount of research went into the Candy Bomber. How did you decide to break up the information into six different chapters?

The Candy Bomber’s story seemed automatically to fall into six chapters. First, I needed to give the “candy bombing” its context—so it was clear I needed chapter one to introduce and explain the Berlin Airlift. There was no question about what needed to follow: Lt. Gail Halvorsen must make his entrance. The event that launched Operation Little Vittles was the best way to bring him on stage. His meeting with the German children at the end of the Templehof runway, and the subsequent promise to drop them some sweets, made for a perfect chapter two. With the “candy bombing” underway by the end of the second chapter, the establishment and early growth of the official, Air Force-approved Operation Little Vittles was the next logical step. This part of the story easily filled a third chapter. Taking the operation into maturity was a natural choice for chapter four—it grew to be much bigger than Halvorsen. It took on a life of its own, continuing successfully even after Halvorsen was no longer in Germany. With access to all the letters and drawings children and adults sent to Halvorsen, I had a plethora of great personal stories shared in that correspondence; I wanted to include as many as possible. Chapter five became the place in the book where I did that. Of course, every book needs a conclusion, and so chapter six brought the Berlin Air Lift to a close and then followed Halvorsen forward in his life to show how the ties he’d established with those hungry children bound them together to this very day.

2. Your voice in Candy Bomber honors Gail Halvorsen’s compassion, bravery, and moral strength. Please tell us how you achieved this reverent tone throughout your book.

Getting to know Gail Halvorsen personally during the process of creating the book had everything to do with the tone. His humility and strength of character are undeniable, as well as his genuine care for other human beings. Gail was so gracious in helping me with this project. He opened up his files to me, and I scanned hundreds of his photographs and documents, many of which appear in the book. Never have I met a more genuine person, and I hope that came through as I wrote about him. Also, when you read and hear what others have to say about him, you quickly come to the conclusion that many other people see him in that same way. I read many, many letters sent to Gail over several decades from the children of the Air Lift who were parents or grandparents themselves when they wrote. Their love and respect for him communicated in their correspondence also affected the tone I adopted for the book.

3. I love all of the letters and drawings from the German children. How did you decide which letters to include and which to exclude?

At first it was difficult to choose. I wanted to include every single one of them. When I finally had to get serious about making the selections, it became an easier task than I would have believed. There were certain letters and drawings that seemed to stand out for one reason or another. Often this had to do with the personalities of the particular children. Who could have eliminated the letter from someone like Peter Zimmerman, who, when frustrated that Halvorsen wasn’t finding his house, wrote: “Are you a pilot? I gave you a map. How did you guys win the war?” Or the letter from Mercedes Simon that scolded Halverson for scaring her chickens when making the approach to land, thus ending egg production, but then going on to offer the pilot a way to make things right. “When you see the white chickens please drop the chocolate there.”

4. Candy Bomber and another one of your books, The Children of Topaz, take place during the 1940’s. Do you have a special interest in the WWII era?

I suppose I do. Even one of my novels (Brothers in Valor) is set in Germany during WW II. I’m not one hundred percent sure why I have such an interest, but it obviously manifests itself in what I write, read, and watch on TV or at the movies.

5. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

I think it is interesting to know that Gail Halvorsen is ninety years old and as active as someone half his age. He travels constantly to meet the demands of groups who want him to speak about his candy-bombing experiences. He is greatly loved in Germany to this day and is often invited back to commemorate the Air Lift in one way or another. He even is still qualified to fly the C-54 transport planes he flew in the 1940s, though he takes the co-piloting duties these days. As a side note, you might be interested in hearing Gail explain the Air Lift and see some original film footage of the candy drops and other Air Lift events. Go to my website (www.michaelotunnell.com). Choose the Candy Bomber icon, and you will see a link to this YouTube video.

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

2010-09-15T11:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

I wanted to share a bit of exciting news with you. CHOOSE TO READ OHIO has linked to Classroom Book of the Week's interview with picture book author and illustrator Loren Long. Here's the link: http://oh.webjunction.org/ctrootis

CHOOSE TO READ OHIO has many great resources for teachers, librarians, and homeschoolers. Be sure to check out their site.

Happy reading.

Kate

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO HUMPTY?

2010-09-13T03:22:00.000-07:00

By Joe Dumpty as told to Jeanie Franz Ransom
Publisher: Charlesbridge
ISBN: 978-1-58089-391-6

FROM THE FLAP: Private detective Joe Dumpty, Humpty’s brother, thinks Humpty Dumpty’s fall was no accident. But who would have pushed him? Was it Little Miss Muffet? Old Mother Hubbard? Chicken Little? Joe has until five o’clock to to question characters and catch the culprit.

KATE’S TAKE: Looking for a fun way to spice up a nursery rhyme unit? Don’t miss this book.

CLASSROOM WEB: Bodily/Kinesthetic and Interpersonal

Spider entraps Wolf and Muffy in her web at the end of the book. Ask the class to stand in a circle. Call out a student’s name and throw a ball of yarn to that student while you hold onto the loose end. The student holds onto her section of yarn, calls another student’s name, and throws it to him or her. Before you know it, the whole class will be wrapped up.

HUMPTY DUMPTY PUZZLES: Visual/Spatial

Give each student a bag with six puzzle pieces. Ask them to put the puzzle together. Make sure each puzzle piece has an x on the back so that students know which is the front of the puzzle piece. After they have put together the puzzle, have them transform the egg into Humpty’s face.

INTERESTING INTERVIEWS: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal.

Joe Dumpty cracked the case by interviewing characters. As a class brainstorm four simple interview questions for partners. Break the kids up into partners, have them interview one another, and present their partners to the class.

JOE DUMPTY COMIC STRIPS: Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial

Together as a class, sequence the main events of the book. Give each child a strip of paper divided into five squares and ask him to illustrate each event.

OLD MOTHER HUBBARD’S CUPBOARD: Logical/Mathematical

In a small group, give each child a small container with ten, bone-shaped dog biscuits. Do some simple addition and subtraction problems using the bones as manipulatives. Thanks to Diane Esser for this activity.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
-Dear Peter Rabbit by Alma Flor Ada
-Mind Your Manners, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra
-The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf as told to Jon Scieszka
-Yours Truly Goldilocks by Alma Flor Ada

CANDY BOMBER: THE STORY OF THE BERLIN AIRLIFT'S “CHOCOLATE PILOT"

2010-09-06T03:27:00.000-07:00

By: Michael O. Tunnell
Publisher: Charlesbridge
ISBN: 978-1-58089-337-4

FROM THE FLAP: This is a true story of chocolate, bubble gum, and hope. World War II was over, and Berlin was in ruins. US Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen wanted to bring some happiness to the children of the city—but what could one man in a plane do?

KATE’S TAKE: “From little things come big things.” Author Michael O. Tunnell shows readers how one pilot, Gail Halvorsen, took one small action that brought a large gift, hope, to thousands of children.

AVIATION TIMELINE: Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Kinesthetic

Have each student research a different plane from 1903 to the present. Write a brief summary of each plane on the lined side of a 4x6 index card and draw a picture of the plane on the back. Ask students to line up in front of the class in chronological order and present their reports to the class.

FROM LITTLE THINGS COME BIG THINGS: Verbal/linguistic, Intrapersonal, and Interpersonal

Gail Halvorsen gave thirty kids two sticks of gum and started a movement that borought hope to thousands across the world for decades. Think about a time you did something simple that brought hope, joy, or happiness to someone else. Write an essay about this incident.

INTERESTING INTERVIEWS: Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal

Author Michael O. Tunnell learned about the candy bomber, when Gail Halvorsen came to Mr. Tunnell’s church to speak to a youth group. Ask students to interview a senior citizen about his or her life. Have students choose one interesting fact they learned from their interview with the class.

PAPER AIRPLANE PRAISE: Verbal/Linguistic , Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal

Give each student five ten-by-ten squares of paper. On each paper have the student compliment another student, but do not have the author sign his or her name. Hand the compliments into the teacher so that he or she can make sure the comments are appropriate. Give the squares back to the students after you have proofread them. Then, ask them to fold each one into a paper airplane and write the name of the student he or she complimented on the airplane's wing. When you’re done reading Candy Bomber, ask students in groups of five to fly their five airplanes from the top of playground equipment. Students collect their individual compliments. This is a great way to build community.

UNCLE WIGGLY WINGS MATH: Logistical/Mathematical

Here are some Candy Bomber math word problems you can put out at your math center.

1. Easter Sunday, 1949, a plane landed almost every sixty seconds in Berlin for twenty-four hours. Approximately how many U.S. planes landed in Berlin that day?

2. The American Confectioners Association donated 6,500 pounds of candy in one month to Operation Vittles. If there were thirty days in that month, on average, how many pounds of candy were donated each day? How many tons of candy were donated each day?

3. Lieutenant Halvorsen told German children that a C-54 could carry 200 sacks of flour weighing a total of 20,000 pounds. How much did each sack weigh?

4. U.S. Citizens donated 1,100 square yards of linen to make parachutes. If each parachute was one square foot, how many parachutes did Operation Vittles make out of that linen?

5. Lifesavers Corporation donated 200 boxes of Lifesavers to Operation Vittles, totaling 4,000 rolls. How many rolls of Lifesavers were in each box?

BOOK BUDDIES

-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
-Life as a Fighter Pilot by Brian Williams
-Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Margot Theis Raven
-The Two Great Wars by Janine Scott
-World War II for kids: a History with 21 Activities by Richard Panchyk

SIGNING OFF FOR THE SUMMER

2010-06-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

School ends on the 18th, and I'm taking the summer off from creating book-based activities. I look forward to posting and connecting again in September. Have a wonderful summer.

Happy travels!

Happy reading!

Take care,
Kate

INTERVIEW WITH ROCKY ROAD AUTHOR, ROSE KENT

2010-06-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

KN: I love the diverse and vibrant characters in ROCKY ROAD. How did you create characters that feel like best friends?

RK: Thank you, Kate. Character development is a process that I work hard at, and it takes time. I liken this to the way close friendships develop and blossom. First you meet, have an exchange and a spark of connection that grows stronger as you get to know each other on, during both good times and bad. Sometimes I’ll “interview” a character before I write a scene. I ask her questions about what makes her mad or sad or what she wants. The process of writing down responses feels like a chat over tea and cookies. (Okay, sometimes I enjoy tea and cookies during these interviews!)

I am drawn to “diverse” characters in many senses of the word. Tess, for example, stood out with her gentle spirit and fashionable style, even if she was a kid who had struggled and hadn’t lived a privileged life. I’ve noticed in stories that the stylish girl is usually the snooty one. (Think Sharpei in “High School Musical.”) I wanted to create a character whose face lit up when she talked about plush fabrics she could sew with, but who would also do anything in the world for her little brother. Winnie, Tess’s senior, African-American friend from the Mohawk Valley Village, drew me because she was a breath of fresh air. Her love of Motown coupled with her wisdom, caring nurse instincts, and spry sense of humor were very appealing -- and just what the Dobsons needed in their lives.

KN: Along that same line, how did you distinguish your characters’s voices from one another?

RK: I think some of this happens on a subconscious level. It’s kind of like how we know our family members so well that, when one calls us from afar, we don’t need to see their faces to recognize them. I work at finding the essence of my characters’ voices before I begin writing. How they speak, how they feel, even the words they chose to make a point. Take Delilah Dobson, for example. She considers herself a proud Texan through and through, and I wanted to reflect that, in part, through her language. For this reason I studied up on Texan slang. That was fun research, even if it didn’t all make its way into Rocky Road. For example, here’s a Lone Star description that makes me smile: “To a Texan, ‘arrogance’ means you’ve got more crust than a pecan pie factory.”

KN: Why did you choose to feature mental illness in ROCKY ROAD?

RK: A few years back a family friend was in crisis after his teenage son made a suicide attempt. I remember my friend telling me that he felt like he couldn’t share this heartbreak with many of his friends, even though it was the most difficult thing he and his wife had ever endured. The stigma attached to mental illness prevented him from doing so. And in a few cases, when he did confide to others about it, friends seemed paralyzed, unable to respond. That stayed with me. It must be hard enough to cope when your child is in such crisis, and twice as hard if you feel you can’t reach out to others.

In any given year mental illness affects about fifty-eight million people. That’s one in four adults struggling with bipolar disorder (like Delilah Dobson) and other mental health conditions. I wanted to shed some light on this. And I also wanted to show hope. Having a mental illness, though difficult, is not a terminal diagnosis. I don’t think many people realize that the best mental health treatments are highly effective. While it is far from easy, people can take care of themselves and live quality lives, providing they get the support of medical personnel and their families. I also have empathy for family members with a loved one dealing with mental illness. In Rocky Road I wanted to show the impact that mental health has in a family and in particular, on children who feel so powerless.

KN: Your first novel, Kimchi and Calamari, has a food-based title. When you set out to write Rocky Road, did you intend to pick another food-based title based on your favorite ice-cream flavor or did the story lead you to the title?

RK: I didn’t set out to give Rocky Road a food-related title, like Kimchi & Calamari. Its working title in fact was “Whatever It Takes” because that epitomized Tess’s spirit. The title drew upon the Dobson family motto: “Ice cream warms the heart, no matter the weather”. Then I learned about a study that linked ice cream flavor preference to personality, and it hit me that Tess indeed was a rocky road lover who had experienced a rocky road life. (Rocky road lovers are balanced, charming, and goal-oriented.) That, of course, served up the title. (Pun intended!) Full disclosure: coffee is my favorite ice cream flavor, although I certainly wouldn’t turn down rocky road if you offered it to me.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

RK: I want to thank you for your time and for your blog, Kate. It’s a terrific source of information for me as an author. I love hearing other writers reflect on their craft & the inspiration for their work. And I am in awe of how teachers take texts, analyze and interpret them, and facilitate so much creative learning with students through them. Three cheers for you and for all educators!

And before I forget... I’m excited to share my book trailer with your readers. It gives a little “sample” of Rocky Road. You can view it at http://www.rosekent.com/Enjoy!

KN: Thanks so much for the interview. Check out the March 14th post for Rocky Road activities.

INTERVIEW WITH A PLACE FOR FROGS AUTHOR, MELISSA STEWART

2010-06-02T00:59:00.000-07:00

KN: In your fantastic back matter, you note that so far scientists have discovered more than 5,000 different species of frogs. A Place for Frogs features 12 different species. How did you decide which 12 frogs to include?

MS: Whittling down frog possibilities until I ended up with that perfect core group was half the challenge of researching the book. The endpapers of the book feature range maps that show where each frog lives. I wanted to be sure that no matter where a reader lives in North America, there would be at least one frog in his or her area. For the most part, there are at least two frogs in each geographic region.

I also wanted to include some large frogs and some small frogs, some toads and some tree frogs, some common frogs and some rare ones. Also, I need to think about what the illustrator, Higgins Bond, would show in her paintings. I needed diversity in habitats and settings too.

And, of course, each frog I discuss faces a different environmental challenge, and that challenge is being successfully addressed by people. Focusing on problems that people, including kids, can and are doing something about helps to make the book more positive, more hopeful. I’m hoping this book and it’s companions, A Place for Butterflies [link: http://melissa-stewart.com/books/insects/bk_plac1.html] and A Place for Birds [link: http://melissa-stewart.com/books/birds/bk_place.html] help to promote environmental stewardship.

KN: Another back matter feature I love is the Fascinating Frog Facts. Would you please share one of those facts with our readers? Also, I know you feature Friday Fun Facts on your blog. Could you include a link to one of those posts for our inquisitive readers?

MS: Kids love fun, weird, wacky, gross, and goofy facts, so I try to include them as much as possible. I want kids to say, “Oh, wow! That’s cool. Science is cool.” My favorite fact from the back matter of A Place for Frogs is “Harlequin frog tadpoles only eat one kind of food—extra eggs laid by their moms.” Talk about cannibals!

You’re right, Kate. I do often include five fascinating facts on my blog on Fridays. In this [link: http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2010/05/friday-fun-five-gross-and-goofy-body.html] post, I’ve listed facts about ears and hearing, and this [link: http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2010/03/friday-fun-five-gross-and-goofy-body.html] post includes some pretty surprising facts about spit. These are pulled straight out of a series of books I wrote called Gross & Goofy Body [link: http://melissa-stewart.com/books/series/bk_gross.html]. Six of the books were published last fall, and six more will come out in September.

I always include five facts because some teachers have told me that they like to use the facts to refresh the science center in their classrooms. The five facts I offer on Friday mornings give teachers a different fact for each day the following week.

KN: The structure of the book features an environmental problem that affects frogs and ecosystems, and then you offer a solution. When writing fiction, authors of all ages are encouraged to have their main character encounter a problem and find a solution. What inspired you to use a similar format for this non-fiction series?

MS: Hmm, the parallel that you draw to fiction is very interesting. I’d never considered that. I chose the problem/solution format for each spread because while I was writing the first book, A Place for Butterflies, I was also working as a substitute teacher. One day at lunch, I overheard two teachers discussing the difficulty of teaching their students the concept of cause and effect. They said they wished there were resources for them to use. I had that conversation in mind as I developed the structure for the book’s main text.

Substitute teaching also exposed me to a popular program called Reading Buddies, in which a first or second grader who is just learning to read is paired with a third, fourth or fifth grader. Both students gain from this partnership. The younger child develops his/her reading skills, and acting as a mentor builds the self-esteem of the older child.

Most Reading Buddies programs use books written at the reading level of the younger child. I thought it would be even better if each spread featured text at two different levels. In the A Place for books, simpler main text is perfect for the younger child. The sidebars can be read by an older child (or a parent or teacher), and then the two buddies can look at the art and discuss the content together.

Whenever I write a book, I always think about its applications in the classroom when I am developing the structure and organization as well as the language.

KN: In the process of researching this book, did you become inspired to take a specific action yourself to help protect frogs? If so, could you tell us what you did?

MS: One spread in the book features wood frogs crossing a road (from the woods where they hibernate to the vernal pool where they mate and lay eggs) on Big Night—the first warm, rainy night of spring. Even before I started researching this book, I knew I wanted to include this example. I’ve been participating in Big Night amphibian rescue efforts in Central Massachusetts for almost 10 years. Of course, it’s important to help the frogs and salamanders, but I also really love watching how excited the kids are by the spectacular migration and how proud they are to be helping.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

MS: Thanks, Kate, for featuring my book and this interview on Classroom Book of the Week. I really like the creative activities you have come up with. If teachers are interested in more activities related to A Place for Frogs, they can find a Curriculum Guide on the Teacher Page of my website: www.melissa-stewart.com

KN: Thanks so much for the interview.

A PLACE FOR FROGS

2010-06-01T02:21:00.000-07:00

By Melissa Stewart
Publisher: Peachtree
ISBN 13: 978-1-56145-521-8

FROM THE FLAP: Frogs make our world a better place. But sometimes people do things that make it hard for them to live and grow.

In simple yet informative language, award-winning children’s science writer Melissa Stewart introduces readers to some of the ways human action or inaction can affect frog populations. More than just a book about frogs, A PLACE FOR FROGS will open readers’ minds to a wide range of environmental issues.

Describing various examples—from the northern leopard frog in Minnesota ponds to the harlequin frog in rainforests of Central America—the text provides an intriguing look at frogs, at the ecosystems that support their survival, and at the efforts of some people to save them.

At the end of the book, the author offers readers a list of things they can do in their own communities to help protect these special creatures.

Artist Higgins Bond ‘s glorious full-color illustrations vividly and accurately depict the frogs and their surroundings.

KATE’S TAKE: Young artists will hop for joy when they read Melissa Stewart’s A Place For Frogs.

FROG ART, ESSAY, AND POETRY CONTESTS ( Visual/Spatial and Verbal/Linguistic)

If you go to the Save The Frogs website at http://savethefrogs.com , you’ll find rules and guidelines for the above contests. They have a category for elementary students and offer cash prizes to the winners.

FROG LIFE CYCLES (Naturalist and Visual/Spatial)

Have students draw a version of the frog life cycle illustrated on the first few pages of the book. Ask them to fold their paper in half twice to create four equal rectangles. In one space draw eggs, the next a tadpole, then a froglet, and last a frog. Don’t forget to add the circular arrow. Teachers in the intermediate grades may choose to add the tadpole with legs stage to the life cycles.

LEAP FROG RELAY RACES (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

Divide your class into groups of four kids and see which team can leap frog to the finish line first. This could be a fun school-wide Field Day activity.

MATH FROG FACTS (Logical/Mathematical and Kinesthetic)

Cut out lily pads and write a different number on each one. Give students frog bean bags and call out a math fact. Ask students to throw their frog on the correct answer. Students can work in groups of three. One person can call out facts while the other two compete to be the first frog on the correct answer. Then, players can switch roles. You can get a set of six different colored frog bean bags for $15.95 at http://www.cptoys.com or a set of six identical green frogs for under $5 at http://www.parties4kids.com .

SAVE THE FROGS DAY EVENT (Naturalist and Interpersonal)

The last Friday in April Save The Frogs Day is celebrated worldwide. As a class plan a school or community-wide event to help spread awareness about the declining frog population and the effect on our environment. Don’t forget to record your event at http://savethefrogs.wufoo.com/forms/save-the-frogs-day-registration-form/ .

BOOK BUDDIES:

-A Place for Birds by Melissa Stewart
-A Place for Butterflies by Melissa Stewart
-All About Frogs by Jim Arnosky
-Frogs by Nic Bishop
-Frog Rescue by Garry Hamilton

INTERVIEW WITH MUDVILLE AUTHOR, KURTIS SCALETTA

2010-05-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

KN: On your website Roy has a top-five baseball list and Sturgis has a top-ten music list. Did you make other contrasting lists in order to get to know your characters?

KS: I make a lot of those lists mentally, even if I don't write them down. I feel like, at least with major characters like Roy and Sturgis, authors should be able to answer the kinds of questions they'd be able to answer about their friends: what do they read or watch on TV, what kind of music do they like, what do they want to be when they grow up, and who are their heroes? But I only include those interests if they stand out or are a big part of a character's personality. Sturgis's music and books are a way for him to get to know his dad better, so they're important. Roy's taste in music isn't important so I don't mention it, but at I do know that about Roy -- he's OK with whatever's on the radio, unless it's jazz. But one thing about kids is that their tastes are always changing and they're always discovering new things. So as a writer, I have to keep that in mind. For example, Roy likes reading non-fiction better than fiction, but he tries reading something different in Mudville.

KN: I have to ask. Have you really cooked and eaten the dishes on Mr. McGuire’s favorite recipe pages? If so, have you served them to anyone else?

KS: Ha. Funny you should ask! My wife celebrated the week Mudville came out by planning a whole week of menus around Mr. McGuire's experiments. We had spinach surprise and spam manicotti and chili dog pie [ http://mudmambas.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/as-seen-in-the-novels-chili-dog-pie/.] Chili dog pie is actually really good, although it's not that healthy. What's scary is that I made those recipes up for the book, but was able to find every one online when I put the website extras together. They were all real things people had done.

KN: Before the story starts, you quote Roy Hobbs from The Natural, “A father makes all the difference.” Did you make Roy’s mother be uninvolved so you could focus on Roy’s relationship with his father?

KS: Yes, that's exactly what it was. It was a book about fathers and sons and brothers, so I decided to downplay the mothers of both of the main characters in Mudville. Women (and girls) are also only a minor presence in Mamba Point, which is mainly about brothers and masculine friendships. I'm making up for it with my third novel, which is in progress. There are several important female characters of different generations (and different species!) that the hero gets to know, and they're all important to him without filling a role as his mother or his girlfriend. It's of the things that I feel really good about as I slog through the nth draft. I'm confident that boys will connect with those characters and find them appealing.

KN: Mudville is a pleasure to read. Could you please talk about what you did to make sure Roy’s voice is consistent and strong throughout the novel?

KS: Thanks for the compliment! Roy's voice is a synthesis of my voice and one of the great narrators in baseball fiction, Henry Wiggen. He's the narrator and hero of The Southpaw and Bang the Drum Slowly and two other novels by Mark Harris [http://mudmambas.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/in-memory-of-mark-harris/]. Wiggen is unpretentious and often funny, but those books are gorgeously written. Harris himself was taking a lot of cues from Ring Lardner's Jack Keefe stories. Anyway, that's how I found Roy's voice... the plot is like a W. P. Kinsella book, but I really owe a lot more to Mark Harris, and I said so in the acknowledgments.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

KS: Well, I already worked in one plug but let me work in another. I have a new book coming out this summer. It's not a baseball book, or even a sports book, but I hope people who liked Mudville will like this one, too. It's called Mamba Point, and it's about an American kid living in Monrovia, Liberia (that's in West Africa) who befriends a black mamba, one of the deadliest snakes in the world. A lot of the book is based on personal experience, because I moved to Liberia myself when I was thirteen. My dad worked at the U.S. Embassy, just like Linus's dad does in the book. I never befriended a mamba, but I did see a couple.

KN: Thanks so much for the interview.

KS: Thanks for the invitation. I really like your blog; the educational tie-ins are creative.

KN: Thanks for the compliment.

MUDVILLE

2010-05-24T02:40:00.000-07:00

By Kurtis Scaletta
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 978-0-375-95579-2

FROM THE FLAP: The sky had opened, sending sheets of rain across the baseball field, while lightning was flashing in the distance.

The last two boys were my father and the Sinister Bend pitcher. They were the only ones whose parents had not yet come to pick them up. They waited, wet and cold, in different corners of the muddy diamond, a full hour after every single other person had gone home.

At last, the Sinister Bend pitcher stood up and stepped out of the rain.

“This isn’t over!” he shouted at my Dad. “Not by a long shot!”

It still isn’t over, twenty-two years later. After all, it’s still raining.

KATE’S TAKE: This is a baseball curse story that tops ‘em all.

BASEBALL (Interpersonal, Kinesthetic)

After students have done the timeline and researched past town rivals, divide the class into two groups and head out for an inning or two of baseball or softball.

BIOMIMICRY (Naturalist, Logical/Mathematical, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal)

Roy’s dad’s business installs, “sheets of heavy-duty plastic arced over roofs like the protective wings of a mother bird” to protect houses from rain damage. Ask students to pair up and brainstorm a new product that mimics an animal or a plant from nature and will help people improve their ability in a specific hobby. First, ask each pair to brainstorm five activities/hobbies they have in common. Then ask each pair to think about what product would help them enjoy more or increase their skills in a certain hobby.Students will make a drawing of the product and present their poster to the class. Here are two great sites with more information on biomimicry: http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/ and http://brainz.org/15-coolest-cases-biomimicry Special thanks to Lisa Sama for this activity.

PERCENTAGES (Logical/Mathematical)

“To understand baseball, you have to understand percentages.” That’s what Roy, the main character, tells us in his first line. Invite each student to pick his or her favorite athlete and calculate percentages and fractions for that players statistics. Anyone who finishes early can write the numbers as decimals too.

TOWN TIMELINE (Interpersonal, Kinesthetic, Verbal/Linguistic)

After students have completed their posters in Sly Sleuths, ask them to come up to the front of the classroom, make a timeline, and do an oral presentation on the information they found. Invite other classes to come learn about their town.

SLY SLEUTHS (Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal)

Have students work in pairs and research their town’s history from a certain time period. Give each pair a different time period to research. Students should report on major date and facts as well as any tension between groups of new and old settlers. Ask them to make posters for their time period.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse by David A. Kelly
-Baseball Great by Tim Green
-Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
-Lucky by Wes Tooke
-Six Innings by James Preller
-The Boy Who Saved Baseball by John H. Ritter
-The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz
-Top of the Order by John Coy

INTERVIEW WITH ACROSS THE ALLEY AUTHOR, RICHARD MICHELSON

2010-05-21T03:00:00.000-07:00

KN: Where did the spark for Across the Alley come from?

RM: The lovely thing about writing is that sparks come from so many directions, and if you are lucky, they somehow fuse themselves into a single whole in your mind.

Prior to beginning this book, my son was practicing violin daily (under duress), and wishing he could be outside playing ball (in his case, soccer, not baseball). During that same period I was invited to give a talk in Brooklyn, and missing my turn (pre-GPS) I happened to drive though my old neighborhood for the first time in many years.

When I was born, East New York, Brooklyn, was 90-percent Jewish. A short 12 years later, less than 10 percent of those living in the neighborhood were Jews. Across the Alley, is set at the 50/50 tipping point, when Jewish kids and black children shared the streets equally, but rarely played together. In this case Abe and Willie’s bedroom windows face each other’s and they become secret best friends.

KN: You grew up in Brooklyn. Did you have a friend across the alley?

RM: I did, but not to the same extent that Abe befriends Willie, nor was I as courageous as these two boys in stepping out of my comfort zone. What fiction allows us, of course, is to reinvent our lives (less generously called, as my mother might say, “lying”), and both complicate or improve on our personal history.

KN: What would you like readers to know about violinist, Jascha Heifetz?

RM: Just listen to the music! His tonal beauty is unmatched, setting the standard against which violinists are measured to this day. But I admit that for my purposes I was mostly drawn to the music of his name—Jascha Heifetz. The four syllables roll off the tongue, and I love reading them aloud.

KN: Why did you choose to include Abe’s grandfather instead of his mother or father?

RM: Hmm. I don’t know if this has a definitive answer, as I did play with different family relationships for both boys. But I’d recently finished my books Too Young for Yiddish, which involves a Jewish boy and his grandfather; and Happy Feet, about a black child and his father; and I didn’t seem quite done with those relationship structures. Also the age range worked, as I needed a Jewish character whose mental outlook would have been shaped by the Holocaust, and a black character who was stuck in the mindset of the world at the time of the Negro Leagues. I wanted the adults to be forced to confront their prejudices and find a new zest for life through the achievements of Willie and Abe.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to share with readers?

RM: Sure. Along with Across the Alley, a number of my titles deal with racial issues and hopefully provide a good starting point for classroom discussion. Busing Brewster published this week (!!!!) is about a black child bused to an all white school and As Good As Anybody: Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King’s Amazing March Towards Freedom is about the real life friendship of these two great religious leaders. You can read more about these and my other books on my site www.RichardMichelson.com;

KN: Thanks for the interview.

RM: Thank you, Kate, for providing this valuable opportunity for authors to make our books better known to educators and readers.

ACROSS THE ALLEY

2010-05-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

By Richard Michelson
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN: 0-399-23970-7

FROM THE FLAP: Abe and Willie are next-door neighbors. During the day they don’t play together, because Abe is Jewish and Willie is black. But at night, when nobody’s watching, they’re best friends.

All summer long, Abe and Willie open their windows across the alley to play catch. Abe lends Willie his violin, while Willie shows Abe how to throw a real big-league slider. Then one night, Abe’s grandfather catches them—will Abe and Willie have the courage to cross the alley and bring their friendship out in the open?

Set against a backdrop of old-time Brooklyn, E.B. Lewis’s haunting watercolors and Richard Michelson’s stirring prose capture both the fun and the danger of having a secret best friend. Across the Alley, like E.B. Lewis’s timeless classic The Other Side, is a powerful story of overcoming prejudice that will strike a chord with readers of all ages.

KATE’S TAKE: A celebration of music, baseball, and most importantly friendship.

BASEBALL (Kinesthetic)

It’s almost summer! Take the kids outside for a scrimmage. If an adult pitches, the game will move quickly.

FAMILY FUN (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

Have students prepare interview questions for their grandparents. Have them find out what kinds of activities their grandparents did when they were in elementary school. If possible, kids could invite their grandparents into the classroom for the interview. This is a fun Grandparents’ Day activity.

MUSIC MEDLEY (Musical)

Invite students to be like Willie and prepare a piece of music to sing or play in front of the class. Invite them to partner up if that helps them gain the courage to perform.

SEE-SAW FRIEND BOOKS (Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Visual/Spatial)

Michelson compares and contrasts Abe and Willie to one another throughout the book. Ask students to write their own books comparing themselves to one of their friends or a family member. So the pattern would proceed like this: I have _______________ (color of eyes or other physical description). My friend has ______________ (color of eyes or other physical description). My favorite food is __________________. My friend’s favorite food is ______________. My favorite activity is _____________. My friend’s favorite activity is ____________. The last page would read, “We are friends.” Ask students to illustrate each page of their books.

SOMEDAY CLASS BOOKS (Verbal/Linguistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Visual/Spatial)

Abe’s grandpa tells him someday, “You’ll be the next Jascha Heifetz.” Give each student an 8x11 sheet of paper that says, “Someday I’ll be the next ___________________.” Have them fill in the blank with a famous person’s name or a specific occupation and draw a picture of themselves doing that activity. Bind the pages together and send the book home with a different student each day.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom by Richard Michelson
-Mis Amigos/My Friends by George Ancona, Alma Flor Ada, and F. Isabel Campoy
-Someday by Eileen Spinelli
-The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
-Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts

INTERVIEW WITH MY HEAR T IS LIKE A ZOO AUTHOR, MICHAEL HALL

2010-05-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

KN: My Heart Is Like a Zoo is a great blend of creativity and emotional intelligence. How did the idea for this book develop?

MH: While in San Francisco for my brother’s wedding, I was inspired by a public art exhibit called “Hearts in Union Square.” On the plane ride home, I started to put together a story about the wedding that moved from one heart illustration to another. One of the pictures in the story was an elephant seal — a sight to see in the San Francisco Bay area. From there, I instinctively began making other animals out of hearts without any idea of what they might become. Four years later, I began to picture them in a book called “My Heart Is Like a Zoo.”

KN: Why did you choose to focus on hearts instead of another shape?

MH: I have little collections of pictures made from many different shapes. The heart is particularly effective because it has circular, straight and pointy parts within it.

KN: How did you decide which animals to include?

MH: I began with about 75 animals and grouped them according to the kinds of feelings they might represent. I wanted to represent a wide variety of feelings and characteristics. I chose animals that I liked visually and that seemed unique in some way. Toward the end, as I was tweaking the text, I had to change a number of animals because the rhythm just didn’t work. For example, one of my favorite animals was a sneaky raccoon. But “sneaky as a raccoon” didn’t flow well because the beat is on the wrong syllable in raccoon.

I wrote a blog post about the animals that didn’t make the cut for the Greenwillow blog:
http://greenwillowblog.com/?p=56

KN: The sparse text rhymes and is alliterative at times. Were those poetic elements always part of the text, or did you add them over time?

MH: Initially, I didn’t plan to use rhyming text, but as the book unfolded, I could see that I needed to break the long list of animals into sections. The rhymes help to emphasize this.

The alliteration occurred naturally. I like that it is there, but I didn’t change any words in order to create that effect.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

MH: A few weeks before I planned on showing the book, I noticed that about a third of the animals were overworked to the point that they seemed lifeless. I rebuilt them from scratch so that they were less animal and more heart.

Anyone interested in learning more can visit myheartislikeazoo.com.

KN: Thanks for the interview!

MH: Thank you.

MY HEART IS LIKE A ZOO

2010-05-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

By Michael Hall
Publisher: Greenwillow Books An Imprint of Harper Collins
ISBN: 978-0-06-191511-6

FROM THE FLAP: Welcome to the zoo! Twenty animals are waiting for you—some are familiar, some may be brand new. What are they doing? How are they feeling? Are they friends of yours? Come on in and say hello!

KATE'S TAKE: A bright, emotional intelligent book that's sure to spark creativity.

ALPHABETIZED ANIMALS (Kinesthetic and Verbal/Linguistic)

Give each one of your students a different heart animal. Make sure the name of each animal is visible. Ask students what the first letter of the alphabet is and ask that student to come in front of the class. Continue until all of the students are in alphabetical order in front of the class.

ANIMAL YOGA (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

Gather the students on the rug and give each child a chance to physically emulate an animal. The other students will try and guess which animal the child is mimicking.

HEART COLLAGES (Visual/Spatial)

Place a variety of hearts of all shapes and colors at the art table. Give each student a large sheet of black paper and ask them to create a heart collage. They could choose an animal or they could choose to create a different object.

HEART GRAPHS (Logical/Mathematical)

Make a graph of how many hearts Hall used to create each animal or make a graph of the how many hearts there are of each color.

OUR HEARTS ARE LIKE A ZOO CLASS BOOK (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Verbal/Linguistic, and Visual/Spatial)

Give each child a 8x11 piece of white paprer and ask him/her to complete the sentence ________ heart is as ____________ as a ____________ when ______________________________________________________. Have them illustrate
their sentegnce. Bind the work together to create a class book to send home with a different student every few days. If you’re working one-on-one with a child, he/she can easily make their own book which contains five or six pages that each talk about a different emotion and animal.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen (November 22, and November 25, 2009 posts)
-Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert
-Mouse Shapes by Ellen Stoll Walsh
-Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood
-Wild About Books by Judy Sierra

THE MYSTERIOUS HOWLING: THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE SERIES

2010-05-03T01:52:00.000-07:00

By Maryrose Wood
Publisher: Balzer and Bray, An imprint of Harper Collins
ISBN: 978-0-06-179105-5

FROM THE FLAP: Of especially naughty children, it is sometimes said: “They must have been raised by wolves.”

The Incorrigible children actually were.

Discovered in the forests of Ashton Place, the Incorrigibles are no ordinary children: Alexander keeps his siblings in line with gentle nips; Cassiopeia has a bark that is (usually) worse than her bite; and Beowulf is alarmingly adept at chasing squirrels.

Luckily, Miss Penelope Lumley is no ordinary governess. Only fifteen years old and a graduate of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, Penelope embraces the challenge of her new situation. Though she is eager to instruct the children in Latin verbs and the proper use of globes, first she must eliminate their canine tendencies.

But mysteries abound at Ashton Place: Who are these three wild creatures? Why does Old Timothy, the coachman, lurk around every corner? Will Penelope be able to civilize the Incorrigibles in time for Lady Constance’s holiday ball? And what on earth is a schottische?

Penelope is no stranger to mystery, as her own origins are also cloaked in secrecy. But as Agatha Swanburne herself once said, “Things may happen for a reason, but that doesn’t mean we know what the reason is—at least not yet.”

KATE’S TAKE: A deliciously old-fashioned novel laced with foreboding.

CASSIOPEIA CHALLENGES (Logical/Mathematical and Interpersonal)

Cassiopeia creates her own math problems. Ask students to create their own math problems based on scenes in the book. Have each student prove the problem is solveable before challenging another student to solve it.

CHARACTER ACROSTIC POEMS (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

Ask each student to pick a character from the book and write an acrostic poem to describe each character. Students should describe physical and personality traits of the character as well as the person’s role in the book.

FOLK DANCE FUN (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

Miss Lumley and the children learn to dance the schottische, a popular folk dance of the time. Teach your class how to do a folk dance. This website has great teacher support for this activity: http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=16243

TABLEAUX VIVANT (Visual/Spatial and Interpersonal)

Ask groups of three or four students to perform tableaux vivants for the class. Students will design sets and props and dress up as characters from a book the class has studied over the year or from a classic tale. The rest of the class will guess which story the students are portraying.

TASTY TREATS (Verbal/linguistic and Interpersonal)

Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia indulge in many delicacies such as petites madeleines at the Christmas ball. Ask each child to bring in a favorite recipe from home and correlate the recipes together to create a class recipe book.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-The Witch’s Guide to Cooking with Children by Keith McGowan
-The Witch’s Guide to Hunting with Children by Keith McGowan
-Werewolves by Stephen Krensky
-Werewolves Don’t Go to Summer Camp by Debbie Dadey
-Werewolves Don’t Run for President by Debbie Dadey

Interview with Poop Happened! author, Sarah Albee

2010-04-28T03:01:00.000-07:00

KN: The humorous voice is strong and consistent throughout the text. How did you accomplish this feat?

SA: It wasn’t always easy to remain light and irreverent, because a lot of the information in the book covers episodes of human history that weren’t very funny—like plagues and poverty and overcrowding. I didn’t want to come across as uncaring or flippant. But usually I was able to find something light-hearted to focus on. My ultimate goal was to help kids appreciate the amazing ability humans have to cope with bad situations. I also thought it was important for kids to appreciate that the field of public health has only been a priority for civic leaders for the past hundred years or so.

KN: I love the TMI(too much information) sections in the book. Did you plan those out or did the book designer come up with that idea?

SA: It kind of evolved, actually. In an early draft I had a few boxes that I had called “Probably more than you wanted to know” and my editor changed it to TMI. Then we culled out more from the body text and made a few extra TMI boxes.

KN: In order to write this book, you had to do a tremendous amount of research. How much time did you spend researching and how did you organize all of the information?

SA: I did read a lot of books, in whole or in part, as I researched. The research part took about two years, although I wasn’t working exclusively on POOP that whole time. The biggest challenge was organizing it all and then deciding what information was most relevant and/or fun for kids. A good friend of mine who is a writer read an early draft that was perhaps twice as long as the finished manuscript. She gently pointed out to me that not everyone is as excited about sanitation as I am, and that I really had to cut out some of the information. Which I did. And then my editor asked me to make further cuts. Cutting the text forced me to consider what was truly essential to me to keep, and that made it a stronger book.

KN: Reading this book made me really grateful that I live in modern times in a country which has a good sanitation system. You mention that many of the sanitation problems of medieval Europe still exist in developing countries today. Did you visit any of these countries to have a better idea of what it must have been like to live in London or Paris over a hundred years ago?

SA: I lived in Cairo, Egypt for a year, and there I witnessed a great deal of poverty and poor sanitation, both in the urban center and also in the countryside. During the course of my research I also read an amazing book called The People of the Abyss, by Jack London (the writer of White Fang and Call of the Wild). In 1903, London left his comfortable lodgings in the west part of London and traveled to the East End, purchased second-hand clothing, and went to live in a London slum, to experience firsthand what the life was like. He walked the streets, starving and homeless, and then wrote about it. Because he’s such an amazing writer, his account really helped me understand what it must have been like to be poor at that time, when there were virtually no social safety nets. Unfortunately similar situations exist today in many developing countries.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

SA: I hope this book will get kids excited about history. I’m working on a follow-up book about the history of clothes, especially some of the funkier fashions like corsets and codpieces and ruffs and bound feet and bathing costumes and arsenic wafers. I hope the next book will be another fun way for kids to learn a little history—the kind that isn’t in their social studies textbooks.

KN: Thanks for the interview.

SA: A pleasure!

POOP HAPPENED!

2010-04-26T02:45:00.000-07:00

By Sarah Albee
ISBN: 978-0-8027-2077-1
Publisher: Walker & Company

FROM THE FLAP: Throughout the ages, the most successful civilizations were the ones who realized that everyone poops and they’d better figure out how to get rid of it! From the very first flushing toilet (invented way earlier than you would think) to the efficient Roman aqueducts (possibly inspired by the goddess of sewers!) to castles in the Middle Ages whose moats used more than just water to repel enemies, Poop Happened! traces human civilization through this revolting yet fascinating theme. Disgusting details about human hygiene give kids down and dirty answers to some enduring questions like:

Did lead pipes cause the fall of the Roman Empire?
How many toilets were in the average Egyptian pyramid?
How did a knight wearing fifty pounds of armor go to the bathroom?
Was poor hygiene the last straw before the French Revolution?
Did Thomas Crapper really invent the modern toilet?
How do astronauts “go” in space?

History will finally come out of the water closet in this exploration of how a human necessity shaped civilization from ancient times to the present. Bathroom reading has never been so engrossing!

AQUEDUCT RELAY RACES (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

Rome, and Edo(modern day Tokyo) used aqueduct to keep their water supplies free from waste which made their cities much cleaner and healthier than other cities in history. Divide the class into five teams. Give each person a twelve to eighteen inch piece of PVC pipe cut in half lengthwise. Each group should have one tennis ball. Each team needs to transport the tennis ball from the start line to the finish line without having the ball touch their hands or the floor/grass. If the ball falls or if it touches their hand, the team needs to go back to the start line. Special thanks to Matt Ettinger for this activity.

CITY PLANNERS (Visual/Spatial and Interpersonal)

Pair up students and ask them to pick a city mentioned in the book. Have one student draw a map of the city from the time period mentioned in the book while the other student draws a map of the modern day city. Maps should include information about waste treatment. Have the students present their maps and compare and contrast the two.

DIRTY DISEASES (Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal)

Poor hygiene and unsanitary conditions spread disease throughout Europe. Divide the class into five small groups and have them each research a specific disease during a certain time period. Ask them to create a poster about the disease that includes information on how the disease spread and how that specific civilization dealt with the public health threat. Posters should include a map. Afterwards have them present their posters and ask class members to provide constructive critique on the group’s poster and presentation.

FAVORITE FACT TIMELINE (Logical/Mathematical, Kinesthetic, and Interpersonal)

Important facts and dates are sprinkled throughout the text. Ask each student to write down their favorite fact and the date it happened on a piece of paper. Then have them line up in class in chronological order.

GUESS WHO? (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

Fun facts about famous people abound in Poop Happened! Each student will choose a famous person in the book and write five clues about his or her person of choice. Then, the student will dress up as the famous person and read his or her clues in front of the class. The other students will try and guess who the identity of the dressed-up student.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Canals and Aqueducts by Julie Richards
-City Planning in Ancient Times by Arthur Segal
-Sustainable Cities by Cheryl Jakab
-The Gross and Goofy Body Series by Melissa Stewart
-The World’s Deadliest Diseases by Tim O’Shei

Interview with VULTURE VIEW author, April Pulley Sayre

2010-04-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

KN: Vulture View is filled with poetic elements such as alliteration, repetition, rhythm, and rhyme. Were all of these elements present in your first draft or did you add some as you revised your manuscript?

APS: Yes, those elements were present in the very first draft. I had been thinking, for years, about writing a book about flight and hawks. Vultures were in drafts of my hawk book. But then, one day, they took over. Or, should I say, I was watching vultures rise up over a rain forest in Panama when the words to the book came into my head. I heard, "The sun is rising, up, up. It heats the air up, up." Once I saw the connection between the sun coming up and the air rising up and the vultures rising up, I knew I had a book. The cadence and alliteration just unfolded. Of course, there were still many drafts to polish the language.

KN: On your website you talk about how in high school you took care of a young turkey vulture while working at a raptor rehabilitation center, and that later on you spotted them migrating through Panama. Did seeing the kettle migrate inspire you to write Vulture View?

APS: Yes, it started in Panama, although the book was not ultimately set in the rain forest. (Many of my other books, such as Meet the Howlers and Army Ant Parade are.)

KN: We tell students it’s important to use strong, “WOW” words while writing. Could you share some of the ways you sought out “WOW” words while writing Vulture View?

APS: Well, I do a lot of editing to eliminate fluff. So I guess my technique for writing with "wow" words is to eliminate all the "non-wow" words! I like concise, specific writing. I love active verbs.

KN: Please tell us about winning the Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book award.

APS: Oh, wow. What can I say? The passionate, hard-working members of that award committee helped change my life. I'd been ill for months with whooping cough, cracked my ribs because of it. I was just barely healing, and had just that day, for the first time in months, gone out of the house, to see a movie with my husband. I could barely speak because my voice had been damaged by the whooping cough. Now, just imagine, how it feels in such a vulnerable state to find a message on the answering machine that some librarians at some conference have called. Hmm...strange. Yet, how nice that they like my books! Honestly, that in itself was lovely. I had no idea that it was awards time of year. But then they had called back and left a second message. What? I have won an award? A Theodor Geisel Honor Award? What? My favorite part was when the committee erupted into cheers in the background and said "Hurray, April!" I just stood there and listened to the message and cried with joy. It was particularly sweet because it came at such a tough time in my life. Of course, another great part of it is that the award for Vulture View is for both text and illustration. You know that the illustrator is the great Steve Jenkins. So that call, and all the happy messages and award hoopla, including the ALA conference, were a pleasure. My entire family, especially my nieces, made the most out of the entire thing. They loved the silver stickers on the books. Someone locally gave me a basket of gigantic vulture sugar cookies. Since then, I have been on t.v. talking to a T.V. (turkey vulture) puppet. So we've had a ball. I think we've perhaps changed a few people's attitudes about vultures, too.

KN: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with us?

APS: Well, I think it's an exciting time for nonfiction. There are many nonfiction authors experimenting with language and format. New nonfiction awards, and awards such as the Geisel, which have welcomed nonfiction, have helped bring these books to wider audiences.

KN: Thanks so much for the interview.

APS: Thanks for helping point out quality books and bring them to educators and to readers in general!

KN:Read the April 5th post for accompanying activities for VULTURE VIEW. I won't be posting a book of the week this week because it is spring break here in Massachusetts. I'll post a new book on the 25th. Have a great week!

THE GIANT-SLAYER

2010-04-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

By Iain Lawrence
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 978-0-385-73376-2

FROM THE FLAP: The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine’s gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. She meets two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines: there’s Carolyn, an obnoxious girl whose family has abandoned her, and Chip, a boy with an enigmatic past. Laurie’s first impulse is to flee from the sickly children, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Colosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants.

As Laurie embellishes her tale with gnomes, unicorns, gryphons, and other fanciful creatures, Dickie comes to believe that he is a character in her story. No longer paralyzed, he’s transformed into Khan, a hunter of mythical beasts. Little by little, Carolyn, Chip, and other kids who come to listen recognize counterparts as well. The story allows them to forget reality and take on active, heroic roles. In fact, Laurie’s tale is so powerful that when she’s prevented from continuing it, Dickie, Carolyn, and Chip take turns as narrators. Each helps bring the story of Colosso and Jimmy to an end—changing the lives of those in the polio ward in startling ways.

KATE’S TAKE: A fusion of historical fiction, fantasy, hope, and friendship.

DELETED SCENES: (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

In small groups have students write a new scene with characters from the book and perform it in front of the class. Students can choose to write a fantasy or a historical fiction scene. Their characters’ words and actions should match the characterization in the book.

DIAMANTE POEMS: (Verbal/Linguistic)

Transformation abounds in the Giant-Slayer. Ask students to write a diamante poem that illustrates how one character changed from the beginning to the end of the story or a poem that compares and contrasts two characters in the book.

LANDFORM MAPS (Visual/Spatial)

When Laurie was six, she drew a map of a fantasy world that later became the setting of the story. In small groups ask students to create a topographical map of their own fantasy world. Use cardboard for the base and play dough for the landforms. Challenge students to include at least ten different types of landforms.

MATH MINUTES (Logical/Mathematical and Interpersonal)

Between the coins dropped in Jimmy’s cradle and the piles of gold and silver alongside the road, students can imagine many fanciful math problems. Challenge each student to create a word problem based on the story that covers whatever current topic you’re studying in math. Then, switch problems with a partner and solve.

VACCINATION REPORTS (Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal)

Split the class into small groups and assign each group a different vaccine to research. Ask them to develop an informational poster about the disease and the vaccine. Have each group present their poster to the class and ask the class to critique each poster.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Bearwalker by Joseph Bruchac
-Gods of Manhattan: Spirits in the Park by Scott Mebus
-Steal Away Home by Lois Ruby
-The Journey: A Northern Lights Adventure by Stephanie Wincik
-Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

VULTURE VIEW

2010-04-05T03:09:00.000-07:00

By April Pulley Sayre
Publisher: Henry Holt
ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-7557-1

FROM THE FLAP: Wings stretch wide
to catch a ride
on warming air.
Going where?
Up, up!

TURKEY VULTURES soar on the balmy air, looking for their next stinky feast. These birds don’t hunt—they like their food to be already dead. Vulture’s are part of nature’s cleanup crew.

In her signature poetic, energetic style, acclaimed nature writer April Pulley Sayre introduces young readers to the world of the turkey vulture. Gorgeous illustrations by Caldecott Honor-winning artist Steve Jenkins capture these birds in all their surprising majesty.

KATE’S TAKE: Soar into national poetry month, spring, and a bird unit with April Pulley Sayre’s Vulture View.

BIRD COLLAGES (Visual/Spatial)

Ask students to create a paper collage of the bird of their choice.

BIRD COUPLET POEMS (Verbal/Linguistic)

Couplets abound in Vulture View. Ask students to write a poem about birds with couplets. To scaffold the activity write one together as a class. After you write the first line, ask students to brainstorm a list of words that rhyme with the last word on the first line. This will make it easier to think of the next line.

MIGRATION MATH (Logical/Mathematical and Visual/Spatial)

Vultures migrate all over the world. Here is a list of 10 vultures and their migration patterns. Pair students and ask each pair to calculate total miles traveled and for those students who want to extend their learning ask them to find the average miles traveled each day. Find more information at this link http://www.frg.org/hms/hms_tv.htm or use
the list below:

Vulture Name: Starting Location and Date to Ending Location and Date

Sabado: La Pampa, Argentina to Central Bolivia
3/31 to 5/15

Butterball: Central Florida to Kempton, Pennsylvania
3/3 to 3/26

Schaumbock: Jacksonville, Florida to Danbury, Connecticut
3/7 to 3/30

Quarry: Savannah, Georgia to Delaware
4/3 to 4/18

Rosalie: Washington State to El Fuerte, Mexico
10/3 to 10/26

Morongo: Guatemala to Oregon
3/11 to 4/08

Sill: Saskatchewan to Oklahoma
9/30 to 10/31

Blizzard: MacDowell, Saskatchewan to Rugby, North Dakota
9/25 to 10/07

Duck Lake: Duck Lake, Saskatchewan to Brandon, Manitoba
10/8 to 10/28

Ranger Ranger, Saskatchewan to Mexico/Guatemala Border
9/27 to 12/2

SOAR AND SEEK CLASS BOOK (Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, Intrapersonal and Interpersonal)

Ask students to write the following sentence on an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of white paper: If I could soar anywhere in the world, I would go to ___________ and seek ____________. After they fill in their sentence, have them illustrate their trip. Form a class book and send home with each student on a rotating basis.

SOAR AWAY ( Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

Take students outside to a field and have them catch a thermal and soar. Split them up into groups and have each child in the group lead the soaring.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-A Place For Birds by Melissa Stewart
-An Egg Is Quiet by Diana Hutts Aston
-Birds of Prey by Dr. Gerald Legg
-Feathers For Lunch by Lois Ehlert
-Poppy by Avi

SUBWAY RIDE

2010-03-29T02:26:00.000-07:00

By Heather Lynn Miller
Publisher Charlesbridge
ISBN: 978-1-58089-111-0

FROM THE FLAP:
Pay the fare.
Turn the gate—
Take a subway ride.

People rush.
Music blares.
Doors slide shut.
The train roars down the track.

A wondrous trip through the world’s subway stations brings five children together, showing how travel through different cultures creates community.

KATE’S TAKE: Celebrate transportation and multiculturalism with Heather Lynn Miller’s Subway Ride.

MOVE AND GROOVE (Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal)

Take your class outside or to the gym. Form a train. Have the engine pick a movement such as skipping, hopping, or galloping and ask the rest of the class to follow him. Keep changing leaders until everyone has had a chance to be the engine. Play train music in the background such as Dan Zanes’s “Catch That Train.”

RHYME AND MATCH (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

Draw two train cars on an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper. Make ten copies. Then, write one word from the story in the top car and its rhyming pair in the other car. Pass out one train car to each child and ask them to pair up with their rhyming partner. Follow up with a worksheet that has the rhyming pairs separated in two columns and ask them to draw a line to the word that rhymes with the word in the other column.

SIGHT WORD SEARCH (Verbal/Linguistic)

Miller’s text repeats these sight words often: we, our, up, and down. Type out the short text and list the four sight words at the top of the page. Ask each student to circle all of those sight words on her page. Then give students another page that has the text without the sight words. Ask them to write in the missing words.

TICKETS FOR SALE (Logical/Mathematical)

Miller’s book takes readers to ten different subway stations throughout the world. Ask ten of your students to be ticket sellers and the other ten pretend to be customers. Both customers and vendors will need pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Ask each student to go to one vendor to buy a ticket. You can have the tickets be different amounts so that each child is buying or selling a ticket at his or her math level. After the ten students have bought their tickets, ask them to find a train seat on the rug. Extend the math by adding up the cost of the tickets in each row and on the whole train. Then have the sellers become the buyers and visa-versa and repeat.

WE RIDE CLASS BOOK (Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal)

Celebrate your classroom community with a class book. Give each child an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of white paper with the following sentence on the bottom: We ride past __________ home on __________ _________. Have the children write their name in the first blank and their street name on the second and third blank. If you have a homeless child, he or she could pick a street where they would like to live and draw their dream home. Compile the pages in a 3-ring binder and send home with each student.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-All Aboard! by Mary Lyn Ray
-Freight Train by Donald Crews
-I Love Trains! by Philemon Sturges
-Puzzle Train by Susannah Leigh
-Shortcut by Donald Crews

Interview with INTO THE DEEP author, David Sheldon

2010-03-24T02:57:00.000-07:00

KN: William Beebe explored many different habitats and discovered many animal species. Please tell us about a time you visited one of these habitats and/or observed one of these animals.

DS: As a kid, I was very fond of exploring the habitat down the street... our neighborhood forest, in Maryland. It was an enchanting world to me and still is. I used to love exploring it, scrambling around the creek boulders, looking for anything I could find. There was an enormous crayfish under one moss-covered boulder, overhanging the water, that became kind of a legend with my friends and I. We would rustle the fellow out with a long tree branch to have a look – he looked as big as a lobster to us.

Another time, all by myself, I got down on my hands and knees and explored deep under some bushes at the edge of the forest. I came upon a dead red fox. I don’t know how long it had been there, but it was beautiful to me. I felt honored to have encountered it, hidden away as it was. I felt part of the secret world of animals – if only for a moment.

Regarding the ocean: One time I was camping on the southern tip of Italy. My friend and I were amazed by the sheer rock cliffs that jutted out along the shore of Mediterranean Sea. We went into town and purchased a simple mask and snorkel. I went in first. There were beautiful sea anemones and corals covering the rocks along the shore. Pitch-black sea urchins with sharp needles were everywhere. You had to be careful-as getting one of those needles in your foot was very painful. I already had a few lodged in mine. I got to the edge of the rocks and dove in.

I was awestruck. Turns out, the cliffs jutting out, were just the “tip of the iceberg” - underwater, I saw that they went way down deep into the murky abyss. Several large fish swam lazily just below me. I’m not sure what type of fish they were, but they were quite large. I scrambled out of the water, letting out a huge yelp of glee. My friend thought something was wrong – but I was just overwhelmed with the thrill of what I had just seen. I’ve snorkeled whenever I’ve gotten the chance and always get the same rush of excitement.

One time off the island of Hawaii, I followed a sea turtle until it started heading out into open ocean and I got the jitters just looking at that deep water. Someday I’ll go scuba diving!

KN: You came across the Bathysphere at the Coney Island Aquarium. Have museums, aquariums, and zoos inspired your work in other ways?

DS: Living just outside of Washington, D.C. as a kid, my father used to take us down to visit the Smithsonian museums. Those museums became like a second home to me. Imagine living at the Smithsonian! I was amazed by everything, the dioramas showing animals in their natural habitats, the dinosaurs, the amazing gems, rocks and meteorites, the great blue whale and other ocean creatures – on and on. Washington has a great zoo and aquarium as well. And nothing excited me more than going to those places. I still go and take my kids.

When we lived in NYC, it was regular trips to the Natural History Museum, the Coney Island Aquarium and Bronx Zoo.

Now that we live in the mountains of western North Carolina, we’re surrounded by Nature. So Nature, whether its through a museum or just the bird outside my window at the bird feeder, is always a source of inspiration for me.

KN: Did you write and illustrate the story simultaneously, or did you do one before the other?

DS: I tend to work simultaneously, as the images and words help each other along. A lot of times, the image of a particular scene comes to me as I’m doing my research. So I’ll build up a whole library in my head of different compelling scenes.

As a kid I was always wanting to be captivated by books – picture books in particular, but sometimes a book might have too many words or be boring visually. A lot of science books had wonderful pictures, but there were too many hard words for me to read. Now, when I make a book I remember all that. So I keep the words just enough for a young picture-book reader to enjoy and also understand clearly the subject matter. And I want them to feel like they’ve been on an adventure themselves by the time they get to the final page. So I try to go “all out” with colors and details to really give the young reader an “amazing journey”.

KN: Which of William Beebe’s books did you enjoy the most and why?

DS: I really enjoyed reading “The Arcturus Adventure” - all about his exploration of the Galapagos islands. Beebe had a wonderful way with words and expressing his thoughts on Nature. I felt right there with him as he tried helmet diving for the first time, witnessing the extraordinary colors of the myriad fish and the strange forms of the invertebrates. I can understand how the experience changed his life, making him want to explore the ocean from that moment on.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

DS: I always tell kids, when I visit schools, that you don’t have to go to exotic places to find the wonders of Nature. Whether you’re living in a big city, the suburbs, or out in the country, there’s always something amazing to be found, maybe right at your feet, or just around the corner, or up over your head. Be on the look-out – Nature’s full of surprises.

I remember one night, waiting in line at a suburban movie theater, something caught my eye. I walked over to one of the columns of the movie theater colonnade. On the other side of the column was a huge, beautiful Cecropia moth, pulsating with life. I’d never seen one before and I’ll never forget it.

KN: Thanks for the interview.

DS: Thank you, Kate!

INTO THE DEEP THE LIFE OF NATURALIST AND EXPLORER WILLIAM BEEBE

2010-03-21T17:47:00.000-07:00

By David Sheldon
Publisher: Charlesbridge
ISBN: 978-1-58089-341-1

FROM THE FLAP: “To be a naturalist is better than to be a king.”
—William Beebe’s journal, December 31, 1893

Pioneer in the field of ecology, father of deep sea exploration, and avid conservationist, William Beebe was a modern-day celebrity during the Great Depression—a time when Americans needed a ray of hope. His childhood love of nature spurred him to explore jungles and to brave ocean depths. Wanting to venture deeper into the ocean, Beebe and his business partner, Otis Barton, invented the Bathysphere. Through it all Beebe urged scientists and explorers to discover the world around them.

David Sheldon uses his artistic magic to transport readers to the lush jungles of South America, the volcanic highlands of Colima, Mexico, and the mysterious depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Exotic birds fly off the page and bioluminescent creatures swim into focus, much as they did when Beebe first discovered them.

KATE’S TAKE: It’s spring! Get out there and explore like naturalist, William Beebe!

CONSERVATION CLASS (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

As a class, research three different conservation organizations. Then, come up with interview questions for a representative of each organization. E-mail the questions to the organization. After the class receives and studies the answers, vote on which organization to support and make a donation.

DEEP SEASCAPES (Visual/Spatial)

Will and Otis Barton used the Bathysphere to explore the deep sea. On black paper, have students use glow in the dark paint to create a deep sea scene. If you don’t have access to glow in the dark paint, add white to your paints. The contrast of the lighter colors gives them a glowing appearance on black paper.

GUESS WHO? (Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Interpersonal)

Beebe explored various habitats. Have each student choose an animal from one of the habitats in the book. Then, ask them to write a riddle about the animal using this format:

I live in the ____________. (habitat)
I am __________. (color adjective)
I am __________. (size adjective)
I am a __________. (mammal, insect, or reptile0
Who am I?

Beneath the riddle, have them draw a picture of their animal. Then, tape a flap on top of the picture. Have each child present his or her riddle and ask the other students to guess what it is.

ROPE CLIMB (Kinesthetic)

William Beebe used rope to scale trees in the jungle. In the gymnasium, have students try to scale the climbing rope.

YOUNG EXPLORERS (Verbal/Linguistic and Visual/Spatial)

If you could explore anywhere in the world, where would you go and how would you get there? Write a story about where you would go and explain your choice. Design a vehicle on paper, like Beebe and Otis did, to take you there.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-A Picture Book of Amelia Earhart by David A. Adler
-Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest by Steve Jenkins
-Mary Anning and the Sea Dragon by Jeannine Atkins
-Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
-The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon by Jackie Davies

ROCKY ROAD

2010-03-14T19:22:00.000-07:00

By Rose Kent
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books
ISBN: 978-0-375-86344-8

FROM THE FLAP: Ice cream warms the heart, no matter what the weather.

That’s the Dobson’s family motto. Whenever things get tough, they break out the special heart-shaped bowls to make sundaes. And the road has been especially rocky lately for Tess and her deaf little brother, Jordan. Their plucky Texan mother talks big, but her get-rich-quick business schemes have only landed them in some serious financial hot water.

Ma’s newest idea is drastic. She abruptly moves the family to snowy Schenectady, New York, where she will use the last of their savings to open her dream business: an ice cream shop. (Too bad the only place she could find an apartment is in a senior citizen’s complex.) Tess wants to be excited about this plan, but life in Schenectady is full of new worries. Who will buy ice cream in their shop’s run-down neighborhood? What will happen when their money runs out? Worst of all is Ma herself—she’s famous for her boundless energy and grandiose ideas, but only Tess and Jordan know about the dark days when she crashes and can’t get out of bed. And Tess can’t seem to find the right words to talk to Ma about it at all.

This moving story of family, community, and ice cream proves that with a little help from the people around us, life really can be sweet—and a little nutty—just like Rocky Road.

ASL SENTENCES (Interpersonal and Bodily/Kinesthetic)

Jordan needs to use ASL to communicate with everyone around him. Go to this link http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/concepts.htm and ask students to learn how to sign a simple sentence of their choosing. Then, have each student sign their sentence and have the rest of the class guess what they’re signing.

BUDGET BLUES (Logical/Mathematical)

Tess’s mom has financial woes. Give students a hypothetical monthly salary, and ask them to develop a feasible budget that provides for food and shelter.

CLASS QUILT (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Logical/Mathematical and Visual/Spatial)

Craft a quilt like Tess. Have each student design a quilt square on a piece of paper. Then have students measure the cloth and cut out their squares. Each square could reflect the hobbies of each student like Tess’s quilt reflected Winnie’s hobby, or have each square reflect a piece of your town’s history. Ask a crafty student or parent to piece the quilt together.

INTERESTING INTERVIEWS (Interpersonal and Verbal/Linguistic)

At first Tess is upset about living in a senior citizen complex, but then she gets to know the seniors as individuals, and they become her friends. Ask students to interview a senior citizen. Have them turn in their interview questions ahead of time, and record their interview.

MOTOWN MUSIC (Musical, Interpersonal, and Verbal/Linguistic)

Winnie, Tess’s friend, has a band called The Salty Old Dogs. They specialize in Motown Music. Pick a song and perform it in front of the class, or write a report on a Motwon musician/band.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
-Eggs by Jerry Spinelli
-The Year the Swallows Came Early by Kathryn Fitzmaurice
-Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor
-Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

Interview with UNDER THE SNOW author, Melissa Stewart

2010-03-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

KN: You did a fantastic job of including a wide variety of animals in all four of the habitats. You’ve been exploring nature for most of your life. Would you please describe an encounter or a real-life observation you’ve had with one of these animals?

MS: At a recent school visit, a boy raised his hand as I was discussing the page that shows red-spotted newts swimming just below the icy surface of a pond. “That’s a magic picture!” he exclaimed. It turns out at that school, teachers uses the term “magic picture” to describe a book illustration that also appears on the cover. I love that.

I told the students, for me, the newt image was a magic picture for another reason. They are the little critters that inspired the book. A few years ago, as I was hiking on a winter day, I saw newts swimming below the ice. They looked just like Constance Bergum’s beautiful illustration. Those real-life newts made me curious. I started wondering what other creatures do under the snow all winter long. How any of them stay active. I did some research to find out, and eventually, my findings developed into Under the Snow.

KN: How does a wood frog freeze solid and still survive?

MS: Incredible isn’t it. For a great explanation, check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjr3A_kfspM. Please note, the last couple of seconds may not be appropriate for all young viewers.

Believe it or not, wood frogs aren’t the only critters that freeze in the winter. Check out Bugs and Bugsicles by Amy S. Hansen (Boyds Mills Press, 2010). You’ll love this book, and so will your students.

KN: When teachers instruct writing, they talk about the importance of word choice. UNDER THE SNOW has many strong verbs such as dodge, dart, whiz, and whirl. How do you choose the best words for your stories?

MS: I really wanted the text for Under the Snow to be lyrical and one of the ways to achieve that is through careful word choice, including the strong, active verbs you’ve mentioned. Studies have shown that certain sounds and combinations of sounds are particularly pleasing to the human auditory system. That’s why a writer’s tool box includes devices like alliteration, repetition, and the occasional rhyme.

When it comes to word choice, one of the most talented science writers for kids in April Pulley Sayre. The text of books like Vulture View and Home at Last is truly magical. I think all students—and all writing teachers—should read and study her books closely.

Writing lyrical text takes a lot of time and effort and trial and error. I have heard Newbery-medalist Linda Sue Park say that writers shouldn’t be afraid to play. They should experiment, try writing the same scene or passage a few different ways. Then see which one works best. I agree with her.

For me, writing a lyrical picture book is what award-winning nature writer Diane Ackerman calls “deep play.” Athletes sometimes call it “being in the zone.” I can get completely lost in the process for hours.

On really good days, I sit down at my computer at 7:00 a.m., when my husband leaves for work. The next thing I know, it’s 2:00 p.m. and I never ate lunch. The reason I was pulled out of “the zone” is because my stomach is growling. These days don’t happen very often, so I treasure them when they do.

KN: Just like the animals and the children in your story, we’re getting ready for spring in New England. What will you do outside to celebrate spring’s arrival?

MS: My husband and I go hiking just about every weekend. One of the things I like the most about living in New England is seeing the seasonal changes in the natural world. Sometimes they happen so, so slowly. Sometimes they seem to catapult out of control.

My husband says it’s spring on March 1. But for me, spring doesn’t really start until I see the trees leaf out. That usually happens in mid to late April.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

MS: Kate, I really think this blog is a fantastic resource for educators. You always come up with creative, practical activities to accompany the books you feature. I feel privileged to be included. Thanks for all your hard work.

KN: Thanks Melissa! I feel the same way about your blog Celebrate Science and your books. Our principal, Sean O'Shea, has been posting blurbs from a study which demonstrated that it is more difficult for children to comprehend and analyze non-fiction texts than fiction texts. Your books are accessible, entertaining, and provide great information for your readers. Thanks again for the interview.

UNDER THE SNOW

2010-02-28T17:52:00.000-08:00

By Melissa Stewart
Publisher: Peachtree
ISBN 13: 978-1-56145-493-8

FROM THE FLAP: When snow falls, we love to sled and skate and have snowball fights. But at the end of the day, we go home where it is warm and safe. What about all those animals out there in the chilly winter weather? What do they do when snow blankets the ground?

Journey to fields, forests, ponds, and wetlands to see how animals survive. Watch as ladybugs crowd together in a gap in a stone wall and a chipmunk snoozes in its burrow. Take a side trip to the pond, where a carp rests quietly on the bottom and a frog nestles in the mud, scarcely breathing.

And then as winter passes and the sun’s rays grow stronger, join all animals as they get ready for spring.

Award-winning science writer Melissa Stewart offers a lyrical tour of a variety of habitats, providing young readers with vivid glimpses of animals as they live out the winter beneath the snow and ice. Constance Bergum’s glowing watercolors perfectly capture the wonder and the magic that can happen under the snow.

KATE'S TAKE: About this time of year I begin to fantasize about what's the underneath all the snow. Read UNDER THE SNOW to find out.

ANIMAL ANTICS (Bodily/Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

At the end of the book, the snow melts and the animals come out from underneath the snow. In a circle on the rug, invite children to physically impersonate one of the animals in the book, and ask the students to guess which animal the student is impersonating.

GUESS WHO? (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

Have students fill in the blanks to the following questions:

I live in a __________ (habitat).
I am (color) _________ and (color) ________.
When spring comes, I ________ (movement)
Who am I?

Then ask the other students to guess who each student is.

HABITAT POSTERS (Naturalist and Visual/Spatial)

Divide the class into four groups. Give each group a large poster and have each group illustrate one of the four different habitats mentioned in the book: wetlands, ponds, fields, and forests. Post one poster in each corner of the room.

HABITAT SORT (Naturalist and Bodily/Kinesthetic)

Assign each child an animal. Then ask all of the animals that live in each habitat to find the poster that represents their habitat. When they move to their habitat, they should move as their animal moves.

PUPPET PLAY (Visual/Spatial)

Gather a bunch of supplies such as socks, juice concentrate cans, margarine containers, and ask students to make a puppet representing one of the animals in the book.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Animal Camouflage in the Snow by Martha E. H. Rustad
-Animals in the Snow by Margaret Wise Brown
-Footprints in the Snow by Cynthia Benjamin
-Footprints in the Snow: Counting by Twos by Michael Dahl
-When Rain Falls by Melissa Stewart

ELEVEN BIRTHDAYS

2010-02-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

By Wendy Mass
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN-13: 978-0-545-05239-9

FROM THE FLAP: On their first birthday, they learned to walk. On their fifth, they planted seeds in homemade pots. On their tenth, they learned there are some words you can never take back.

Amanda’s eleventh birthday should have been a happy occasion. Instead she’s dressed in an itchy costume her mother picked out for her Hollywood-themed party (Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, even though the flying monkeys have always creeped her out). Meanwhile, across town, her ex-best friend Leo is celebrating their joint birthday with a huge bash including a hypnotist, a football star, a giant iguana, and a rock band. SO not fair!

Amanda can’t wait for the day AFTER her birthday so she can stop thinking about the fight that led her and Leo to have separate parties for the first time in their lives. There’s just one problem. The next day is her birthday all over again.

In this hilarious and touching adventure, Amanda must figure out how to get unstuck, in more ways than one.

KATE’S TAKE: This is Groundhog Day for eleven-year-olds. It’s a great way to lighten up the assessment-heavy spring.

ALL OVER AGAIN: (Verbal/Linguistic)

Ask students to create a character and a problem. Have the students write the scene three different times. Each time the character should change his or her action which will move the character toward the solution.

APPLE SEEDS: (Naturalist and Logical/Mathematical)

Have students plant apple seeds, take care of them, measure and record their weekly growth.

FORGIVENESS: (Verbal/Linguistic, Intrapersonal, and Interpersonal)

Amanda has to forgive Leo in order to move forward in time. Write about a problem you had with someone, and how you solved it.

RHYTHM SEQUENCES: (Musical and Bodily Kinesthetic)

Amanda longs to play drums in the marching band. Write a measure of music on the board. Put our four chairs to represent the 4 beats in 4/4 time and fill them with kids to represent the rhythm. For example, if you write out 1 quarter note, 1 half-note, and two eighth notes, you would have one child sit on the first chair representing the quarter note, the second child would cover the second and third chair representing the half note, and the last chair will have two kids on it to represent the eighth notes. Then, clap out the rhythm as a class. Special thanks to Scott Rossley for this fun and effective activity.

WHO AM I?: (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

Amanda has a Hollywood-themed character party. Ask students to write out three or four clues about a Hollywood character. Have them read their clues in front of the class, and see whether or not the other students are able to guess who they are.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Camille McPhee Fell Under the Bus by Kristen Tracy
-Extra Credit by Andrew Clements
-Fourth Grade Rats by Jerry Spinelli
-Mudshark by Gary Paulsen
-The Secret Language of Girls by Frances O’Roark Dowell

Interview With Unnameables Author, Ellen Booraem

2010-02-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

KN: On your website, http://www.ellenbooraem.com/evolution.html, you have a fantastic description of Medford and Goatman’s development from paintings into characters. However, there are many other outstanding characters in The Unnameables. What did you do to bring each character alive?

EB: When I’m starting a book, I have a form I fill out for important characters, asking questions about their hopes and fears, even what they have in their pockets.

When characters first appear in a rough draft, I let them speak and act for themselves, doing whatever is required of them to move the plot along. When I’m ready to delve deeper—later in the rough draft and certainly during the revisions—I open a new document for each important character and write a brief life story, including his or her fears and goals, and often a journal entry in that character’s voice. When I was writing THE UNNAMEABLES, I did this at least once for Earnest, Boyce, Essence, Twig, Clarity, Arvid, and Deemer—and repeatedly for Medford, Prudy, and the Goatman.

I had a separate document telling me what everyone looked like. For a few characters, I had other documents tracking their mood changes throughout the book—especially important for Earnest, Prudy, and Twig, whose intentions and activities were hidden until the end.

KN: What a fantastic answer! I'll have to use those techniques to strengthen my characters. Why did you choose to have the island stuck in the colonial period versus another historical era?

EB: As a purely practical matter, I needed the original settlers to take over a distant, empty island and then be ignored or forgotten long enough to figure out their needs and obsessions on their own. That wouldn’t have happened as easily with a later settlement, especially after transportation became easier and faster.

In my head (not stated in the book), the original settlers were disaffected members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They’d be adventuresome by nature—having uprooted themselves once to sail from England to Massachusetts, it wouldn’t faze them to do it again. It made sense to me that they would have tired of the religious and social restrictions in Massachusetts, and would have tried to find a place where they could live according to their utopian ideals. And of course they ended up creating a society that was even more restrictive than the one they’d left.

I drafted a sequel that offered an explanation of why the Islanders continued to be left alone to the modern day. That draft is pretty much dead now because of changes in the first book, but I hope to revive parts of it someday so I don’t want to give much away. If you look at the map in THE UNNAMEABLES, though, you can see that the shoals around Island make it inhospitable to the casual visitor.

KN: In addition to the tremendous amount of historical research to inform your language style in the book, what else did you do to make sure the character’s voices were consistent throughout the book?

EB: Every morning before I started to write, I would read a chapter of one of Jane Austen’s books, which were written in the early 1800s. That set me up for the narrator’s voice and the way Islanders talked when they weren’t using Book Talk. Before writing dialogue in Book Talk, I’d dip into Samuel Pepys’s diary, written in the mid-1600s, and maybe the King James Bible or some plays from the mid- to late 1600s.

To make sure I had individual characters’ voices right, I would occasionally break away and read the journal entries I’d written for them, or maybe write a line or two more in a journal. After a while, though, I had each character so firmly fixed in my mind that their voices came naturally to me.

These were great questions, a lot of fun to answer. Thanks so much for asking them!

KN: Thank you for answering them.

Interview with FACES OF THE MOON author, Bob Crelin

2010-02-17T03:59:00.000-08:00

KN: In FACES OF THE MOON you beautifully juxtapose scientific information with personification. Why did you decide to personify the moon? Was it because lunar phases sounds so similar to lunar faces?

BC: Granted, it’s not the traditional style for teaching about the Moon, however it is one that I have found very successful. I developed this book’s approach based on what excited and engaged young students when teaching them about astronomy. One of my central goals with FACES OF THE MOON was to help readers discover a connection, or relationship with Earth’s satellite world. Throughout our history and in the mythology of different cultures, the Moon was often referred to as a female entity. I love that, and it is why the Moon is a “she” in the book. Also, describing the changing “face” of the Moon in the book, the reader can relate to something familiar while being introduced to the scientific term “phase.” I believe to reach the reader/learner, it is best to meet them where they are, then guide them by the hand from there.

KN: I love how you included what time each moon rises and sets, because it’s necessary if one is going to try and observe the moon each day. Why did you decide to set this information apart from the poetry?

BC: Observing the actual Moon bridges what the reader learns in the book to the real world. Each rhyming stanza in FACES OF THE MOON tells you orbital, or visual aspects about a particular phase. I included the Moon phase rise/set times as an observer’s cross-reference, and not necessarily as part of the main text. What I find interesting is that this rise/set time aspect has not been commonly used in books about the Moon. It was my goal to relate to the Moon within the frame of our everyday lives as Earthlings. Simply by watching changes in the sunlit part of the Moon, and in its position in the sky, day or night, we learn that we’re actually witnessing the Moon moving in orbit around our planet.

KN: I read on your website that you started a grassroots movement in your community to cut down light pollution in your hometown. What tips do you have for readers who are looking to make a change within their communities?

BC: A big part of the problem is that not everybody knows what this is. So, first I’ll offer a brief explanation: “Light pollution” is the sky glow and intrusive glare caused by poorly directed and overdone outdoor lighting at night. Nowadays, it blots out much of our view of the starry skies, and can disrupt the nocturnal cycles of living things on Earth. Although unintentional, it is an unnecessary, harmful and wasteful side effect of our modern world. With a little bit of public education and awareness, it is not difficult to convince others of the benefits of using lighting more discreetly. The basic solutions are: 1. Use fully shielded outdoor lighting to direct light only where it is needed. This prevents glare, allowing your eyes to see better at night using less light. It also prevents light trespass from intruding into neighboring homes and natural areas. Shielding also prevents light from being cast upward into the sky, where it serves no purpose. And, 2. By using only the amount of light needed for the task, and by using it only when it is actually needed, we can also significantly reduce our energy use. To find out more, go here:
http://www.bobcrelin.com/author-main.html

KN: In addition to fascinating information about your grassroots movement, you have a fantastic video from La Serena, Chile which translates your book, into Spanish. I lived in Chile, and I’m wondering how you obtained that video?

BC: The students of Colegio Carlos Condell de la Haza in La Serena, Chile chose my first book, THERE ONCE WAS A SKY FULL OF STARS as their favorite from a collection of astronomy books that had been brought to them. As a school project, they proceeded to translate the book's text to Spanish, then hand-illustrated and hand-bound copies of the book in the new translation. They sent me a copy - it's great! In addition, the students created a video production of the translated book, and subsequently posted it on the web. When I first wrote this book’s manuscript in 1996, my goal was to spread the message far and wide about fixing the needless problem of light pollution. So far, so good!

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

BC: FACES OF THE MOON and my MOON GAZERS’ WHEEL invention were born from my popular, curriculum-based 5th grade classroom lesson/activity, that has been in use in the CT schools over the last 4 years. The complete guided lesson/lab is available as a free, downloadable PDF teacher's guide, designed for use with the book. The guide is available at a number of locations including here:
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/discussion-guide/printable/64143.html
Visit my web site to find out more: BobCrelin.com

KN: Thanks so much.

The Unnameables

2010-02-15T04:06:00.000-08:00

By Ellen Booream
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-15-206389

FROM THE FLAP: There was that feeling again, blowing through his brain like a spring morning.
The feeling scared him. It wasn’t real, wasn’t right, had no Name. He stifled it, tamped it down to a murmur, something he could control.
And then he acted on it. He ignored all the messages sent by the better part of his brain. Disgust, for example, because he’d promised himself he’d never do this again. Resignation, because he’d known he would. Terror, because someone might find out.
Joy, because he could do it at all.
They call him Raggedy, Plank Baby and Nameless because of his scraggly hair, the plank he was tied to when he washed up on the shore as an infant, and his meaningless last name. Nobody expects much from a foundling called Medford Runyuin.
On this neat, orderly, puritanical island, known simply as Island, where everything (and everyone) is named after its purpose, useful names are what count the most.
And Medford’s got a terrible secret. A secret he hides under his bed and everywhere else it will fit. A secret that even his best friend, Prudy Carpenter, doesn’t know. He just can’t risk telling her.
His secret is Unnameable.
Unnameable makes you get banished.
But a strange creature is about to arrive on Island. His first stop will be Medford’s house, where the secret will be out before Medford can blink twice.

KATE’S TAKE: If you want to promote creativity, challenging the status-quo, and staying true to one’s self, this novel is a must.

ISLAND LIFE SNIPPETS (Interpersonal, Verbal/Linguistic)

With a partner, ask students to write a new scene with dialogue that could occur on Island.
Have students act out their scenes in front of the class.

NATURALIST SKETCHES (Naturalist, Visual/Spatial)

Nature inspires Medford’s carvings. At the end of the book, the townspeople discover that one of the Island’s most respected families, the Learned’s, have an ancestor who sketched. Take students outside and ask them to sketch a natural object of their choosing.

SOCIETIES STUCK IN TIME (Verbal/Linguistic)

Island is stuck in Puritanical times. Ask students to research a different historical era, and write a story about an Island stuck in that time with those values.

STRANGE WINDS (Bodily/Kinesthetic)

Goatman brings uncontrollable winds to the island with the touch of his finger. Ask students to spread out around the room and pretend they are trees. They can grow from a seed to a tall tree. Then, have the leader act out the tree’s movements during one of Goatman’s winds.

UNNAMEABLE SCULPTURES (Bodily/Kinesthetic and Visual/Spatial)

Turns out at the end of the novel, that righteous Prudy’s mother, also has an unnameable passion. She sculpts. Give students clay or model magic to sculpt an object. Further the “useless” fun by letting them paint the dried sculptures.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass
-Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
-Steal Away Home by Lois Ruby
-The Giver by Lois Lowry
-When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

COLD PAWS, WARM HEART

2010-02-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

By Madeleine Floyd
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0-7636-2761-5

FROM THE FLAP: Far away in the land of cold and ice lives Cold Paws, a lonely polar bear. With only his silver flute for company, Cold Paws shivers and wonders why he always feels cold inside. But when young Hannah from the nearby village makes friends with him, that chilly feeling inside Cold Paws begins to melt away.

KATE'S TAKE: A fun book just in time for Valentine's Day.

A SPECIAL GIFT (Verbal/linguistic, Visual/Spatial and Interpersonal)

Hannah gives Cold Paws material gifts, hugs, and the gift of her time. Ask students to draw a picture of a material gift or a gift of time they received from a friend or loved one. Have them write about their picture and share it with the class.

GLOWING HEARTS (Visual/Spatial)

Obtain a glow stick bracelet for each student. Ask each pupil to cut out a large, medium and small heart. On the large heart, have students write: You make my heart glow. Tape the large heart to the middle of the glow stick. Tape the small heart at one tip of the glow stick, tip pointing away from the stick. Tape the large heart to the top of the glow stick pointing down the stick. Have students exchange their arrows with other students and wear their bracelets for the rest of the day. Special thanks to FAMILY FUN for this activity. http://familyfun.go.com/valentines-day/valentines-day-cards/best-valentines-day-cards-834796/#Hearts%20Aglow;4

MY BODY’S PUMP (Musical and Naturalist)

To the tune of Bingo have students sing “My body has a pump and heart is its name-o. H-E-A-R-T and heart is its name-o.” Students clap each time they say a letter name. On each consecutive verse, they don’t name one of the letters. So, the second time through it will be CLAP-E-A-R-T. Repeat until students are clapping each letter name instead of singing it.

PATTERNED SCARVES (Logical/Mathematical and Visual/Spatial)

Hannah gives Cold Paws her striped scarf to keep him warm. Have students make a patterned scarf out of construction paper. Hang the scarves around the room to keep everyone warm.

WARM UPS (Kinesthetic)

Hannah teaches Cold Paws jumping jacks. As a group give students a chance to suggest a warm-up activity for the class. Count out loud and perform the exercises together.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-A Bear for All Seasons by Diane Marcial Fuchs
-A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker
-Bear’s New Friend by Karma Wilson
-How Does Your Heart Work? (Rookie Read-About Health) by Don L. Curry, Jane Waddell and Jeanne Clidas
-The Lonely Moose by John Segal

Interview with Dina Friedman, author of Escaping into the Night

2010-02-04T17:37:00.000-08:00

KN: Halina is a vivid character. What did you do as an author to get to know her?

DF: That's a really interesting question that no one has asked me before. I don't have a methodical process for getting to know characters, and I think I get to know them the same way I get to know my friends--by listening deeply to them as I consider the situations they are in. Of course, with Halina, I did have to do a lot of historical research about the time period as well as life in the ghetto and the forests to understand the type of life she was living.

KN: I’m fascinated by the ziemlankas. Could you please tell us as much as you can about their construction?

DF: Construction is not my forte, but this is what I understand. They dug holes in the ground, then lined them with logs to keep the dirt from falling in. They camoflauged the entrance with leaves. Inside there were shelves, which served as beds, as well as room to put a woodstove for heating. You can find a picture of them and more information on the website of the Jewish Partisan's foundation. www.jewishpartisans.org

KN: Music plays an integral role in the book from Halina’s singing to Eli’s violin playing. How and why did you decide to have music be such an important part of the book?

DF: I can't seem to get away from music; it's such an integral part of my life. Almost all the books I've written feature music in some way or other. This may be because I grew up in a music family. Two of my grandparents, as well as several great aunts and uncles were professional musicians; my parents both went to the High School of Music and Art. I sing in a chorus, and have played piano, guitar and carillon. My two children (ages 22 and 17) have been serious music students their whole lives. But in addition to that, I believe that engaging in creative arts plays a huge role in sustaining morale in times of crisis, whether that be music, dance, visual art, or some variation thereof. I think that the use of music in Escaping Into the Night played a huge role in giving both Halina and Eli the hope and strength they needed to survive.

KN: In the book the Russian Army welcomes Halina and the other Jewish refugees. Was this typical? Did the refugees continue living in the forest under the protection of the Russian Army?

DF: The relationships between the Jewish refugees and the Russian Army weren't 100% smooth, but many deals were struck that guaranteed protection in return for weapons and services.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

DF: You can find more information about the book on my web site: www.ddinafriedman.com, which includes programs I offer, as well as classroom resources and a discussion guide. You can also find more information about the forest communities at www.jewishpartisans.org.

KN: Thank you for writing this stunning book and for taking the time to do the interview.

DF: You're welcome, Kate. Thanks for taking the time to review it and feature it on your blog.

FACES OF THE MOON

2010-01-31T15:39:00.000-08:00

By Bob Crelin
Publisher: Charlesbridge
ISBN: 978-1-57091-785-1

FROM THE FLAP: Do you wonder, when you see the Moon, at dusk, or dawn, or midday noon, just why her face is curved or round, or why she sometimes can’t be found?

From night to night the Moon seems to change. She grows or shrinks, or sometimes even disappears. What causes this transformation? The answer is as simple as the play of light and shadow, and as grand as the dance of the Earth and Moon in space. Open this book, turn the pages, and watch the Moon change.

KATE’S TAKE: If your science standards require you to teach the lunar phases, don’t miss this book!

ASTRONAUT BIOGRAPHIES: (Verbal/Linguistic)

Write a report on one of the astronauts who reached the moon.

LUNAR PHASES: (Visual/Spatial and Kinesthetic)

Set a lamp up on a stage and remove the lampshade. Divide the class in half and give each of the students in one half of the class an orange. Have them hold the orange out in front of them and rotate their bodies until the orange’s surface is completely shadowed (new moon). Then ask them to slowly rotate. This will allow them to see all of the lunar phases on their orange.

MOON MATH: (Logical/Mathematical)

Find out how far away the moon is from the earth. Calculate how long it would take to get there using common modes of transportation such as cars and airplanes. Calculate the average speed of space shuttles based on how long it takes them to fly from the Earth to the Moon.

MOON PAINTINGS: (Visual/Spatial and Verbal/Linguistic)
Assign students a lunar phase. Give them contact paper and ask them to trace and cut out that shape. Place the cut-out on a 8.5 by 11(landscape format) piece of white paper. Draw a landscape with oil crayons. Paint over the landscape and the horizon with water paints. After the paint dries, remove the contact paper. Ask students to label the painting with the appropriate lunar phase stanza from the book. Special thanks to Jane Lattimore for this activity.

MOON ROUND ROBIN: (Interpersonal)
Ask students to sit in a circle. Have one student name the first phase of the moon (new moon.). The next student names the next phase of the moon (first quarter). Repeat until you’ve gotten all the way around the circle without any mistakes. Special thanks to Holly Berry for this activity.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone
-Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts by Robert Jacobs
-Mission Control, This is Apollo: The Story of the First Voyages to the Moon by Andrew Chaikin
-Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca
-The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins by Bea Uusma Schyffert

Author Interview with Michelle Markel

2010-01-27T01:44:00.000-08:00

KN: Thanks so much for joining us. TYRANNOSAURUS MATH is the first math picture book I’ve come across that deals with fifteen different math concepts. I know you started making up dinosaur word problems in the classroom. Did you have all of these word problems made up before you wrote the story, or did you work to incorporate new problems as you wrote the story?

MM: I knew beforehand that I wanted to incorporate many second grade math skills. I made the word problems after researching T-rexes and the Cretaceous Era environment. If you look at detailed pictures in non-fiction books- the plants and animals in this case- it's easy to come up with ideas for math problems.

KN: T-Math seems like a fun guy to be around as long as you’re not a plant-eater. What did you do to make T-Math a well-rounded character?

MM: T-Math wants to use and show off his skills (somewhat obsessively!) , he's competitive with his siblings but loves them, he has desires and frustrations. These are all human qualities. The character developed in the process of writing the story.

KN: In addition to being a great book to use for a math lesson, T-Math has to figure out to rescue his sister which means it’s also useful to illustrate character, problem, and solution. Did you think about other problems and solutions, or did you always know what the main problem and solution would be?

MM: In the original manuscript, the climactic moment came when the main character was threatened by a menacing T-rex. The editor asked me to explore other sources of conflict that would be more appropriate for a younger audience. So I explored dramatic possibilities with sibling rivalry, which was already a part of the narrative.

KN: Have any of your other books originated from your time in the elementary classroom?

MM: I wrote a book called "The Shark That Taught Me English" that is part of a literacy program. The main character is an immigrant girl from Mexico who struggles to learn English. Many of the student's I've worked with over the years have been immigrants from Central America.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

MM: In writing this book, I learned how easy it is to have FUN with word problems. I've posted several lessons on my blog, The Cat & The Fiddle.http://michellemarkel.blogspot.com/
There are lessons using holidays, fantasy, and history. I'd love to see what your students or children come up with!

KN: Thank you for the interview.

ESCAPING INTO THE NIGHT

2010-01-24T03:26:00.000-08:00

By D. Dina Friedman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-0258-4

FROM THE FLAP: Halina Rudowski is on the run. When the Polish ghetto where she lives is evacuated, she narrowly escapes, but her mother is not as lucky. Along with her friend Batya, Halina makes her way to a secret encampment in the woods where the Jews survive by living underground. As the group struggles for food, handles infighting, and attempts to protect themselves from the advancing Germans, Halina must face the reality of life without her mother.

Based on historical events, this gripping tale sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: the underground forest encampments that saved several thousand Jews from the Nazis. In telling the story of one girl’s survival, Escaping into the Night marks the arrival of a remarkable new voice in fiction.

KATE’S TAKE: If you teach the Holocaust, don’t miss this book.

CHARACTER CONNECTION: (Verbal/Linguistic and Intrapersonal) Heroic characters fill this book from start to finish. Ask students to write a five paragraph essay about the character they most resemble and to support it with details from the text.

MUSIC MATTERS:(Musical)Music kept Halina’s hope alive. In groups, ask students to research Jewish music. Give them a choice or writing a report about a Jewish magician or singing or playing a piece of music. This website is a great place to start researching: http://www.jmwc.org/Women/womenf.html

STONE SORT: (Naturalist) Halina has a lucky rock, and she collects and sorts rocks throughout the book. If possible, take a walk outside and gather rocks. If not, bring in rocks for the class to sort. Ask students to sort them into three categories: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. If there’s time, have them name each rock using the charts from this site as a guide: http://geology.about.com/library/bl/blrockident_tables.htm

SWAMP CROSS: (Kinesthetic/Interpersonal) Halina and her friends have to cross through the swamp to escape the German soldiers. Using a rope, they each link themselves to another person in their party to make sure they don’t sink into the mud. Break the class into groups of five students and give each group three hula hoops and a long piece of rope. Tell them they need to get from one point to another, cross the swamp, by stepping into the hula hoops. They must always hold onto the rope as they pick up the hula hoops and pass them forward. Hula hoops may not be dragged on the floor, they may only be lifted. If someone steps onto the floor outside of the hula hoop, the group must go back to the start line. Special thanks to Matt Ettinger for this activity.

ZIEMLANKA DIORAMAS: (Visual/Spatial)

Ask students to build ziemlanka, forest shelter, dioramas. Make sure to camouflage the outside of the box just as the Jewish forest encampments camouflaged their ziemlankas.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
-Run, Boy, Run by Uri Orlev
-Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust by Allan Zullo
-The Seamstress by Sara Tuvel Bernstein
-The World Centre for Jewish Music in Palestine, 1936-1940: Jewish Musical Life on the Eve of World War II by Philip V. Bohlman

TYRANNOSAURUS MATH

2010-01-17T18:42:00.000-08:00

By Michelle Markel
Publisher: Tricycle Press
ISBN-13: 978-1582462820

FROM THE FLAP: Who can add an entire herd of triceratops, multiply the legs of a group of ankylosaurs, and estimate the distance to the next tasty meal? TYRANNOSAURUS MATH!

He’s a number-crunching dinosaur who chews on math problems as easily as he thunders through the trees. When his little sister is in terrible danger, T-Math even saves the day by using his measurable math skills. Is there anything he can’t figure?

A T-REX NAMED SUE SING-A-LONG ( Musical)

The CD A T-REX NAMED SUE has many fun fact-filled songs about dinosaurs. One of the songs even includes dance moves.

LEAF SYMMETRY (Naturalist, Visual/Spatial)

Have students do leaf rubbings and cut them out. Then ask students to fold the leaf in half on the line of symmetry.

MATH NUMBER STORIES (Logical/Mathematical, Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial)

Ask students to write and illustrate one of their own math number stories just as author Michelle Markel does throughout her marvelous book.

NATURALIST ARRAYS (Naturalist, Visual/Spatial, Logical/Mathematical)

Take a walk outside and ask students to collect leaves and rocks. In the classroom, have them arrange their objects into different types of arrays.

HALLWAY ESTIMATES (Logical/Mathematical and Kinesthetic)

Have students measure their feet. Then ask students to estimate how many steps (heel-to-toe) that they’ll have to take to reach the end of the hallway. Challenge them to stay on one column of floor tiles from the beginning of the hallway to the end.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-A Dinosaur Named Sue: The Find Of The Century by Fay Robinson
-Dinosaur Deals (MathStart 3) by Stuart J. Murphy
-How Big Is A Foot by Rolf Myller
-The Grapes Of Math by Greg Tang
-Zero Is The Leaves On A Tree by Betsy Franco

CLAUDETTE COLVIN TWICE TOWARD JUSTICE

2010-01-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

By Phillip Hoose
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
ISBN-13: 978-0-374-31322-7

FROM THE FLAP: “When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can’t sugarcoat it. You just have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.’”- Claudette Colvin

On March 2, 1955, a slim, bespectacled teenager refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Shouting “It’s my constitutional right!” as police dragged her off to jail. Claudette Colvin decided she’d had enough of the Jim Crow segregation laws that had angered her and puzzled her since she was a young child.

But instead of being celebrated, as Rosa Parks would be when she took the same stand nine months later, Claudette found herself shunned by many of her classmates and dismissed as an unfit role model by the black leaders of Montgomery. Undaunted, she put her life in danger a year later when she dared to challenge segregation yet again, as one of four plaintiffs in the landmark busing case Browder vs. Gayle.

Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of a major, yet little-known, civil rights figure whose story provides a fresh perspective on the Montgomery bus protest of 1955-56. Historic figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks play important roles, but center stage belongs to the brave girl whose two acts of courage were to affect the course of American history.

BALANCED BUDGET (Verbal/Linguistic and Interpersonal)

Claudette Colvin stood up for a cause. Research your state’s financial budget. Write a letter to your state governor expressing your support for a line item or criticizing an area that lacks funding.

BUS BOYCOTT MATH

The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days. If you had to walk to and from school for 381 days, how many miles would you walk? How about if you only had to walk to school for an academic year, 180 days, how many miles would you walk?

CHARITY WALK (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

As a class research three charities. Interview someone from each charity and vote on which one the class would like to support. Organize a school walk to support that charity.

FAMILY MEMBER TIMELINE (Visual/Spatial, Interpersonal, Verbal/Linguistic)

Interview a family member about his or her life. Make a timeline of his or her life that includes at least eight facts. Use photographs to highlight the events of his or her life.

TWICE TOWARD JUSTICE DIORAMAS (Visual/Spatial)

Create a diorama of one of the historical scenes in the book. Write a short summary of the scene to top off your diorama.

BOOK BUDDIES

-Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don’t Grow Weary by Elizabeth Partridge
-Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
-The Rock and The River by Kekla Magoon
-The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis
-We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History by Phillip Hoose

Interview with Loren Long

2010-01-08T02:45:00.000-08:00

KN: Thanks so much for letting me interview you. I love the fact that the main character of this book, Otis, is a tractor. On your website there’s a great video of you riding a tractor. As a child, did you have a special attachment to a tractor or long to read a book about a tractor?

LL: Of course as a little boy, anything that has wheels and moves is attractive...tricycle, bicycle, skateboard, roller skates, motorcycle, go cart, cars, trucks, planes and yes... tractors. I've always liked tractors...especially the old ones that just seem like a large farm animal in a way. A tractor's shape is different than a truck or a car. It is slim and other than it's wheels, it stands there like a metal horse. And I like to think of them as dinosaurs roaming the farm. Ancient in a way (at least the old ones) but these "dinosaurs" have never really become extinct. A great number of the old tractors are still useful to the farmer and still have a place as a viable farm implement. I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky surrounded by beautiful horse farms. I never lived on a farm but I worked on a horse farm during the summers while going to college in Lexington and the University of Kentucky. It was then while working on the horse farm as a college kid, that I got to drive a tractor for the first time. And it was one of the old ones that they just used to pull wagons from here to there or to pull a wagon while we were bailing hay.

Certainly, all of the above, inspired and informed my interest in creating Otis.

KN: The primary colors pop out of the monochromatic background. Why did you choose red for Otis instead of yellow or blue?

LL: I ended up using red for Otis after experimenting with a combination of many other colors. I don't always go to this extreme while planning my artwork, but for a character like Otis, I knew his colors would be very important to his overall personality. I tried a lot of colors that I felt had a vintage feel...like a light pale blue or a light aquamarine bluish green color. I tried all cream and all red and then I thought the two toned solution looked neat (sometimes it comes down to what simply looks "neat"). I wanted Otis to have an identity all his own so I tried to keep him different and unique from tractors of today.

KN: The tender friendship between Otis and The Little Calf makes this book a joy to read, yet both characters are at different stages in their lives. Is the friendship in the book inspired by a personal relationship?

LL: I wanted to focus on that tender friendship between the two characters but did not specifically attempt to make a statement about age or even gender. The theme of age is apparent as Otis gets replaced by a newer, larger tractor. Otis proves his value in many different ways...not only as a worker on the farm but as a valued friend to the farm in general and especially to that little calf, who does not care if Otis is a tractor or a different species of any kind. Otis is a warm, unassuming friend.

KN: The whimsical scenes of Otis and The Little Calf are not only fun, they foreshadow the solution to the problem. Did you know from the beginning how Otis would solve the problem or did the solution become obvious as the story moved along?

LL: Thanks, those scenes are certainly meant for fun. And they also help to establish the friendship and bond between Otis and the little calf. And yes, they set up the unique way Otis saves the day. I did not know how Otis would solve the problem until I got into writing the story and it became evident to me that I needed that unique solution to set Otis apart as the hero. It was at that point, that I added the "ring-around-the rosie" game.

KN: Is there anything else you’d like to share with us?

LL: I'd like everyone to notice that Otis is a friendly tractor to everyone. He likes to play...but he also likes to work!

KN: Thanks again for your time. I really appreciate it.

LL: Thank you. All the best.

KN: Teachers check out Loren Long’s website at www.lorenlong.com for great OTIS worksheets.

OTIS

2010-01-03T15:58:00.000-08:00

By Loren Long
Publisher: Philomel Books
978-0-399-25248-8

FROM THE FLAP: Otis is a special tractor. He loves his farm and farmer. He particularly loves the little calf in the next stall, whom he purrs to sleep with his soft motor. The two become great friends, romping in the fields, leaping bales of hay and playing ring-around-the rosy by Mud Pond.

But when the big yellow tractor comes to the farm and replaces Otis, he is cast away to rust behind the barn until the little calf gets stuck in Mud Pond. Then there is only one tractor(and it’s not big or yellow) who saves the day. It’s little Otis!

Artist Loren Long has created an unforgettable story and a truly unforgettable character.

CHARACTER SEQUENCE (Verbal/Linguistic)

Assign students the character roles of Otis, the little calf, the farmhands, the yellow tractor, the fire chief, and the fire truck. It is helpful if you have signs with a picture of each character to give to the students. Ask the students to tell you what little calf’s problem is. Have the little calf stand in the "mud." Ask who came first to help the calf? Then, have the farmhands stand next to the calf. Repeat the activity until you reach Otis. If you repeat the activity once or twice, every student will get at least one turn.

MIRROR MOVEMENT (Kinesthetic and Interpersonal)

This activity builds student confidence, strengthens community, and helps get rid of the jitters. Better yet you can do it during transition time. The little calf mirrors Otis’s movements. Ask one of your students to pretend to be Otis. This student will move a part of his or her body and all of the other students will mirror his or her movement. Switch leaders often.

PERSONIFICATION ART (Visual/Spatial)

Loren Long highlights his personified character by juxtaposing primary colors with a monochromatic background. Give students brown, black, or gray construction paper and white chalk. Ask the children to draw a landscape with white chalk. Then, they can choose a primary chalk color and personify a vehicle. Check out the Book Buddies section for more books with personified vehicles.

ROPE TUG MATH (Logical/Mathematical)

Gather students on the rug and give each student a whiteboard or clipboard to record addition problems. Tie a long rope onto a large object and tell the kids to pretend the object is the calf. Have a small number of students/farmhands come and hold the rope. Then ask more students to come and hold the rope. How many students tried to pull the calf out of Mud Pond? If you’re working on subtraction, start with the larger number or students and have some of them leave the scene.

TRACTOR SONGS (Musical)

Check out the book John Deere: Crazy About Tractors Songs and sing them with your class. This url lets you listen to song previews: http://www.amazon.com/John-Deere-Crazy-About-Tractor/dp/B002LB6EMY

BOOK BUDDIES

-John Deere: Crazy About Tractors Songs by John Deere
-Dinotrux by Chris Gall
-I’m Dirty by Kate and Jim McMullan
-I Stink by Kate and Jim McMullan
-The Three Little Rigs by David Gordon

Interview with Jacqueline Kelly, author of The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

2009-12-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

KN: Grandfather’s library feels so real that as a reader, I feel as if I’m there. How did you create this incredible setting?

JK: What an interesting question, I haven't been asked that before. I filled his library with all sorts of weird and wonderful things that would have enchanted me as a child. I still find objects like that irresistible. The bottled beast comes from seeing an actual sample that Darwin had collected in a museum in Cambridge, England. The specimen was fairly distorted by that time, but what really thrilled me was a small hand-written tag that Darwin had affixed to the bottle. Seeing his own hand writing made it really come alive for me.

KN: Callie’s voice is exquisite. What did you do to make sure she sounded like a girl who lived in 1899, not 2009?

JK: Since writing a hundred years ago was more formal, I figured that speech had to be more formal then as well. I tried to give her an educated, formal sound for a girl of her age. No slang, and no modern words. I'm glad you think I succeeded.

KN: I learned about Texas ’s insects, plants and animals from reading the entries in Callie’s naturalist notebook? Do you keep a naturalist notebook, and if you do, for how long have you done so?

JK: I myself keep a writing notebook, not a naturalist notebook. But a lot of the story came from me sitting quietly on a cushion on the front porch early in the morning and just waiting for the birds and animals to come visit. The biggest shock was when a tiny mole came around the corner of the house one day, only about four feet away. I'd never seen a mole before, and we just looked at each other for a moment (or, rather, it squinted at me since they have terrible eyesight) before it scuttled away.

KN: Callie and grandfather’s relationship is rich and detailed. Were you close to a grandparent at Callie’s age?

JK: One of my grandfather's died before I was born, and I grew up on the other side of the world from my other grandfather, only seeing him a handful of times as a teen and adult. Since I essentially had no grandfather in my life, I had to create the one that I wanted.

KN: Is there anything else that you would like to share with us?

JK: I'm truly delighted by the response the book has received. It's been a great treat and a pleasure to meet fans of my girl!

KN: Thanks for the interview. If you want to check out a curriculum guide for this book click on http://katenarita.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

The Day-Glo Brothers

2009-12-13T11:13:00.000-08:00

By Chris Barton
Publisher: Charlesbridge
ISBN 978-1-57091-673-1

FROM THE FLAP: An illuminating tale. Why did you pick up this book? Did it have something to do with the eye-popping colors on the cover?

You can thank Bob and Joe Switzer for those shocking greens, blazing oranges, and screaming yellows. The brothers invented a whole new kind of color, one that glowed with an extra-special intensity. It took them years of experimenting, but their efforts paid off brilliantly. Day-Glo colors helped win a war, save people’s lives, and brighten everyday life, including this book.

BIOLUMINESCENCE IN NATURE (Naturalist, Verbal/Linguistic)

The Switzer brothers developed fluorescent paints, but glow-in-the-dark sea animals, plants, and insects have been around much longer than Day-Glo paints. Ask students to write a paragraph about a fluorescent plant or animal. The first two links below have information for kids and the last one is a teacher’s guide about bioluminescent organisms.

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0309/articles/mainarticle.html
http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Stories/SpaceScience/Monstersquid
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0810/ax/pa_teachersguide.pdf

FABRIC SWATCH EXPERIMENTS (Naturalist)

Gather up different types of white fabric swatches such as silk, cotton, polyester, nylon, and satin. As a class, predict which fabric will best take the dye. Make sure that each group of student dyes the fabric for the same amount of time, otherwise you’ll have more than one variable. Give each group of students a bucket, dye and a fabric swatch. After the swatches dry, hang them up from lightest to darkest. Which fabric worked best?

POP ART (Visual/Spatial)

Andy Warhol used Day-Glo paints. Ask students to pick a famous cultural object or person and create a symmetrical portrayal of their chosen object or person. Students can fold their papers into halves, thirds, or fourths to demarcate each block of space. After students have drawn their symmetrical objects, give them Day-Glo paint for the finishing touches. Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans, Marilyn Monroe, and Four Monkeys illustrate symmetry.

SWITZER BROTHER TIMELINES (Visual/Spatial, Logical/Mathematical)

Use the dates and facts in the book to create a Switzer Brother Timeline. This is a fun and easy way to summarize the information in the book.

THE CAN-CAN DANCE (Bodily/Kinesthetic, Interpersonal)

A theater bought Day-Glo costumes that made their chorus girls look like dancing skeletons. Break the class into groups of five or six and ask them to do the Can-Can dance. Start off by asking each group to do it for a minute. Then, increase the time in one minute intervals to see which group can keep up the aerobic activity for the longest amount of time.

Book Buddies:

-Andy Warhol by Mike Venezia
-Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women- Inventors by Glenn Murphy
-So You Want To Be An Inventor? By Judith St. George
-Stopping Bullets with a Thread: Stephanie Kwolek and Her Incredible Invention (Genius at Work! Great Inventor Biographies) by Edwin Brit Wyckoff
-TV’s Forgotten Hero: The Story of Philo Farnsworth (Trailblazer Biographies) by Stephanie Sammartino McPherson

Edublog Awards

2009-12-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

Behind the Books: Edublog Awards

Tomorrow is the deadline for this year’s Edublog Awards --http://edublogawards.com/-- nominations, so while I still have time, here are my choices. Each of my picks features sites that can enrich your classroom. Enjoy!

Best Individual Blog: Celebrate Science http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/
Melissa Stewart is the award winning author of more than 100 non-fiction books for children, and her posts are perfect for science centers and any teacher who is trying to implement naturalist notebooks into their weekly routine. For science centers, check out her Fun Friday posts which include science-based word searches, gross and goofy body facts, Readers Theater scripts, and contests. For naturalist notebooks, have your students read her Monday posts about the maple tree in her yard. It’s full of fascinating scientific information, and will help your students learn to be more observant of the natural world around them.

Best Group Blog: I.N.K. (Interesting Nonfiction for Kids) http://www.inkrethink.blogspot.com/ If you’re looking for books for your elementary science and social studies centers, this is the blog to check out. Twenty-two award-winning children’s non-fiction authors post about all aspects of their writing and research. Make sure to click on the Ink Think Tank link. The Ink Think Tank connects books from each of the authors to curriculum standards. This is an invaluable source of information for educators.

Best New Blog: Celebrate Science http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/
You don’t want to miss out on this one! Check out the explanation above to see how this blog will help you celebrate science in your classroom.

Best Teacher Blog: Kate’s Book Blog http://kmessner.livejournal.com/
Kate Messner is a middle school English teacher and the author of three fantastic books (with more on the way). She does an amazing job of integrating technology and education to enrich her creative writing courses. If you’d like to find out how to use Skype to bring authors into your classroom, or want tips on how to help students develop setting, character, and conflicts in their work, browse Ms. Messner’s site.

Next year I hope to be able to nominate an elementary math blog! If you find a great one, let me know. In the meantime, here's a great math website with lots of great games to enrich your classroom: http://www.math-lessons.ca/index.html

WAITING FOR WINTER

2009-12-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

By Sebastian Meschenmoser
Publisher: Kane Miller
ISBN 978-1-935279-01-4

FROM THE FLAP: Deer has told squirrel how wonderful snow is, so Squirrel sits outside and waits for winter. He waits, and he waits, and he waits. It’s boring.

All his not-so-patient waiting has woken Hedgehog, who decides he’d like to see it snow too. They wait, and they wait, and they wait. And it’s still boring, even when there are two of you. Maybe singing will help to pass the time?

All the not-so-patient waiting and the not-so-quiet singing has woken Bear. He’ll have to help Squirrel and Hedgehog find the snow if he wants to get any sleep this winter. Deer said it was white and wet and cold and soft. How hard could it be to find something like that?

Well, maybe harder than he thinks.

GARBAGE DAY (Naturalist)

Give the kids plastic, disposable gloves and garbage bags, and take them for a walk outside. Have them pick up any litter or garbage they see. Not only does it make their immediate surroundings cleaner, but it keeps the trash from traveling elsewhere. Read Tracking Trash by Loree Griffin Burns for more information.

SNOWMEN RETELLINGS (Verbal/Linguistic)

Have each child cut out two symmetrical snowmen. Then, ask them to put glue on one vertical half of the snowman and stick the other snowman on top. Fold back the two halves without glue. The snowman should have three sides and be able to stand up on its own. On one side have students write about the beginning of the story, on the next side have students write about the middle of the story, and on the last side have students write about the end of the story.

SNOW LANDSCAPES (Visual/Spatial)

Give students an 8x11 piece of black or blue construction paper and a piece of white chalk. Have them draw snowdrifts on the bottom of the paper. Then, give them sheets of white paper to tear, clear beads, snippets of white ribbon, and foam snowflakes for the falling snow.

SNOW SONGS (Musical)

Squirrel sings to pass the time. Welcome winter with these snow songs available at http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/ice/ice_songs.htm and http://www.songs4teachers.com/snow.pdf

SQUIRREL TAG (Bodily Kinesthetic)

Each child starts off as a squirrel. Have two squirrels be it. When they tag a student, the child becomes a tree, a base for the other squirrels that have yet to be tagged. Time how long it takes for the pair of squirrels to tag ten students and repeat.

BOOK BUDDIES

-Snow by Uri Shulevitz
-Snowball by Nina Crews
-Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
-Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion by Loree Griffin Burns
-Under the Snow by Melissa Stewart

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

2009-11-29T19:28:00.000-08:00

By Jacqueline Kelly
Publisher: Holt
ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-8841-0

FROM THE FLAP: The summer of 1899 is hot in Calpurnia’s sleepy Texas town,and there aren’t a lot of good ways to stay cool. Her mother has a new wind machine from town, but Callie might just have to resort to stealthily cutting off her hair, one sneaky inch at a time. She also spends a lot of time at the river with her notoriously cantankerous grandfather, an avid naturalist. It turns out that every drop of river water is teeming with life, all you have to do is look through a microscope.

As Callie explores the natural world around her, she develops a close relationship with her grandfather, navigates the dangers of living with six brothers, and learns just what it means to be a girl at the turn of the century.

Debut author Jacqueline Kelly deftly brings Callie and her family to life, capturing an unusual year with unique sensitivity and wit.

BIRD FEEDERS (Visual/Spatial)

Callie feeds the birds in her yard. Have students make bird feeders. If you want a simple fast activity, give the students string and donut-shaped cereal. Make a cereal necklace and hang outside for the birds. For a more complex activity, use milk or juice cartons. Here’s a good link to check out for more detailed information: http://www.crafty-moms.com/make-bird-feeders.shtml

CLASS AWARD (Interpersonal)

Make a class award that will be passed on from one student to another each week just like Callie’s family had a FENTRESS FIREFLY PRIZE. The award could be for using a “wow” word in writing, an impressive open response math explanation, or any concept you’re trying to teach.

EGG TOSS (Bodily Kinesthetic)

Callie’s grandfather doesn’t want to damage specimens when he collects them. Divide the class into teams of four for a relay race. Each team member has to carry an egg on a spoon to the finish line and back without the egg breaking.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (Verbal/Linguistic)

When Callie writes to the local newspaper, not only does the newspaper write back, but they begin to include the temperature in the shade. Read your local paper and write a letter to them praising one of their articles or suggest a change that would improve the paper.

MICROSCOPE OBSERVATIONS (Naturalist)

Collect samples from different water sources: lake, pond, river, marsh, swamp or ocean and look at each underneath a microscope. Record your observations. Using the results you’ve found, design a science experiment and use the scientific method to test your hypothesis.

NATURALIST NOTEBOOKS (Visual/Spatial and Naturalist)

Once a week take the class outside to sketch something in their natural environments. If you’re in a rural area, opportunities abound, but even in an urban area there are different options. Check out this blog post http://celebratescience.blogspot.com/2009/11/good-morning-maple_23.html for photos and observations of Maple trees. Don't forget about the sky and the different types of clouds, too.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Darwin and Evolution for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities by Kristan Lawson
-Fire in the Hole by Mary Cronk Farrell
-How Do You Know It’s True?: Discovering the Difference Between Science and Superstition by Hyman Ruchlis
-Keeper of the Doves by Betsy Byars
-My Name is America: The Journal of Fin Reardon A Newsie by Susan Bartoletti

Interview with The Circus Ship author and illustrator, Chris Van Dusen

2009-11-25T19:15:00.001-08:00

KN: Why did you choose to write The Circus Ship in rhyme?

Chris Van Dusen: I wrote The Circus Ship in rhyme because I wanted to the tone to be light-hearted. As you know, the story is loosely based on a terribly tragic event, so to distance my story even more from it's horrible past, I thought rhyme would be a good choice. I was also thinking about sea shanties and other historic events that are told in long rhyming poems, and I hoped to capture a little of that feeling, too.

KN: Why did you decide to make Tiger the hero of the story?

Chris Van Dusen: The tiger's rescue, to me, is the link that brings the whole story together. Not only does he save the day, but this is the first time the people see that these animals are special. I chose the tiger because his circus talent is jumping through fire. He HAD to be the one to rescue little Emma Rose!

KN: You did a great job camouflaging the animals. Were some of the animals harder to hide than others?

Chris Van Dusen: It wasn't too hard finding ways to hide the animals, in fact it was really fun. I wanted to mix it up though. In other words, I didn't want all the animals dressed as people. I also wanted to make some animals really obvious like the gorilla in the foreground, and some animals really hard to find, like the alligator and the leopard. Have you found those two yet? If you have, congratulations!

KN: Those two animals were really fun to find! I read you live in a little town in Maine. Have the residents of your town ever worked together to solve a problem like the animals and residents in The Circus Ship?

Chris Van Dusen: Fortunately, our town has not been overrun by exotic animals! I live in a beautiful, small, coastal Maine town, and I feel very lucky to live here, but I can't think of a specific incident when we've had to band together to solve a big problem. Probably the closest thing to that is when we worked hard to save a wetland area from being filled to build condominiums. We succeeded, by the way. It's now a wildlife preserve.

KN: Our small town succeeded in preserving land from a developer, too. It feels great to work together. Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?

Chris Van Dusen: I'd just like to add that The Circus Ship is different from my other books in a number of ways. While it's still a rhyming picture book, this is the first time I've attempted an historic story. It was fun to do research for the book. It's also the first time I've added a villain to one of my stories, which was a lot of fun. There's so much you can do with a bad guy!

Thanks again, Kate.

KN: Thank you, Chris.

THE CIRCUS SHIP

2009-11-22T15:35:00.000-08:00

By Chris Van Dusen
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN 978-0-7636-3090-4

FROM THE FLAP: When a circus ship runs aground off the coast of Maine, the circus animals must stagger to the shore of a small island. At first the townspeople view them with suspicion, but it’s not long before locals and animals are sharing the island in harmony.

When the greedy circus owner returns, the townsfolk and the circus refugees come up with a delightfully original way to outsmart the bloated blowhard, exacting hilarious revenge in the process.

With rhymed text and brilliantly caricatured illustrations that evoke the early nineteenth century, Chris Van Dusen has crafted a stunning picture book about the unique bonds of friendship and community.

THEY CAME IN TWOS (Verbal/Linguistic)

Take twelve pairs of rhyming words from the text. Write each word on an index card. Pass out a card to each student. Say a rhyming word from the same family and ask the students who have words from that same family to come to the front of the room. As a class brainstorm as many words as possible that rhyme with those words.

CAMOUFLAGED CHARACTERS (Spatial)

As a class, talk about how each animal is hidden by the townspeople. Brainstorm different ways each animal could camouflage itself in varying realistic and fantastic environments. Have each student choose an animal and draw a picture of it camouflaged in a realistic or fantastic setting.

CIRCUS SONGS (Musical)

There are some great circus songs you can sing with your class at http://www.preschooleducation.com/scircus.shtml. All of the lyrics are set to well known tunes such as Mary Had a Little Lamb or I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.

TIGHTROPE WALKERS (Physical)

Circuses usually showcase tightrope walkers. Put a balance beam or a two by four in the middle of the class rug. Have a few students pretend to be hungry crocodiles swimming around the rug waiting to gobble up any students who fall off the tightrope into the water.

THE CIRCUS SHIP READER’S THEATER (Interpersonal)

This book has a distinct beginning, middle and end and has a large list of characters. So, it’s great for Reader’s Theater. Talk about the beginning when the boat crashes, the middle when the animals cause havoc and the Tiger saves Emma Rose, and the end when the townspeople and the animals work together to trick the circus owner. Give students the roles of the animals, the circus owner, the captain, Emma Rose, Little Red and the townspeople and have them reenact the book. Don't forget to have the animals camouflage themselves in the classroom!

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Circus by Lois Ehlert
-If I Ran The Circus by Dr. Seuss
-Last Night I Dreamed a Circus by Maya Gottfried
-Miss Bindergarten Plans a Circus with Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
-Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing By April Jones Prince

Interview with The Year the Swallows Came Early Author, Kathryn Fitzmaurice

2009-11-18T02:20:00.000-08:00

KN: Did you use any organizational tools such as an outline or graphic organizers before you started writing Groovy's story?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Typically, I am a very organized person who writes a lot of lists and outlines. But with this story, I did not use either. I knew what the beginning and ending would be, but not the middle. I just wrote the story as it came to me, which is probably why it took three years to complete. I find if I do use outlines, though, my writing goes more quickly and is more organized.

KN: The Year the Swallows Came Early has beautiful metaphors, many of which relate to food. Did you have a list of food metaphors before you created Groovy, or did the metaphors stem from Groovy's character?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Thank you for this very nice compliment. I did not have any lists of food metaphors as I wrote. I suppose they came as I was writing the story. I’m not a very good cook, so luckily, with Groovy only being eleven; I didn’t have to think up elaborate things.

KN: Migration is a theme in your book. Did the migration of swallows inspire you to think of how people relocate, or did you think about the mobility of people first?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: The migration of the swallows has always fascinated me. How do they know the exact place to come back to? How do they arrive the same day each year? I like to think that no matter what else is going on around us, we can always count on the swallows to be here each spring. It’s one thing that never changes, almost like a promise that can’t be broken. I knew I wanted to put that in the book, and when Frankie needed something to believe in, it was the swallows’ return.

KN: Have you seen the swallows return home to San Juan Capistrano in the spring?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: I go every year to the area around the mission in San Juan Capistrano to see the swallows return. We call it St. Joseph’s day. Unfortunately, because of the construction that has occurred since the mission was built and all the people who now live around there, including a big freeway, the swallows have scattered to the surrounding areas, but we can still see a few each year. A lot of them go to the undersides of the canal bridges lately because it’s much more quiet and away from the people.

KN: Is there anything else you would like to tell us?

Kathryn Fitzmaurice: Thank you for interviewing me, and for reading the book.

KN: It's been a pleasure.

The Year the Swallows Came Early

2009-11-15T06:33:00.000-08:00

By Kathryn Fitzmaurice
Publisher: THE BOWEN PRESS An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
ISBN: 978-0-06-162497-1

FROM THE FLAP: Eleanor “Groovy” Robinson loves cooking and plans to go to culinary school just as soon as she’s old enough. But even Groovy’s thoughtfully planned menus won’t fix the things that start to go wrong the year she turns eleven. Suddenly, her father is in jail, her best friend’s long-absent mother reappears, and the swallows that make their annual migration to her hometown arrive surprisingly early.

As Groovy begins to expect the unexpected, she learns about the importance of forgiveness and starts to understand the complex stories of the people around her. And, on a night where nothing goes as planned, she is amazed to discover that even a really big shake-up can’t get in the way of a family that needs to come together.

Kathryn Fitzamurice’s tender debut novel is as full of promise as the swallows that return home to San Juan Capistrano every spring.

BIRD REPORTS (Naturalist and Verbal/Linguistic)

Research a bird and describe its physical traits and habitat. Be sure to include information about whether or not the bird migrates.

CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS (Interpersonal)

Swallows and people “migrate” in this book. Groovy’s dad migrates to and from jail, an adult friend migrates to and from and island, and Groovy’s best friend’s mother migrates to and from Mexico. With a partner, ask students to research charitable organizations that help displaced people or animals. As a class, take a vote and narrow the organizations down to three possibilities. Using Skype, interview the presidents of these organizations on the phone to decide which organization is worthy of a donation from the class.

FOODOLOGY (Verbal/Linguistic)

Ms. Fitzmaurice peppers her narrative with beautiful metaphors comparing Groovy’s life to food. On the first page, Groovy compares her house to a chocolate-covered coconut candy, and on the last page, Groovy compares the upcoming year to a chocolate-covered caramel. Write an essay comparing your life to a candy, or make a Foodology list to describe important events in your life just as Groovy did on page 255 of the novel.

MIGRATION GRAPHS (Logical/Mathematical and Visual/Spatial)

After researching a specific bird, have students list their bird’s name and the distance it migrates on the board. Give each student a piece of graph paper and have them graph the miles each bird migrates. Calculate the mean, median, and range of the selected birds’ migration.

THE YEAR THE SWALLOWS CAME EARLY DIORAMAS (Visual/Spatial)

Create a diorama of one of the settings in the book such as Groovy’s house, Luis’s store, the jetty, the pier, or the hair salon.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan
-Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath
-Faith, Hope, and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
-My Life in Pink and Green by Lisa Greenwald
-The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler

AND THE DISH RAN AWAY WITH THE SPOON

2009-11-09T02:07:00.000-08:00

By Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN 0-15-202298-8

FROM THE FLAP: Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed to see such sport, And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Every night the rhyme gets read. Every night Dish and Spoon run away. And every night they return, until tonight!

Where can Dish and Spoon be? The rhyme can’t go on without them, so Cat, Cow, and Dog set out to search for their missing friends. But where to start? Should they go north? East? Northeast? They’ll just have to read Fork’s map, ask directions, and try not to get lost in Little Boy Blue’s haystack or under Miss Muffet’s Tuffet or in the Big Bad Wolf’s Kitchen…

“Fee, Fi, Fo…”

Oh no. Could that be the giant?

JUMPING OVER THE MOON (Kinesthetic)

Cut out a large moon from yellow bulletin board, tape it to the rug, and have students jump over it one-by-one. Have students recite And the Dish ran away with the Spoon rhyme saying each child’s name instead of Cow when he or she jumps over the moon. Take a picture of each child jumping over the moon for the Who Jumped Over the Moon? activity below.

LOST AND FOUND (Intrapersonal and Visual/Spatial)

Cat is very upset when he realizes Dish and Spoon are gone and is very relieved when he finds them. Draw a picture of how you felt when you lost something and how you felt when you found it. Write a sentence describing your picture.

PAPER PLATE PUZZLES (Visual/Spatial)

Give each student a paper plate(Dish) that has been cut up into six pieces. Have them repair Dish. Then, around the edge of the paper plate, have them use marker and create a striped border in an A, B, A pattern.

WHO JUMPED OVER THE MOON? (Verbal/Linguistic)

Using the pictures from Jumping over the Moon, create a class book. Each page will feature one picture of a student jumping over the moon, and the rhyme minus the word cow. Put a blank line where the word cow would go and have the pictured student write in his or her name. Take turns sending the book home in a bag with each child.

WHO RAN AWAY WITH THE SPOON? (Interpersonal)

Instead of playing Doggy, Doggy Where’s your Bone, play Who Ran Away with the Spoon. Change the last line of And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon to And someone ran away with the spoon. Have one student go into the hallway while one student hides the spoon. Have the class chant the rhyme when they’re ready to have the student come guess who ran away with the spoon.

Book Buddies:

-Little Miss Muffet Counts to Ten by Emma Chichester Clark
-Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose by Leo and Diane Dillon
-The Neighborhood Mother Goose by Nina Crews
-You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You: Very short Mother Goose Tales to Read Together by Mary Ann Hoberman

The Giant of Seville by Dan Andreasen

2009-11-01T19:46:00.000-08:00

By: Dan Andreasen
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers
ISBN 13: 978-0-8109-0988-5

FROM THE FLAP: Seville, Ohio is a sleepy town. Nothing exciting ever happens, that is until Captain Martin Van Buren Bates arrives. Standing seven feet eleven and a half inches, Captain Bates is a giant who has toured around the world in the circus. In search of a quiet home for himself and his wife (who is also a giant), Captain Bates decides to get off the train in Seville, although he fears that he will be too big for the little town. But Seville is full of surprises, and the giant is about to learn that the only thing that matters is the size of one’s heart.

A “tall” tale based on the true story of a real-life circus giant, The Giant of Seville is a heartwarming story of acceptance, and also includes an author’s note on the life of Captain Bates and his wife, Anna Bates, Seville’s most famous residents.

CLASS HEIGHTS (Logical/Mathematical)

Pair students and have them measure one another’s heights. Make a graph of the students’ heights. Ask each one of them to estimate approximately how many of them would it take to reach the height of the giants in the book.

GIANT HEARTS (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Verbal/Linguistic)

The residents of Seville go out of their way to welcome Captain Bates into their community. Ask the students to tell about a time someone did something nice for them or a time when they did something nice for someone else. Then, have them write their incident on a giant heart.

SQUARE DANCING (Rhythmic/Musical and Bodily-Kinesthetic)

Teach the kids to square dance just as the residents of Seville. Use the free downloads from Ez-tracks and the list of definitions from Dosado to help you out.

http://www.ez-tracks.com/Country-SubCat-Square%20Dance.html
www.dosado.com/lists/defs/bs-msdef.htm

TALL TALES (Verbal/Linguistic)

Have the students retell the beginning, middle, and end of The Giant Of Seville. Then, give them a graphic organizer to plan the beginning, middle, and end of their own Tall Tale. After that, have them write their own tall tale.

TOP HATS (Visual/Spatial)

Using construction paper and other art supplies, have kids design their own top hats.

BOOK BUDDIES:

-American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
-Dona Flor: A Tall Tale About a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart by Pat Mora
-The Foot-Stomping Adventures of Clementine Sweet by Kathy Combs, Kitty Griffin and Mike Wohnoutka
-Thunder Rose by Jerdine Nolen
-Whoosh Went the Wind! By Sally Derby