Emily’s Art

Posted on March 20, 2011 by carriegelson

What a powerful book to read to children! I first read Emily’s Art written and illustrated by Peter Catalanotto with my daughter and she burst into tears part way through. We talked for a long time about the story events and how different characters acted and felt. I knew this was an important book to share in the classroom and the resulting discussion confirmed this and then some.

This book begins with a sneak peak into Emily’s classroom. Ms. Fair is explaining to the students about an upcoming art contest where a judge will decide the winner. Catalanotto does a fantastic job of portraying the open, honest and sometimes impulsive comments made by students in a class discussion. Students ask questions about the judge, winning and losing and how exactly things are decided. From Emily: “Does the judge know which is better?”

The story then skips ahead to the days leading up to the contest. Everyday students get painting time. We watch Emily painting and fielding questions about her pictures. Looking at her picture of her family having breakfast (where we see a mother cooking, eating, packing lunches and changing a lightbulb), Stephen asks, “Why do you have four mothers?” Emily explains that there is only one, “She’s just very busy.” Everyday Emily paints a different picture. Her best friend Kelly paints a butterfly day after day.

The night before the contest, Emily cannot settle. She has questions for her mother about which is best and all night she worries about what might be better. Winter or summer? Pink or purple? The sun or the moon? My students were reminded of other stories with characters being unable to sleep because of worries. “That’s like Wemberly Worried!” “Howard B. Wigglebottom!” “Seymour Slug Starts School!” We sure connect to those sleepless worrying nights!

At the contest, the judge is overwhelmed by Emily’s art: “What a gorgeous painting. What a beautiful rabbit!” When Ms. Fair explains that the picture is actually of a dog, everything changes. “A DOG??!!” screeched the Judge.”I was attacked by a dog once! I hate dogs.” She turns and awards the blue ribbon to Kelly’s butterfly.

“I love butterflies,” she announced.

Emily’s heart twisted. My class was irate! And deeply impacted.

Jena: “That judge is judging her painting by what she thinks about dogs.”

Alyson: “Maybe she shouldn’t be a judge! What does she know?”

Emily took her painting down and vowed to never paint again. Miami, now in Grade 3 shared a memory from kindergarten: “At my old school, my teacher was mean to me. She said “What is that?” when she looked at my picture. “You can draw better than that. I know you can.” I always felt sad when I was at home.”

Emily ends up going to the nurse’s room, needing to mend her broken heart. She falls asleep and when she wakes, Kelly is on the cot beside her.

I ask the students why Kelly might be there?

Scott: “She is so sad for Emily.”

Alyson: “She feels sad that Emily didn’t win. She would have won if the teacher hadn’t said it was a dog.”

Hajhare: “Kelly’s heart feels sad because she thinks that Emily must hate her.”

“Wow” Kelly whispered. “You’re a good artist.”

The girls begin talking and Kelly shares that she doesn’t know how to draw anything but butterflies. Because she won, everyone expects more of her. Can Emily show her how to draw a dinosaur? The girls feel better and head back to the classroom where they are having an art party to celebrate all of the wonderful work!

Kevin: “It’s a happy ending. But the middle was the sad part.”

Miami: “I’m connecting. Lots of movies have sad middles but then, happy endings.” The class agreed.

More reactions:

“She should know her own opinion of her drawing so she won’t be sad. Like positive thinking.” (Lisa)
“Don’t always agree with other opinions.” (Annie)
“It is emotional, because if you think of a time like that – like getting rejected, you connect to the sadness of it.” (Alyson)

We talked about how strong words can be.

“What the judge said was mean.” (Kevin)
“People should think before they speak” (Alyson)
“Words can be really strong- something mean said can make you feel like a punch in the stomach.” (Jena)
“Punches can hurt outside, but words hurt inside.” (Kevin)
“That’s clever Kevin.” (Hajhare)

For more ideas of how this book might be used in the classroom, check out these questions from Philosophy for Children. I just discovered this website and will certainly be revisiting it!

Fairy tales, Anthony Browne style

Posted on March 19, 2011 by carriegelson

Recently I read our class Into the Forest by award winning author/illustrator Anthony Browne.

A boy is awakened by a terrible sound and so some upsetting days begin. Dad is missing from the breakfast table, Grandma is sick and he must take a cake to her. “Don’t go into the forest,” his mother warns. But anxious not to miss his father’s return, the boy decides to take a shortcut through the forest and his strange adventures begin. We certainly connected to the anxiety and suspense along the way to Grandmother’s house. The students expressed feeling worried. Someone said that his tummy felt weird. There was a lot of gasping and held breath. Such suspense. As we came across oddly familiar fairy tale characters, students were eager to shout out their connections. “That must be Goldilocks!”, “That’s not that candy one where the witch takes them is it? It is?!” One student described the feeling the book gave her as a “tingling in your brain” because it seemed like we knew the story but we kept worrying about what might happen. Finally, all is well. Our happy ending finds Dad and a recovered Grandma and boy and father return home to Mom.

Watching the students connect, predict and infer, I was reminded about how important it is to develop rich story schema with our students. They need to know their fairy tales, fables, favourite rhymes and be exposed to literature from a variety of genres. When they bring this rich experience to “new to them” books, they are able to interact with the book on a much deeper level as they pick up on nuances, allusions and references to other stories. As parents and teachers, we must read, read read and then read some more!

A few days later, I found another (new to me) Anthony Browne book at the public library – also giving a new twist to a well known fairy tale, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Me and You does an amazing job of telling simultaneous stories, letting us into the world of Goldilocks while at the same time we revisit the familiar story about the bears.

As we flip through this book, we find two stories. On the left, sepia images of the little girl, out on an errand with Mom and then suddenly, lost.

Her story is wordless, told just through the images. Lost. Afraid. Alone. Finding a cozy home, a snack, a warm bed. Being discovered and racing away. Walking through rain, empty streets and then finally, into the arms of a searching Mom.

On the right, we follow little bear and his Mummy and Daddy as they head out for a walk and then return home to find a stranger in their home. A version of the Goldilocks story that we are very familiar with. Full of comforting colours. Lots of happy yellow, soothing blues, calm greens. I love the last line of the book. Little bear looks out of his window, thinking about the girl. “I wonder what happened to her.” This story definitely blurs the absolutes of fairy tale right and wrong and introduces a lovely element of empathy.

I am a big, big fan of Anthony Browne!

Willoughby & the Moon

Posted on March 19, 2011 by carriegelson

Greg Foley‘s Willoughby & the Moon takes us on many adventures – a trip to the moon with Willoughby and a giant snail, a space adventure on a moon buggy and a space pod and an amazing visual journey in deep black, white and silver – glowing pages full of shimmery snails, shadowy images of the craters on the moon and detailed moon maps that make us all the more curious . . .

Willoughby cannot sleep. In his dark, dark room, he assures his mother that he is not afraid of the dark – he is just wondering where the moon has gone. Later he spies a light under his closet door and discovers that inside his closet a giant snail is standing upon the moon. So begins an adventure with his new, tentative friend the snail who is in search of his lost ball. Willoughby helps in the search, as snail is afraid of many things. They search rocks, craters and mountaintops. Eventually, it is Willoughby who must face his own fear (psst it actually is the dark that scares him!) in order to help his friend. A wonderful moon experience with absolutely stunning images. We had to break out the silver crayons to illustrate our responses!

Some responses in need of sharing:

Hailey: The snail was scared of heights, rocks and craters. The boy was scared of the dark cave.

Jenny: I liked the part when Willoughby did a brave thing for his friend.

Alyson: The boy should encourage the snail that everything is not so scary. The snail encouraged the boy to go in the dark.

Ricky: I’m curious about the moon. I want to go there and when I get back, I’m going to tell all about my adventure. But, I’m not old enough to go. I’ll just visualize it. I wish I could see how big the moon and craters are.

Some great new books from Scholastic

Posted on March 15, 2011 by carriegelson

Some popular picture books in our new book displays – purchased through Scholastic book orders.

Mouse was Mad by Linda Urban and illustrated by Henry Cole. How is little mouse going to express his anger? His stomping can’t shake the trees like Bear. His screaming doesn’t echo through the woods like Bobcat. This makes him so mad that he stands perfectly still. He breathes. The other animals join in, breathing too. Suddenly mouse is no longer mad. Hmm. . . Look what breathing can do for you! For a MindUp classroom, this book made a whole lot of sense!

The Very Itchy Bear by Nick Bland is very amusing. The Very Cranky Bear returns – this time bothered by a troublesome little flea.

Biting high and biting low,

This is flea biting Bear under here and over there

Absolutely annoying until Bear flicks flea into the ocean and finds himself all alone and flea finds himself almost dinner for a hungry bird. In the end, these two become appreciative friends.

Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld bring us the award winning bestseller Shark vs. Train. This book is pulled off the shelf almost daily. It is pretty hilarious. In the hands of little toy box raiding boys, shark and train come to life to battle. Who will win in these very imaginative scenarios? In a hot air balloon? Roasting marshmallows? (hint – shark is all wet!) Giving rides at a carnival? Playing hide and seek? (Really they both fail miserably on this one – steam and fins are just too obvious!) Who wins in the end? The call for lunch!

What a book! Details of what happens on a farm day in and day out. Who lives there? The farmers, the cattle, the chickens, countless cats, etc. What do we find? Barns, sheds, tractors, trucks, plenty of equipment . . . And what exactly happens? Enough great details to fill a book that you have to really settle into to finish reading. A great read aloud but also a great book to explore with a friend. Elisha Cooper‘s Farm is a must for the primary classroom.

Today it was a book to read and chase me with, recounting new facts learned. “Ms. Gelson did you know that cats eat grasshoppers? “Ms. Gelson, dirt can look like dark chocolate!” On and on!

I love new books! Happy reading!

What’s it like to be sister number three?

Posted on March 13, 2011 by carriegelson

We seemed to be all about girl power this weekend at the library – maybe because it was just my daughter and I, but our big stack of books seemed to include a lot of books about very cool girls – some books new to us and some old favourites.

Two books to talk about featured the youngest sister in a family of three girls. Not fairy tale stories where everything comes in threes including sisters – but books from the here and now that explored themes of identity, self-esteem, and acceptance.

Award winning, Suki’s Kimono is a family favourite at our house. We love how Suki possesses a joyful inner spirit and how she lives in the moment not worrying about what the world might think. Suki adores her blue cotton kimono – for the memories that it holds and the way it makes her feel. She vows to wear it on her first day of school despite the disapproval of her older sisters and manages to maintain the magical happy feeling of wearing this special kimono throughout her day even when questioned and taunted by classmates. Written by Chieri Uegaki and illustrated by Stephane Jorisch.

Look at that cover. Aren’t you just rooting for Velma before you even know her issues or struggles? Kevin Hawkes, illustrator, helps create a wonderfully unique character in Alan Madison’s Velma Gratch & the way cool butterfly. Velma arrives in first grade in the shadow of her two older sisters known for their seemingly perfect qualities – athletic abilities, spectacular spelling and marvelous math. Velma wanted to be noticed but for what? She chooses some quite foolish ways to stand out: running the slowest, singing the loudest, muddling her math . . . None bring quite the effect she is hoping for. Slowly, Velma learns to recognize a passion – science. When her class begins to learn about butterflies she twists wonderfully new words around in her mouth – metamorphosis, conservatory, migration. Not only does Velma come into her own as a butterfly expert, but on the class field trip to the conservatory, Velma is noticed by a monarch who lands on her finger and doesn’t leave for days.

Velma releases her monarch with the others from the conservatory a few days later, waving goodbye as they begin their journey south. Velma has gained a little power of flight herself as she floats home between her sisters, happy and confident.

Isn’t it wonderful when the youngest members of a family can teach everyone a thing or two?

The Juice Box Bully

Posted on March 12, 2011 by carriegelson

This week we read a fantastic book that looked at the difficult subject of bullying and what it means to stand up together against bullying in a school community.

The Juice Box Bully: Empowering Kids to Stand Up for Others is coauthored by Maria Dismondy and Bob Sornson and illustrated by Kim Shaw. Many of the characters from Dismondy and Shaw’s Spaghetti on a Hot Dog Bun return in this story about a classroom that takes a stand against bullying.

In The Juice Box Bully we meet Pete, a new student at Mandell Elementary in Mr. Peltzer’s class. Pete has come in with a strategy he believes will work for him – bully others before they can bully him. But he doesn’t realize that he is the newest member of a classroom that has made a Promise – nobody will stand by and accept bad behaviour. When someone is mean, hurtful or disrespectful, everyone speaks up. So nobody accepts his behaviour but they also don’t accept when a classmate, in anger, tries to exclude Pete. This is shocking to Pete – “No one’s ever done that before, why did you stand up for me?” Ralph explains, “I’m not a bystander. I don’t stand by and let mean things happen.”

This book prompted a lot of very thoughtful discussion in our classroom. Students noticed that students teamed up together to speak out against mean behaviour. They were also pretty shocked at how mean Pete could be! When he continued to be cruel to students, it was pretty upsetting. “He should be expelled!” someone shouted. But one student didn’t think so, “No. When I was in trouble, I remember how you dealt with it. You talked to me and then talked to the other student. I learned why what I did was wrong.” Whew, good to know we do some things right!

When Pete admitted that in his old school he had been bullied, things began to make sense.

Ricky: “Bullying can be like a disease. It can spread.”

Miami: “He was acting like that to protect himself. But it was not in a good way protecting.”

Seriously, read children a great book to get them thinking and they are absolutely brilliant.

We were pretty impressed with the Promise that this fictional classroom had made.

Kevin: “If you bully it spreads but it doesn’t work in this class. They stand up for others.”

Jena: “We are learning about bystanders. That’s when you are just watching the bullying happen and not saying anything. In this book, they won’t be bystanders.”

Alyson: “Just watching is not helping – your tummy tightens up and it feels like you are turning into a bad person.”

Ricky: “It’s kinda hard though and sometimes it doesn’t work. It worked here because they were in a group.”

Kevin: “So they had more power!”

We discussed how this teaches us that we have to work together and be serious to create a community that will not tolerate bullying. Not easy. But absolutely essential. Big question: How do we create that feeling of community – starting in classrooms and spreading throughout the school?

Two goldfish? Or . . . your Dad?

Posted on March 10, 2011 by carriegelson

Author and illustrator Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean are a brilliant team. Their book, The Day I Swapped my Dad for Two Goldfish had that amazing silencing power over my classroom – so engrossing that at times there was not a word! And then at other times, volume turned high in discussion and debate – on task talking! Yippee!

This book in and of itself is pretty darn amusing. The conversation and comments it inspired in the classroom – hilarious!

Nathan comes over with two goldfish in a bowl. They were pretty neat – reddy-gold and beautiful swimmers. A swap is proposed. The problem – Nathan isn’t interested in anything offered, not the transformer robots, the annoying penny whistle or the punching bag. So some deep thinking happens: “I’ll swap you my Dad.”

Whoa!! This caused quite the commotion in our room. Nathan, back in the book, was sceptical. One Dad for two goldfish doesn’t seem quite right until it is pointed out that a Dad is as big as a hundred goldfish. And he can swim (“Can’t” protests the little sister) So Nathan leaves with a newsparer reading Dad and the two goldfish remain.

So I ask: What do you all think? Is it a fair trade? I love how they take this question absolutely seriously!

Kevin: “No! A Dad is more useful than goldfish.”

Hajhare: “A Dad is more valuable, he grew up with you.”

Jeremiah: “But he still has his Mom.”

Hajhare: “Nope a Dad is not available.”

Alyson: “Without the father, you can’t have another baby.”

Lisa: “The Mom will be pretty surprised when she gets home.”

And of course Mommy says, “You can take these goldfish over to Nathan this minute, and don’t you come back without your father.”

But this is a little bit more difficult than first seems because Nathan has done some more swapping.

Alyson: “My Dad is more expensive.”

My important clarifying question: “How much is a Dad worth?”

Hajhare: “Love!!”

Ricky: “Dads have mastercards.”

Kevin: “Why don’t you ask a Dad to buy you goldfish?” Indeed!

We began to think this swapping might not end. There was much more searching following the trail and a gorilla mask, Galveston the rabbit and the Queen of Melanesia enter the story. Finally the Dad is recovered still reading the paper and sitting in a rabbit hutch.

Hajhare: “I think the message is Moms are all about love and Dads are about newspapers.”

Manny: “No that’s not the message. It’s – don’t let kids trade people.”

Whatever the message, this book is an adventure worth reading. (Preferably out loud to some opinionated children 🙂 )

Moms are Supergirls!

Posted on March 8, 2011 by carriegelson

The movie trailer is out – Berkeley Breathed’s Mars Needs Moms! is now a movie. I felt a little bit of pressure to get this book read before my students had no idea that the movie was based on a book. Because it really is such a great book! Almost always, in my opinion, books trump the movies even without the special effects! There is an intimacy that happens when we share a book that a movie just can’t touch. And you are allowed to interrupt with comments and questions and nobody says SHHHH! At least not in our class!

So I asked for some predictions before we started reading. Look at the cover – What do you think this book is about? (predictions especially appreciated from those people who hadn’t seen the trailer!)

“A boy needs a Mom to go to space with him!?” “No, it is the Martians that need Moms to take care of them.” “Yeah because Moms are superheroes!” “No – they are Supergirls!” Absolutely!

Really what happens is that Martians have been keeping an eye on Earth and have realized that since they have grown up motherless, they will need to send Martian Raiders (with a big net) to capture some Moms. Milo, who has been doing some pretty serious Mom bashing (using terms like bellowing broccoli bully and carrot-cuddling cuckoo to describe his loving mother) watches his Mom be grabbed and rushed into a waiting spaceship. (“Do aliens eat Moms?” Scott wondered.) Milo follows, stowing away on the ship. Exiting the spaceship on Mars, he trips and falls and his helmet smashes to bits. Breathing Martian air – Milo is doomed! Until . . . a figure appears and gives up her helmet so Milo can survive.

Milo’s Mom places her helmet on his head and tells him, “I’ll love you to the ends of the universe.” And then she passes out. “She is sacrificing herself,” Jena explains knowingly. “What does that mean?” “It is when you give up something you really need.” “Oh,” says one of the boys nodding, “that’s what Moms do.”

Yep, Supergirls!

Read the book before you see the movie! It’s worth it!

Books I wish I owned

Posted on March 6, 2011 by carriegelson

Our local public library has finally reopened after being closed for months due to a flood. Hooray! So in celebration, I wandered through the stacks and selected some of my favourite books to read again – with my own children and likely they will find their way into the classroom this week. If I had a million dollars and a billion bookshelves these books would hold a special place! I might just have to justify purchasing them anyways because I keep taking them out of the library again and again! They must be meant to be mine!

Clara and Asha written and illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Eric Rohmann is a gorgeous journey into the fantasy world of Clara and her friend Asha, a gigantic fish. Asha may be a child’s imaginary friend, yet Asha feels very real!

Wolves by Emily Gravett is a delightfully eerie book. You know how a book becomes more real as you read it?

And then you start to feel so connected to a book that you literally feel as though you have fallen into it? Hmm . . . seems to have happened to our little friend rabbit. This book has two endings – one specially designed for those with more sensitive inclinations.

Have you ever been told you are too small to do something? In our house, “small is powerful” is our mantra. In this book, Up, by Jim LaMarche, Daniel (aka Mouse) is a small boy who seems to develop some pretty extraordinary powers. Or at least the power to believe . . . A magical story with absolutely stunning illustrations.

How do you show your inner beauty?

Posted on March 1, 2011 by carriegelson

We have been talking a lot lately about qualities we respect – in our friends, in our classmates, in ourselves. Today we read a fantastic picture book written by Pat Brisson and illustrated by Suzanne Bloom. Melissa Parkington’s Beautiful, Beautiful Hair inspired us to talk about the qualities in ourselves that are really important. Who do we want to be? What do we want to be known for?

Melissa Parkington has always been recognized for her gorgeous hair. However, she begins to recognize that she doesn’t want to be recognized for something that just simply grows out of her head. What is really special about her?

This book really affected us! Some beautiful writing below helps tell the story:

Annie: Melissa Parkington had beautiful beautiful hair. Everyone around the neighbourhood noticed her hair. But Melissa wanted people to like her for what she did.

Jenny: A lot of people called Melissa’s beautiful hair gorgeous and stunning and then she thought that she doesn’t want people to just call to her – your hair is beautiful . . . she wants people to compliment her for what she does. She helped Maddy and Jake on something and someone said to her – you are nice. So she thought – I can be a nice girl.

Jena: She decided to be the kindest girl in the whole town and she helped a lot of people. At the mall, there was a beauty salon and it said share your hair. And Melissa cut her hair for children who didn’t have hair.

Gary: She decided to donate her hair to kids. So the lady washed her hair and put it on ponytails and started cutting it and put it in envelopes. Now she is known as beautiful heart.