Tag Archives: fiction

Chicken Cheeks

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Today during free time, I had a student complain about another’s students poor language. He spelled out a word he had overheard and the two of us agreed, not a great choice to express one’s self in the context of a classroom. It’s much more fun to play with language, so that it makes us laugh. Not so great when it offends us.

In one of our morning stories, we laughed a lot. And with the request, “Read it again!” we got to engage in a whole bunch of giggling all over again!

Chicken Cheeks, written by Michael Ian Black and written by Kevin Hawkes, is a hilarious book all about animal rear ends. Yep, you heard correctly. Behinds. Of animals. And all the different names they have. Chicken cheeks. Turkey tushy. Rhinoceros rump. My favourite to say: Penguin patootie. The one we recited as a class multiple times: Duck-billed platypus gluteus maximus.

Moose Caboose

Each page has a picture of an animal’s wazoo (that’s another one!) and a descriptor: Hound dog heinie, for example. Lots of fun in and of itself. But, as you flip to the final pages you realize something else is going on. These animals are boosting each other up trying to reach a honeycomb. Seems like they are in luck until the attack of . . . Bumblebee bums!

The joy of words and the fun they have when we roll them around in our mouth!

The Lunch Thief

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Our latest book on the theme of kindness is The Lunch Thief, written by Anne C Bromley and illustrated by Robert Casilla.

Rafael loves to eat. It is his second favourite thing next to pitching for his school baseball team. So why is he lying about forgetting his lunch? Because someone stole it. And he knows who. It was Kevin Kopeck, the new boy at school. Rafael had seen him do it. He could report him, but he decides not to. What if Kevin picked a fight? Rafael follows his Mama’s wisdom: fighting is for cowards.

We stop and examine the picture of Kevin hunched over eating the stolen lunch, sitting by himself by the stone wall. Why did he take Rafael’s lunch? We had a wide range of suggestions: “He is hungry and doesn’t have a lunch.” “He’s just a thief.” “He steals because he has no friends.” “His family is poor so he doesn’t get food.” “He is new and trying to prove himself.” We continued reading to find out more.

Over the next few days, Rafael witnesses Kevin stealing other lunches. He again heeds his Mama’s advice: “Use your mouth before your fists.” He decides to talk to Kevin, asking him where he is from. Rafael learns that Kevin is from Jacinto Valley, an area burned down by wildfires. Rafael notices Kevin’s reluctance to talk about the fires and how quiet he gets when he asks more questions. Students have some more suggestions for Kevin’s stealing. “The sadness turned him mean, ” suggests Shae-Lynn. Catriona builds on this idea: “His house was burned down and he is hiding his sadness by being mean.”

While out in the car with his Mom, Rafael notices Kevin next to the Budget Motel. His Mama explains that if Kevin’s family lost their home, Kevin may be living at this motel for some time. Rafael begins to think about his daily lunch, lovingly packed by his Mama. He makes the decision that maybe he doesn’t need two burritos each day. In our class, hands shoot in the air. We know what is coming!

“He’s going to share.”

“Giving is the key!” shouts Sergio.

“It’s all about the Golden Rule.”

On the final page of the book, we see Rafael inviting Kevin to join him and Alfredo to hang out at lunch. He passes him a brown paper bag. “Do you like burritos?”

“He noticed that Kevin needed the food,” someone observed. We decided that this book had taught us some more things about kindness. Yes, kindness is about awareness and yes, it is a choice. But now we have learned that to be kind, sometimes you have to really listen. Some of us also pointed out that you have to be calm, you can’t just react to something – like getting mad that Kevin took the lunches. You have to be calm enough to realize that maybe he needed them. As Sergio says, “Giving is the key!”

New Books for Buddy Reading

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Thanks to a generous donation towards books for our classroom and funds matched by Adopt a School, we have some amazing new titles to share when our Grade 2/3 s invite the K/1 class up for buddy reading once a week. It is an important time we all enjoy and now we have some wonderful new books to share together!

Hug Time by Patrick McDonnell is a tiny little book all about having a huge heart. A little kitten so filled with love decides to give the whole world a hug and sets out with friends and a Hug-To-Do-List to travel the world from pole to pole and do just that – hug every living thing he comes across. My favourite? Hugging a big blue whale!

Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett has wonderful rhyming, repetitive text perfect for sharing with our 5 year old little buddies.

Monkey and me, Monkey and me,

Monkey and me, We went to see,

We went to see some . . . .

Flip the page and who knows what you might find? Bat! Elephants! Penguins! All beautifully illustrated in classic Gravett style.

Antoinette Portis created the extremely clever Not a Box. Little Rabbit is in the first picture sitting in what looks like a box. “Why are you sitting in a box?” the text reads. Next picture, little rabbit is in a race car, “It’s not a box,” he explains. And so the book continues. The power of imagination means that a box is really anything a child can make of one. Fun to read and more fun to begin a conversation. What else could a box be?

Hello Baby is written by one of my favourite authors for young children, Mem Fox and illustrated by the incredible Steve Jenkins.

Hello, Baby! Who are you?

The book begins with this first question and goes on to ask many more, Are you a . . . ? Everything rhymes, images are striking and often surprising and at the end, you want to go back and read it all over again. Yes, our 5- 8 year olds aren’t babies but many of them are intrigued by animal babies and Fox and Jenkins have created an engaging delight in a tiny little book.

It is hard to resist the humour in Jeremy Tankard‘s Grumpy Bird. Grumpy Bird wakes up, clearly on the wrong side of his nest, too grumpy to do anything. He won’t eat, play or even fly. His grumpy march across the land looks lovely to every other animal who joins him as he trudges along snipping and quipping at everyone he meets.

“WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT TO KNOW WHAT I’M DOING?” shouted Bird.

In the end, as you might guess, Grumpy Bird has found a cure for his grumpiness and he gets to share it with his friends. Lots of fun, especially for those of us that work really hard to stay mad even when we aren’t anymore . . . .

Little Blue Truck is written by Alice Schertle and illustrated by Jill McElmurry. In this sweet little story, Litle Blue Truck shows a Big Dump Truck the power of many helping hands. I think this book will be a favourite as it is full of rhyme, repetition and animal sounds! So fun to read aloud and have a little buddy join in as they are able: Oink! Quack! Baa! Moo! Cluck! Peep! Neigh! Croak! Maa!

I absolutely adore this book by James Mayhew and now, happily have a copy for the classroom! Saber-toothed tigers. Wooly mammoths. Sleepy dinosaurs. A little boy exploring the world around him. In Boy, author James Mayhew explores a little guy’s yearning for independence while at the same time honouring his deep connections to home (and the happy snuggles from Mom and Dad). Where in the world do we find warmth? In the security and love from our own family.

How fun is this book by Edward Gibbs?! In I Spy with My Little Eye, we turn page after page of eye spy riddles – on each page, we get a clue, the name of a colour and that same colour in a perfect circle that turns into the eye of each creature.

I spy with my little eye . . . something that is gray. I have a very long trunk.

Flip the page and of course you find . . . an elephant! So much fun to look through a spy hole to discover an exciting parade of gorgeously illustrated animals in bright and beautiful colours.

Note: I purchased many of these books in board book version – to give them more lasting power and to be easily held in tiny hands. 🙂

Thanks to our generous donors and the Adopt a School fund for supporting early literacy at Seymour! We are keen to put the remaining funds into other important book purchases to share with our students.

The Lion & The Mouse

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The Lion & The Mouse by Caldecott medal winner Jerry Pinkney is another book we have shared together as we continue to explore a theme of kindness through picture books.

Pinkney’s story is an adaptation of the Aesop fable of the lion and the mouse who exchange an important gift – that of setting one another free. This gorgeously illustrated book is basically wordless, the only text are a few sound effects. Each page is so detailed, we found ourselves studying each image closely for clues as to what was happening in the story. We see a humongous lion being disturbed in sleep by the tiny mouse. Despite his irritation, he lets the tiny mouse go free. The mouse races back to her nest and her young. When the lion is trapped in ropes set by poachers, the tiny little mouse repays the kindness offered to her by the lion and gnaws through the ropes, setting the  king of beasts free.

Pinkney sets his version in the African Serengeti of Tanzania and Kenya. Students were fascinated by all of the animals depicted in the background as much as the close up pictures of our two heroes – the lion and the mouse.

Setting the little mouse free

How does this book continue to teach us about kindness? Students are clearly understanding that kindness is a choice, articulating that each main character had to decide what to do and chose to be kind to the other. We also spoke about how such a small decision to be kind can have far reaching effects. Students pointed out that not only did the lion save the mouse by setting her free, he also saved her family who was dependent on her. Students connected this story to other stories about the “golden rule” – treat others the way you want to be treated and spoke about karma (that all good done comes back to you.) What a powerful discussion this beautiful wordless story inspired.

Charlie the Ranch Dog

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We had a new BLG reader this week. Welcome Azzah and thanks for bringing such an enjoyable book to share with us! Charlie the Ranch Dog is written by Ree Drummond and illustrated by Diane deGroat.

We were quite intrigued by Charlie, the ranch dog. He’s a pretty handsome guy who lives on a beautiful ranch and he seems very determined to tour the readers around the ranch, all the while explaining all of the hard work he does. We meet his best friend Suzie, another dog who lives on the ranch. We see Daisy, the cow with the bad habit of wandering into the yard when she isn’t supposed to. Daisy was particularly interesting to us. Looking at the picture, one student exclaimed, “Hey that cow doesn’t have an udder!”

“It’s a male,” someone else suggested.

“Males have udders. Hold on, do they?”

As Azzah wasn’t prepared to give a cow anatomy lesson, we moved on. Now everybody was paying particularly close attention. We began to notice something about Charlie.

“That dog doesn’t really do anything.”

“Nope. He’s just not very good at this.”

“Huh?! He’s asleep again!”

When we had seen Charlie nap in the flower garden, nap after lunch and nap beside the broken fence, we began to realize that Charlie was an expert napper but not much of a help around the ranch. However, late in the story Charlie does chase Daisy the cow out of the garden, giving a big howl that many of us joined in for, “RRRRRooowwww- ooohhh!”

“That dog does nothing but sleep!”

“Well,  he did howl.”

“It even sounded like a real dog.”

“Yeah, like a dog dieing!”

Still, Charlie is a charmer and we were all big fans by the book’s end. A sweet little story told from Charlie, the ranch dog’s perspective.

Our student reviewers report:

Truman: I liked it because Charlie said he did the work but Suzie did all of the work!

Khai: I liked the book because it was funny. The funniest part was when he said I finished my work when Charlie actually did nothing but sleeping.



Mustache

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Dan, our BLG reader this week brought in a fabulous book – Mustache and prompted a discussion about men’s fashion through the ages and the price of vanity. Mustache is witten by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Kevin Cornell.

This book reminded us that when you take a picture book, add a bunch of students and a read aloud environment,  you just never know what you are going to get! In our classroom this week, the book Mustache got us talking (well Dan talking . . . ) about how men used to wear tights and high heels. Very intriguing for the children who just shook their heads in disbelief or broke out in contagious giggles. Our main character,  King Duncan,  was always gazing at himself in the mirror examining his style and so we looked at it a little more closely and spied tights! What was with the King’s outfit? For a few pages, we couldn’t move past that. Neither could King Duncan evidently as he had a royal “mirror carrier” follow him everywhere so he could continuously check out his reflection.

Oh King Duncan, so busy being vain, he never gets to the kingly duties of caring for his kingdom. When his subjects storm the castle and ask for improvements, King Duncan takes a week to have a banner made for the side of the castle: a picture of himself with “I’m Great” written underneath. Getting nowhere with their direct requests, the King’s subjects revert to other means to communicate their frustration with the King: drawing moustaches on his banners. And then . . .  painting moustaches on the wanted posters he prints to try and uncover the moustache banner culprit. A lot of posters. A lot of moustaches. A lot of giggles in our classroom!

Finally all of the villains (can you be a villain for merely vandalizing? Apparently, yes!)  end up imprisoned. It turns out everyone is guilty and the whole kingdom becomes “jail” – fixed up by default as more “jail” is erected. What is a poor lone King to do with just his own reflection to keep him company? Hmm . . . perhaps paint a moustache?

Our student reviewers report:

Deandra: I liked this book because the King painted his face!

Truman: I liked it when everyone drew moustaches on him!

Khai: I liked the book because it was very funny. People kept drawing mustaches on the King’s posters!

I was already a fan of Mac Barnett who wrote the fantastic Billy Twitters and His Blue Whale Problem. Check out Barnett’s website here. Kevin Cornell is a new illustrator for me – but one I will be keeping an eye out for. His illustrations in Mustache were absolutely delightful!  His website can be found here.

How to Heal a Broken Wing

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How to Heal a Broken Wing written and illustrated by Bob Graham is the second picture book we have read on our theme of kindness.

This book is not wordless, but words do the least work. It is the illustrations – multiple panels on some pages, a full page illustration on another that tell this lovely story of kindness, hope and compassion.

A pigeon hits a tall skyscraper and falls into the busy streets. Nobody notices until Will happens by with his Mom. Maybe he is more observant? Smaller and more focussed on the ground perhaps? But he is the only one to notice the hurt pigeon. We noticed right away how Graham paints Will in bright colours while the rest of the people walking the streets are in dull greens, browns and greys, nothing that stands out. We came back to the page where Will first notices the pigeon and decided that Will made an important decision here – to pick up the bird or to walk away.

“It’s a decision to be kind or not.”

“If you don’t want to be kind, it’s okay, but you should . . .”

Amongst a busy street scene, crowded with people, Graham shines a light on little Will picking up the bird with the broken wing.

“The light on him makes us look much more closely and think about what is important about what he is doing.”

Will takes the injured bird home and despite his parents initial reservations, they help him to begin to care for the bird. Absolute silence as students studied the panels showing Will and his parents bandaging the wing, setting up a box for the bird and settling him in for the night. We follow the picture panels that show us the bird gaining mobility, eating and drinking and looking longingly out the window at the sky.

What has Will’s family given to the bird? We listed off what we had noticed: food, water, rest, a cage to protect him, shelter, care, hope and kindness. In time, the pigeon healed and Will’s parents take Will back to the city streets to let the pigeon fly free.

Two important things we learned about kindness from this book:

  • We need to notice when kindness is needed
  • It is a choice to be kind.

So – how aware are you? What choices do you make every day? This book is a story that reminds us to look at ourselves and think about what we do and what we don’t do everyday.

Calvin Can’t Fly

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Our BLG reader this week was Maria. She read the charming Calvin Can’t Fly: The Story of a Bookworm Birdie – written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Keith Bendis.

Calvin is a little black starling who is born with a passion for . . . books! He immerses himself into the world of adventures, legends, space, and drama. Places that he could never travel to in flight. And, there was one other small problem when it came to flying: having spent so much time with his “beak in a book,” Calvin actually had never learned to fly! When the group of little starlings were working on swooping and hovering and flying, Calvin was at the library! His starling cousins were not very understanding – he was called a “nerdy birdie,” a “geeky beaky” and a “bookworm.” Being a bird, Calvin took special offence at being called a worm!

When it was time to head south, Calvin was grounded. His flock was not about to abandon him however and he was carried along literally (by strings around his middle) on the starlings’ journey south. On route, Calvin saved the flock with his knowledge about hurricanes derived from a book about weather. In his excitement while celebrating his life saving heroics, Calvin begins to jump and hop and flap. And . . . yep, you guessed it! Calvin began to fly!

We love how reading and literacy are celebrated and that knowledge turns out to be the hero!

Little Black Crow

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We were very inspired by the gentle repetitive text and muted art in Chris Raschka‘s book Little Black Crow. This book begins with the question Little Black Crow, Where do you Go? and goes on to ask 26 more questions all inspired by the wondering of a little boy who spies a crow up in the sky. Simple, engaging, lovely to read again and again.

We took pencil to paper and practiced making crows in Raschka’s style and went on to create art pieces and added our own “mini poems” also borrowed from Rashka’s style of wondering verse. Finished pieces look gorgeous.

Below is Sergio‘s poem.

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Some students, like Khai, chose to use bright colours as a background.

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Others were inspired by the paler colour scheme Raschka used in his book.

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Truman really captured the loose lines that come together to create a charming crow in Raschka’s style.

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Those Shoes

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We have started reading and discussing picture books with a theme of kindness. Those Shoes written by Maribeth Boelts and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones was an ideal book with which to start.

This book helped us to explore the difference between our needs and our wants and how to come to terms with the understanding that sometimes we have to give up something we really want when it just doesn’t make sense despite our strong feelings. Jeremy wants those shoes –the shoes he sees advertised on a billboard and walking around him everywhere he looks. Black high tops with two white stripes. Perfection. He wants them especially a lot when his own shoes wear out and the guidance counsellor roots around in a box to find him shoes that fit. Blue velcro shoes with a cartoon animal on the side. Nothing like those shoes he dreams about. Shoes he needs but doesn’t want.

Grandma invites Jeremy to go check out the shoes, those shoes, at the store. She has a little bit of money set aside. But at the store, she discovers the price.

When she sees it, she sits down heavy.

Silence in our class. Students had just commented how kind Grandma was being to take Jeremy shopping for the shoes he really wanted. Now what? I asked, “Can we only show kindness if we have money to buy something?” Well no, of course not but we all had to sit there and feel Jeremy’s disappointment for a while. What next? Jeremy suggests they go looking in the thrift stores for those shoes and in Lucky Store # 3, he finds them. However, squished toes and held breath tell us that these shoes are too small. Still Jeremy buys them because he wants them that much.

Jeremy’s new shoes are unbearable and unwearable. One day he notices a classmate’s shoes are taped up – worn out. Antonio seems to have smaller feet than him. The thought that he might have in his possession shoes that could fit Antonio, those shoes, eats at Jeremy.

I’m not going to do it.

He repeats this thought in his head and out loud. No way. No how. But after a sleepless night, Jeremy runs his shoes, those shoes over to Antonio’s door and leaves them there for him. Jeremy is not fully happy – when he looks down at his own blue shoes that aren’t those shoes he feels upset but Antonio’s face brings him joy.

“He gave up those shoes from the kindness of his heart,” commented Shae-Lynn.

“And he’ll get kindness back,” said Catriona.

Jeremy learned a lot in this book. Sometimes kindness wins but it isn’t completely easy. Our emotions can be mixed. Sometimes we learn that when we have what we need (new snowboots thanks to Grandma) we can appreciate other things (a new snow day). Sometimes our wants bring us unhappiness and giving them up is where we grow. Sometimes kindness is simply giving other people what they need.  So much to discuss in this gem of a picture book.

Some snippets of written responses:

Truman: Jeremy gave kindness to Antonio by giving his too small shoes to Antonio.

Khai: Jeremy saw Antonio’s shoes and they were broken. Jeremy wondered and wondered and went to Antonio’s house and left the shoes on the porch. Jeremy did it even though he got nothing back.

Markus: The Grandma was nice in the story. She tried to get shoes for her grandson.

Purity: Jeremy gave the shoes to Antonio even though he really liked them. They didn’t fit Jeremy so he gave them to Antonio because Antonio needed them.