Monday March 30th, 2015

Posted on March 29, 2015 by carriegelson

It’s Monday! What are you reading?

I have been sharing a reading photo of the week each week. This photo was taken during Nonfiction Reading day in Reading Workshop. The adults in the room were circulating and listening as children read aloud from their nonfiction texts and posed questions about what they were reading. We are working at moving beyond commentary and connections to asking questions which extend our learning. Slowly but surely . . . I love the connection in this photo – it is so wonderful to have these few moments of one on one time with students. I try to bring in as many adults as possible during Reading Workshop time.

This week has been about lots of literacy related things! We had Camp Read on Friday and I highlighted many of the amazing things we did here. Lots of reading and lots of yoga!

I also got to go book shopping. Plan to share more about some of these books in the next few weeks.

New books for my classroom thanks to a Vancouver Kid’s Books Gift card #booklove pic.twitter.com/Q3grTP4fjF

— Carrie Gelson (@CarrieGelson) March 29, 2015

Join Jen from Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki from Unleashing Readers and share all of the reading you have done over the week from picture books to young adult novels. Follow the links to read about all of the amazing books the #IMWAYR community has read. It’s the best way to discover what to read next.

My favourite picture books of the week:

Marilyn’s Monster written by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Matt Phelan

What do you do when everyone gets a monster and yours never arrives? Marilyn grows impatient with the endless waiting. This book wormed its way into my heart. I left it at the bookstore but it seems to be calling me. I may have to go back for it.

Room for Bear by Ciara Gavin

Persistence. Persistence. Persistence. Sometimes finding where you are meant to be is starting with the who. Utterly sweet.

Where Bear? by Sophy Henn

Just where can this bear go to be “bearish and big”? Finding the perfect place is certainly not easy. Charming.

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson

How does Kadir Nelson make pictures like this? Saturated in colour and signs of spring, this story reveals many things about the amazing power of seeds to grow – vegetable seeds, seeds of generosity . . . .

Hoot Owl: Master of Disguise written by Sean Taylor and illustrated by Jean Jullien

Oh this Hoot Owl is one big talker. Hilarious. This would be a perfect read aloud. I can see the children shouting and shaking their heads even now. Little Hoot Owl, wannabe big hunter eventually finds the perfect prey.

A Fish Named Glub written by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Josee Bisaillon

There are small questions and there are big questions. When a small fish poses the big ones, many people find some important answers.

Library Lion written by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes

It turns out that this particular lion is perfectly suited to the library. Quiet, helpful and very, very needed. My students adored this title.

Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall

It is so easy to judge when we are looking through the incorrect lens. A beautiful book about identity, acceptance, self-expression and what a waste of everyone’s time labels really are.

In other reading, I finished:

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

I don’t have a quick summary of this book but yet I am not ready to write on and on to include all that I am thinking. I will just say this: How the heck did Jennifer Niven fill up my heart and leave me feeling so light while at the same time, leading me through sadness I did not want to wade into? Somehow, she did just that.

Updates on my 2015 Reading Goals:

2015 Chapter Book Challenge: 15/80 complete

Goodreads Challenge: 124/415 books read

#MustReadin2015: 7/24 complete

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge: 28/100 titles

Diverse Books in 2015: 12/50 books read

Up next? I continue reading We Were Here by Matt de la Peña and will be starting Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero next. This week I also started rereading Drums Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick as it is our new title for my student book club. What a book this is!

Celebration: Camp Read

Posted on March 28, 2015 by carriegelson

Sometimes a day just must be celebrated with lots of details. Today was that day. It was Camp Read at my school. All day, all literacy, all the time.

There was an author visit. We got to do yoga twice. Once outside. We had buddy reading for a second time this week. Lots of independent reading. Lots of reading aloud. I mean, really, could this get much better?

Our day began with the magical book Dream Boats written by Dan Bar-el and illustrated by Kirsti Anne Wakelin. This is a beautiful book to read aloud. It is lyrical and full of gorgeous images.

After I read the story, Miriam led us through some yoga experiences where we got to ride on our own imagined dream boats. Who says you need a boat to go sailing? Or even water.

We then got to go and meet author Dan Bar-el and listen to his engaging presentation. One of my students got to introduce Dan and then she spent the entire presentation in awe of his hilarious voices and dramatic retellings of his books.

“How does he do those voices? Really – how does he make his voice do that?!”

Such a fun and entertaining author visit! The children talked about it all day!

After recess, we had a very special guest reader come to our classroom. Our school secretary Sally came in and read us the charming book Library Lion written by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.

It was so wonderful to share the story experience with an adult who is very dear to us but isn’t often in the classroom with us.

After reading some of our current class novel Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles, we headed outside to read Silence by Lemniscates.

A book like this must be followed by some mindful, quiet listening. And then some yoga.

Sun salutations.

Growing “seeds”

Group balance

After lunch we read more books – one aloud – Papa’s Mechanical Fish written by Candace Fleming and illustrated by Boris Kulikov – and many on our own.

We also had a visit from our little reading buddies. Which is always delightful!

This week, I celebrate a beautiful day full of literacy. A day that highlights that so many of our days are full of literacy. Surrounded by stories. Inspired by books. Definitely worth celebration.

Thank you to Ruth Ayres and the #celebratelu community! Being part of a community that regularly shares gratitude and celebrations truly transforms my weeks. Read all of the celebrations by following the links shared here.

Argus

Posted on June 13, 2011 by carriegelson

Maria, our BLG reader this week, brought in Argus written by Michelle Knudsen and illustrated by Andrea Wesson. When Maria sat down, holding the book to her, students spied the back cover and started oooing and oh, oh, oh – ing! They had spotted a picture of 3 little chicks crawling around a classroom floor. “Maria we have chicks! 3 of them! Just like the picture!”

This is a story about Sally and her charge, a “little” egg that was supposed to be a fluffy little chick but turns out to be a green scaly dragon. Right from the beginning when Mrs. Henshaw hands out eggs to all of the children to begin their science projects, Sally’s egg looks different. The children kept the eggs in their desk top incubators. Little beaks begin to poke through the cracked shells. But Sally’s egg splits open to reveal a scaly green back. Mrs. Henshaw keeps assuring Sally that some chicks look a little different but Sally wasn’t so sure. She tries to go along with it, names her “chick” Argus and begins to document his growth and development in graphs and pictures just like all of the other children. Our students kept grinning big knowing smiles – they had also weighed and measured and charted our little chickens and their growth. So much connecting!

Sally needs to be an active guardian of Argus. The other chicks peck for seeds or beetles and Argus tries to eat the other chicks! This behaviour ended when he grew bigger and attempted to eat the children instead! Sally worries that her “chick” is not working out. She is envious of the others who can pet the heads of their little chicks. She can’t even reach Argus’ head unless he is lying down. Then Argus goes missing. Sally panicked and then stopped herself. Wasn’t this a good thing maybe? Now she could share another chick and stop being so different. She should be happy, she thought. But happiness never reahed her. Sadness did. And worry. And anxiety. Where could Argus be? Ricky suggested he might have gone to a meat store! Soon Sally could contain her emotions no longer and her classmates help her search for Argus.

This story has a very lovely ending and the students were glued to the final few pages. Then somebody looked over at our little chicks who were snuggled together in their brooder, asleep. “It’s a bedtime story for the chicks!”

A wonderful story about accepting diversity and celebrating friendship even with things big and green.

Our student reviewers report:

Scott: I have a connection when we have three chicks just like the book. I like this book because I really like the dragon.

Jena: I like this book because Sally lost Argus which is a dragon. But everybody else had chickens. When Argus is gone, Sally thinks she will share a chicken. But really she misses Argus.

Alyson: I like this book because it was funny and sad. It was the best book ever!

Hajhare: I like this book. It connects to this book called Clifford where a girl loses her huge dog and her friends help her find it. I like this book because it’s about chicks and we have chicks!

Eddy: Why did the teacher think Argus the dragon was a chick?

Josiah: I like BLG. No!! I LOVE them. I liked Argus and I felt sad for him because he didn’t fit in with the chicks. How can he eat a whole block of grass?