Sarah Perry’s If inspires

Posted on January 26, 2011 by carriegelson

Our reading group explored the book If by Sarah Perry. This is the classic book to introduce the concept that one simple question can lead us to deeper questions and endless wondering. Each page features an amazing visual with an If phrase such as If music could be held . . . , If mice were hair . . . (a pretty creepy idea!) If toes were teeth. . . (gives a whole new image to wiggly teeth we decided :)) We lingered on each page- shouting out questions as someone else wondered something that made our thinking bigger and our wondering even broader.

Some truly great questions shared in wonder webs (inspired from specific pages in the story).

If leaves were fish . . .

Would we have to rake up fallen fish? (Jena)

Would there be fish flying around on a windy day? (Catriona)

Would they be smelly? (Lisa)

Will they change colour? (Kevin)

Would they still use chlorophyll? (Alyson)

Then what would the caterpillars eat? (Ricky)

Can the fish breathe? (Annie)

If hummingbirds told secrets . . .

Would they tell secrets to their predators? Can the animals understand? Would the ears get poked? (Gary)

How would it say the same language as me? wondered Truman. He then added little drawings of people asking: “What did you say?” “What does it mean?” “What would it be?”

A book to pick up again and again. Let the wondering begin!

What do our little thinkers think of Little Ant Big Thinker?

Posted on January 25, 2011 by carriegelson

I love when I have so many books in my “must read” pile, that when we have a spare 5 or 10 minutes, I know just the book to choose! Today it was Little Ant Big Thinker or Where does the Ocean End? by Andre Usatschow and illustrated by Alexandra Junge.

As we’ve been working on asking questions as we read, I thought this would be a great time to read this book about a little ant with some very big questions. The book begins with the little ant wondering if the ocean ever ends and if so, where? He begins to get anxious – how can he ever know, if he never can see the end? An elephant happens along and despite their attempts at peering out over the water on tiptoe and climbing a tree for a better view, the two of them cannot see the end of the ocean. A fish swims up and scoffs at their worry: “The ocean ends right here!” he explains. Okay, problem solved. Until of course the question pops into the ant’s head: “But where does the ocean begin?”

We quite liked this book.

Catriona, always summarizes so nicely: “It begins at the end and ends at the beginning!”

Alyson notes: “Wondering is a great thing. Little people can think big too!”

Jeremiah has his own question about the little ant: “What if his brain gets so big from all of that wondering, and he tips over?!”

Hmm, what if . . . ?

Picture Books we read this week

Posted on January 17, 2011 by carriegelson

While searching through the library for interesting picture books, I came across Oma’s Quilt. I pulled it off the shelf because it is illustrated by Stephane Jorisch (who also illustrated Suki’s Kimono – one of my favourite books). Then I noticed it was written by Canadian author, Paulette Bourgeois (author of the Franklin books and Big Sarah’s Little Boots) This book was bound to be a good one! I tried it out with our reading group. The story: Emily’s Oma (grandmother) has to move to a retirement home and she is very reluctant to do so. What about her precious things? Her neighbours? Cooking apple strudel? Even the bowling alley at the home doesn’t change her mind (smelly shoes!) While Emily and her mother are sorting through Oma’s possessions, Emily has a wonderful idea. Why not make a memory quilt for Oma!? Some students made text to text connections to Eve Bunting‘s The Memory String. This book received a big round of applause. Look for it in the library!

We have been reading a lot of Howard B Wigglebottom books to help us learn about ourselves and our relationships. Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns about Bullies teaches us about the importance of asking for help when bullying doesn’t stop. Howard has a little voice inside his head that tells him Be brave, Be bold, A teacher must be told. But it isn’t always easy to trust our intuition and Howard suffers many unpleasant interactions with the Snorton twins before he finally decides to report their behaviour. Finally, he can sleep easily, knowing that he was brave, he was bold when his teacher was finally told. “I am okay. I am safe.” he assures himself at the end. Such an important book!

This book tells us about Winston, the bear from Churchill, Manitoba who decides to mobolize a group of polar bears to teach the tourists who come to see the polar bears about the effects of global warming on the melting ice in the Arctic. “Ice is nice!” the bears chant during their protest march. We learn that we must all do our part to protect the Earth. “Recycle!” “Walk, Bike, Ride!” “Solar Power!” “Turn down the furnace!” Winston of Churchill by Jean Davies Okimoto was the winner of the Green Earth Book Award. This book is also in Seymour’s library.

Happy Reading!

The power of a lie!

Posted on December 6, 2010 by carriegelson

Our reading group has been busy writing and talking about connections we have to the books we are reading. This title had big connecting power!

A Big, Fat Enormous Lie by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and illustrated by David McPhail (one of my favourite illustrators!) is a book we can all relate to easily. A little boy lies over one small thing and his lie comes alive in the form of a monster, following him everywhere, bothering him, sitting on his stomach. The monster keeps growing and growing and growing until it can only be escaped by . . . telling the truth. Phew! The relief! This little book sure inspired some powerful writing from our reading group. We all recognized that lies can be pretty powerful but not as powerful as the truth 🙂

Sergio writes: “When I lie, I get bad luck and I crash into everything and my stomach hurts. Oww! Oww! Oww! Ouch that hurts.”

Ricky explains: “Lying is a bad thing. If you lie, you will have bad feelings and your tummy will feel like it’s hurt. When you have a nap, it makes you feel better. But when you wake up, you still have to tell the truth. So if you tell the truth, everything will be okay.”

Annie summarizes the story, “The message of the book is that you should never lie to anyone. You have to admit it. When you don’t tell the truth, you’ll feel like the lie is lying in your stomach. After you tell the truth, the lie is gone.”

Lisa writes, “If you tell a lie, you feel guilty because you just want it to go away. If you did something wrong, you should tell, don’t lie. If you lie, you need to tell someone. If you don’t tell, it is going to get bad, then worst. You feel guilty if you lie. It feels good if you tell the truth.”

Let’s Read and Find out Science Books

Posted on October 31, 2010 by carriegelson

Our reading group has been exploring many books in the classroom. This past week, they really enjoyed reading some of the books in the Let’s Read and Find out Science bin. In pairs or on their own they selected a book, wrote down some questions before reading, took turns reading out loud to their partner and wrote down some of the most interesting facts in a web. We all learned so much about a wide variety of topics. Living things were a popular thing to study: frogs and tadpoles, fireflies, night animals, and dolphins. Others explored different science topics such as what makes a magnet, thunder and lightning and the sun. Check out some of our work!

Josiah’s choice was The Sun, Our Nearest Star

His questions before he read:

If you walk on the sun, will you crumble?
How far is the sun?
What is the sun made of?

Some of the interesting facts he included in his web:

Other stars are farther than the sun
A spaceship will turn into gasses if it gets too near the sun
It will take more than 3 years to reach the sun

Jenny and Scott chose to read this book:

Jenny and Scott’s questions when they looked at the cover:

What is lightning made of?
When does lightning come?
What happens when lightning zaps you?

Some facts from their web:

People used to think lightning was the fiery finger of an angry God
Watch storms from a safe place
A car is safe because when lightning hits it, the electricity goes through the car and not through you

We have many more of the Let’s Read and Find out Science titles in our class and predict that they will be popular books to choose during independent reading time!

Reading Out Loud Advice from our Reading Group

Posted on October 22, 2010 by carriegelson

Our morning reading group has been practicing reading out loud to a partner. Students have noticed that reading out loud is a skill that each of them can work on. We’ve come up with some specific advice for being a great oral reader: