Did You Know?

I've created a new board on our easel inspired from a pin on Pinterest! I need your help, SES Bluejays!  I will start posting a new fact per day.  If you decide you'd like to help this is what you can do:

• Bring Ms. Flemings a fact you found in a non-fiction book, in print, or a digital source.
• Then Ms. Flemings will let you write the interesting fact on the easel with the caption "Found by: Your First Name" 

I bet you can't wait to come to school on Tuesday to see what I've just posted!  I look forward to you helping me out with this.  It could get really fun, don't you think??

Mold. Yuck!

Moldy, nastiness, growing in a library book!

I love gross stuff!  I love weird stuff!  I will be the first person to touch and experiment with something when other people are squirming in their seats. But. I have to say I have my limits.  Especially when books come back damaged like this one did. Just LOOK at all that mold growing inside the book!  Yuck!  I love to use this book as an example to students at the beginning of the year on how to NOT take care of our books.  We talk about the four things to beware of when you are reading a book.
1.  Water! The way the pages wrinkle and smell mildewy afterward create books you do not want to cuddle up to!
2.  Food and drink!  I share this Junie B. First Grader book as my example.  Honestly, I have no clue if that's how it got moldy.  I like to think so.  It was especially fun to use a microscope camera to get that bottom right image.  Super cool!
3.  Little people!  There are times when little brothers and sisters just don't know how to take care of books like the big kids!
4.  Pets!  Not just dogs...cats too! And gerbils, and hamsters, and fish.  I like to remind the kids that all animals can chew, poop, and pee...so lets keep our books away from all animals.  (I'm a dog lover, what can I say?  I don't want to say specifically dogs!)  :)

Do you have any other suggestions on book care?  Do you have any fun tips and tricks that work?  I'd love to hear them!

Happy Reading Everyone!

Book Love: The Book Whisperer

Photo Credit: http://www.bookwhisperer.com/

Anyone else cringe when they finish reading a book that they wish could keep going?  Like you're saying goodbye to a friend?  That's how I felt when I finished reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.  For a few days, she was my very close teacher friend and now I just want EVERYONE to be her friend too!  I loved, loved, LOVED her book!  It gave a realistic teacher's perspective of how important reading with your students truly is! And...how important it is to have conversations about books with our students.  And...how important it is for us as teachers to take the time to read daily! I can keep gushing about this book for hours! Seriously!  I am also elated that she is coming to Plum Creek Literacy Festival's Adult Conference this September!  I can not wait to sit in her session is soak up every word she has to say!  Yay for an inspiring book! I feel re-fueled!

Book Love: Sing

This summer was filled with a lot of fun memories made with my Gingers.  One of my favorite memories made this summer was the arrival of Tom Lichtenheld's newest book, Sing.  Lichtenheld illustrates the song many of us know from Sesame Street called "Sing", written by Joe Raposo.  The illustrations give you goosebumps and leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy.  I got exceptional warm and fuzzies when I would read the book with my freshly bathed and lotioned up girlies in my lap.  The book comes with a CD including three songs from Sesame Street. The first is "Sing!".  The next two songs are "Somebody Come and Play" and "One of These Things" both sung by Becca Kauffman with The Midnight Sun Ensemble.

Needless to say we read a lot of books at home.  But this book became my favorite book read this summer. Hands down.  We read it numerous times, talked about the birds, how they're feeling, the colors...then after we would read it we would listen to the CD and always ended the CD with a dance party.  Our favorite part is at the end of the song "One of These Things" the singer says, "You're so smart!"

Watch the book Sing come to life in this YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW_PU7WwCAc

On a side note, I've noticed a lot of families choosing to bring the book "Oh, The Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss to school to have teachers write a note to their child.  Then at graduation they present that book with years of heartfelt notes written about that child to their graduating senior.  I think what I may do is use this book instead.  It is a beautifully written book that really encourages you to do what makes you happy and to not put too much worry into what others think.