October’s New Book Recommendation: I have 2 for this month!
J is for Jack-O-Lantern-A Halloween Alphabet
By Denise Brennan-Nelson
Illustrated by Donald Wu
Sleeping Bear Press $14.95
The Gist: It’s an ABC book with extra’s.
Why I love it:
- I LOVE ABC books. I collect them. Now I have to be careful what I add as my collection is enormous! This was a must-have tho’.
- It’s also a rhyme book that my students can easily fill in the word when I pause in the reading.
- It has both upper and lowercase letters.
- Mr. Wu’s illustrations are cute not creepy or scary and they are very colorful.
- The addition of a side bar is cram packed with interesting information, trivia and historical tidbits. It's a great read for older students and nice for teachers. I like to add this kind of thing to my newsletters and am always interested in these sorts of “how come?” facts.
- It’s a nice BIG size hardcover and still less than $15.
Storytelling Tips:
- I pass out the plastic magnetic letters to my students.
- You can buy them at the Dollar Store or at a Teacher’s store. I have a set of upper and lowercase.
- When I come to that letter, the child holding the uppercase letter puts it on our white board.
- We make a line. After the story I choose a child to hold our light laser and point to the letters as we sing the ABC song.
- Since this is a Halloween ABC book I have the child holding the lowercase letter feed it to Frankie, our Frankenstein monster. I painted an oatmeal box green with black hair and added some wiggle eyes and facial details with a black marker.
- Click on the link for a Frankie to simply glue on a container and feed his "head", or you could make a hole for a mouth large enough for your students to slip the letters through and have them fall into a baggie, box or other container. I named our monster Frankie, not Frankenstein, as the scientist's name was Dr. Frankenstein, not his monster. Mary Shelly's monster, if you remember, never had a name.
Magic Tricks:
- I use my change bag and have already concealed the lowercase letters a b c d e.
- In goes the uppercase letters A B C D E out comes the lowercase. The trick introduces the story that we will be reviewing our letters in a fun Halloween alphabet story. “Wait! I see something else!”
- I peak in the bottom of the bag and there’s a little note on a pumpkin that says: “More!” I ask the children if they think that means that we need to see more letters because some were missing. They agree of course!
- I put the pumpkin paper back in the change bag and pull out a string of 26 pumpkins each with the upper & lowercase letters on them.
- Click here to make your own string of pumpkins.
#2 Spooky Spooky Spooky!
By Cathy MacLennan
Boxer Books $16.95
The Gist: “The moon is high in the sky…” and all sorts of cute little creatures are out and about which is spooky spooky spooky. They can stay and play ‘til the equally adorable trick or treaters scare THEM away!
Why I love it:
- The illustrations literally GRABBED me at 1st opening the book. Ms. MacLennan is also the illustrator and definitely has a gift. Upon reading the jacket I discovered that she is inspired by African art and culture.
- The bold colorful pictures filled with lots of movement in the book have that sort of African flair! They captivated me and are mesmerizing to look at!
- She painted her 1st picture at the age of six on a wall and has been painting murals ever since. I instantly felt a kindred spirit with her as I too have painted murals. One was a big train for Pennock Hospital’s children’s ward in Hastings, complete with all sorts of storybook favorites.
- The bluish purple background she chose for every page makes the pages not only pop out at you, but gives it that spooky spooky look that ties in with the entire story.
- Her creatures are adorable and not scary or creepy, but filled with wonder and a sort of Halloween excitement; just like my students. I liked that they were all SMILING! (This is such a happy time for little ones filled with lots of giggling!)
- The text was done in a “spooky” bold black fun font. Short, sweet, alliterative and it rhymed.
- Some of her creatures included pumpkins, cats, spiders, bats and owls—all of which are October themes for me!
- I loved the ending! I know you will too! Hooray!
Storytelling Tips:
- Have your students repeat the phrase: spooky spooky spooky.
- To help remind them of this, I hold up a little ghost finger puppet that peeks up over the back of the book.
- You can make one by snipping off the finger of a white glove and adding wiggle eyes or two dots of puffy paint.
- Dim the lights. Sometimes I read with a flashlight or lantern. I let a child shine it on the book. It makes things extra spooky spooky spooky. J
October’s Book Of The Month: An Old Favorite…
Ten Timid Ghosts
By Jennifer O’Connell
Scholastic $3.25
The Gist: 10 timid ghosts live in a haunted house. A witch moves in; she wants them out, so 1-by-1 she scares them away. Now the ghosts want her out so they devise a plan to get rid of her!
Why I love it:
- It’s a rhyme book that my students can easily follow along and fill in the missing word when I pause.
- The illustrations are cute not creepy or scary.
- The phrase “A witch moved in and wanted them out.” repeats so it’s perfect for my students to help me tell the story.
- The ghosts are eliminated 1-by-1 counting from 10 to 0 so it helps reinforce that report card standard and my students can count backwards with me while I read the story.
- It has a fun surprise ending that I have my students help me yell!
Storytelling Tips:
- I bought a tombstone that’s a doorbell. You press it and it bongs and says welcome with a creepy laugh. It’s how I start this story. After all we’re going to visit a haunted house!
- Tell your students that you want them to help you tell the story.
- Each time you come to the repetitive phrase: “A witch moved in and wanted them out!” Hold up the ghost paddle and have the children yell “Out!” Click on the link to make a ghost paddle.
- Halloween Novelty stores that spring up at this time, as well as the Halloween section in most department stores carry little “scream” boxes for a few dollars. I own several. After the witch scares a ghost I press my scream machine to add that special affect. This always gets a few giggles and adds that special touch to my story telling.
- I wave my magic wand and give everyone 10 timid ghosts. They wiggle all of their little ghosts (fingers) and I tell them I want them to help me count them as they run away.
- After the story we sing 10 Little Ghosts to the tune of 10 Little Indians. We also do the Ghost Pokey with our booklet.
- If I’m reading this to my class, I pause before saying the rhyming word to see if they can fill it in. I give out smartie coins after the reading, to children who had the correct answers. No need for me to keep track. My students won’t let me forget.
- If you want to go over some word wall words that you have that coincide with the story, try using one of those stick on creepy fingers that you can buy at this time. They always have monster, withch and skeleton ones with wonderful long pointed-painted nails. They usually come i a pack of 10 so 2 packs give you a class set.
- I sometimes pass them out to my students to wear to follow along when reading their everyday stories. You could also pass one out to each child to put on when reading this story to make counting with you a bit more fun.
- To make the story a bit more fun to listen to, and because my haunted house is in England, I tell the story in an English accent. The children LOVE it! Before you say “Oh I can’t do that.” just say “appy alloween.” Great! You passed with enough of an English accent to sound different and fun. Now just go underline all of the OUT’s so you remember to lift up the ghost paddle and cross out all of the H’s and you’ll do just fine.
- After everyone yells BOO! I end the story by saying: “And the ghosts lived ‘appily eva ‘afta in their ‘aunted ‘ouse~”
- Of course if you don’t feel this is your bag, just read it in your own spooky voice and that will be just great too. If you use expression and have fun, your students will too!
Magic Tricks:
- I read this story at our Halloween Party, and once again as with all of my Halloween stories we review “real” & “pretend” and that there is no such thing as monsters, ghosts and witches and that there is nothing to be afraid of.
- Despite what your personal beliefs are, they should NOT be shared or debated with young children. Our school keeps Halloween fun and not creepy or gory. Some schools have done away with Halloween altogether and opted for a Harvest Festival which is wonderful; I’m personally glad that we’re still able to dress up and enjoy being little kids once more.
- I bought an adorable stuffed witch and took out her stuffing to turn her into a puppet. I put her in the dove pan.
- I have an orange envelope with a note inside that reads: “Sniffle-Sniffle” I’m sorry; may I please come to your party? I promise to be good. ” The writing is all splattered as if someone had been crying. I ask the children who they think it might be from as the signature has been washed out and only an H is showing. They try and guess.
- I put the lid on and produce Hazel. She shares with us that she used to be a bad witch but went to Young Fives and learned about rules and how to be good so she now behaves herself and wants to stay.
- The children vote to let her stay. It’s always quite heart-warming to hear them invite her and even funny listening to them explain about the Time Out chair if she misbehaves. She asks us if we’d like to meet her 10 ghost friends. We say yes.
- I show the children my change bag. There’s nothing in it. Are the ghosts invisible? I guess we must count to 10 to produce them. We do it in Spanish. I then pull out a string of 10 ghosts that we count in English. Click on the link to make your own string of ghosts.
- I say Shhhhh! They are asking me something. They want to know if you want to meet George the big ghost.
- I then put a paper ghost in my dog pan and produce another puppet, the big ghost named George. He introduces the book, telling us the author and illustrator and explains how he wants the children to help tell the story showing us his ghost paddle. They are all excited to help out and we settle in…
Art Project-Math Extension:
Make a Ghost Counting Booklet.
Click on the link for directions & pattern.
Do some Ghostly Skill Sheets.
Click on the link to view & print.
My Bibliographies for the month:
Fire Safety Books. Click on the link to view the list.
Spider Books Click on the link to view the list.
BooksClick on the link to view the list.
So curl up with a book and have fun reading!
READ!
An Old Favorite...
{amazonWS:itemId=0060283289}The Gist: A boy takes a mouse to school.
Why I like it:
- It's another fun book in a collection of "If you..." books.
- This book has more episodes than the previous books: "If you give a pig a pancake, she'll want some syrup to go with it."
- I, along with my students, enjoy this simple "cause and effect" story line.
- The illustrator, Felicia Bond, draws an adorable mouse, doing adorable humanistic things, like putting on tiny bib overhauls, drawing on the blackboard, sniffling, etc.
- The mouse and his auburn-haired boy sidekick are very endearing.
Story Telling Tips:
Make sequencing manipulatives for the story by printing off my master, laminating the sheets and then cutting them out. Pass them out to your students.
Make a blue jean cup to store the pieces in by running off a copy of the blue jeans on blue construction paper.
Cut out the jeans and place them on the front of a clear plastic cup using several glue dots. Cut out two 8 1/2 inch strips of blue construction paper and tape them to the back of the blue jeans.
Loop the "jean straps" over the cup and fasten them to the back of the cup with glue dots. Put 2 white reinforcement holes on the front of the jeans to look like buttons.
If you wanted to make a cute treat as a surprise for your students, these would make darling cups for them. Fill a snack Baggie with miniature chocolate chip cookies, or a medium baggie with one large cookie and then tuck it in the cup.
Students can make their own blue jeans and then take this home at the end of the day with their mouse (art project) tucked in the cup as well.
You could also read If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and compare both stories. If you do read both stories, you may want to add a math extension and graph which book your students liked the best.
When you pass the manipulatives out to your students and you come to that particular item in the story, where the mouse would want that "thing", the child holding that piece puts the item on your white or flannel board.
Magic Trick:
I put a pink pom pom, a scrap of brown paper, a wiggle eye and a piece of brown yarn into my change bag. The children clap their hands 3 times and say: "If you take a mouse to school..."
I produce a paper mouse. I ask my students if they would like to make one. Of course they say "Yes!" They then transition to their desks and make a mouse.
Art Project: Paper Pom Pom Mouse:
Run off the mouse on brown construction paper. Fold the paper in half. Remind students to keep their paper FOLDED. When they open it up their paper will be heart-shaped because they LOVE story time.
There is a message inside for their parents to read. Students sign the card and re-fold it, turning it into a mouse by adding a pom pom nose, wiggle eye, ears and yarn tail.
Writing / Reading Extension: Class Book If you give a mouse a _______________ he'll want a ________________.
Have your students fill in the blanks and illustrate their page. Collect the pages, collate your class book and then read it to your class. Set it in your class library so that students can read it whenever they wish.
The "Mice" activities will remain FREE for the month of September 2011. Click on the link to print them; after September they can be purchased for only .59 cents under Mice Activities.
Etc.:
I teach around several themes for September:
Click on each link for a list of my favorite BACK-TO-SCHOOL themed books, Bibliography for MORE Back-To-School books, TRAIN books, DINOSAUR books, APPLE books, and MONKEY books.
You can also click on the links to view/print our FREE Easy Readers this month: My September Senses, My Spatial Direction Bus Booklet, & The Students On the Bus.
To get my parents involved in reading to their children, I have a RAH-RAH program. It stands for "Read At Home." Click on the link for directions, poster, bookmarks, certificate, reading logs and a letter home.
Each day we have a WOW Day. It stands for Wonderful Outstanding Word of the day.
It helps build my students' vocabulary. Click on the link for a mini-poster You can also get a mini-poster of ZIPPY to remind your students that it's time for reading and you need a Quiet Zone.
Whatever you're reading this month, I hope you and your students are able to "fall" into lots of good books!
READ on!
An Old Favorite:
I chose Mary Wore A Red Dress for this month’s book pick, because young children enjoy it.
It’s one of those “Read it again; read it again!” stories.
Learning colors is one of my report card standards and having color words as part of the word wall and doing a variety of things with colors, is a big part of most teacher’s back-to-school activities, so I thought this was a good choice to dream up some activities for you to do with your students.
The Gist: Why I Love it:
Mary Wore A Red Dress is an old Texas folk song. I love it because it provides the perfect Segway to the introduction of colors.
In this particular version, animals are on their way to a birthday party. I also like that the author includes the music at the end of the story.
Story Telling Tips:
Use the colored clothing pieces that I have made to match the story and pass them out to students. This is the perfect “sequencing” story. - When the “orange” shirt is read, the child who has the orange shirt piece adds it to the flannel or white board.
- After reading the story, mix up the pieces and see if the children can remember the order they came in.
- Substitute students’ names for character names. Watch little ones’ eyes light up when you say their name. “Am I really in the book?” They’ll ask. It gets them to really pay attention.
- I say the colors in English as well as Spanish and have the children repeat them back to me.
- Another thing you can have students do is to stand up if they are wearing the color that is being talked about in the story. i.e., Mary is wearing a red dress.
- If you’re also wearing red, stand up.
- Children can wiggle their fingers, touch their nose, take a bow or do something silly, point to that color and then sit down.
Magic Tricks: I use my change bag to produce different colored scarves to teach secondary colors. “What color was Mary wearing?” Yes, red. Did you know that red and yellow make orange?”
I put a red scarf and a yellow scarf in the change bag and have children exclaim:
“ _______________ wore an orange shirt!” Then I pop out an orange scarf. I do the same thing when I produce a green scarf (blue + yellow) and a purple scarf (red + blue).
If I have time, I let students smear what ever primary color combination they want together, to turn a white paper tee-shirt into a secondary color. I then hang these on a clothesline with mini clothespins.
Math: 5 graphing extensions, connect the dots, & count how many and write the number skill sheet.
Writing Extensions: 2 Class books: We Wore __________ To School! and On the First Day Of School Who Did You See?
Art Activity: (T-shirt idea above.) Click on the link for a copy of a t-shirt to paint.
Language Arts: Trace to pre-write skill sheet, matching colors, alphabetical order, rhyming words.
Click on the link to view/print the She Wore A Red Dress Packet. This packet will be FREE til September 16th and then can be purchased for only .99 cents.
Bibliography for Back-To-School: Click on the link to view my favorites.
Be sure and check out our FREEBIE reader of the month: Where Are The Coconuts? This is a great booklet to go along with any of your Chicka Chicka Boom Boom activities.
If you’re a big fan of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, be sure and check out the Arts-Crafts and Activities section. That is my major theme this month.
Our free "Easy Reader" this month is The Students On the Bus, a great math extension booklet and a real keepsake when you add a few photographs.
Whatever you're reading this month, I hope it's simply T-riffic! Happy August.
Summer Reading Fun!
If you haven't checked out the main blog and heard about LiveBinders you might want to give it a "look see".
I discovered it yesterday and had a nice time perusing other people's binders filled with wonderful suggestions of what they found were helpful websites.
One mom put together a lovely binder filled with summer reading tips. (A Fabulous Find!)
So if you're looking for some super suggestions for your little ones click on the link and check out her beautiful summer reading binder
My fondest memory of summer is time spent with my grandma Lydia up north at her cabin in Eagle River Wisconsin.
One of the fun things we used to do was pick raspberries. Grama said we had to sing songs loudly and stomp around so that we'd scare away any black bears that might be hungry.
We never saw any, so we must have done a good job. Even tho' we brought along pails, we rarely had anything left to tote home, as we had a hard time not eating the delicious red ripe berries that literally plopped into our hands when we touched the prickly branches.
Thus, my book pick for this month is Up North at the Cabin, although, another cute book you could read that has to do with berries is Jamberry by Bruce Degen!
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The Gist:
A young girl goes up to her grandparents cabin to spend some time with them during the summer.
Why I LOVE It:
Chall conjures up special thoughts of my favorite childhood memories, and although she is writing about a lake in Minnesota it could be a cabin located just about anywhere and certainly "painted pictures" in my mind of special summers up north in Wisconsin.
Her adept use of language brings to life the local flora and fauna as viewed through the eyes of a young city girl..."a moose stands like a house on stilts..." and "cabins are built with logs like pretzels." There is no real story line, you just flow through this young vacationer's sweet summer as she baits her fishing pole with "peanut butter and worm sandwiches", canoes "through the wilderness" seeming to hear the drums of the long since silenced Indian drums or thrills at slicing through the "silver waves" while waterskiing.
The textured oil paintings by Steve Johnson add to the lazy-hazy days of summer, suggesting past and shadowed memories, a recollection of quiet times and the mysteries deep within the cool woods that will warm her when "frosted windows cloud the sun." All of this happily takes you into the book, especially if you too have enjoyed and savored these same special moments as I have.
The other reason I love it, is my daughter Kelli bought me this book while she was on a class trip.
Photo of Marsha Wilson Chall compliments of her website. Click on the link to check it out.
Storytelling Tips:
Before you begin the story, tell the children to close their eyes and picture their favorite place to go for the summer. Then have them open their eyes and toss a beach ball or some other summery object and whoever is holding it gets to share their favorite place to go.
Show a map of the United States and ask the students where their state is. Now ask them if anyone knows where Minnesota is, then show them where the state is and tell them a little bit about it.
Ask the children what they think "sunnies" are on the page that's across from the picture where the family is eating. I thought the author was referring to eggs sunny side up, but she contacted me and told me that they are sunfish!
The paintings are just lovely in this book. Choose 3 to 5 and ask the children which is their favorite and why they chose it. My personal favorite is the one where the girl is on the dock in her bathing suit. She is looking out at the sparkling water. I often did that as a little girl. I love the way the sun shines like diamonds glittering on the water.
Ask for a show of hands to see how many children have gone to a cabin or a lake. You can graph these results as well as several other things in the book. Click on the link for the graphs.
Magic Tricks:
Using a change bag, I show the children that it is empty. I pass out several worms. I ask them what they think will come out of the bag. We say the magic words: Happy summer vacation! or Up North at the Cabin and I produce a fish puppet that helps me do whatever I want him to do like introduce the story, or review parts of the book etc.
Minnesota is known for the loons that cry out with their haunting calls especially in the evening. I bought one of the Audubon stuffed birds that make bird sounds. I put it in my Red Box or you can also use a duck pan.
I show the children that the box/pan is empty, I sprinkle in some silver glitter, shut the box/put the lid on; we all call out like a loon and then I produce the stuffed bird who answers our call when I squeeze it.
Writing Extension:
Make an Our Summer Class Book where your students trace and complete the sentences: My favorite place to go for the summer is... and My favorite thing to do during the summer is... Click on the link to view/print a copy to make with your class/child.
Art Project: Run off a copy of my master of a log cabin. Make a sample so that you can show your students how to cut the door so that it opens and shuts.
To make it more of keepsake, take a photo of your students wearing summer attire, print them off and have them glue "themselves" inside the cabin, coming out of the door.
Students should write "_____________'s cabin" on the line above the door. If you want, you can have children glue skinny pretzel sticks to the lines on their cabin as the simile described cabins in the story.
Click on the link to view/print the log cabin pattern.
Skill Sheets: I've designed 6 fun skill sheets that incorporate different standards and skill levels, themed around the story. Click on the link to view/print them.
Bibliography: Sorry there is no bibliography for July. I haven't taught summer school for a while now, but do check the awesome binder mentioned above for some great summer selections!
Whatever you're reading this summer I hope you have a relaxing time doing it!
Be sure and check out the FREE Easy Readers for July in the article that follows.
I don't have a big list of books for summer because we usually let out the first week of June depending on snow days. Sometimes we go to the second week of June, as is the case for this year; we are out the 10th.
I don't want to forget Father's Day, so I make sure we take a day to cover that, with some stories, making time to whip a gift together as well.
My students are always too excited about anything we make to tuck it away and save it, so I know that they will give it to their dad's as soon as they arrive home.
In this changing world, I make sure that everyone has a daddy so no one feels left out. If they don't, I adapt things to suit the child's home life.
One of my favorite Father's Day books is...
Title: My Daddy and Me (I was surprised to find out that there are quite a few books out there with this title.)
Author: Amy Sklansky
Illustrator: Ard Hoyt
Price: $3.99
The Gist:
Daddies and children play through the seasons in this simple story of love between parent and child. Drawings of all different kinds of fathers and children accompany a simple text.
Why I Like It:
It's a great way to teach description and metaphor: "We go together like honey and bees, like peanut butter and jelly, like hide and seek. Whatever the weather, we go together."
There are 4 or 5 different sets of fathers and children. The children are both girls and boys so that all of my students can relate.
They do different things around the various seasons, like a picnic, a day at the beach, camping, raking leaves, splashing in the rain, skating in the winter park and just being together, so it's a nice review of the seasons and different things you can do during them.
The illustrations are a classic pen and ink style, reminiscent of Norman Rockwell's work. He's one of my favorite artists because of the "old-fashioned real-world" America he tried to capture. I feel this kind of "happy-joy" from Ard Hoyt's illustrations as well.
Story Telling Tips: Have a discussion before you read the book. Ask your students what is their favorite thing that they do with their daddies, what do they like best about their dads? Explain as simply as possible what a metaphor is. When you are reading, pause before you read the rest of the metaphor and see if they can fill in the rest of the comparison: "We go together like peanut butter and _____________."
Writing Extension: Have children complete their own page and illustrate it. My daddy and I go together like _____________ and _______________. Tell them you'd like them to be original and think of something special and not use any of the metaphors that were used in the book. Collect the pages and make a class My Daddy and Me book. Click on the link to view/print a sample page for your students to fill out.
Amy Sklansky has a wonderful website with teaching aids including writing extensions for this book. Check it out by clicking on the link.
Art Activity: This book makes a nice Father's Day gift. I often buy a "kiddie-lit" book about fathers, for my son Jason to read to my grandsons Jeremiah, Gabriel and Joshua. It's also nice to make a homemade card. I like to have my students include coupons as a fun tuck-in. Click on the link to view/print the masters. Daddy Card & Coupons
Magic Trick: I show the children that the dove pan is empty. We toss a yellow paper bee into the pan. I put the lid on. The children say: "My daddy and me go together like bees and honey." I take the lid off and a small jar of honey is inside. We later have teddy grahams and honey for our snack.
You could do the same with peanut butter and jelly if you wanted to, or you could produce the Reese's Pieces that look like M&M's.
As I've said before, I incorporate magic in my teaching as a method to grab students' attention, introduce literature, teach all sorts of subjects, report card standards, and vocabulary words. Click on the link to view some magic videos.
For a list of other books I read for June, click on the link to view/print a copy of my bibliography for this month. Bibliography for June
Picture of Amy Sklansky from Amazon.com
I hope you make time to escape and relax with a good book when school is out.
Happy reading! Have a super summer soaking up the sunshine.
