We Learn to Speak Jazz!

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Our Letter J book was The Jazz Fly by Matthew Gollub. This is a fantastic book to use to build listening skills. The students and I listen to the story as I turn the pages and led them through the recitation of "ZAA-baza, BOO-zaba, ZEE-za, RO-ni!" I was totally impressed by how well the students followed the story this year and how well many of them can already speak jazz. We will be practicing this phrase for the rest of the school year. Visit Matthew Gollub's Website and check out Tips for Parents and even listen to excerpts of The Jazz Fly and Jazz Fly 2!

We're Measuring!

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Students are introduced to a ruler and tell me that a ruler is "used to measure things." Our story word for Letter I is "inch" and we read Inch by Inch by Leo Lionni. In the story, an emerald green "inch" worm saves himself from being eaten by measuring parts of a variety of birds, such as a robin's tail, a flamingo's neck and a heron's leg. I involve the student's in the story by having them recite "inch by inch" as each bird is measured. It get’s tricky when the nightingale asks the inch worm to measure her song…ask your child how the inch worm solves that problem! For more about the author Leo Lionni and for some fun activities visit Random House’s Leo Lionni pages by clicking here.

Think Like A Pig?!

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We returned from Winter Recess and started reading the Mercy Watson Series by Kate DiCamillo. Using a nonfiction text about real pigs, students brainstormed what we believed pigs think...."they think about mud," "they think about food, lots of it," and "they think about baby pigs!"
We loved the pictures in the book Life on a Pig Farm and are enjoying reading Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig! We are also working on reading and listening skills on the computer where students are reading a second Mercy Watson story on Tumblebooks. You can read along with your child on the Tumblebook website through my Site here.

The Underground Railroad and Ziggy Mystery #2

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My grade three students have started their second Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs Mystery. We loved reading the first book together and are already enjoying the second. As I write this update to you we are about to start Chapter 5.

Ziggy continues to make us laugh even while we are learning about serious historical events. Ziggy and his friends live in Ohio near the Ohio River. As the story begins, Ziggy is looking for his homework. Completed homework is a requirement to  attend the class field trip to visit the Ohio River.

During this unit I read historical picture books with the first four chapters to build background knowledge and help students get a better understanding of the story. I am extremely inspired by the amazing questions and connections the students are making with a difficult part of America's history.

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In Freedom River,  John Parker an ex-slave that bought his own freedom, helps a family escape across the river from the slave state of Kentucky to the free state of Ohio. John Parker was a real abolitionist. More information about John Parker can be found here.

More information about author Doreen Rappaport can be found here. And see more of Bryan Collier by clicking on this link.

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Our next historical picture book was Underground by Shane W. Evans. You can get a first hand feel for this book by going to Shane's website.

We also read Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story From The Underground Railroad - enjoy the beautiful Kadir Nelson illustrations. And Unspoken, a wordless picture book by Henry Cole.

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The plot thickens when we start Chapter 5 of Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs, Lost in the Tunnel of Time. Stay tuned for more exciting news from your child's 3rd grade Library Media Class!

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You're Invited!

Stop by the library and visit our Annual Scholastic Book Fair. The fair will run from Monday, January 11th to Tuesday, January 19th. Books may be purchased during your child's normally scheduled library class and after school. The fair will be open every school day until 5:00 p.m.
You can preview the fair here. All proceeds go to restocking our library shelves.

Hooper is a Party Pooper!

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We celebrate letter H with an enormous party inviting all our favorite friends from A to Z! Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him!, by Dr. Seuss writing as Theo. LeSieg, is a great book to use 9 weeks in to our alphabet journey of picture books. Letter H is our story letter but we also summarize ALL the letters of the alphabet as we read this clever story about a party where Hooper is not on the guest list. Kyle predicted that "Hooper is boring" and that's why we were not inviting him. In the end all is right with the party and our manners... Hooper does make the list!
I love reading this book with our Kindergarten students who LOVE talking about their birthdays and the letters that are in their own name. Differentiating the first letter in their name with all the others can be challenging and this is a great way to reinforce how we combine letters to make words and get a good sense of where the students are with their own letter recognition skills.

I Am Going!

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Introducing the Elephant and Piggie series by Mo Willems!

Elephant and Piggie are best friends. In our story, Piggie tells Elephant that he is going and that's when the drama starts. This is the first of several Elephant and Piggie books we will read this year. The books are for early readers and are in a comic book style complete with speech bubbles.

More information about Mo Willems here!

F is for Friend

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What does being a good friend mean? My kindergarten students said that good friends are kind to each other, good friends share and good friends play nice together. Students immediately connect with goose and bear in A Splendid Friend, Indeed! by Suzanne Bloom. Bear wants to quietly read, write and think while goose talks and talks! Poor bear, why is goose bothering him so? Bear wants to read, write and think quietly. Goose wants to do everything that bear is doing until thinking makes him hungry. Goose goes off to make a snack and brings more than a few treats back to warm the heart of his favorite bear. Students LOVE this story and are intrigued as goose tries to copy everything that bear does. We talk about what makes a "splendid" friend and students draw pictures of their friends. Other stories to try:

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