Jon Klassen Rules!

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Over the last two weeks in grade one and my strand classes we read three books by author/illustrator Jon Klassen -- all about hats! The simple yet sophisticated drawing and stories are filled with very polite characters with hat problems! Did the big fish eat the little fish? Maybe. Did the bear eat the rabbit? Not sure, he was a bit rude, right? Did they find another hat or are they still dreaming? That's up to you. We think and imagine as we discuss possible endings and if it's ok to take something that is not yours. We also talk about sharing.You will not be disappointed if you check these books out with your child. See youtube link below as well.

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The Story of Ferdinand

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Focusing on my theme of "reading takes you places," we travel to Spain and my first graders and strand students read The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf with illustrations by Robert Lawson. This book was written in 1936 and is considered a classic children's book. The story is about a bull named Ferdinand that would rather sit and smell flowers under his favorite cork tree instead of fight like all the other bulls. After reading the book, we also watch the 1938 Academy Award Winning Short Cartoon by Disney entitled Ferdinand. We briefly discuss bull fights and the cultural tradition of bull fighting but our discussion focus is having the courage to be yourself. Ask your child about the story, it's a winner!

First Graders Think Like a Pig?

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We returned from winter break and started reading the Mercy Watson Series. First up, Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig by Kate DiCamillo. To introduce the Unit I asked students what they thought pigs think about. Students said, "playing in mud," "eating lots of food," and "sleeping in grass." I used the nonfiction text, Life on a Pig Farm by Judy Wolfman to reinforce background knowledge about real pigs. We then wondered what a pretend pig might do that lived in a person's house as we enjoyed reading the first four chapters of our first Mercy Watson book. Starting next week, students will also "read" the book along with me on computer. We will read the book together first and then they will go to computers and practice reading the same chapters online. If you have computer access at home, please join us in reading the series together through Tumblebooks. Go to my website at www.msmmedia.org, select Grade 1 and then Tumblebooks. Your child will be able to show you how to get to the site. Tumblebooks now requires a subscription fee, and if you have one that's great. There are a number of youtube videos with readers reading the Mercy Watson series. You can read along or turn the sound off and read with your child. Enjoy!!

The Book Fair is Here!

Our Annual Book Fair will run from January 9th through January 17th. My Media Class Students did an amazing job setting up the Fair this year. They made special sections for shoppers including a "Shopkins," animals, graphic novels and heroes and history areas. The Book Fair is open to all Orchard Gardens students and their families. Students generally purchase books during their regularly scheduled Library Class or after school. The Fair will be open until 5:00pm every day. ALL proceeds from the Fair go to purchasing more BOOKS for our library. Your child should have a flyer for the fair. You can also preview titles and purchase books online CLICK HERE PLEASE. 

Our New Giving Tree!

As promised, the 2016 Giving Tree made by the students and staff at Orchard Gardens from recycled damaged book pages! Hundreds of "leaves" with messages of peace, love, happiness and understanding create the canopy. Watching my younger students' excitement as the tree blooms and "hugging" the tree before they get to our "reading rug" never gets old. My wish for the entire Orchard Gardens Family is that you have peace, love, happiness and understanding each and every day of 2017 and beyond!

The Giving Tree Keeps on Giving

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Every December I read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein to every library class including electives and we create a new giving tree. All students and staff are encouraged to write a message of loving, caring, giving or sharing to someone special in their life. Someone who is like a tree in that they stand tall for them whether they are perfect or may sometimes make a bad choice... this person is a person that loves you without conditions and loves you as much on a Monday as any other day of the week. The messages stay on the tree until June as a reminder of the people that matter in our lives and are always there for us. You could hear a pin drop when I read it to my 7th and 8th graders this year. For some of them it will be the last time I read the story to them - the first was when they were in Kindergarten!

Leaves from old maps

Shel Tree

In addition to reading the book, we watch the original movie narrated by Shel Silverstein and a short adaptation of the original. Each year we share something special about the people that love us unconditionally and represent our "tree." We also compare the different media for storytelling and our own different understandings of the story as we grow older. The December 2016 Tree is made with leaves from damaged book pages.


Previous trees include theDecember 2015 tree made from old maps, the December 2014 tree dedicated to Shel Silverstein on the 50th Anniversary of The Giving Tree done in the illustration style of Silverstein; our multi-colored leave tree from December 2013 dedicated to Nelson Mandela and a traditional green tree from December 2012.

Mandela Tree

Green Leaves

It All Makes Sense!

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Ms. Gray's students have been studying parts of the body and making connections with the five senses through picture books with me. Some of the books we've read over the last eight weeks are pictured or listed below. 

Other featured books in this unit include;

What Is Beautiful? By Mary Jean Watson Avery and David Avery
The Best Part of Me: Children Talk About their Bodies in Pictures and Words by Wendy Ewald
The Eye Book (Bright & Early Board Books(TM)) by Dr. Seuss
The Nose Book (Bright and Early Books) by Al Perkins
The Hair Book (Bright & Early Book ; Be 24) by Graham Tether

I Love My Hair! by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley
The Ear Book (Dr. Seuss Bright and Early Books for Beginning Beginners) - Hardcover - First Edition, 44th Printing 2008 by Al Perkins
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb (Bright & Early Books) by Perkins, Al (unknown Edition) [Hardcover(1969)] by Al Perkins

You're Invited!

Don't miss the December Arts Show!

Wednesday, December 21st

4:30 p.m. Stroll the art galleries

5:00 p.m. Performances in the auditorium by the OG Band, Theater, Dance, Strings, Chorus and Piano students.

The Lion's Den and other Orchard Gardens novelties will be on sale.

Nice Hands in K0

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My youngest strand students, K0, have been doing a unit on parts of the body. We began the journey with I Call My Hand Gentle by Amanda Haan. "This is my hand, it is special." After we read the story we trace and decorate our hand pictures. 

We End the Journey Trilogy with Return

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Return, the final book of the Journey Trilogy was released this past August and it did not disappoint. Mr. Cipriani's Class, like most of my classes that read the trilogy, devoured the opportunity to hold all three books, look for more details and practice telling the story themselves.

Sharing wordless picture books are an important part of our library class for new and emerging readers. Check out Reading Rockets for more information on Sharing Wordless Picture books. Also check out the book trailer for Return!

Our Reading Journey Continues with Quest!

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This week most of my K-2 classes continued with Book 2 in the Journey Trilogy -- Quest by Aaron Becker. The second book picks up right where the last book ended with the girl, the boy and their purple bird riding the bike they created. It starts to rain and they take cover under a bridge in the park. There is  a large wooden door - a secret door - under the bridge. Their quest begins when the orange King appears and asks for their help before he is taken away by the "evil soldiers aka bad guys!"
We discuss the meaning of a quest - a journey with a purpose! The kids "are searching for something like pirates search for treasure," says Kelmary. Enjoy the book trailer with your child, they will fill you in on all the details of the story!

Here we go!

Our reading journey continues with an amazing trilogy from Aaron Becker. Book one, Journey, a wordless picture book and 2014 Caldecott Honor Book. Each page unfolds mystery and intrigue and stimulates so much conversation and imagination in the library. Students quickly recognize connections between Journey and Harold and the Purple Crayon (Lesson One).

If you have the opportunity to visit the library OR purchase this book it will not disappoint. Journey is a book that can be read over and over again by "students" of all ages. Enjoy the book trailer that follows and consider, "What if there was something magic that could take you away? Where would you go? What would you do?"

Harold and the Purple Crayon

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As emerging readers I help our students learn to THINK and IMAGINE as we read our stories. Thinking is quiet and we can do it with our eyes open and closed! What we think is ours and no one can tell you what to think or how to think. When you think you can think about real things or imaginary things. When we read, we think about the story and the words in the story. GREAT readers can make pictures in their minds of what we read and all of my students are GREAT readers in training.
Harold and the Purple Crayon is a perfect introductory book to illustrate thinking and imagining. Prior to reading the story we discuss the words "think" and "imagine." We then read the story aloud followed by watching the animated version. After reading and viewing we share either orally or with a purple crayon on paper where we would go with our own purple crayon. This year Jayden took a voyage on a submarine, Patrick was an astronaut going to space and Evilene took her mom to the park.

Welcome Back!

It has been a terrific start to the school year. I LOVE seeing how much everyone has grown over the summer and meeting many new OG students. I also LOVE seeing how many people's names I can remember.  But even Ms. M sometimes needs a little help with names and that's why we play The Name Game to welcome everyone to Library Media. It's silly, it's fun and underscores the importance I place in students and teachers calling each other by their names. We show respect and caring when we remember each other's names. In our school this is an enormous challenge because there are so many of us - but we CAN DO IT! Watch Shirley Ellis rhyme with ease and play this game at your next family gathering - it's fun with a purpose. I've also provided the words so you can follow along!

Orchard Gardens Welcome Back B-B-Q

Join us! 

Back to School B-B-Q! 

Meet teachers, enjoy some food and order uniforms!

Wednesday, August 31st

2-4 pm

Free Ebooks on Open eBooks

Download the App here. If your child attends a Title I school, the school librarian, reading teacher or even principal may have the access code. This is a great free resource, but you will need the access code for your child's school.

Kindergarten 2015-2016...it's a wrap!

June went by like a flash and I didn't have a second to spare to bring you up-to-date on the many wonderful things going on in our classroom. Here's a quick summary...

Letter W

We read Waiting for Wings by Lois Ehlert. Students connected their kindergarten classroom experience learning about the life cycle of a butterfly with reading in the library. They are very eager to share their vocabulary knowledge of the life cycle with words such as "chrysalis" and "cocoon." We used the letter "W" to draw butterflies and also make some gorgeous butterflies ourselves.

Letters X, Y & Z

Skipping over X ever so briefly we returned to a favorite author/illustrator and read Yo! Yes? by Chris Raschka. Watch this great version of the book here.
We ended our journey with The Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni. In this story the letters learn that they are stronger when they connect to make words and even stronger when their words become IMPORTANT sentences.




If your Kindergarten student attended library you should have received your child's book complete with their September "Ready for Reading" photo on the cover.
Take some time with your child this summer and read through the pages of their book. Plan a visit to your neighborhood branch library and reread some of their favorite stories. Have a great summer and happy reading!