Got CRAYONS?

I am pushing physical education every day with my family.  Mr. Biehler's daily posts on Twitter help with ideas.  Yesterday we simulated a stick run. Walks with friends are a regular part of my routine.  This morning, I even woke up early to take an online yoga class.

Rain, Rain Go Away

Today we might need an umbrella for our walk. Time to put some extra art in the schedule. With that in mind, today's theme is crayons and coloring. To begin, let's read this nonfiction book about the man who invented crayons.




With a few clicks, I was able to find many resources for the book that you can use at home.

HERE is a 27 page lesson guide that goes with the book! It's crazy how many curriculum connections can be made to this one book! Math, Science, ELA, History, Technology, Social Emotional Learning and of course, Art!  Here is a LINK for a couple of coloring pages, as well. Because the weather isn't great today, this could the perfect book to use as a baseboard for home learning.

I found a couple of different videos about how crayons are made.  One from Mr. Rogers and one from the UK:






And once things get back to normal, maybe your family could even plan a trip to the Crayola Factory. They are all over the country.

Speaking of drawing...We were, right?

Shout out to my buddy, Jarrett Lerner for his drawing tips of robots:




Check out his WEBSITE for blank comics or ones to finish. This is a great use of creativity with your pencils and/or crayons:

And a reminder for Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems at 1PM.




And LIVE with Jarrett Krosoczka at 2PM.




Have fun creating today!

Stay happy, healthy and positive! xo Ms. Rattner 💗

DOUGHNUTS and ILLUSTRATORS and DRAWING oh my!

Greetings from the CES Library and TOP of the morning to you on this St. Patrick's Day!
Don your green clothes, play in the "green" grass (although, it's not quite green yet here in upstate New York) and eat some green food (How many green things can you eat today?).

I bet somewhere someone is baking GREEN doughnuts today.  I cannot resist doughnuts and Laurie Keller, creator of ARNIE the DOUGHNUT among many other fabulous books (i.e., Scrambled States of America, Do Unto Otters), is a fave of mine. Could it be the doughnut connection? In 2018, she and I sat next to each other at the Caldecott-Newbery banquet and have been buds ever since.  I am determined to get her to Castleton one day 🤞.

There's a great coloring sheet on Laurie's website here.

Can you imagine what it felt to find out you were demoted from planet status? Find out in Adam Rex and Laurie Keller's book, Pluto Gets the Call.  Put it on hold through Sora/Overdrive.

Here is a read aloud of ARNIE for you to enjoy today:




Baking is a great activity we can all do together and think of the curriculum connections!  Math, ELA, Science! The Doughnut Fix by Jessie Janowitz is one of my favorite doughnut chapter books.  On her website she has a recipe for "Life-Changing Chocolate Cream Doughnuts." OOOH!  Please share pictures if you do leap into this activity!

I found this DOUGHNUT Tic-Tac-Toe game on our database, Kids InfoBits.

Kids InfoBits - Document - Tic-Tac-Doughnut: A Game for 2 Players

SPEAKING of ILLUSTRATORS (We were, right?)

Maybe you heard, maybe you didn't, but some authors and illustrators are posting daily live (or to watch later) videos.  This is so wonderful and generous of them.

Who doesn't LOVE Mo Willems?  He is hosting a Lunch Doodle hangout every day at 1PM.  You can also find things to do on Mo's website.  Here is his introduction video:




ALSO, you can watch Jarrett Krosoczka, author and illustrator of one of our favorite graphic novel series, The Lunch Lady (and other books!).  Subscribe to his channel and you can get a reminder to watch him live EVERY DAY at 2PM.  You can even set a reminder to yourself.  Here is the first episode from yesterday:



Did you know that Jarrett visited CES about seven years ago?  I think it's time for him to return, don't you? 😍

Stay healthy, happy and positive! xo Ms. Rattner

One Brave Soul

I can't stop thinking about Jarrett and how brave he is. I'm also extremely sad that I am #NotAtnErDCampMI and will have to wait even longer for a hug...

Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father and Dealt with Family Addiction

Current teens who spent their elementary years reading and re-reading Jarrett Krosoczka's Lunch Lady books are going to be thrilled to know that Jarrett is back.  This time he's the one donning the heroic yellow gloves as he lets the readers peep into his young childhood through courageous and heart wrenching words and images in his new graphic memoir.

Keep tissues handy and make sure you have a few hours set aside.  You won't want to stop reading.  This graphic novel is filled with love, hope, strength, the search for family, and words and images that will make you wonder, "What is a mother? Who is a mother?" Warning: You will continue to keep Jarrett in your thoughts days and days after finishing. As an outsider, I have always viewed Jarrett as a success story, the famous graphic novelist, the one whose books are torn and are forever checked out of my library.  Now he's offering us a raw glimpse into his struggles, his bravery, his family and sharing how his art became his first line of therapy. Maybe I won't stop thinking about him till I see him again for a big hug and the opportunity to say, "Thank you."

March 2013 with my then 6 year old Zack

In 2013, Jarrett visited my school right before the launch of the first Platypus Police Squad book. We were the first to serve him root beer floats.  At the time, my son was in first grade and fell hard, so hard that he began to set his sights on RISD for college.  Then we became Jarrett groupies, going to see him as often as we could, traveling the nearly two hours to events. Every time Jarrett saw Zack, he would embrace him as if we had been lifelong friends.  Zack is a bit older now and has sadly veered off the graphic novelist path a bit but he will always be a fan of Jarrett's. And I guess the same goes for Jarrett as when I finally ran into him and Gina before the Caldecott-Newbery-Legacy Banquet, the first thing Jarrett said was, "How is Zack? How old is he now?" This short memory is bringing tears to my eyes.  Here we are in a room filling up with the best of the best and the most talented authors and illustrators and publishers and librarians and Jarrett is asking me about my son.  Wow. He is a brave soul with a heck of a huge heart. 💕 But we didn't need his book to tell us that.

Me with Jarrett and Gina before the banquet last month

And I found this Twitter thread so fascinating and inspiring:

An ode to David Levithan, @loversdiction.

Because sometimes our mentors are also our peers.

<a thread>

— Jarrett J. Krosoczka (@StudioJJK) June 26, 2018

Walk of STARS

Because our whole school, well at least 4th and 5th grade, is all abuzz about the hopeful release of the movie, So B. It (it is being premiered at the LA Film Festival in June!) we began our own Hollywood Walk of STARS at our gala last week.  Some of my Dewey Duty kids posed by the stars with books by our visiting authors and illustrators.  And we don't even have a star for every author/illustrator that has visited!  WHAT?! And what if we added our Skypes? Seriously, we would have a walk of stars all the way down the hallway! We NEED more STARS!

So now I am thinking everyone needs to come back to CES and sign them!  I don't have a problem with that--do you?

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Our first SIGNED star!