Keeping the Kleenex Close

After hearing this story on NPR on Sunday, I can't get the song out of my head.


Oooh child.
Things are gonna get easier.
Oooh child.
Things'll get brighter.
Ooh child

Things are gonna get easier.
Oooh child.
Things'll get brighter.
Ooh child

Someday we'll get it together and we'll get it undone
Someday when the world is much brighter
Someday we'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Someday when the world is much lighter

I'm feeling so lost these past few days.
The box of Kleenex is never too far from my reach. I wish it didn't have to be.

Places are opening up and yet I'm not sure I am ready to go anywhere.
Every hour the news changes.  For the worse.

Four book birthday parties this week. A National Doughnut Day raffle happening now with doughnut deliveries by me on Friday to the winners.  Is it frivilous?  Maybe? But it makes my students smile and we could all use that right now. I know when I see them on meets I grin from ear to ear.

Every Monday morning I begin with a read aloud in Mrs. Kosinski's first grade class.  This week I chose, Smriti Halls's I'm Sticking with You (illustrated by Steve Small). Love it. Bear and Squirrel are friends and do everything together until Squirrel wants a little space. Somehow it hit a nerve. I read it before the class and cried. I thought I got the tears all out.  Nah. Maybe the kids didn't notice the frog that showed up. Tari, like Squirrel, is ready for a little more room.  But unlike Squirrel, she won't be coming back. Breathe, I tell myself..."Who shares their very last chocolate with me?...We fit together like bugs in a rug. Like jam in a doughnut..." I'm going to miss her so much. Good thing the tissues are huddled just under my elbow.



On another note, check out this free download from Smriti. It's a beautiful picture book with a message we could all use right now. "Dark days may shake us. Worries creep in. With dragons to duel. And battles to win."

However you can, fight the battle. Protest. Read. Donate. Write. Talk. Paint. Listen. Express Yourself. Vote. Love. We're in this together. Things are gonna get easier. Things'll get brighter.

In the meantime, keep your Kleenex close.

National Poetry Month DAY 1

Mrs. Warland texted me late this morning asking if me not posting my blog was an April fool.
Of. Course. Not.
Just a wild, super busy day. And I still want to bake a cake because today is the first day of...NATIONAL POETRY MONTH.

Did you catch my friend, Kwame Alexander on NPR's Morning Edition THIS morning?

This is well worth the listen, but be sure and pay attention right at the beginning.  Kwame reads a poem written by Mikey, one of our fifth graders!

Poetry really can help us stay positive, release some emotions and feel connected during these times.  I could dedicate the whole month to writing about poems and poetry.  I don't know if I will do that (honestly, I have a very long list of blog post themes to get to!) but I may revisit it often in April.

Laura Shovan

My friend, Laura Shovan, is a poet from Maryland and author of a book I love, The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary School.  It's written in verse from the point of view of eighteen different kids.  This is how the book is described from Laura's website:

Eighteen kids,
one year of poems,
one school set to close.
Two yellow bulldozers
crouched outside,
ready to eat the building
in one greedy gulp.

But look out, bulldozers.
Ms. Hill’s fifth-grade class
has plans for you.
They’re going to speak up
and work together
to save their school.

My students love this book and in fact, I recently recommended it to someone who asked me for another book in verse after reading what? Yes, The Crossover!

Laura has a new month long project going.  It's already started, but we can catch up. Here's a video of her introducing the #WaterPoemProject:

Every day on Laura's blog she has a new prompt to get you started on a poem.  Here's the direct link for her blog. If you want to leap in today, here was the prompt from yesterday:

Buffy’s poetry prompt is: A Watery Home

Buffy Silverman

Write a mask poem about an animal and its watery home.

A mask poem is written from the viewpoint of the poem’s subject. Choose an animal (real or imagined) that lives in water as your subject.

You might write from the viewpoint of a tadpole that wriggles on the bottom of a pond, a crayfish that hides under rocks in a stream, or a dolphin that leaps in the ocean. Write a poem that tells about your home.

Answering these questions might help you begin: What sounds and sights surround you? How do you stay safe and find food? Why is your home the perfect place for you to live?

It's an overwhelming project to sift through all the fabulous poetry books and resources available to us online. I will choose a couple more for today and hope that whets your palate and get you wanting more in the future.  It is after all, National Poetry MONTH.

Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quote, and Anecdotes from A to Z

This book is pretty much hot off the press. You know the poems were written before the pandemic, and yet they are hopeful and reassuring and timely.  Here's a discussion guide.  Check out Charles Waters's website at https://www.charleswaterspoetry.com.  He has video links to all of his poems.  It was hard to choose just one to share.  This one has a poem about Aretha Franklin and another one called, Team.  Maybe you will sing and dance to R-E-S-P-E-C-T today and think about the team we are all on fighting COVID-19.

I also love Charles's and Irene Latham's book, Can I Touch Your Hair? illustrated by Sean Qualls and Salina Alko (whose work I admire) which I included on my Newbery list the year it was published.

Shel Silverstein

The first poet I ever loved was Shel Silverstein.  I wish my well read and tattered Light in the Attic book wasn't at school because I could use some of those poems right now. Check out his website for resources, pages to downloads, poems and fun.

I found this site with ideas to link his poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic to math activities.  Have fun with that! A few examples:

• There is a poem called, "Bandaids."  If you have an overabundance of bandaids, place them on your body where the poem tells you to (finger, knee, nose, heel...) and then count all the bandaids up. How many are there? If you have different shape or color poems, write fractions for each shape or color.
• Using the poem, "One Inch Tall" think of all the things you could do if YOU were only one inch tall.
• "Billy Belly Baloney" will eat anything, it seems, for money.  Create a receipt listing all the things he eats.  For how much money would you eat something crazy?  Reminds me of the book, How to Eat Fried Worms (not poetry but maybe a fun, family movie to add to your list? You can read the book, watch the movie and compare.  The book is almost always better.)

Maybe your April fool will be to serve up some fried worms tonight or a belated one tomorrow?  Then write a poem about it and share it to me!

In the meantime, I'm off to check my flour supply. If it's all good a "Happy Poetry Month" cake is going in the oven asap. It's these little things we need to celebrate. xo

No April fool here, Mrs. Warland 😉

LOVE

(Warning: You will need at least 15 minutes to get the most out of this post 💙 but it will be worth it.)

A couple of weeks ago I heard this on the radio:


  Just by sharing it on our announcements, a couple of kids wrote poems.

But I wanted more.

So on Monday morning I shared Matt de la Pena and Loren Long's beautiful book, Love, to the whole third grade.  I played the last two minutes of the above NPR segment and challenged kids to write their own love poems. WOW.

I recorded each student saying one line from their poems to form a class LOVE poem.




I submitted the class poems to NPR thinking they were awesome and how cool would that be for us to be on the air.  Well, little did I know over 2000 entries were received! This was aired today:



Leave it to Kwame--that crowdsourced poem is GOOD.

So even though we didn't make it on the air, I still feel like we are winners all around.  Winners for writing beautiful poetry. Winners for listening to beautiful poetry.  And winners for loving. love is love. Love is poetry. Love is everything.  💛

PS-Mrs. Fowler, the 7th grade English teacher participated, too. Here are a couple of her entries from students.

Love is teal,

mysterious like the ocean;

Love is a tulip,

growing, gentle and sweet;

Love is a dog,

loving and listens;

Love is a fire truck,

coming here for you when you feel down or broken;

Love is a lullaby,

Soothing you to sleep;

Love runs everywhere,

Making everyone feel happy;

Love is there when you need it most!

-CT

Love Is

Love is yellow,

Happy and smiley;

Love is a flower bud,

Ready to burst open with happy laughter;

Love is a panda,

Happy and positive;

Love is an ice cream truck,

Playing a happy song as it goes along;

Love is a jazz song,

Relaxing and calm;

Love is a not knowing when happiness is there,

But knowing it is there when you need it;

Love is my best friend,

Love is my Grandma!

-CC

The week BEFORE the last week of school

A new school week is about to begin.
Celebrations.
Giggles.
Joy.
Antsy kids (and teachers) ready for break to begin.

As far as the week that just passed, I want to share three highlights with you:

Phone a Friend

If you read no further, please check this out. OMG! Kwame Alexander called me for his finale of his Facebook show, #Bookish! I was SO NERVOUS!  I don't even think I sounded coherent or intelligent.  Let's just say thank goodness for the editor!  Kwame wanted me to recommend one book for lower elementary.  One book?!  The pressure to pick just ONE book.  Well, I picked Debbi Michiko Florence's Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen*.  I think this is a great chapter book for beginner readers.  I read it aloud to the first graders and we were on the edge of our seats at the end of every chapter.

Then, Friday Kwame was on NPR.  You, too, can get in on the poetry...

Oh, for the love of reading

We are nearing the end of our Newbery book groups.  What a success! We had 16 groups lead by many different people including a recess monitor, principal, assistant superintendent, PE teacher, library volunteer and a secretary. End of book parties began happening including my own with cream puffs, homemade salsa and guacamole with my Lucky Broken Girl kids.

Then Mrs. Kelliher, our fifth grade math teacher, started a group with Someday Birds.  We showed the trailer (included at the end of the blog) and kids put their name in a hat to be picked for this Tuesday/Thursday lunch group.  Only six got in, but one bought the book with his own money so he could join, too.


I got this email at about 8pm one night from our Special Ed teacher:

So I approached her about leading a group after school.  Again we showed the book trailer (also at the end of this post) and this time so many kids wanted to sign up that we ended up writing down the kids who didn't. Kids were asking when they were going to find out and you would have thought we were announcing the lottery winners when we told them who got in. Oh, for the love of reading and the power of the Newbery project.

I Love You Like a Pig

Mrs. Kosinski's first graders are coming up about once a week now to read a book and then do an activity related to the book.  We're calling it #ReadItMakeItTakeIt. It's been great--we've tied shoe laces, sewed buttons, made mochi (*see above under "Phone a Friend) and on Friday we made a special book for a friend that is moving to another district.  We read Mac Barnett and Greg Pizzoli's I Love You Like a Pig and then wrote our own similes for people we love. Tomorrow I will upload them into Calameo and everyone will be sent the digital copy.  The book will be dedicated to Eva. We are so sorry she is moving.  We love her like a juicy strawberry in June.

Mr. Slim Goodbody

I almost forgot we had an assembly on Friday that I highly recommend. Mr. Slim Goodbody kept students from K-5 AND adults entertained for over an hour!  I'm not sure who else could do that.  Kwame, maybe?  We were all laughing, attentive, engaged...it was great.  Kudos to the PE Department (my mentee included!) and the PTO for inviting him to CES. Here's the link to the website for the information on the assemblies.  Of course, I took a leap with him.

Now on to this week.  I can only dream about what's in store...

Book Trailers

Grit, Passion, Smiles and the Fun-Brarian

I took a break for a week from listening to audiobooks while I ran and tuned into the TedRadio Hour. Now that was inspiring, especially the episodes on success and education. I have been thinking a lot about both of those topics this summer, especially success.

I spent a few days with my cousins in North Carolina at the end of July.  I met their friends, Dave and Tasha, the owners of Rite Lite Signs in Concord. Very nice people who 28 years ago with only a ladder, a garage and $2500 from Dave's grandmother began their path to success.  I was fascinated to hear their story and tour the facilities. Honestly, I will never look at a sign the same way again.

Dave giving me the tour of the Rite Lite facilities. 

Choose Your Neon

Dave, Cousin Linda, Me, Cousin Dave, and Tasha with the obligatory leap!

 Was the key ingredient to their success grit?


In the past several years, I have offered summer book groups. We get together, have a snack and discuss the book.  Usually I don't get too many kids and this year was no exception.  In fact, I might have had fewer kids than ever, but I'm still going do it next year.

My husband came right out and asked me after the fourth one, one that actually was well attended according to the summer standards, "Why do you do this? Why put yourself through this for 1-2 kids?" Why?  Because I love it.  Why? Because I'm making a difference in the lives of those 1-2 kids. Why? Because I'm completely and totally passionate and driven about my job. 'Nuff said.



Two different, unrelated friends, told me recently on separate occasions that I must really love my job.  Is it that obvious? I can't remember if they were commenting because of my Twitter feed, FaceBook posts or my incessant leaps with books, illustrators, authors and students.  One even told me that if I don't love my job, I'm doing a great job faking it.  No fake news here, they nailed it.  I do love my job.  The forever optimist, I smile A LOT at school and just all the time. I'm happy.  And little did I know that one smile could taste so good, better than chocolate:




I've been thinking about my professional goals lately, too.  It was further sparked by this article, "Engineering Happiness at Zappos".  After I read it, I posted on Twitter that I was available to be a "Fun-brarian" at Zappos and we had a little back and forth. They don't have a librarian at the moment.  Of course, I have no desire to leave the job I love, although "Fun-Brarian" is pretty tempting.

Dear Zappos, 
Any chance you have an opening for a Fun-brarian position on weekends, school breaks and summers?  If so, I'm your girl!  I'm not kidding! I have grit, passion, dedication, smiles and hugs to share and definitely a sense of humor (a requirement when working in elementary education).  

It looks like those folks at Zappos are already having fun but maybe another company?

Another school year is about to begin.  It's going to be a great one, I just know it.  At the end of the 2014-15 school year, after the dust had settled from Spring visits from both Chris Grabenstein and Kwame Alexander, a colleague told me he was worried.  Knowing how competitive I am with others and myself, how could the next year possibly compare to this year?  And yet we managed to do some more amazing stuff that year and this past one.  In June, I asked him if he worried about me anymore. He flat out said, "No." We don't know what's lies ahead for us, but we know it's going to be AWESOME. As I told him recently via email, sometimes it's just a matter of clicking the "send" button. Happy, happy 2017-18 school year to all!

PS-Dear Ted Talk, If you ever want someone to leap onto your stage, I'm your girl...That's a goal of mine...lol...

Leaping at the Bat Mitzvah leads to some Fuzzy Mud

I'm BAAAAACKKKKK!
Wow! What a Bat Mitzvah weekend!  We laughed! We cried! and of course, we leapt!

PRE-LEAP

LEAP! (and yes, Tari and I were both wearing heels!)

Recovering from almost 200 guests and a full weekend of celebrations with family and friends from all over the country can take days. It took me about till Friday till I felt like I was back in the game again.  And here I am!

In the meantime, Zack and I did manage to listen to Fuzzy Mud by Newbery award winning author, Louis Sachar.

Usually when we listen to a book, we keep it to the car.  But one day we were so riveted that we brought it in side and I devoured almost this whole wheel of local Camembert (I highly recommend it and thank Field Goods for providing it in my bag this week!).  This is a total middle grade creepy, thriller.  I kept trying to explain to Zack that the reason it was so creepy (he almost abandoned it!) was because it's science fiction that could be real.  Who knows?  It may be happening right now and we just don't know about it.  When scientists invent Biolene, a gasoline replacement, they have no idea how the ergies got out, multiplied and caused a major "situation in Heath Cliff, PA."  Together fifth grader, Tamaya, her friend and neighbor, seventh grader, Marshall and seventh grade bully, Chad save the country one day after school in the woods by stepping in some "fuzzy mud."  The descriptions of the fuzzy mud symptoms can make your stomach turn, and not so great to hear while driving, but I managed.  I was afraid Zack might have nightmares, but he didn't.  Even, Tari, who only heard bits and pieces, had a hard time with it.  The book makes you really think about science, the environment, friendship and what is best for humankind.  It certainly sparked quite a bit of discussion among us and I look forward to hearing the reactions my fifth graders will have when they read it.

Check out the interview on NPR with Louis Sachar at the bottom of this post.

STAY TUNED!  My Newbery project with the whole fifth grade begins MONDAY!  I am finalizing my book list and getting ready!  This year, in addition to our principal leading a book group, both secretaries from the office, my volunteer, Mrs. Warland and our technology coordinator will also be leading groups!  Plus, the youth services librarian from the public library will be leading one after school and Mrs. Kelliher will be doing one during intervention.  Very exciting to get so many people involved!

The Case for Loving

Happy Saturday!  Since my commute is a .3 mile walk I don't get the luxury to listen to NPR to and from school.  The beauty of this world today is that nothing is missed with the Internet and online streaming.  (and yes, me who is always up till midnight actually fell asleep on Dave Letterman's last night but luckily got to watch it the next day this very way)

I have been tweeting a lot about how much I love Junior Library Guild and my "books of the month," especially the ones recently.  In my May box, I received,

Such a beauty by SELINA ALKO and SEAN QUALLS.  I didn't realize it, but I already "knew" Sean Qualls--He's illustrated a bunch of other books  including, Dizzy, Scit Scat Raggedy Cat, Before John was a Jazz Giant and more!  We used all those books for our Acoustic Rooster jazz musician project for Kwame!

The Case for Loving is getting a lot of attention now and was even on NPR (YES! There's the connection to NPR, if you were wondering) yesterday.  If you missed it, here's the story:

   The illustrations are gorgeous and help tell the story of how it was illegal for interracial couples to be married as late as 1967 in Virginia.  I am sure this would be hard for any young person to grasp these days, even me!  This hits home to me personally because my own inlaws are an interracial couple.  Although slightly different circumstances since they are Asian and Caucasian and living in California, it was still 1967 and they could have still experienced some discrimination.

The Lovings moved from their home state to Washington, DC (where it was legal) so they could raise their family without grief.  You have to get your hands on this book!  Good discussions could be had with students of all ages.  I have to be honest, I haven't had the chance to share it with my students, but definitely will in the future.  It is a great addition to my library and again, I am grateful to Junior Library Guild for passing it on to me.  The book could be paired so well with some of our chapter books with the older grades, too.  Hmmm...like, Revolution by Deborah Wiles perhaps?  As an aside, I know she is working on the third book in the trilogy now and I believe it will take place in the late 1960s, so definitely, YES! Looking forward to that one when it comes out...

I'm all over the place this morning.  Probably haven't had enough coffee yet.  I just wanted to put a shout out for Selina Alko and Sean Qualls!  Maybe they'll be at ALA and I'll get to jump with them?More later….