Rain, Rain Go Away...Gone!

My husband's degree is in meterology but he is far from a weatherman.  He looks at the same radars as you do to check out to see if it's ok to ride his bike or hang clothes on the line.  Yesterday I didn't need to check with him about the weather.  All I had to do was look out the window to see it pouring.

Today, I see some blue sky.  I just checked my phone app and it looks like it will be dry for days.  I have to tell you, though, the rain did not stop me from taking my daily walk.  I donned a raincoat. Put my hood up. Opened the umbrella and marched on. I might have even leaped into a puddle or two.

My favorite rain book is Float by Daniel Miyares.  That book arrived in my Junior Library Guild book box in the fall of 2015 and I fell hard immediately.  I wrote him a gushing email and the rest is history.  He visited us for our gala in 2017 and with every new book, he continues to perfect his craft. Coincident or not, today he has a book birthday!

This book looks gorgeous and has received three starred reviews! It's a  biography about Ramanujan, a boy in India in the late 1800s who reinvented mathematics as we know it today.  STEM friends-Add this one to your list!

Back to Float, which can also be combined with STEM activities like these:

If you read enough of Daniel's books, you will see that yellow pop out everywhere.  I love it.  How could YELLOW not make you smile? I mentioned this to Daniel once and this is what he said about it:

Want to know a fun, crazy fact? Daniel illustrated Kwame Alexander's 2016 picture book, Surf's Up! I know, right?  My worlds totally, positively, colliding! Here's a coloring page (and more ideas) to help you dream of sunny, hot summer:

Like many of my illustrator friends, Daniel is posting art videos on Instagram. His videos might be more suited for older kids, or not. Anyone interested, really. Here is one where he draws a house by the water.  To me, one thing that always stands out in Daniel's work is how he draws shadows.  What do you think?

Subscribe to Daniel's YouTube channel or Instagram so you can watch and draw or paint along to all his videos.

Oh, one last thing--related (because I wanted an inside workout since it was raining, and we are talking about rain...) or, maybe not really. Mr. Biehler shared on his Twitter a new app  he downloaded, Home Court. I checked it out and it is so much fun! It can be used any day and time:  inside (the next rainy day we have) OR outside.  I plan to play with it daily! 

Check out this tweet BY the company.  You rock, Mr. Biehler!

Teamwork makes the dream work 🏀💪 ⠀
⠀@coachbiehler and family shows us how to get it done - who will you tag team today? Mention us at @homecourtai for a chance to be featured.⠀
⠀#stayinthegame #homecourtai #inthistogether #familytime #teamworkmakesthedreamwork⠀ pic.twitter.com/hu1vkBSCSY

— HomeCourtai (@HomeCourtai) April 14, 2020

And not nearly as cute as the Biehlers, but I'll share anyway--my first attempt last night.  Yes, this is before we figured out I should go find an inside ball (tennis?). But there are way more workouts on here than just ball handling.  Rainy day or not, I challenge you to try it out! You won't be disappointed!

Happy Book Birthday to Surf's Up!

I've always been a big birthday fan.  Fondly remember my first bike on my 6th birthday all decked out with a yellow banana seat.  Had my pregnant mom spinning 45s on a hot June day at my 50s theme birthday party when I was 9.  Made everyone play games at my "Game Themed" 12th birthday party.  Threw myself a rockin' 17th (not 16, that's too cliche) birthday party, a 24th birthday, 40th, 45th...Anyway, you get the drift, birthdays are important ways to celebrate life, accomplishments, challenges, obstacles we overcame and a time to really look forward to what's to come.

My first and second graders will always remember February 1, 2016.  This was the day we celebrated, sang, and ate cake in honor of the book birthday of Surf's Up by our friend, Kwame Alexander and illustrated by our new friend, Daniel Miyares.  You know we were hoping deep down for Daniel to come to Castleton Elementary School, and we are not ruling anything out, however we got the second best thing--Daniel projected on the screen as we chatted and asked him questions.  The kids asked great questions in front of a palm tree/tiki lamp backdrop, while he shared his insights into illustration and being an artist.

Finally, we sang happy birthday and dove into the cake.

Didn't Price Chopper do an amazing job on the cake decorating?

Doe loves Daniel as much as the rest of us. Here she is taking a break from cake serving to say "Hi!"

Thanks so much, Daniel, for a wonderful virtual visit!

In lieu of a FTF with Daniel, NorthSouth Books mailed me 66 (one for every first grader) backpacks. I am not a drawstring bag fan, but this one makes the exception! Thank you, NorthSouth!

Then this afternoon I had Mrs. Pryde's class in to work on our Sarah Weeks project and crazy me said, "Let's say 'happy book birthday' to Kwame!"  "Yeah! Yeah!" the squealed.  So I ran and got my phone and in 7 seconds the kids gave Kwame their good wishes.  I texted it out to him, switched my phone off from vibrate and waited.  While the class was still in the library, Kwame texted back and I, of course, shared it with the students.  How cool is that for them?

Speaking of Kwame, it is hard to believe a whole year has gone by since the 2015 Newbery announcement.  I will always remember that weekend and then the Monday (Snow Day!) and Tuesday afterwards. We had a cake ordered that we had to tell Price Chopper to put on hold.  We Skyped with Kwame the next day to wish him a congratulations.  Those kids (and me!) were pumped!  Landon, Noah, Eli, Jack, Liam, Chris, Andrew...and those are just a few of the kids.  Someone even cried when they heard it was a snow day because we'd miss watching the Youth Media Awards live.  It was crazy! Oh! And we had cake then, too!

If you want more on Kwame and Daniel, check out these links:

Interview with Daniel podcast by Matthew Winner (All the Wonders)

Interview with Kwame podcast by Matthew Winner

Blog post by Mr. Schu about Surf's Up, Kwame and Daniel