Hair Love

I gave my husband a haircut last weekend.  Since then he's been wearing a hat to the grocery store. My son has beautiful curly locks.  He could use a trim but won't let me near him with the clippers.  I don't think I'd let myself near him.  The thickest hair my hairdresser has ever cut is my daughter's. We thought it couldn't get any thicker. We were wrong.  And my hair? Well, it's just getting long with "highlights."

I was looking for a read aloud from my bookshelf and came across local author celeb, Matthew McElligott's Even Monsters Need Haircuts.  Perfect!

Every full moon, the barber's young son gets out of bed to work the "midnight shift" at his dad's barber shop.  In his slippers and PJs, he treats the monsters to something we are all craving right now.

Thanks to the Indiana Library Federation (and me), here are a few questions to think about that pair with the book (and today):

1. Which monster hair would you cut? Or not cut?
2. How long does hair grow in one month?
3. Research the superstitions behind a full moon.
4. My own addition--find a picture of you close to or at the beginning of quarantine.  Compare your hair to the way it is now.  Draw or describe how you think it will look right before you end up in the barber or hairdresser chair.

I went to check out Matt's website and it's filled with activities for kids and what?! A brand new book that just came out, Do Not Eat this Game!  Matt's website is a dream for parents and teachers--games, videos, lesson plans, STEM related projects and more.

When Matt visited CES oh so many years ago, I was not a seasoned author host.  But I still decorated the Dewey Section with tablecloths to match the colors in Bean Thirteen (maybe one of my favorites of his-so much so that the cover is framed and hanging in my foyer). He came back at night and did a program with parents using his special illustrating tools and we still have his creation hanging in the library.  It was a great author visit. I have a self made rule of always having new authors and illustrators visit.  Hmmm...Rules are meant to be broken, right?

I found three of Matt's books here at home, all signed to Zack but sadly not dated.  These days I always ask for a date stamp.  I probably didn't think about that back then.

And just speaking of hair.  I'm sure most people have already seen Hair Love, but I do love the Academy Award winning animated short and the book it was based on.

Here's a read aloud and the video.  Which do you like better?

Back in February, after we read the book we made our own hair love project. Check out these first graders:

Happy Hair Love! xo

And the winners are...

While driving my daughter to ballet this morning I had butterflies dancing in my belly.  At first I was trying to figure out why.  We already saw Dear Evan Hansen last month.  I don't have any big plans for February break.  Hamilton is still too far in the future to be butterfly excited.  Even TLA is a few months away. Then, what could it be? Oh yeah...Youth Media Awards are MONDAY! That's gotta be it!

The cake is ordered. Two to be exact, since we are having so many kids at our viewing party.  The link has been tweeted and sent home with parents. Mother Nature is going to cooperate. Finally.  Mock Results are in (sort of) and Consensus Club came up with a, well, consensus.

Caldecott 

The snow day and delays really threw us off with Mrs. Roe's Caldecott class.  The highlight, though, was Skyping with Mike Curato, illustrator of All the Way to Havana, yesterday morning after he walked the adorable Princess Leia.  The second graders stumped him as they fired off "What's your favorite...?" questions but he held his own quite well, especially for 9:00 am!  We will all be rooting for him on Monday.

Because we ran out of time, Mrs. Roe will be conducting the vote first thing Monday morning. On a side note: I do like the MST event--it gives us time to work out glitches, do a few things and not mess with specials in 4th and 5th grade. Thank you ALSC and Denver.

Geisel

We didn't run a classic Mock Geisel this year with Mrs. Kosinski's first graders.  A "Read It-Make It-Take It" project morphed into a Geisel project as we ended up creating activities around all the Geisel contenders.  We did 13 projects and read 17 books!  And that doesn't include Jasmine Toguchi Mochi Queen, one of our first projects. No surprise that Ninja in the Kitchen was the favorite since making the pizza from scratch was pretty fun! My favorite? Charlie and Mouse and Grumpy by Laurel Snyder.  When I read that book aloud to them yesterday, I got a big ole frog in my throat.

My personal Geisel 2018 Analogy:

Jonathan Fenske is to laughing as Laurel Snyder is to crying.

Sibert

No standout winner here except for ALL our fourth graders! WOW!  They were amazing! We read a lot of books.  They chose their favorite and alone or with a partner(s), they created a 3-D project (some included food--cookies are cool but check out the grape barbells!), shared ten facts and wrote a persuasive paragraph on why their books should win the 2018 Sibert award. We know not all of our books can and will win but we have a feeling one or two (or three) just might. How to be an Elephant maybe?  Dazzle Ships (for sure?) Grand Canyon, maybe?  What about Nic Bishop's Penguin Day? And to hear the kids exclaim how much they love The Youngest Marcher is the coolest ever.

(Agh...I just spent a whole hour trying to figure out how to put Google Photos into a photo album.  Please look at all of these if you can--I am so proud of our fourth graders!)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/b5P2lP5uvJINkm7E2

Newbery

What can I say about Newbery?  I'm speechless. I look back in my book journal (yes, I do not use Goodreads) and have been reading, listening, discussing and scoring these books for the past 13 months. The final moment will come at around 10:50 EST. This is my sixth time doing this project and over the years we have experienced all different emotions from ecstatic, elated, happy, sad, disappointed, surprised, angry (yes, one year the kids boo'ed--we had a lesson on sportsmanship after that!) but always accepting.  It has taken me some time to realize that the decision comes down to fifteen librarians who may or may not have the same opinions, feelings, background as my students and I do and that's ok.  But it is a let down for me.  I still think about my "Kwame Kids" (2015) and last year screaming and leaping with Ashlynn in her footy PJs and even my first year with Ivan and the boys exclaiming, "Our book won!"  I love Newbery so much and wish we could be this intense about reading ALL year long.  You in, Mr. Reischer?

We did have our Consensus Club meeting yesterday after school.  It was one for the books, literally! The winner (but it was close!) was Orphan Island!  Honors went to: Beyond the Bright Sea, The Ethan I Was Before, Refugee and Chasing Augustus.

I must say that whatever books win on Monday, we are truly all winners for becoming critical, passionate and I hope, lifelong readers.  CHEERS.

I Love You Like a...AND PIZZA!

Sometimes I feel like this could be a first grade musings blog but then I turn around and write extensively about a project with fifth, third, second, fourth...so it really is all encompassing.  Yet today it is all about the six year olds.

I Love You Like a Pig

Last week I read I Love You Like a Pig with words by Mac Barnett and art by Greg Pizzoli.  Then we attempted to write similes with first graders.  A bit of a challenge but we did it.  The classroom teacher and I already have a list going of things to change should we do it again next year.  We made our own book and dedicated it to a friend who moved to another school last Friday.  Check out our book here:

I Love You Like a...and Other Similes

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Ninja in the Kitchen

This week we donned our aprons and chef hats and made the trek into the bowels of our building to the old faculty room.  There we rolled out pizza dough, spread the sauce, added pepperoni and cheese and watched our creations bake in the ancient oven.  The smell wafted through our building and once again, success! Thanks to Luke Flowers and his Moby for the inspiration. The kids also read Michael Garland's Pizza Mouse to themselves while we waited for the pizza to bake.  Hiyah! It was a delicious batch of fun!

A #MobyShinobi #ReaditMakeitTakeit #collaboration w/@C_ESLibrary featuring Ninja in the Kitchen by @lafcreative.Hiyah!We rolled,tossed &added toppings of our very own.A tasty treat made by awesome #firstgrade Kitchen Ninjas! #GeiselContender @CastletonES @SchodackCSD @Scholastic pic.twitter.com/kbXTYkuaCE

— Earna Eagle (@earnaeagle) December 21, 2017

ps-Do you spy one of the students wearing my Lunch Lady apron?!

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

2016 STONE SOUP

For the past three years I have collaborated with a first grade teacher on a "Stone Soup" project.  I gather up all the versions of Stone Soup we have in our library and in our public library system.  She reads them all to her students and then for one week we split the class up and each of us works with a group of students to write and illustrate their own version of the tale.  This year we had even fewer students in each group because she has a student teacher.  Then, right before Thanksgiving, the class brings in their own ingredients and cooks up a couple of batches of stone soup in the classroom.  This year, we enjoyed it while viewing the books on the SmartBoard.  Here, for your reading pleasure, are the 2016 digital books thanks to the publication site, Calameo:

Mrs. Pryde's Group:

Red, White, and Blue Stew: An American Soup

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Ms. Green's Group:

Sea Soup

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My Group:

Mickey and Spongebob's Stone Soup

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Great job everyone!

The Matzah Ball book inspired students to put matzah balls in their books AND their soup.
They were a big hit!

What's stone soup without corn muffins?

ps-I highly recommend Calameo for digitizing books. So easy, especially if you can scan on your copier, like we can at school.  Just add the PDFs and voila!  A book!  You can do this with any topic and any grade! And look how easy it is to share!  Have fun with it and good luck!

PRESTO! It's Stephen Savage!

With fist pumps, peeks into his sketch books, a preview of his newest book due out in the spring and even a quick pause to get his wire statue built by his elementary self in the spirit of Alexander Calder, this was one amazing Skype!  Thank you, Stephen!

He made a point to say and remember every child that came up to the camera to ask a question.  Each one got a fist pump.  Jack brought in his personal copy of Where's Walrus, got it "signed" and personalized by Stephen.  Lucky!

Jack getting his book "signed"

In spite of our rough start (blame it on technology), it was a great Skype.  Not only did we get to ask questions and hear all about where Stephen's ideas come from and how he screened and almost didn't pick up his Geisel acceptance call from our friend, Miss Amanda, but he also drew Supertruck, Walrus, Penguin and even by request, a Boston Red Sox, all for us.  When that was happening, you could hear a pin drop in the library! We could have all watched him draw for hours.

Someone asked how he got the idea to do a wordless picture book.  After a little trial and error and working with his editor, it just came to be.  "Some things just happen because that's the way things go."

Another question we asked was whether he wrote the words first or drew the pictures.  As we know, every artist is different.  Stephen writes first.  "The words give me all the information I need to make the pictures."

I forget who asked this, but it was my favorite question.  "Do you always say 'presto' when you cook?"
We found out that Stephen does a lot of the cooking in his family so he usually says, "Hurry up and come to the table! It's getting cold."  I bet he's a great cook but he admitted that he's like the mixed up truck sometimes and wonders if he put the right ingredients in, such as the right cheese.  Hmmm...if he's wondering if it's the right cheese or not, then he's totally sold me on dinner at his house.  I love ALL kinds of cheese, the more unique the better.  Maybe that's a story for his next book?

I have been around a lot of writers and illustrators where the "What's your favorite book?" question has come up and Stephen's is not an unusual answer, the classic, Harold and the Purple Crayon.  Harold seems to be an inspiration for many illustrators. I distinctly remember Bryan Collier answering that because he thought he looked a little like Harold.

Steve showed gave us a peek into his new book and we even got to meet his dog!

The new book!

We could have sat with Steve for hours but alas we had work to do and I am sure he had work to do, too.  At least we hoped he did so he could keep making great books for kids.

The 2017 Geisel Committee with 2016 Geisel Honor Award winner, Stephen Savage!

And our obligatory leap!  Look at the air on some of those kids!

Thank you so much for a great Skype, Stephen!  We look forward to reading Little Plane Learns to Write in the spring and more books by you in the future!  And know that Castleton Elementary School always has an open door for you, just a 15 minute drive from the Albany Amtrak station! ;-)

"Every kid is a great artist.  Some kids just stop doing it."

-Stephen Savage, 2016

The winding road to Jewell Parker Rhodes coming to CES

This is a "Where's Jewell?" picture

The most lovely, inspiring, joyous, huggable Jewell Parker Rhodes visited our school on Thursday. Her aura and magic is still lingering.  I imagine it will hang over us for a long time to come.

This post is not just a recap of our day, but a history of our relationship with Jewell...

It All Started with Sugar in 2013

Rewind three years and it all started with a Sugar book group for the 2014 Newbery project.  Look!  I even found the photos from our Skype with Jewell!  We have loved her ever since.

And now these kids are in 8th grade!  It's crazy how time flies...

Fast Forward to Late Winter/Spring 2016

We are so fortunate that we received arcs of Towers Falling through the Little Brown Faculty Lounge.  Mr. Reischer read it as a book group and both he and the students loved it.  Then I read it and loved it. Then Mrs. Warland read it and then....and then...and everyone who has read it since has loved it. Even our custodian picked up a copy on his break starting a few weeks ago.  I heard he just finished it.

A few pictures from our Skype in April with Jewell:

Here Mr. Reischer is giving feedback to Jewell

   

This Week

Jewell dazzled us this week as we welcomed and embraced her in our CES community for a few short hours this Thursday.  And she was a true sport about it, too!  Just moments after her toes felt the red carpet, I swept her into the office to have her say good morning on the announcements.  That's when she shared to our whole school community that in November she will be a grandmother to a little girl named Clara.  We are all so happy for her.

At our school wide assembly, we introduced our theme for the year, "We can be heroes" which came from Towers Falling.  We sat Jewell right in the front so she could watch it all.  To kick it off, Mrs. Golden's first graders sang an awesome song about heroes.  Next, we all loved hearing about the heroes of the students in Mrs. Kelliher's class.  We learned about the circle lesson in Towers Falling from Mr. Morse's class.  Mr. Reischer's class performed a great skit teaching us the important lesson on how we can all be heroes and all the fifth graders sang  a beautiful rendition of, "This Land is Your Land."  

Mr. Reischer's class skit*

Mr. Morse's class did the circles from Towers*

Mrs. Pryde's first graders came up and shared a timeline of her life.  Then Jewell and I did a little Q and A and that's when everyone in the room fell in love with her!  Silly me, I didn't even give her the questions in advance, but you would never know! She answered them so eloquently, you would have thought she had days to prepare.

                            

                                        Mrs. Pryde's class timeline*

Do you think this shirt was worn on purpose?

This is your life, Jewell!

Each 4th grade class researched and
created a Jewell Parker Rhodes from A-Z book*

For more pictures from that day, check it out here:  SCHODACK FLICKER for JEWELL (All pictures with an * are from this set.  Thank you Jason McCord!  I couldn't take many pictures myself!)

Jewell boarded her plane for California at noon.  She was with us for such a short time but boy did it make an impact.  People were talking about it the whole afternoon and next day.  Thank you, Jewell and Little Brown for bringing us all together!

Ms. Martin, Mrs. Hanna and Mrs. Brewer's third graders are loving Sugar.
They made this welcome sign for Jewell to hang by the red carpet!

I hope I have given the day what it deserves.  We love Jewell and were so thrilled to have her visit our school. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  We look forward to collaborating throughout the year and more! xoxo

Prepping for Monica Wellington

I am getting so psyched for Monica Wellington's visit next Friday!  The original plan was for Monica to be our guest author for our annual Grade 2/3 Read Over Sleep Over (Yes! Kids sleep at school! = Fun for kids...not so much for parents...) I asked her if she would come since we were thinking a Paris, France theme and Monica wrote a book, Crepes by Suzette.  Monica agreed so graciously and then offered to come early to do an assembly for kindergarten and Grade 1 students.  Of course, I said "Yes!"

Monica and I met about six years ago when we sat at the same table for lunch during a SSL conference.  We started chatting and when we realized that both our daughters dance, we clicked.  Of course, hers is a professional with NYC Ballet and mine was only 7 at the time but still had the same passion for ballet that she does today at 13.  We even saw Lydia Wellington one summer while she was at SPAC.  We met her back stage and she gave Tari a pair of her worn pointe shoes.  I'm still waiting for Monica to write a story about ballet...

Today I shared Apple Farmer Annie (it takes place in Kinderhook!), Zinnia's Flower Garden and Mr. Cookie Baker with Mrs. Pryde's class. The kids loved them all.  Monica frames her main illustration on each page with mini pictures from the story.  The kids loved discovering that and finding the meaningful pictures in each story.  In the back of each book, Monica includes some kind of "how to"-- In Apple Farmer Annie, it's apple recipes.  In Zinnia's Flower Garden there are hints on how to plant seeds and of course, in Mr. Cookie Baker there are cookie recipes.

I also love Monica's simple illustrations.  I love the adorableness of the people.  They are always so smily and happy.  I was joking with the kids how much I would love it if Monica drew me leaping. :-)

For today's activity, Zinnia's Flower Garden fell perfectly right into our curriculum.  Since we just finished up seasons and weather on Friday, I had the kids fold their papers in quarters and write down what Zinnia did with her seeds during each season.  I found a similar idea posted on TeachingBooks.net.  I love that site!

Then we read Mr. Cookie Baker and we ate the sugar cookies.  Yum!  I was going to have the students decorate them but I ran out of confectionary sugar at home to make the frosting.  Thankfully, we ran out of time and the kids didn't seem to miss it.

April 1 will be here before we know it and I can't wait. That's no foolin'!