Everybody Dance Now

I know we have a lot of dancers at school.  Lyrical and Jazz.  Modern.  Tap. Irish.  And the one I live with, ballet. These kids work hard for hours and hours every week.  I know from experience.  I have been taking my daughter to dance since before she was 3 years old.  She loves it and most likely will major in it next year when she goes to college.

Our amazing PE teacher posts a daily short video of games to do at home.  Follow him (@coachbiehler) if you don't already. They are entertaining and uplifting.  His kids are too cute. My daughter was never really into basketball or tossing a ball around. It was (and still is) dance.  These days she is taking online classes in our dining room. What can you do with your young dancer?

#HowDoYouDance

Back in early January, I shared How Do You Dance? with Mrs. Pryde's kindergarten class and we had a lot of fun dancing around the Dewey Section. Looking at these pictures makes me miss the kids and the library so much.

 

Watch this video of Thyra Heder talking about her book and dancing on KidLitTV. Can you share your dancing videos with the hashtag, #HowDoYouDance ?

I love this quote from Thyra that when you are "not feeling very joyful or feeling very happy to know that you can also move your body then and you can sort of roll around on your floor, you can dance alone in your room...that's also a good idea to show moving on a sad day." How did she know that dancing could be therapeutic especially TODAY?  If you do get a hold of the book, look out for this particular spread, "Good days. Rainy days. Sad days.  Sometimes you just need to flop around until you feel better."  Today I could use a whole lot of flopping around, if you know what I mean.

To Dance: A Ballerina's Graphic Novel

In 2015 I met Mark Siegel for the first time at ALA.  I nearly toppled him over.  "YOU'RE Mark Siegel?! My daughter's FAVORITE book is To Dance!" He was very kind to me and we might have chatted for about three minutes. Then I kept running into him, and that was awkward. At every ALA or TLA since then, I have seen him and continue to salute him and remind him of my admiration for the book.

I found the book on Tari's shelf last night.  I know she re-reads it every once in a while.  It's one of those books that always brings her back to a happy place.  If you can get a hold of the graphic novel written by Mark's wife, Siena Cherson Siegel and illustrated by Mark, here are some discussion questions I found from AdLit.Org:

• Do you like this book as a graphic novel? Do you think the story would work well without them?
• Read Jill Krementz's A Very Young Dancer (one of my most favorite books growing up) and find similarities and differences in the way the two stories are told.
• Do you have a hobby that you enjoy? Research ways you can turn that hobby into a job. (You can even think about this question without reading the book.)
• Were you surprised at the choice Shana made when she turned 18?  Why do you think Shana made that decision?

Ivy and Bean: Doomed to Dance

I love the Ivy and Bean series by Annie Barrows and illustrated by my friend, Sophie Blackall.  Here's a book trailer for Doomed to Dance, Book #6 (The latest is Book #11!). Read the whole series! They are all good!



Here is an audio excerpt from the same book:

Book Recording | Doomed to Dance on TeachingBooks


And to keep with the Ivy and Bean theme, here is Sophie reading from Ivy and Bean: One Big Happy Family, Book #11:

Dear Ballerina

I met author and illustrator, Monica Wellington many years ago.  She was even our guest for the Read Over Sleep Over several years ago! Her daughter, Lydia Wellington, is a dancer with the NYC Ballet.  When my daughter was about 10 years old we saw Lydia dance in Saratoga and she gave her a pair of her ballet shoes.  I don't know who was more excited, Tari or me?  

How exciting that Monica's book Dear Ballerina can be found at the NYC Ballet gift shop!



Here is a cupcake recipe from Monica's website that your family can bake together.

FYI: You know that leaping sketch of me in my Google bio?  Monica drew that!

There are a lot of other books fiction and nonfiction related to dance.  PLEASE email me if you want any more suggestions. First thing I will do is pirouette over to my daughter's bookshelf. Then I will check out the library catalog.

And for the TEEN dancers in your life...

I just wanted to share Sophie Flack's, Bunheads, another one I grabbed off Tari's shelf.  You know how intense the world of ballet can be and woosh--the music in this interview says it all.

Two wild connections here:  Aunt Ronnie (see above) is friends with Sophie's mom AND Jenna Gavigan is friends with Sophie!

Encore

I hope your very (or not so very) young dancer is still dancing in addition to doing academics, hanging with the family, and of course, playing outside. Even your non-dancer can benefit from a moving around to some music. Get that sunshine in your pocket, dance away and remember to share #HowDoYouDance ?

PS: I found this one I really like but can't get the YouTube link so check it out here to DANCE!

xo

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?

b

Our first SIGNED star!

A Visit with Monica Wellington!

Another great author visit has come and gone.  The preparation is always crazy for these visits, but well worth it!  What amazes me is that the authors are always smiling and thanking me.  I know I exhaust them but it's nice to be humored :-)

Monica Arrives

All the first graders, at a moment's notice, came out to the lobby to welcome and cheer Monica on as she entered school.  We pride ourselves on these arrivals!  Mrs. Kosinski's class even held up her books for all to see!

Signing Books

No rest for the weary.  We put Monica right to work!  She had over 100 books to sign. I don't know if you can tell, but she isn't just signing her name, she is personalizing every book with a name, a salutation and an illustration!  Beautiful!

Lunch Break

I invited some fifth grade Dewey Duty kids to join us for a BYOL (I did provide popcorn) with Monica.  It was nice and intimate and the kids really enjoyed it.  You can learn a lot from anyone and they did!

It was great that Mrs. Pusateri showed up at that moment so we could get a photo op with her, too!
She did a wonderful job organizing the Read Over Sleep Over.
ps-My clock in the back is broken again. Agh!

 Assemblies

First graders and kindergarteners came in for separate short assemblies in our Common Area in the afternoon.  It was great!  Monica shared with us pictures of her cats in her apartment, her writing and illustrating process along with the first book she ever published (when she was in first grade in Switzerland) and first versions of Mr. Cookie Baker.  It was fun to see how she takes a photograph and uses that as a guide for some of her illustrations.

The first thing Monica does before starting a book is sketch it out.

We are looking at the differences between an older version of Mr. Cookie Baker and the published book.

Monica with some of the first graders (and Seymour)

One of the kindergartners brought in his own copy of Crepes by Suzette for Monica to sign.

The view from Monica's apartment in NYC

One of Monica's first drawings she ever did in elementary school

More Mr. Cookie Baker - I was getting hungry looking at all those cookies!

And then the READ OVER SLEEP OVER! 

After a short opening with all the kids, Monica lead four small groups with an activity related to her books.  She shared how she uses artwork as a guide for some of her illustrations.  With that, she spread out postcards of famous pieces of art and students had to find them in her books.  Some were easy but some, like The Three Musicians by Pablo Picasso in Crepes by Suzette was a bit more challenging, but they all found it. And they found many more! AND they were so well versed in the artists, it was so impressive.  Kudos to our art teacher, Mrs. Pazienza!

 Part 2

The second part of the station was to take a postcard and create your own version of that painting. Once again, the kids were awesome.  Here's one group with their masterpieces!

Check out the clock (and this one works!)--Finally, we said our goodbyes.  It was a wonderful day and fun visit!  Stay tuned for a drawing Monica did of me leaping, of course!  I'm hoping to make it my new profile pic soon! Thanks again for coming to Castleton, Monica!

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'!