This week we concentrated on two authors:  Peggy Rathmann and Margie Palatini.

We examined books by Peggy Rathmann and found that because she is also the illustrator  she often make connections between her books using the same characters or pictures.  Some examples are: the street in Good Night Gorilla is the same street on Ten Minutes to Bedtime (Hoppin Place).  We noticed the stuffed gorilla in Good Night Gorilla is also in Ten Minutes to Bedtime.  Good Night Gorilla has a pink balloon on almost all the pages (that is floating away) and Ten Minutes to Bedtime also has a hamster with a pink balloon that floats away.  There is also a connection between Ten Minutes to Bedtime and Officer Buckle and Gloria.  Officer Buckle and Gloria are found in Ten Minutes to Bedtime sitting on the computer at the end of the book. 

                            See the video of Goonight Gorilla

We also check to find the copyrightdate to see which book was published first, second and third.

Margie Pallatini is an author but not an illustrator.  We enjoyed the humor in her books Piggie Pie and Zoom Broom.  Students could also make the connection to the stories of The Three Little Pigs and the Farmer in the Dell. 

Short summary video Lousy Rotten StickenGrapes

After reading Aesop’s Fable, The Fox and the Grapes we read Margie Pallatini’s book Lousy Rotten Stinkin Grapes which is based on the fable of the Fox and the Grapes.  Students realized that both stories had a moral ” It is easy to scorn what you cannot get” 

We discussed other fables that they children knew such as the Tortoise and the Hare and discussed what the morals of the different fables were.

This week students took out paperback books.  This is our last week to take books home.  If students need books in the classroom they can borrow them but with a short week and then Project Inside Out beginning on June 7th it would be difficult to get all of our students books back before June 7th if they were going home.  Thank you for your understanding and assistance in getting your child’s book back to the library.

On May 29th Hannah and Pam from Burnham Library will come to our library to meet with students and tell them about the summer reading program and other special activities.

This week library had a zig-zag week.  Kindergarten registration was taking place in the library so the library was on a cart going to classrooms for three days.  Although we were not in the library we still enjoyed some wonderful books.

The author we worked with this week was Chris Van Allsburg.  I first told students he was an author and illustrator and they probably were familiar with some of his very famous books.  I mentioned The Polar Express, Jumanji and Zathura.  Most children were familiar with at lest two of the three.  I reminded them that the books came before the movies and it is fun to compare the book with the movie to see what changes may have been made in the movie.

Some of the books we read this week were:  Two Bad Ants, Bad Day at Riverbend, The Widows Broom and the Mysteries of Harris Burdick.

You may want to visit Chris Van Allsburg’s web site to see all his books and play some of his games.

Chris Van Allsburg

Beginning next week students will be checking out paperback books.  It always takes a long time to get all the books back and on the shelf to prepare for inventory before the end of the school year.  I appreciate your help in having your student return his/her books in a timely manner.  I have just added an additional thirty new paperback books to our catalog.  These, along with our large selection of paperbacks will give students some wonderful choices for the next couple of weeks.  I hope to have all students books returned before the start of Project Inside Out on June7th.

Poetry

This week we have focused on poetry.  The library has a wonderful collection of poetry book.  Students knew that poems can rhyme but we also talked about poems that don’t rhyme.  I showed students a variety of poetry books and read a sampling from them.  We read a book that was just one poem, a book that had a number of poems by the same person and a book that had a collection of poems from many poets.

Some of the poetry books we read from were:

mammalabilia by Douglas Florian, Mary Had a LIttle Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale, Beneath the Blue Umbrella by Jack Prelutsky, Graham Cracker animals 1-2-3 by Nancy White Carlstrom, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein and so many more.

We talked about “poetic license” and how spelling can be changed, punctuation can be changed and lines and spacing may be different in a poem. An example is:

 An example of spelling was a poem by Douglas Florian called:

The Aardvarks

Aardvarks aare odd.

Aardvarks aare staark.

Aardvarks look better

By faar in the daark.

We talked about voice when we read poems from a former Red Clover Book, Bottoms Up! by Alice Schertle.  In this book of poems about articles of clothing the voice is that of the item of clothing such as an old t-shirt, a bike helmet, a bathing suit and shoe laces.

Maybe you have a favorite poem from your growing up years you can share with your children!

Next week we will be “on the road on a cart” while there is kindergarten registration.  I have told students that this week and next week are the last two weeks for borrowing hard cover books.  We have a wide selection of paperback books and that is what students will select for the last couple of weeks of the school year.  It always takes a long time to get the books back on the shelves and ready for inventory at the end of the school year.  I appreciate your help in getting those hard cover books back.

Many students borrowed play aways this week.  I reminded them to be very careful with them as they are quite expensive and are not for younger brothers or sisters to use.

Today we welcomed Michael Garland, author and illustrator, to our school library!  Students have been reading and studying his books for two months.  Michael has written and illustrated over 30 of his own pictures books and has illustrated 70 pictures book for other authors.

The students listened attentively as he told them how he comes up with his ideas for his books.  His visit to Ireland gave him the idea for King Puck.  A friend on his basketball team who was not very tall scored a fantastic three point shot and Michael yelled, “Hooray Jose!” and eight years later the book Hooray Jose was published! He told us that his first three books were written for his children.

We learned that when his illustrations look like different texture as in, How Many Mice?, he had taken pictures of his clothes and then when the were uploaded into the computer he could cut and paste and make a collage.  He said the sky was his shirt and the grass was corduroy pants and the fox was a fur coat of his mother-in-laws!

He told us he made the illustrations in Fish Had a Wish look like wood cuts by using wood grain effects on the computer.

Students had good questions and were extremely well behaved during the presentations.  They enjoyed watching him do illustrations of a fish, a dinosaur and Miss Smith.

We feel very lucky to have had such a wonderful guest come and make the books come alive.

Below is a slide-show of some of the students work on what their favorite Michael Garland book was.     My Favorite Michael Garland Books

Michael Garland Visit PDF 2

This week we read three of Michael Garlands books. Two of the books were I Like To Read books for early readers. The titles are Fish Had a Wish and Car Goes Far.  Car Goes Far was named one of the top 25 picture books of the year by Kirkus Reviews.

Car Goes Far : “Car looks good.” But when the car ventures out to “go far,” it ends up becoming quite a mess after mud, smoke, and birds sully its shiny, red body. “Car does not look good now,” reads the controlled text. “Car is sad.” We talked about the headlights and bumper on the car and the way Mr. Garland showed the feelings of the car in his illustrations. The students then talked about the steps of a car wash and we read further to watch the transition of the car from dirty to clean as he went through the car wash. Again the students watched the illustrations carefully to see the expressions of the car change. The text was easy to read and the kinder students enjoyed reading it with me.

Fish Had a Wish : In this book “Fish has a wish to be some creature other than what he is: a bird, so he can fly high in the sky; a turtle, so he can nap on a sunny rock; a skunk, so he can make a big stink; or a bobcat, a bee, a beaver, a butterfly or a snake. But when a mayfly lands on the water, Fish eats it in one bite and declares: “That was so good!…I wish to stay a fish.”

The “digi-cut” illustrations grab your eye and had our students looking at the texture involved in the illustrations which gave an outdoor effect and a real sense of nature. Students found the pattern and rhyme fun to read.  Some of the students tried to add texture to their pictures on Tux Paint on the computers.

Grandpa’s Tractor was the third book we read this week. “Grandpa Joe brings his grandson Timmy back to the site of the family farm, where the old house and a ramshackle barn still stand. The visit evokes many memories for Grandpa Joe, which he shares with Timmy–in particular, the majesty of his own father’s shiny red tractor, now rusting in the forgotten fields.”

As we read this book we compared some of the illustrations in the book  Michael Garland’s book My Cousin Katie so that we could see what the farm might have looked like when Grandpa was young. We again talked about Michael Garland’s landscape paintings and how beautiful they are.

After reading this book and talking about the Author’s Note and the importance of tractors on a farm we visited the John Deere Kids web site and viewed different farm equipment and played some of the games. You may want to visit this site with your child. http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/fans_visitors/kids/kids.page

We also had fun with our Word Search which had words of  Michael Garland’s books and characters.  Next week we will work on the Crossword Puzzle. You can click here and print them out to do at home!

Michael Garland Books Wordsearch               Michael Garland characters crossword puzzle

We also had fun sharing Michael Garland’s I pad app for the book Icarus Swinebuckle. This app is an interactive book which you can read or be read to.  It is the story of a pig who can only think about flying.  He tries many inventions and he is late in getting his shoes out to his customers.  You will be surprised with the ending of this story.  There are puzzles and a memory game to play after reading.

Students want to ask Michael Garland if he is the reader in the app and if he made the puzzles and memory game.

Just one more week until Michael Garland visits Porters Point!

Each of these second grade students selected a Michael Garland book and did a book trailer.  They summarized the book, chose illustrations to go with their summary, dropped them into i movie and recorded their voices.  Please click on the picture to view the book trailer.

Last week we read books about Passover, Easter and Spring.  Of course we are continuing to read Michael Garland’s books.  We had fun with the Easter Egg Hunt book looking for chicks, lambs, rabbits and gold and ruby eggs along with many other things.  I used the document camera to project the illustrations onto the whiteboard so that the children could see enlarged pictures to help in finding the hidden objects.

PLEASE __Remember to send back the Michael Garland books you purchased at the Book Fair if you would like him to sign them.  I would like the books here by April 18th so that I can have them ready for him on the 19th.

Some second grade students are busy making a book trailer of Michael Garland books and we hope to have that up to view by next week!

 This week we read the following Garland books:  My Cousin Katie, How Many Mice?, Last Night at the Zoo and Mystery Mansion.

As we read these books we looked at the illustrations and talked about how they were different.  We have lots of questions of how Michael Garland created the illustrations for How Many Mice?  They seem to have texture.  Students felt it reminded them of community paper and collage.  We talked about landscape pictures and found some beautiful ones in My Cousins Katie.  Last Night at the Zoo reminded students of the book by Peggy Rathman,  Goodnight  Gorilla where the animals follow the zookeeper home one night. The students laughed at the disguises that the animals had from the “lost and found” at the zoo.  We also talked about where zoos are located and why the animals would have to take a bus into the city.  We have enjoyed Michael Garland’s books this week.

 Mrs. Campbell reads during free time in the library.  Coloring in the library.

Boys from Mrs. Belaski’s class are looking for the perfect book!

 Coloring in the library.

Just relaxing with a good book!

This week was very busy with the Scholastic Book Fair.

Children previewed the books to select their favorite titles.  The sale was open all week and Thursday night until 7:00 PM.

The fair was very successful and the money we have earned from it will be used to buy two more ipads for the library and new apps for them.

I was also able to take over $500 in books from the fair for our library.

I want to thank all the mothers who helped me set up, preview and take down the fair.  It would not have been as successful without their help.

I also want to thank all those who made purchases to make it a very successful fair and in return acquire new materials for the library.

Fairies and talking goats were the highlight of our reading this week.  We read Michael Garland’s book King Puck.  This book is based on the annual festival held in Killorglin, which  is a town in County Kerry, Ireland.  The festival lasts for three days and at the end a wild mountain goat is crowned “King Puck”, king of Ireland for a day.

This web site tells of the King Puck Festival.  The video is long but shows all the activities of the three day festival.
 A visit to Ireland, the land of his “roots” inspired Michael Garland to write this story.  A lonely old man named Seamus  lives in the mountains near Killorglin with his goat Finny.  He reads to Finny each night from his only book, the Legend of Finn McCool. Clever fairies cast a spell on Finny which allowed Finny to talk.  Then Seamus and Finny travel to the King Puck Festival and Finny wins the crown by surprising the villagers when he tells them the Legend of Finn McCool.  For winning he is granted one wish.  His wish is for BOOKS!.  Now each week the town librarian Margaret Carney (also the name of Garland’s great grandmother) brings them books and company. To follow this book second grade classes read the Legend of Finn McCool and discussed the difference between fairy tales and legends.

There will be two of Michael Garland’s books at the book fair in paper back. Miss Smith Under the Ocean and Fish Had a Wish. If you purchase them you can bring them back the day before he comes and I will have him sign the book.

Next week is Book Fair.  Students will come to the book fair and preview the books and make a wish list.  I remind the students to do a five finger test to see if a book is just right for them.  I also ask them to find at least two books they can read and maybe one they want someone to read with them.  I ask them to show a variety of books they are interested in not just super heroes or fairies.  Feel free to come in and look at the books during the school day or Thursday until 7:00 PM.  Things will be packed up at noon on Friday.