Week 4 Post

I love incorporating picture books into my English lessons. About three years ago, I picked up a series of books from "Really Good Stuff" magazine by Brian Cleary, that I use during English class. Each book has a specific subject area that they focus on dealing with parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, synonyms and antonyms. I introduced the synonym and antonym book to my students in September when we were learning about that subject. By the end of the year, the students were so excited to hear another story about that specific part of speech they were learning about. It was exhilarating as a teacher to hear my fourth grade students become so excited about a picture book.
These books use a rhyming pattern, illustrations, and different color font to point out the parts of speech it is reinforcing. There are also mini posters that go along with the books. I would hang them up after I read the book and it was a nice reference for the students to use!

The names of some of the books are:
"I and You and Don't Forget Who. What is a Pronoun?"
"Pitch and Throw, Grasp and Know. What is a Synonym?"
"Dearly, Nearly, Insincerely. What is an Adverb?"

Week 3 Post

A terrific book to use with fourth or fifth grade students is "The Cricket in Times Square" by George Selden. There are soo many cross-curricular activities that you can do with this story! The summary of the story is basically about a cricket, Chester, who lives in the country and jumps into a person's picnic basket, eats too much of their food, and falls asleep. When is awakes, he realizes he is on the train and the destination is Times Square, New York. Chester makes a variety of friends, including a cat and mouse and a young boy. The young boy discovers that Chester can play music with his wings and he sounds like a violin. In order to raise money for the boy's family, Chester plays music in the boy's newstand in Times Square and attracts many people, who then buy magazines and newspapers. Eventually Chester gets homesick and goes back to the country where he belongs.
This book is excellent to use to compare the city and country, as well as weather patterns in each of these places. There is a part of the story when the boy goes to Chinatown and befriends an older Chinese man who lets him in on secrets about crickets and how to take care of them. The two even eat a traditional Chinese meal. During this part of the book I bought Chinese food for my class and we shared dishes that were mentioned in the story. We also did a study on crickets and the opera.
This is a really fun book that you can incorporate exciting activities into!! I strongly recommend it!!

Week 2 Post

One of my favorite children's authors is Andrew Clements. As all of you saw, I did the book talk on "The Landry News" in class on Tuesday. As mentioned, this is a terrific book to use in your Reading or Social Studies class. As a final project for the book, my students had to create a front page of a newspaper. It turned out awesome! It was such a teachable moment too because we could examine different sections of the newspaper and go on scavenger hunts looking for certain information. It's critical that you scan through the paper that you bring in for any inappropriate material or controversial issues your students should not be exposed to.

Another Andrew Clements book is "Frindle". I read parts of this book to the students at Bradford School. It is about a boy named Nick who likes to start trouble in class and torment his teachers. He gets this fifth grade teacher, though, who is as tough as nails and he realizes it's going to be hard to get to her. He decides to create a new word for "pen" and eventually word gets around to all the students and they don't call a "pen" a "pen" anymore. If you're interested in the outcome (which has a surprising ending), read this book. It's excellent for third graders through fifth or sixth graders. Extension activities to this book could be enhancing dictionary skills. The students can also bring out their creative side and create made up words for classroom items, as well!

Week 1 Post

I enjoy reading Young Adult books for pleasure. Most people my age enjoy books from Oprah's Book Club or the Star Ledger Best Seller List. Not me! I like a good page turner from the Young Adult section of Barnes and Noble. My latest book that I am reading is "Impulse" by Ellen Hopkins. Hopkins writes her books in free verse, so the book might be 500 pages, but one page might only have 50 words on it.
Anyway, "Impulse" tells the story of three teenagers who all tried to take their own life. These three characters are all admitted to the same treatment facility. Hopkins writes the book in first person from each character's point of view. It is amazing to read what each character is thinking about a similar situation that occurs in the facility.
If you like a book that is a bit out of the norm, I would strongly recommend "Impulse". I am only half way through it, but I can't put it down!!
This is a good book to read to help you realize that a teenager that you could have in your class could be facing similar issues.