Halloween

Halloween...Oh my!  Not much more needs to be said!  It's a big, fun, loud, crazy holiday at my school.  All week the boys are vibrating in anticipation of the big day.  This year in the library we celebrated the holiday by reading a monster book and making monster bookmarks.  It ended up being a good activity...who doesn't love a good monster book, and the boys love to make things especially anything that involves origami.


We started by reading The Monsters' Monster by Patrick McDonnell.  It's a story that gives a nod to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but then quickly adds its own twists.  Other favorite monster books include Mo Willems' Leonardo the Terrible Monster and Jackie Koller's No Such Thing.

Following the story we made monster bookmarks.  I found directions for these bookmarks at CT Baker in the Acres.  They are cute, easy to personalize, and the directions she gives are easy to follow.  I did this with our prefirst and first grade classes.

 Here are our prefirst graders proudly displaying their monsters munching on the corners of their library books.

Awwwww....Halloween!!

What the heck is copyright?

The fifth grade has been learning about copyright.  One might think it's a bit dry for 11 year old boys, but they are very interested and have some very insightful comments.  In this day and age, it's far too easy for students to take a snippet from the web and plop into an assignment and then never give it another thought.  It's an aha moment for the boys when they realize that someone has created the work that they borrowed, and it's another aha moment when they realize that copyright extends beyond the written word.

One of the most effective teaching tools I've come across is this video, A Fair(y) Use Tale, that explains copyright and fair use by using clips from Disney movies.  It was created by Eric Faden a professor at Bucknell University and in addition to teaching about copyright, it is an example of the perfect application of fair use.

Shake by Carli Davidson

I am a dog lover and I make no apologies for loving my dog as much as my people.  I just learned of the book Shake by Carli Davidson.  The author, who is the owner of a big sloppery dog, has taken amazing photographs of dogs shaking off.  How brilliant, how simple, how addicting!!

This video will give you a taste of what to expect in her book.  Enjoy!



SHAKE from Variable on Vimeo.

The PS Brothers by Maribeth Boelts

The PS Brothers by Maribeth Boelts

Shawn and Russell are the PS Brothers.  They both have home lives that are less than ideal, and they both are picked on at school.  They decide that they need a big, mean dog to defend them and to love.  All is well and good, except they have no money and dogs are expensive.  They decide the quickest way to earn money is to form their own business -- cleaning up dog waste or scooping poop, and so the P(oop) S(coop) Brothers business was born.  Next item of business for the boys is to find a dog and that's where the story takes off.  They find a dog, but they also find much more than they bargained for...including danger.

Ungifted by Gordon Korman

Ungifted by Gordon Korman is the story of Donovan Curtis.  An eighth grade impulsive ne'er do well who in the process of avoiding trouble at his middle school finds himself inadvertently in a school for gifted children.  While it's quickly apparent that he doesn't belong academically, he does bring a gift of sorts to his classmates.

This book is funny, the characters are likeable and believable.  I really loved seeing the way Donovan's character developed throughout the book.  He was neither all good nor all bad.  This is now my favorite Gordon Korman book.

This is one of the 2013-2014 Black-Eyed Susan nominees. 

Bookworm Club

Today was the first meeting of the Bookworm Club.  It's a lunchtime club for our third-fifth grade boys.  They read a book of their choice, bring their book and lunch to the library at lunchtime, and tell the boys in their group about the book they read.  We had 35 boys sign up and attend today's meeting.  Four teachers give up their lunch periods to facilitate the small groups.  It's a wonderful way for boys to share literacy with other boys.  At the end, I always provide a small incentive.  The next club meeting will be on November 8.