Archive for July, 2008|Monthly archive page
No Bows
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In No Bows by Shirley Smith Duke (Author) and Jenny Mattheson (Illustrator), a girl doesn’t like the choices others are making for her.
no piano…
(turn the page)
DRUMS
Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Use this story as a model for writing as students list 7-10 opposites and create their own “choices” story.
Organization Fluency Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Which pair of opposites comes first? Most stories begin small and grow bigger with each page turn. Ask students to number their opposite pairs by size or importance before they begin writing.
Arte y pico Award
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Picture Book of the Day was chosen for an Arte y pico Award! Thanks, Deb! (Check out Deb’s blog at debrennersmith: writing and reading.)
Q. What is Arte y pico?
A. A dollmaker in Uruguay created this award to recognize blogs that inspire others.
Rules:
1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog thathas given her or him the ward itself.
4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y pico” blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.
So now I will pay it forward and give 5 blogs I read this award…
- Tricia Stohr-Hunt’s two teacher blogs, The Miss Rumphius Effect and Open Wide, Look Inside are filled with great ideas for using books in the classroom.
- Revision Notes by Darcy Pattison gives practical advice about writing.
- Kristi Holl’s Writer’s First Aid is about the inner life of a writer.
- Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Cynsations has interviews and links to children’s authors and illustrators all over the blogosphere!
- The subtitle of singer-songwriter Christine Kane’s blog is: Be Creative. Be Conscious. Be Courageous.
Read these blogs and be inspired!
Six Trait Writing Programs
Grandpa for Sale
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In Grandpa for Sale by Dotti Enderle and Vicki Sansum (Authors) and T. Kyle Gentry (Illustrator), Lizzie is dusting the antiques while Grandpa sleeps in one of the chairs when a customer comes into the store…
“How much for this charming antique?
“But he’s my grandpa!” Lizzie protested.
Organization Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: As Mrs. Larchmont offers more and more money for Grandpa, Lizzie thinks of bigger and bigger things she could buy with the money. Ask students to write themselves into a new version of this story.
Conventions Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: The dialogue in this story uses quotation marks. In the final edit, ask students to check their use of quotation marks.
Jack and the Box
In Jack and the Box by Art Spiegelman, Jack’s parents bring home a box…a jack in the box. This “First Comic for Brand New Readers” uses speech bubbles for the dialogue…
Jack says: Let’s play!
The closed box answers: No Way!
Conventions Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: The dialogue in comics doesn’t have quotation marks, because the speech bubble points to the one who is saying the words. Write your own comic and remember to have the speech bubble point to the one who is saying the words.
Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Jack, the rabbit, and the Jack in the box play a silly game. Ask students to think of another “silly toy” story and to write it as a comic. For younger students use 4-6 panels like the comics in the newspaper. Older students may wish to write a longer story.
Nonfiction Monday Round-up
Welcome to the Nonfiction Monday Round-up!
Here’s what the kidlitosphere is reading this week…
1. Picture Book of the Day (An Elephant Grows Up)
2. Lori Calabrese Writes (The Buffalo Nickel)
3. I.N.K. (David Schwartz on a postcard from the 2007-2008 school year)
4. BookMoot (Texas Rangers)
5. BiblioFile (Bury My Heat at Wounded Knee)
6. Becky (She Touched the World)
Six Trait Writing Programs
An Elephant Grows Up
In An Elephant Grows Up by Anastasia Suen (Author) Michael L. Denman and William J. Huiett (Illustrators) a baby elephant is born. The calf looks small next to her mother, but she weighs more than 200 pounds. Her days will be filled with lots of eating—this calf has a lot of growing left to do.
Less then an hour after birth, the elephant calf can stand. She is already taller than your kitchen table!
Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: This book uses the life cycle pattern to show how a baby elephant grows up. Ask students to select an animal they like and research it. What interesting things can their animal do? Use the Sequence graphic organizer to write down what the animal can do at different ages.
Word Choice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: After students write their first draft, ask them to find five places they can add a more descriptive word.
Poetry Friday: Oooh! Matisse
The cut paper art of Matisse is brought to life in Oooh! Matisse, a poetic “take a closer look” book by Mil Niepold (Author) and Jeanyves Verdu (Art Director).
white,
I am snow
and blue, I am
the mountains below
Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Begin with scissors, colored paper, and glue as students create their own Matisee cut-paper collages. Then ask students to write about what they SEE in their collages.
Word Choice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Use the Observation Chart graphic organizer to activate all five senses as students view their Matisse collages.
Sally and Dave, A Slug Story
Sally and Dave, a Slug Story by Felice Arena is a tongue twister!
Sally loves to swish, slam dunk, and sink baskets on Saturdays, and she’s super at shooting soccer goals on Sundays.
Voice Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: This story is a tongue-twister. Sally and Dave are slugs who love things that start with S. At the same time, they each have their own personalities. Ask students to use the Describing Wheel graphic organizer to help them develop a unique character.
Sentence Fluency Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: The sentences in Sally and Dave are very long and have a LOT of S words, but they still make sense. Ask students to read their sentences aloud as they write and edit their own tongue-twisting tale.
The Toy Farmer
The Toy Farmer by Andrew Pelletier (Author) and Scott Nash (Illustrator) begins with a discovery…
One day, while he was poking around in the darkest back corner of the attic, Jed discovered an old wooden box. The only thing inside was a bright red toy tractor.
Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: The Toy Farmer appears when Jed is a boy, just as he did when Jed’s father was a boy. Ask students to think of a toy that could have also visited one of their parents as a child. What could the toy do? Where did the toy go between visits? Why did the toy disappear?
Sentence Fluency Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: This story has long, flowing sentences. Before students begin writing, use a slinky with various sentences from the book to talk about sentence length. Then ask students to write their own “lost and found” toy stories.
The End
The End by David LaRochelle (author) and Richard Egielski (illustrator), a fairy tale told in reverse. The book begins…
And they all lived happily ever after.
They lived happily ever after because…
Ideas Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Ask students to think of another fairy tale they can tell backwards. Will they tell the tale as it is, only backwards? Or will they add new details to the story?
Organization Mini-lesson
Primary/Intermediate: Students will need to plan the story two ways: forwards and backwards. Use the Sequence graphic organizer to help them remember the sequence of events in the orginal version. Then have them reverse the order for the new “backwards” version.
