Recent Book Favs (3)

Hey all! I have to admit that I am usually nursing during story time at night these days...so my hubby has been reading with our 3yo. We're still enjoying Vera's New School (from my last post), a real winner with my daughter. Here's another recent fav:

Pumpkin Jack,  by Will Hubbell

My daughter chose this one at the library a couple weeks ago. Who picks a pumpkin book in March? I love that preschoolers have no preconceived notion of what is in or out of season...reading though this book right now made me think that it is a great any-time-of-the-year book...despite this not being pumpkin season!

Pumpkin Jack has great, quality writing. And the book is moving-- you almost become friends with this pumpkin that is alive, dies slowly, then brings new life again. I'm not sure why my daughter likes it so much (she's asked for it night after night recently)- but the story is quite compelling. It unravels some of the mysteries of the life cycle and shows how a seed creates a new (pumpkin) plant.

A boy carves a pumpkin. He is captivated by the light the pumpkin casts on the wall of his room and the smell it makes when a candle is placed inside of its carved shell. He's reticent to throw out the pumpkin when it starts to mold, so he puts it out in the dead winter garden- "with the brown ghosts of last summer's plants." The pumpkin completely decomposes. The boy is delighted to see pumpkins grow the next summer and fall from the seeds of his dead pumpkin. He shares the pumpkins he's grown with his friends.

This would be a great book to read in the spring, to show kids how seeds grow into something amazing. Here's to my daughter! So glad she chose this out of season book- what a great read, any time of year!

Hope you're well!

Christmastime Reading with my Toddler (1)

When I was growing up I loved Madeline books. I get excited to introduce my beloved childhood books to my daughter. It's wonderful to rediscover children's books as an adult: I see why they found a place in my heart, but sometimes the classics seem a lot weirder than I remember (What's up with Curious George's rendezvous with ether?!). 

For the past 3 weeks Madeline's Christmas has become a household favorite. My 2 year old asks for it at bedtime saying, "Madeline". She has several favorite parts of the story--

Ludwig incorporates this tiger page (see right) into several (if not all?!) of his Madeline books.  This repetitive motif is great for young readers to become attached to the character of Madeline.  The book reads, "[Madeline] was not afraid of mice, She love winter, snow and ice, And to the tiger in the zoo, Madeline just said....'POOH, POOH!'" What a great line! My daughter love saying pooh, pooh! to the tiger.

My daughter also loves the rhyme throughout the book. A rug merchant, also a magician, stops by Madeline's French boarding school. It's a big hit when he says, "'To sell my rugs was silly! Without them I am very chilly." I love when we get to the page and my daughter starts saying, "chilly, chilly."

Of course, there are many aspects of the Madeline series for parents (and teachers) to like. The author, Ludwig Bemelmans, consistently refers to Madeline (the smallest girl of all the girls at the boarding school) as being very brave. The rug merchant also has to be brave when he takes his medicine. I appreciate this message of encouraging our kids to be brave in the face of challenge, especially when my daughter is going through a (very normal) developmental phase of being scared of all things new-to-her.

I also love how Bemelmans creates rhyme using subject/verb inversion. It makes for some interesting read out loud writing:

"Why, these," said Madeline, "Would be so neat
For our ice-cold in the morning feet." 

and...

Said she, "I've cooked a dinner nutritious,
Will you please help me with these dishes?"

The plot of this book is a bit odd, and not quite straightforward...but I still love it!

Hope you've found some holiday books to share with your loved ones this year! We do celebrate Christmas in our house, and I hope to share a couple more of our favorite Christmas reads over the next couple of weeks.

If you have a holiday/Christmas book you love to read every year, I'd love you to share it in the comments section below.

I'm linking up at Hope is the Word.

Happy Holidays! Be well! Read on!

Reconnecting to Community Literacy

Before I became a teacher, I worked as a youth program director for a local non-profit here in Oakland. I loved so many things about it: having flexibility on how you get to work with kids (socially, emotionally, academically, spiritually, etc...), the more casual nature of the programs, ability to create unique relationships with kids/community/families, and gaining creative control with curriculum and programs. Having the ability to work with the WHOLE child- their hearts, their souls AND their brains- was quite wondrous. And it's very different than working with kids in a classroom. It just is. No matter how wonderful of a teacher you are you'll always be an authority figure in an institution. For some reason, being at a non-profit breaks downs walls, and allows parents and kids to be less on guard and to feel more at home. Sometimes you have to put academic excellence and rigor aside and deal with a child's personal issues. This can most certainly be done in a school setting, but it's a lot trickier. Of course, there were also downsides to working at a non-profit: inconsistency with students (you can't force them to come daily), my lack of professional training, lack of money and support, etc...


Kids playing hockey at Harbor House in Oakland

I left Harbor House, the non-profit where I worked, so that I could learn how to teach reading. I had so many program participants (grades K-12) that didn't know how to read. I tried my darnedest to help them, but I knew my knowledge of teaching kids how to read was limited. I tried Hooked on Phonics and other efforts, but I knew I wasn't giving the students the reading support they really needed to become successful.

All that to say...after 5 years in the professional world- teaching middle school, going to grad school, and become a literacy specialist (and becoming a mom), I've recently become reacquainted with Harbor House and their new Director. She encouraged me to come in weekly and read a book aloud to the K-1 students. The school year is almost through, but for the last month, I'm going to go each week and share a book or two with them.

For the next month, I'll share here the books that I read to the kids from Harbor House's after school program. It's fun for me to talk about books and authors, so I thought it may be fun for you too. I took a trip to the library and picked out a few good read alouds.

Last Thursday I shared two books by Mem Fox, a beloved Australian author, with about 15 K-1 kids at Harbor House. The two books I shared were silly, repetitious, and filled with word play and rhyme-all excellent things for the listening ears of K-1 students. Reading books aloud with rhyme and repetition is excellent for beginning readers- it builds phonemic awareness (awareness of sound), builds a motivation to read early on, and encourages kids to become engaged with the book (they can't help themselves but to join in as the book is read). Mem Fox is very well known. If you haven't picked up any of her books for your kids/students- I encourage you to do so!

Boo To a Goose is such a fun book to read. The students soon join in with the refrain. They commented that they liked the silly pictures too. This was perfect for K-1 students.



I read this book second. I think students may have lost steam after the first read. But I wanted to show them a couple of Fox's books. This was a little more complex than Boo to Goose, and it seems to end more abruptly (it could have been that the kids were getting squirmy). I love the illustrations in this book. I also love her rhyming patterns in this book; a keen reader can guess what will be coming next- which makes a book fun to read, especially for little ones.



Hopefully my relationship with Harbor House will continue next year. It's fun to be surrounded by a gaggle of enthusiastic kids- where you can connect on a personal level, and when you don't have to constantly redirect them to focus on their work, book, etc... Don't get me wrong, I love teaching. But sometimes us teachers get so busy, and pour so much of ourselves into our classroom, that we don't get a chance to invest in our local communities as much- I am guilty of it myself. It's taken me 5 years to volunteer outside of my classroom, that's much too long of time for something so enjoyable and beneficial to the community.