Mo Willems Author Study

For the past month, kindergarten students have been listening to all of kinds of stories by Mo Willems, such as Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, Knuffle Bunny, Should I Share My Ice Cream (An Elephant & Piggie Book), Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs, That Is Not a Good Idea!, and Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator! We even explored the Mo Willems website (http://www.gomo.net/page.php?name=Home), which has all kinds of wacky games and we watched an interview with the author (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnLqoZvrMfw). Students absolutely loved hearing Mo's stories and created their own version of Knuffle Bunny.

We talked about how Mo Willems first takes a photograph of his surroundings and then he draws on top of the photograph in order to make the illustrations for Knuffle Bunny. Students then used cameras and iPads to take pictures of anything they wanted in the library.

As you can probably tell, the kiddos were having a blast taking pictures. I uploaded the pictures onto Little Bird Tales and then the students drew on top of the images.Here are the links to the e-books that were created.

Ms. Cole's Class
https://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/343295/

Mrs. Kasparian's Class
https://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/343293/

Mrs. Marciano's Classes
https://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/343297/
https://www.littlebirdtales.com/tales/view/story_id/344404/

One of the kiddos was so inspired by our project that he actually made one at home using his own camera and markers. Take a look at Noah's wonderful piece of art!

Exploring Ellis Island

The fourth grade teachers were covering Immigration in the classroom. I thought about what I'd like to do in order enrich their learning experience. Sometimes you'd like to take 80 fourth grade students and head down to Ellis Island to visit and learn more about our country's history, but you just can't afford to do so. Luckily, the Internet, as I've explained to students, allows us to take a field trip without actually physically moving from our seats, which is cheaper than a field trip. Students used some amazing websites to visit Ellis Island, take notes and then create a PowerPoint presentation using the information that they gathered from their visit.

Here are the links to the websites that we used:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/immigration/tour/

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork//laic/episode4/topic2/e4_topic2.html

http://www.ellisisland.org/

http://www.history.com/topics/ellis-island

And here's a video of the kiddos actively engaged in exploring Ellis Island via live cam!

The One and Only Ivan

This month's Lunch Bunch Book Club selection is The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. It's the story of Ivan, a gorilla, who lives in the Big Top Mall. Ivan has lived there all of his life and he seems to be okay with living in his cage until a young elephant, Ruby, comes along and then Ivan begins to see that he has to make a better life for the both of them. This book is based on a true story and it has won the Newbery Medal. Check out the book trailer:

And here's a glimpse of the real Ivan...

Flora & Ulysses Review

Kate DiCamillo's recent novel is absolutely adorable. Flora & Ulysses is about a little girl and her friendship with a squirrel, who also happens to have superhero abilities. He can lift a heavy vacuum, fly through the air and help Flora and her family reconnect. 

Flora's parents are self absorbed characters, especially her mother, who seems to care more about her career as a romance novelist rather than actually being a parent that shows any affection towards her own child. Flora's father appears to have gone through some sort of nervous breakdown though we never really get to the heart of the reason why he's not more involved in Flora's life. Flora has developed a cynical attitude and acts like her parents' divorce hasn't affected her, but it soon becomes apparent that Flora is lonely and that she hungers for her parents' care and attention.

Ulysses comes along and fills a void in Flora's heart.Conflict arises in the story when Flora's mother decides that squirrel must meet his maker. Ulysses is like the cat with nine lives and manages to escape. He is a brave little squirrel and his love for Flora is what makes this story so charming. I especially liked his poem for Flora where he tells her that she is "everything, all of it - sprinkles, quarks, giant donuts, eggs sunny-side up- you are the ever-expanding universe to me." Aw, love sure is sweet.

Throughout the novel, there are black and white illustrations with a comic book layout, which highlights Ulysses superhero like qualities and Flora's love for comic book superhero Incandesto, which she often compares Ulysses to.

This is a great read for kids in grades 2-5. I definitely recommend it as a classroom read aloud.