Book Club Ballot Available-Click and VOTE

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Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything In It by Sundee T. Frazier

Walk Two Moons by  Sharon Creech

Fever; 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

Which author is the funniest??

Seond grade students have read books by Judy Schachner of Skippyjon Jones fame, Mo Willems of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus fame and Robert Munsch of Smelly Socks and MMM, cookies fame. We explored each of their websites to play games, listen to stories and read about the author!

In order to find out who is the all-time favorite of this trio of funny authors we took a google poll.  Stay tuned on the morning announcements for:

Fifth Grade Biography Project

Click here for information about poems, timelines and scrapbooks that can be created for your project.

Remember we've used encyclopedias, biography books, and Britannica Online to locate information about your person.  Make sure you write your facts in your own words and you understand what made your person important!

Third Grade Explores Louis Armstrong and Mary Pope Osborne

Red Hot Jazz
PBS-Jazz

Book Club Votes

One Love by Bob Marley's daughter

Continuing with Kindness

Three great links to videos about kindness-our featured topic this week.

1. Random Acts of Kindness

2. Robot Kindness

3. Children's Random Act of Kindness

International Day of Peace-Celebrate It!

Have You Filled a Bucket Today? Kindness is the Key!

Jacqueline West, The Book of Elsewhere

How Do We Take Care of Our Library Books?

Good Books

GOOD BOOKS, GOOD TIMES!

by
Lee Bennett Hopkins

Good books.
Good times.
Good stories.
Good rhymes.
Good beginnings.
Good ends.
Good people.
Good friends.
Good fiction.
Good facts
Good adventures.
Good acts.
Good stories.
Good rhymes.
Good books
Good times!
© l985 by Lee Bennett Hopkins. Used by permission of Curtis Brown,

Ltd.

Alan Katz visiting Highland Elementary

Alan Katz will be here at
Highland Elementary on Thursday!!!

101 Donations by
Alan Katz

If you have prosperity,
it’s nice to give to charity.
A cent,
a buck,
a ten,a mil.
Give what you can,
give what you will.

If those who have
help those who’ve not,
then those who’ve not
will have a lot.
And if the ones who had then lack,
the ones who got
can give some back.

From POEMS I WROTE WHEN NO ONE WAS LOOKING (Fall 2012, McElderry
Books)
© Alan Katz. All rights reserved.

Alan Katz's website...A Silly Dilly Man!

Where is Springtime?

CATERPILLAR

by Ann Whitford Paul


Chapter One


Caterpillar creeps,
searching for a secluded twig
where her drama
can unfold.


Chapter Two


Caterpillar spins a cocoon—
its snug study
to better imagine
wings and flight.


Chapter Three

Caterpillar is gone.
A new character—
Moth—flutters about
the sunlit page.

© 2011 Ann Whitford Paul. All rights reserved.

When the Teacher Isn't Looking by Kenn Nesbitt

When the teacher's back is turned,
we never screamand shout.
Never do we drop our books
and try to freak her out.

No one throws a pencil
at the ceiling of the class.
No one tries to hit the fire alarm
and break the glass.

We don't cough in unison
and loudly clear our throats.
No one's shooting paper wads
or passing little notes.

She must think we're so polite.
We  never make a peep.
Really, though, it's just because
we all go right to sleep.

K. Nesbitt

Art + Music = Poetry

Art Space

by Susan Marie Swanson




When my brother writes stories late at night
under his blankets with a light,
he hides an entire stadium
under there—
hotdogs for sale,
baseballs slammed through the air—
and Mom doesn’t even care!


But the choir that I sing in
takes a lot of space.
It takes time to get us organized,
everyone in place.
Once we’re all where we belong
we put the words and notes
of our song
where they belong, too.
It’s tricky to do.
But when the piano starts to play,
we tell trouble to fly away.
Our voices are so strong,
they sweep away worry and gloom.
We fill the whole room!


©2011 Susan Marie Swanson. All rights reserved.

Can I just say how much I love that Susan Marie Swanson mixed poetry
with art and music in Art Space, thus hitting the trifecta for me?
Yes, it's my blog, so I can say it! Of course, the fact that it's
about so much more - siblings, imagination, baseball, and stadiums
under the bedsheets just to name a little - is what truly makes it so
wonderful....

Susan's poetry sings... and if you follow the link here and click
"Closer Look" you can hear her poem Trouble Fly sung by a children's
choir in a piece composed by Patricia McKernon Runkle. And you can by
the sheet music, too. How cool is that? Just like last time, when she
shared her poem Wonders, I remain a huge fan and am so happy to have
Susan here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.
(from Gregory K's post about poetry)

A Stick

A Stick Is an Excellent Thing

by Marilyn Singer

A stick is an excellent thing.
If you find the perfect one,
it’s a scepter for a king.
A stick is an excellent thing.
It’s a magic wand. It’s yours to fling,
to strum a fence, to draw the sun.
A stick is an excellent thing
if you find the perfect one.

From A STICK IS AN EXCELLENT THING: Poems Celebrating Everyday Play,
written by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

This poem reminds me of this fabulous book from our library:

Siguan by Joseph Bruchac

Siguan

by  Joseph Bruchac

I play my flute

and the small birds answer,

their wings fill the sky

like bright colored leaves.

I play my flute

and the lakes and rivers

open their eyes

after their long sleep.

I play my flute

and the earth casts off

her white blanket,

clothes herself in green.

I play my flute

and the southern wind,

its breath soft as the fawn,

comes dancing again.

I play my flute

and the children laugh

for they know my song

and remember my name.

I am Siguan,

I am Spring.

The Night Sky

DEAR WHOEVER COMPOSES THE SKY

by April Halprin Wayland

Hi.


I look up tonight at the black and the light
at the faint and the bright
I like how you do it.
I like what you've done.


I shiver. But I won't go inside.
I want to stay here, want to watch the stars quiver.


They're wallpaper, ceiling, they fill me with feeling
that this is what's real.


Just being out here
in the nippy night air—
you: way up there.
Me: way down here.

I came out to say hi.
And say thanks for this sky.


©2011 April Halprin Wayland.

Spring Poetry and Plants

Little Seeds

by Else Holmelund Minarik

Little seeds we sow in spring
growing while the robins sing,
give us carrots, peas and beans,
tomatoes, pumpkins, squash and greens.

And we pick them,
one and all,
through the summer,
through the fall,

Winter comes, then spring, and then
little seeds we sow again.

April is National Poetry Month

A poem a day:

April is the Coolest Month

by Douglas Florian

It's said April's the cruelest month,
But I say it's the coolest month.
The grass grows green.
The flowers bloom.
Most all the outdoor sports resume.
The weather warms.
The terns return.
On nature walks we talk and learn.
There's no more ice.
There's no more snow.
The creeks and brooks and rivers flow.
It's time to fish
Or climb a tree.
It's when we worship poetry.
And April's when
Our TAX is due.


Perhaps it is the cruelest, too.

http://gottabook.blogspot.com/2011/04/douglas-florian-april-is-coolest-month.html

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/841035608/poetry-spread-the-word

January's Sparrow by Patricia Polacco

I ordered this in my last Titlewave order without knowing anything about it, except that the cover art was striking.  Usually I only order books I've read a review about, heard about or have looked at myself personally at the public library but because I have such good faith in Patricia Polacco-I oredered it with out a preview. 

Once again her book overwhelmed me, brought me to the brink of tears and showered me with great joy.  This is an amazing story of the Crosswhite family, a slave family, working for a terrible master in Kentucky.  After January, a family friend/brother figure is captured, returned back to the plantation then beaten by local slave traders in front of the family-it is more than they can bear. That and the secret knowledge that their sons are soon to be sold at auction gives the Crosswhite's reason to flee the plantation even knowing what it will mean if they are captured.

This book highlights the Underground Railroad stations as well as Marshall, Michigan, a town where many residents disagreed with slavery and the Crosswhites get used to this taste of freedom, staying there for several years.  Ultimately they must rely on the neighbors surrounding them as well as white townspeople to save them from recapture. If you haven't had a chance to read this; this would be the perfect month to use this for a readaloud. This illustrations are typical Patricia Polacco, vibrant and real.

Celebrating Black History Together

Can you identify this record breaker?

February is a fabulous month.  We are one month closer to Springtime. Valentine's Day is an opportunity to show other's how much we care. February is also Black History Month, which gives us a time to celebrate all those who worked hard for equality and freedom. 

The library  has tons of books available to use in your classrooms.  We have Jerry Pinkney fiction and fairytales, Walter Dean Myers, Julius Lester, Nikki Giovanni , E.B. Lewis, Wade Hudson, Maya Angelou, the McKissick's, Virginia Hamilton, and Andrea Davis Pinkney, Whoopi Goldberg, Kadir Nelson and Julius Lester, just to name a few. 

We also have an excellent selection of biographies featuring African-American heroes like Langston Hughes, Wilma Rudolph, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Matthew Henson, Coretta Scott King, Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, and George Washington Carver.  Come in and browse around-many of these are on display! 

Here is an excellent video highlighting Jerry Pinkney's career as an artist and illustrator...Jerry Pinkney.
Here is a great site for Black History.

Black History is everyone's history.

Rubric for 5th Grade Research

All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle and more snowman fun.

Snowman Unit
Snowman Game