What Kids REALLY Want to Read

I was invited by sweet Kirsten at HallwaysKirsten to be a guest blogger and write about the books kids read when the choice is totally up to them.  You can find the post on her blog by clicking here and I encourage you to read her insights and experiences with children's literature.  I reposted it below as well.

In Kid Lit there are three topics that never fail to get a child's attention; bodily functions, underwear and bare butts.

Even the most reluctant readers in my kindergarten class will seek out Alona Frankel's Once Upon a Potty, Robert Munsch's I Have To Go!  or The Underwear Book by Todd Parr.  And Maurice Sendak's illustrations for In the Night Kitchen remain a popular choice because "the main character loses his pajamas and is fully naked in some parts of the story".

But once the giggle-inducing pictures hook them it isn't long before they want someone to read the words. Once that happens the door to literacy swings wide open.

Throughout the day children constantly approach me with a book in hand asking, "Can you read this to me?" Sometimes they even want to read a favorite book to me.

Over the years I have taken notice of the books the children so tenderly shove in my direction and aside from the subjects listed above I have noticed some similarities in their selections.

The books children self select can be categorized into funny, familiar and/or informative.

FUNNY BOOKS

The most popular books in this arena are without a doubt the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems.  We have many of these titles in our author book bin and they are continually in heavy circulation.  And for good reason.  The books are a riot, so much DRAMA!  The text is also repetitive and simple enough to support young children in becoming more independent and confident readers.

Author/Illustrator Todd Parr strikes a funny bone with his OTTO books, particularly Otto Has a Birthday Party! What child can resist an exploding cake made with a cootie bug and covered in mud frosting?

Combining funny with a bit of superhero adventure is always a recipe for success.  Author and illustrator George O'Connor has riveted the five-year-old set over the years with the saga of an imaginative boy with a towel cape known (in his mind) as American Eagle.  The books Kapow! and Ker-Splash! are well loved.

FAMILIAR BOOKS

Sometimes the books we want the kids to read are not always the books they choose to read, but sometimes they are.

Or at least they become the books they choose to read after repeated exposure.  I have a deep affection for Curious George and my affinity for this little monkey has certainly rubbed off on my students.  George is a popular choice during free reading and at the listening center.

It's the same with fairy tales.  Boys and girls alike gravitate towards these books which, for many, have been part of their bedtime ritual for years.  Authors Paul O. Zelinsky and Steven Kellogg do an amazing job of presenting the more traditional versions.  Fun twists on the classics can be found in the work of James Marshall and Jon Scieszka.

I suppose there is some comfort to be found in the pages of a familiar book or character.  We have a superhero book bin filled with the adventures of Spider-Man, Batman, etc. and the frayed edges and torn covers speak to the love poured out in their direction.

Oh, and of course princess books and pirate stories have mass appeal if they are well illustrated. Illustrations are key!  To read more on the connection between pictures and words click here.

INFORMATIVE BOOKS

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) stress an equal balance of fiction and nonfiction texts in elementary classrooms.

There is a prevailing feeling that narratives in the early grades have overshadowed nonfiction books.  Although there is some truth to that I can attest to the fact that nonfiction books have always been an important part of the literate lives of my students.

Nonfiction books are topic driven according to student interest but sure fire bets can be placed on animals and insects.  Photographs range from the gruesome (close-up of a snake eating a rat) to the sublime (baby polar bears!).  Nonfiction books are a great way to promote discussion and increase interaction with books.

On the flip side let me highlight some gimmicks to approach with caution.  I certainly love me my children's books but unfortunately sometimes I come across one that'll make me furrow my brow.

Rhyming books can be hit or miss.  Dr. Seuss does it well because his books carry powerful messages and play with language in a free spirited manner.  However most rhyming books I have come across lack spark because the author seems to be constrained by the convention rather than relishing the creativity it can bring.

Kids also lose interest quickly with books that rework The Night Before Christmas into The Night Before...fill in the holiday blank.

Remember, all children love listening to a story but not all children love to read.  We can help children find the motivation for reading by providing them with books that are interesting to them.  If you kidwatch you'll discover those books soon enough.

Happy Reading!

Bonjour, Les Enfants

We had a spectacular treat this week with a visit from a kind-hearted mom brandishing loaves of fresh baguette!

She also brought cheese and chocolate and other home baked treats inspired by her beautiful homeland - France.

We invited Brigitte to come share a bit of French culture and history with our students as part of our kindergarten social studies curriculum.

She surprised us by preparing a beautiful lesson complete with music, vocabulary, photographs, art, hands-on materials, food and homework.

The children were throughly engaged as they located France on the globe (although one child kept bringing up Italy - another fantastic place, to be sure, but not the topic of the lesson).  We learned about Gustave Eiffel who designed both the breathtaking La Tour Eiffel and America's symbol of welcome, the Statue of Liberty.  And we even had an opportunity to put pencil to paper to create our own masterpieces.

Did you know that the French invented the bicycle (1864),  helicopter (1907), Concorde (1969), Scooter (1902), submarine (1863), parachute (18th Century), taxi (1640), dry cleaning (1855), hairdryer (1879), polo shirt (1926) and the first motion picture camera?  Not to mention champagne, baguette, ratatouille and neon lighting!  Oh, and of course Curious George was created there.

Before we said au revoir we enjoyed baguette torn off the loaf á la française while Brigitte read aloud from Bonjour, Le Jour!  by Grace Maccarone.  She used gestures to support our understanding as the language washed over us in a thrilling wave of fluidity.

Next year to celebrate my 50th birthday and the completion of my doctoral studies (fingers crossed) I plan to stroll along the picturesque Seine once again.  And if anyone wants a history lesson I'll be able to whisk them away towards Notre Dame while the gargoyles hang on my every word.

Pointy Three

I am proud to promote and celebrate Pointy Three.  The story first grew in the imagination of its author Adam Stone.  It was then refined with the support of the incomparable Lauren Ridloff.  Lauren is narrating the story in the video below along with illustrations by Joyce Hom.
 

Congratulations to my inspirational friends for being ASLized!

Juggling

Lo, it is quite challenging for my Type A, "I can do it all" Superman mentality to welcome the forced prioritizing  that comes with completing a dissertation.  It is difficult to gracefully accept that some of the multi-colored balls I try to juggle (or the plates I spin) must meet the pavement in sacrifice to the greater good.

Plop!

There goes another social get-together (Happy belated Birthday dear friend!)

Crash!

Hardwood floors gather dirt, dust and dog hair as I spend my weekends doing quick "sweeps" with my socks whilst walking through the dining room with a coffee cup trying to construct the perfect sentence to describe the way culture influences reading development.

Thud!

The sorrowful tap of my wee little blog standing out in the rain looking in through a misty window waiting for an invitation to enter.

I hear you - all of you!

I suppose that's why vacations were invented.  To catch up on all of the things we neglected during our dawn to dusk ritual of daily living.

NYC teachers are just entering into spring break with seven school days off to pick up the discarded balls and cracked plates.  That amounts to one, large collective sigh of relief.

My plan is to complete the proposal for my dissertation which I have been writing, revising and editing since September.  It is a slow, arduous task but one that has been buoyed by the advice of my friend Nancy who told me to take it bird by bird.

Eventually I will reach my destination.  I wonder what I will find once I arrive.  I imagine I will continue walking towards yet another unexplored land.  But for a while it'll be nice to view my surroundings from a spotless home full of friends and family.

The Five Boroughs: Manhattan

The five boroughs of New York City - Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens, Brooklyn and The Bronx.

My kindergarten students continue to enchant and delight me with their tenacity and joy.  They greet each challenge, which we present daily, with eagerness, determination and pride.  Each child puts forth his or her best effort to complete the task before them.

For the past month we have been engaged in a social studies unit focusing on the following areas; geography, maps and map reading skills and time, continuity and change.  We combined this with the Common Core writing objective requiring each child to "use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic they are writing about and state an opinion".  In kindergarten the children are not required to provide a reason for their opinion (to state one is enough) but almost all of our students have successfully risen above this expectation.  Truly incredible.

We decided to approach the standards by examining the five boroughs of New York City.  This started with a look at the map and identifying which borough each student lives in.  Since we are not a neighborhood school we have students from each borough attending our school.  Although, oddly enough, our class does not have anyone from Queens.  We added this information to a large map and then began exploring New York City though children's literature.

We found several books that worked well as an introduction but I am particularly smitten with Larry Gets Lost in New York City by Michael Mullin and John Skewes.  This book is both fiction and nonfiction and chock full of New York City landmarks.

The first borough we decided to focus on was Manhattan because it has a plethora of attractions and because our school is located in Manhattan.  We are not far from the Empire State Building so we read Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson and James E. Ransome.

We also read the delicious visual treat Ankle Soup by Maureen Sullivan and Alison Josephs. In this book another dog, Carlos, explores popular NYC sites like Grand Central Station.

The books helped us create a semantic map of important Manhattan landmarks from which the students chose one to write about using opinion words such as "like" and "think".  They wrote about Central Park, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, the United Nations, Madison Square Garden, The Empire State Building, Grand Central Station, The Metropolitan Museum and The Museum of Natural History.

I think Museum of Natural History (is the best) because you could look at the stars.

We have started a binder filled with a collection of their opinion writing pieces and plan a big party when the unit is completed.

The children certainly give us so much to celebrate!

100th Day Celebration

We celebrated the 100th day of school on February 25, 2013!

It was a fun filled morning with the kindergarten and first grade classes coming together to explore 100 through hands-on activities, movement and food.

It took some planning to coordinate the 2-hour event but the effort was well worth it.  We started the morning by gathering the children together to explain how the day would unfold.  Six stations were set up in three classrooms and the students had 20 minutes to play, move and gather treats at each one.

Here is what we did...

Can you count by 10s to 100?  Here is a little encouragement. 

Fruit Loops - 100 in a bag, divided into 4 equal parts to make a dazzling (and yummy) necklace with 25 "Loops"

Exercise!  Exercise!  C'mon everybody do your exercise!  Give me 10 sets of 10!

Making art with three simple numbers 1-0-0.   

What can you create with 100 Legos?  

Students worked collaboratively to make a paper chain with 100 links.