Poetry Friday: Flutter & Hum / Aleteo y Zumbido

Flutter & Hum: animal poems / Aleteo y Zumbido: poemas de animales (2015) by Julie Paschkis.

Folk artist Julie Paschkis has assembled a delightful collection of animal poems in Spanish and English. A native English speaker, she was recently inspired to learn Spanish by a picture book project about Pablo Neruda. Composed in Spanish and translated into English, these poems feature a variety of animals of the land, air, and sea.

 

I love the combination of Julie Paschkis' unique art style with the bilingual poems as well. She uses words as such integral parts of her illustrations, and the language of the words chosen matches whichever language she is using for the poem on that part of the page. So clever!

Happy Poetry Friday! Robyn has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Life on the Deckle Edge.

#3rdfor3rd: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Welcome to #3rdfor3rd where I share books that my third graders recommend for other third graders. (Please note that my third graders read a wide variety of books across a wide variety of genres, levels, and topics. Do not think that these books are "only" for third graders.) Read more about this book recommendation series and format here.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Book recommendation by Maeve.

I will tell you about a book that is magical and mysterious at the same time. It is called The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

In the book there are 4 children whose names are Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. They left London because of the air-raids they now live in a mysterious house with a very old professor who helps with their problems and helps them with alot of things around the house.

This is a great book because first Lucy goes into the wardrobe then no one believes her until they see for themselves. It is also a great book because it is magical and there is some made-up things like a faun. You would think of it as a baby deer but it is really a man with goat legs and horns but man head and chest.

My favorite quote is "Are you my councillor or my slave?" said the white witch. It is my favorite quote because she says that when she changes from bad to really bad.

If you like mysteries or magic you will love this book because it has a lot of questions you come up with and answer too, and most of the questions are about one thing.

I love this book so much I am going to rate the book 5 stars.

Click here or the #3rdfor3rd tag for more great book recommendations!

(Note from me: I strongly stand by the original publication order for reading this series, which is why students started with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.)

More Smart Board Ideas

Smart Boards have lots of potential uses in the classroom. This post will share more ideas for using your Smart Board on the web. The first post in this series provides more general tips and tricks for using Smart Boards, while the second explores my favorite ways to use Smart Notebook in my classroom.

More Smart Board Ideas

Media Center

Having a Smart Board eliminates the need for a separate TV or DVD player in your classroom, as long as the computer you use has a DVD player. I recommend getting a separate set of speakers to help with the sound. A Smart Board can easily share DVDs as well as You Tube or other online videos, provided you have a fast enough Internet connect to stream videos.

Skype

Last year was the first time using our Smart Board for Skype, and it was a great success! We had a Skype author visit from the ever-engaging Tara Lazar, who read aloud her book The Monstore, while I flipped pages in our class copy. We also did a Mystery Skype with another class, where we switched off asking yes/no questions to try and determine their location. (Pro tip, remind your students not to wear identifiable t-shirts that day, local sports teams, etc. Kids are ruthless observers!)

Skype-ing with a Smart Board works best if you can easily position your computer and webcam near the Smart Board itself. For our Tara Lazar talk, the laptop was a little off to the side (on a folding kitchen step stool), which meant she usually saw the side of kids' heads. When we did our Mystery Skype, it was in our computer lab, which is a longer room, so we put the computer on a cart in front of the board.

Giant Read Alouds

You can use the Kindle app on any computer, tablet, or phone to share books with students on the Smart Board. This is great for stories with really detailed illustrations or other text features that you want everyone to easily to able to see. Back in the day, I scanned the entirety of Love that Dog for reading aloud, because I wanted my students to see and appreciate the line breaks. (Read more about Teaching Poetry with Love that Dog.)

PowerPoint, Google Slides, Haiku Deck, Prezi, etc.

The Smart Board is an excellent way to present information. Since you are not limited to only using Smart Notebook, you can use any type of presentation software or web site to share information. When I bring in parents to share about other countries, PowerPoint is often their software of choice for sharing photographs and facts.

Padlet for Real-Time Collaboration

This is one I have not tackled yet, but I know of many teachers who use Padlet for collaboration within the classroom. For schools where students have access to their own tablets or laptops, you could conceivably have the whole class logged into a single Padlet page, sharing thoughts and ideas in real time. (I will admit that when I picture this with third graders, I picture mass chaos!)

Student Screen Sharing

There are also devices available that let students share their own tablet or laptop screens directly with the Smart Board. The Chromecast from Google plugs into the projector itself and allows anyone with a Chromebook or Chromecast app to send their screen to the projector. I observed a middle school teacher who had his students use the Chromecast to each share a presentation with the class.

Document Camera

Document cameras are another great piece of technology to integrate with a Smart Board. A document camera allows you to easy share print media up on the board. You place the book, for example, underneath the camera, which then sends a live image of it onto the screen. This would also work well with items like math manipulatives.

Gaming

The Smart Board can also be used like a giant projection screen TV. Once a year as part of our school fundraiser, my classroom becomes the game room, and either a Wii or XBox gets plugged into the projector for giant-sized gaming fun. For last year's "Teach a Teacher Tuesday," several of my third graders used the web-based version of Minecraft to teach me all about the game on the big screen.

The Web

Finally, of course, you can do anything on your Smart Board that you can do on your regular computer. You can also use the pens and "ink" to mark up a digital page for reference. I appreciate the ability to model reading or using a web site in front of students.

How Do You Use Your Smart Board?

What other great ideas do you have for using a Smart Board in the classroom? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/7/15

It's Monday! What are you reading? was started by Sheila at Book Journey and was adapted for children's books from picture books through YA by Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers. You can visit either site for a round up of blogs sharing their weekly readings and thoughts or search Twitter for #IMWAYR.

Last Week's Posts

• #3rdfor3rd: The BFG. Third grader Lily says, "If you like giants, orphans, adventure, and caveman speech, you will love this book."

• My Favorite Uses of Smart Notebook. Part 2 in my Smart Board series provides an overview of many different applications of the Smart Notebook program to classroom learning.

Picture Books

Shi-shi-etko (2005) by Nicola I. Campbell and illustrated by Kim LaFave. This story of the Native American residential schools focuses on the days before a young girl leaves for such a school for the first time. The author's note at the beginning sets the context for the story and explains some of the history of these schools. Because the story focuses only on her home life and preparing to leave, it is a less bleak book than others on this topic. Her story continues in Shin-chi's Canoe. This might be a good book to pair with When I Was Eight and Not My Girl which continue the story to school and home again.

Mr. Peabody's Apples (2003) by Madonna. I understand the point this story was aiming for (you cannot easily undo a rumor, once spoken), but the book itself took too long in the telling. The illustrations remind me of the exaggerated style of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which also made it harder for me to take this story seriously.

Loula and Mister the Monster (2015) by Anne Villeneuve. This third and newest picture book in the Loula series features the young girl and her trouble trying to get new dog Mister under control. Loula and her chauffeur Gilbert try valiantly to teach Mister the lessons of manners and civility, but he has different ideas.

The book is cute, and the dog's responses amusing, but I felt like there just was not a lot to this story (even with the "twist" at the end). Plus in this era of seeking diverse and inclusive books, I have a hard time understanding the choice to make a main character so wealthy her family has a personal chauffeur. (Digital ARC provided via Net Galley in return for an honest review.)

Middle Grade

The Lion Who Stole my Arm (2013) by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Annabel Wright. This gripping realistic fiction novel will draw in adventure-lovers and reluctant readers alike. Young Pedru loses his arm to a lion attack in the first chapter and must spend the rest of the story deciding how to respond. The action will draw readers in, allowing the environmental message to resonate. A new book in this Heroes in the Wild series, Manatee Rescue, is coming in January. (A review copy of the book was provided by the Candlewick Best in Class mailing. All thoughts are my own.)

Audiobooks

Five, Six, Seven, Nate! (2015) by Tim Federle and read by Tim Federle. At the suggestion of several of you, I listened to the audiobook of Tim Federle's latest contribution to his Nate series, which was a great companion during a few long drives right before the school year kicked into gear.

Five, Six, Seven, Nate! continues where Better Nate than Ever left off, focusing on the rehearsals and lead up to an actual Broadway production. (Each chapter is subtitled with a count down towards previews.) Nate finds some unexpected allies and friends as his improbable good fortune continues to get him in (and out) of some pretty elaborate situations. Listening to the story rather than reading it myself forced me to slow down and enjoy even more the humorous dialogue and internal voice of this endearing character.

Challenges and Summer Plans

Award-Winning Books Reading Challenge update: 13 books, 2 dedicated posts

Dive into Diversity Challenge update: 170 books, 35 dedicated posts

Happy Reading!

#3rdfor3rd: The BFG

Welcome to #3rdfor3rd where I share books that my third graders recommend for other third graders. (Please note that my third graders read a wide variety of books across a wide variety of genres, levels, and topics. Do not think that these books are "only" for third graders.) Read more about this book recommendation series and format here.

The BFG

Book recommendation by Lily.

This book is called The BFG and it is by Roald Dahl.

Imagine yourself being taken away by a giant to be stuffed in a pan with sizzling hot oil and spices and eaten by it. This is what scares Sophie as she is snatched from her bed by a giant hand connected to a giant person. Luckily, the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) is not as scary as he seems (hence his name). But his "friends", the other giants, are. Every one of them (except the BFG) would run off at six pm. every night to gobble up a bunch of humans (or human beans, as they call them). Sophie and the BFG come up with a plan to stop the BUGs (Big Unfriendly Giants), which involves the Queen of England, the Head of the Air Force, some ropes, and some snozzcumbers.

My favorite quotable quote from this book is, "I is a very mixed up giant. But I is trying my best." said the BFG.

If you like giants, orphans, adventure, and caveman speech, you will love this book.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars! I don't rate many books this much!

Click here or the #3rdfor3rd tag for more great book recommendations!

Kid Lit Blog Hop #65

Welcome to the 65th Kid Lit Blog Hop where we continue to develop a dynamic and engaged community of children's books bloggers, authors, publishers, and publicists. So, you are always more than welcome to join us by popping in a post and hopping around to meet some of your fellow Kid Lit bloggers and authors!

*** Please note that we are back to 2 Hops per month. The Hops will take place on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. ***

Hostesses:

Mother Daughter Book Reviews

Julie Grasso, Author/ Blogger

Cheryl Carpinello, Author / Blogger

Stacking Books

BeachBoundBooks

Music Teaching and Parenting

Pragmatic Mom

Reading Authors

The Logonauts

Spark and Pook

Happy Hopping everyone and enjoy the Hop!

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Kid Lit Blog Hop Rules *Please Read*

1. Link up any Kid Lit related post in the Kid Lit Blog Hop. This can be a link to a children’s book review, a discussion about children’s literature/literacy, or a post on a recently-read children’s book or one that you love from your childhood.

* Don't link directly to your blog, it must be a specific post.*

* For Authors, we prefer you to link to your blog if you have one. Please link unique posts each time ~ no repeats please. *

* Make sure you include an image relevant to the POST (e.g., book cover), not your blog button or photo of yourself.*

* Feel free to link more than one post.*

2. Please visit AT LEAST the TWO LINKS from the Kid Lit Blog Hop directly ahead of your own and leave them some love in the form of a comment. We are trying to build a community of bloggers, readers, parents, authors, and others who are as passionate about children’s literature as we are so please CONNECT and follow any or all of the blogs that interest you!

3. If you like, grab the button above and put it somewhere on your blog, preferably the post you're linking up. If you'd prefer, you can just add a text link back to this Hop so that others can find it and check out all these great book links!

4. It would really help us get the word out about the Kid Lit Blog Hop if you would be so kind as to tweet, share, and spread the word about the Hop!

Happy Hopping!

KID LIT BLOG HOP

My Favorite Uses of Smart Notebook

Smart Notebook is the software program that comes along with the SmartBoard-brand boards used at my school. This post highlights several of my favorite ways to use Smart Notebook in my classroom. The first post in this series provides more general tips and tricks for using Smart Boards.

My Favorite Uses of Smart Notebook

Your Job Today

The Smart Board serves as the hub for my classroom. When students come in in the morning, it often has our first activity up or prompts students to get their reading folders and prepare to share a read aloud. At the end of our time together on the rug, I often use the Smart Board to display "Your Job Today," a concise listing of expectations for independent work.

Sharing Digital Texts

I use Smart Notebook for nearly every writing lesson that I do with students. (We use Lucy Calkin's amazing Units of Study for Teaching Writing as our basis.) Smart Notebook provides an easy way to create charts, read and study texts together, and get students launched into independent writing time.

Annotating or Editing Digital Texts

Throughout our poetry unit, in particular, I love to have students reading and discussing poems. Smart Notebook provides a way to easily add annotation, notes, underlines, highlights, and more to poems as we work on them together as a class. This is also a great way to model editing skills or to have students complete editing activities as a class or small group.

Writing Shared Texts

Modeling writing in front of students is powerful. Writing on the Smart Board in front of students allows them to see the creative process at work. You can also create shared writing pieces with different members of the class contributing to a scene or story. It is much easier to share and refer back to these pieces of writing digitally than with handwritten chart paper.

Matching our details to our feelings

Revising Shared Texts

Revision is another critically-important literacy tool and one that can be enhanced by Smart Notebook. I have set up texts that can be separated and pulled apart to encourage students to add on or flesh out a story or other piece of writing. Ideas and topics can be visually rearranged to work on organization or outlining. (Below, these ideas could be rearranged to make a compelling paragraph.)

Modeling Skills

The Smart Board is also really useful for modeling a skill for students. In our geography lessons, I will often post a copy of an assignment or section of it so that we can do a few examples together. With something like latitude and longitude, it is great to have the flexibility to do as many together as well need.

Random Name Generator

I use this only occasionally, but the kids get a big kick out of it. Smart Notebook has a random name generator that you can use to call on students. You can either leave it completely random or have it only choose students once ("no repeat").

You can also use this to select randomly from a set of questions for students to answer. I use this as a getting to you know activity at the beginning of the year. Kids can choose a question from the list, or they can use the random generator to pick a question for them to answer. (Students used the large white square to practice writing their name on the board.)

Hide and Reveal Activities

You can also use the click-to-dissolve option within Smart Notebook to create hide and reveal activities. Our fourth graders always wrap up the year with the big 50 states and capitals test. Using a map of the US, I drew a series of boxes to cover up the names of each state and its capital. To review, students were encouraged to guess the name of the state/capital out loud before clicking to check their guess.

Small Group Review Activities

The Smart Board can also be used by smaller groups. When we are studying continents at the beginning of the year, kids go up in table groups to play a series of review games on the Smart Board. These particular games are very simple (matching, mapping, multiple choice), so the kids can usually run them by themselves. Just make sure that you have something engaging for the rest of the class to be working on while they are waiting their turns!

What are your favorite types of activities to do with students using Smart Notebook? (Next up is a post about Smart Board possibilities outside of just the Smart Notebook software.)