Smudge

Happy 1/2 year birthday!

Sock Monkeys

Last week I read the picture book Sock Monkey Rides Again (Cece Bell) to Connie's second grade class. It was very silly and the kids liked it. This book led to a discuss by Connie and myself about the old sock monkey toys of our youth. Connie and I decided that it would be fun to have a "Make a Sock Monkey" party one evening after school. Hopefully other staff members will join us.

I found this site: http://www.sockcompany.com/index.html to have a good price on the red heel socks. Right now you can get two pair for $7.59. The direct site for these socks is: http://www.sockcompany.com/or1.html

Also, this site: http://www.ciaspalette.com/ has sock monkey fabric. Select "Novelties."

Possible AR Themes

Something to do with travel: Reading is a Grand Adventure ??? with a map displayed in foyer and marker is moved acroos the map from point to point as the school reading points accumulate.

Come Back To

Trelease, Jim: The Read-Aloud Handbook, 2006-2007 edition

Reminder - Popcorn Day

Talk to Brian about new plan for Popcorn Day: deliver popcorn to the classes after lunch. Teachers use the time for sustained silent reading.

Read Alouds Favorites

I read cowboy-themed books to 1st, 2nd, and 4th grade classes today in preparation for our AR kick-off next week.

The fourth graders loved the book The Toughest Cowboy...great success

First and second graders thought Adventures of Cow Two was very funny and second graders really enjoyed Lasso Lou and Cowboy McCoy

Add these three books to book order.

Children Book Illustrators from the 50's

Great collection of classic '50s artist/illustrators in collection at http://www.flickr.com/photos/leifpeng/collections/

Professional Books for the Library

May want to come back to these sometime...

Baxter, Kathleen and Marcia Agness Kochel - Gotcha for Guys!: Nonfiction Books to Get Boys Excited About Reading

Reid, Rob - Storytime Slam!: 15 Lesson Plans for Preschool and Primary Story Programs

Oppenheim Toy Portfolio - Read It! Play It!: Building Literacy through Reading and Play

Trelease, Jim - The Read-Aloud Handbook, 2006-07 Edition

Picture Books

Donaldson, Julia and Axel Scheffler, ill. - The Snail and the Whale - Donaldson is the author of The Gruffalo, one of my favorites. This one is cute too with the themes of adventure, teamwork, cooperation. Nice story.

Korchek, Lori and Marshall Taylor - Adventures of Cow Too by Cow - A very excited toy cow takes an adventurous trip to a grocery store. This begs to be read aloud as children discover that what the text says does not match the photograph: Cow is in the middle of pineapples in the produce section and the text reads: "Yum, bananas." There are other books in this series.

Beaumont, Karen; Jose Aruego and Ariane Dewey, ills. - Duck, Duck, Goose! (A Coyote's on the Loose!) - could be a pre-school, K read aloud choice with an additional book.

Unfinished Book - that's okay!

I checked out the book Let Me Finish by Roger Angell. Iwas interested in reading it because the author is the step-son of E.B. White of Charlotte's Web fame. The book is good and interesting enough, but I have a lot of reading material waiting, and what I really wanted to know about was E.B. White and his relationship with his step-son and others. About a third of the way into the book is a chapter entitled "Andy" (Andy is E.B.'s nickname). So now that I've finished reading that chapter which concludes with E.B.'s death, I'm returning the book to the library. What a nice chapter...I'm glad I read it.