Happy birthday Tomie dePaola!

Hug A Book Week

September 6-14, 2014 is "Hug a Book Week."  To celebrate this special week and love of books, students brought their favorite book to school to share with the class.  The students enjoyed sharing their favorite stories with their reading buddies.  Please share your favorite book with someone you love this weekend.  There are two more days to celebrate "Hug a Book Week!"

DO NOT READ THIS!

Great video to reinforce why reading is so important and why it is something you do everyday.  Celebrate the fact that YOU can read!

International Literacy Day

Today, September 8, 2014, is International Literacy Day.  According to www.readwritethink.org, "International Literacy Day is celebrated annually by the International Reading Association (IRA) and is designed to focus attention on literacy issues. IRA estimates that 780 million adults, nearly two-thirds of whom are women, do not know how to read and write. They also estimate that 94—115 million children worldwide do not have access to education. International Literacy Day is just one way the Association strives to increase literacy around the world."

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/celebrate-international-literacy-20584.html

Today in Title I, we discussed that there are many people in our world who do not know how to read and write, and how lucky we are to be able to have lots of books, and education accessible to us.  We also talked about why reading is important.  The following are the students ideas as to why reading is important.

Brock- 2nd

Chloe 1st

Alyssa 1st

Jake 2nd

Kaiya 3rd

Isaiah 3rd

Adie 3rd

Books for Boys

Do you struggle to find books that you can get your boys interested in?  Here are some suggestions:

Books for Boys Who Are Emerging Readers

In her book, Bests Books for Boys K-8, Pam Allyn recommends the following books for boys who are emerging readers:

Action and Adventure

• Archie and the Pirates by Marc Rosenthal  
• Flat Stanley series by Jeff Brown
• Ghosts for Breakfast by Stanley Todd Terasaki
• Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow by Robert D. San Souci
• Superhero by Marc Trauss
• Tsunami! by Rimike Kajikawa

Art and Music

• Art by Patrick McDonnell
• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola
• Grandma's Gift by Eric Velasquez
• Ish by Peter H. Reynolds
• I SPY:  An Alphabet in Art by Lucy Micklethwait  
• Mole Music by David McPhail
• A Mouse Called Wolf by Dick King Smith

Nature and the Animal World:

• Actual Size by Steve Jenkins
• Bug Butts by Dawn Cusick 
• Big Tracks, Little Tracks:  Following Animal Prints by Millicent Selsam
• Bat Loves the Night:  Read and Wonder by Nicola Davies
• Buffalo Song by Joseph Bruchac
• Farm by Elisha Cooper
• First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
• Gone Fishing:  Ocean Life by the Numbers by David McLimans
• Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest by Steve Jenkins
• Never Smile at a Money by Steve Jenkins
• Spiders by Nic Bishop
• What Do You Do When Somethings Wants to Eat You? by Steve Jenkins  
• Who Eats What?  Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber
• Whose Tracks Are These?  A Clue Book for Familiar Forest Animals by James Nail 

And she has lists for biographies/memoirs, comic books/graphic novels, expeditions, how-to, humor, math and numbers, mystery and horror, sports, and more.  If you have a boy with a special interest, she is bound to have a list of books he might like. 

Allyn  also shares books for each topic for developing and maturing readers.

Remember, the most important thing is to foster a sense of belonging for your young readers.  One way to do this is to choose authors and characters with whom your boys identify.

We don't want to limit what children read, but instead strive to stock our classroom libraries with an expansive awareness and acceptance of the books all children will love.  

Allyn's book is a great resource not only for books for emerging, developing, and maturing readers, but also to answer your questions on how you can support the development of your young male readers.   

Source: Iowa ASCD newsletter

How was your day?

25 Ways to Ask Your Kids 'So How Was School Today?' Without Asking Them 'So How Was School Today?'

I came across this article today on Twitter and had to share.  Great ideas on how to have rich conversations with your children about their school day. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liz-evans/25-ways-to-ask-your-kids-so-how-was-school-today-without-asking-them-so-how-was-school-today_b_5738338.html

Ready to Read!

Are you ready to do a lot of reading and writing this year?  We are!  Looking forward to meeting my Reading Rock Stars today as we start Title I classes for the 2014-15 school year!