Good News, Bad News

I never know what to expect when I read a simple picture book to my 4th graders. Since we've been doing a lot of social-emotional work this year, I thought I'd take a chance, and I'm glad I did! They giggled the whole way through the story! (It helps if your teacher is being extra dramatic;)

Rabbit and Mouse head out on a picnic and positive Rabbit finds the silver lining in every one of Mouse's gloomy clouds. But even he can't withstand the constant onslaught of negativity forever and when Mouse loses it in a moment of anger, Rabbit gives in to the blues. Mouse is so shocked that he quickly finds a way to cheer up his friend, and soon they are both looking on the bright side.

Jeff Mack uses only 4 words in this book, but those four words get the point across loud and clear. His illustrations are simple and clear and works with the text in a way that makes it easy for young children to understand what is happening.

This is a great story to start conversations about friendship, positive attitude, and to just plain enjoy!

Madeline Finn and the Library Dog

One of my struggling readers walked up to me and, looking at me with his big blue eyes, earnestly requested, "Would you read this to us today? I just love this book."

Can't say no to that and now I love it too!

Madeline Finn is struggling to learn to read. She is discouraged, grumpy, and is now pronouncing to anyone who will listen that she doesn't like to read.

Her parents and teacher keep encouraging her, but as much as she wants one of those coveted gold stars from her teacher, things still aren't clicking. Then (insert appropriate superhero sound here) Super Librarian to the rescue! She introduces Madeline to Bonnie, a library dog who visits the library each week to listen to children read.

I'm sure you can guess how this heartwarming story ends, but every moment of it is enjoyable.

Lisa Papp looks right into the heart of a frustrated emerging reader and let us follow her as she becomes a confident, I-Can reader. The illustration are beautiful - muted, comforting colors that make you feel right at home.

On her webpage, Papp explains how this book came to be: "This story comes straight from the heart. I discovered the Read-to-Dogs program at my local library and immediately fell in love. Seeing these incredible dogs working with the children, and watching the magic unfold, was a blessing. I knew I wanted to share this story. Many of the dogs featured in the book are former shelter dogs now living a new life helping children. I have come to know and love these dogs, as well as they’re dedicated handlers, and I’m honored to share their story."

Madeline Finn and the Library Dog has won quite a few awards, but the two that tell me it's time to visit the library and get a copy are the Parents' Choice and the Children's Choice awards.

Therapeutic Fiction

I've started a new hashtag on Instagram - #therapeuticfiction .

It's that time of year again, the time when we remember what the phrase "teacher tired" means. Students are antsy and sassy and exhausting. Those who have put in their best effort all year are tired, those who have spent the year piddling their own time, their classmates' time, and their teacher's time with constant disruptions are kicking it up a notch. It's EXHAUSTING.

I have to remind myself every year that they are feeling anxious about the coming changes. For some of them, school is their safe place and summer means instability and uncertainty. Some are worried because they are moving across town or even across the country, or will be far from home with a non-custodial parent for a month or two. Others, like my 4th graders, are anxious about moving to a new school.

We've been reading lots of picture books about strong emotions and new situations, something I do at the beginning of the school year as well. These books are WONDERFUL springboards for conversations about what is bothering children. In the past few days, I have learned so much about these children I thought I already knew so well!

• "That happened to me," 
• "I feel that way, too," 
• "His parents are NEVER getting back together," 
• "My parents got divorced without even asking me," 
• "My brother doesn't even talk to me anymore. All he does is play video games," 
• "I'm scared of that, too,"

Julia Cook is a former school counselor and teacher who writes about tough topics for kids - deployment, foster care, cancer, autism, executive function, and much more. She's written more than 60 books and they are teacher favorites! The two books pictured above are written by her and were our read alouds earlier this week. 

Wilma Jean the Worry Machine is about a girl who worries about EVERYTHING - this girl is a world class worrier, and nothing goes unnoticed or is too small for her to obsess over. Her mom finally snaps, consults every professional she can find and comes up with a plan to help Wilma figure out some strategies for tackling the things that are keeping her from living her life to the fullest.

Thanks for the Feedback...I Think was hilarious! R.J has no skills for handling either compliments or criticism. He also has trouble reading body language and sensing tone. When he is rude to his teacher during a parent-teacher conference, his parents take action and teach him some strategies for responding to others.

My class was keenly interested in the feedback story, which allowed us to have a interesting conversation about what feedback is and some appropriate ways to respond to it. 

I've taught a number of RJs over the years, and sadly, there are more of them in each class as the years roll by. Because they have no strategies for handling feedback, they immediately become defensive, argumentative and disrespectful. Thankfully, teachers have access to books like these to help children identify with characters and process solutions in a non-threatening way.

So...I'm going to keep posting my favorite titles for helping children learn to identify and handle strong emotions and new situations with the hashtag #therapeuticfiction. Join me and soon we'll have a tremendous list of teacher-tested and approved books on Instagram!

You've Got Dragons

Many of my students have been here since Preschool or Kindergarten. We know them, they feel comfortable and safe, we love them.

As we get closer to the end of the school year, many of our 4th graders start to feel anxious about moving to our intermediate (5th & 6th grade) school next year. All 3 of our elementary schools feed into the intermediate school, so they will be suddenly be little fish in a big pond, moving from teacher to teacher each day, recess and lunch time will look very different, and they will be trying to figure out the social aspects of their cohort.

Naturally, I started looking for picture books that address dealing with change, anxiety, etc... This nugget popped up in a couple of lists and our school library had it! I looked it over and wasn't sure how my students would respond, but I decided to use it as a read aloud and see what happened.

They were completely engaged! Nick Maland's dragons are not too scary, his children seem powerful, which perfectly supports the text. Kathryn Cave has done a tremendous job of using dragons as a metaphor for our individual challenges in life. I wondered if my students would understand that, and sure enough, the moment I finished reading it, two hands shot up in the air, both with the same question, "What do the dragons represent in this story?"

Me: What do YOU think they represent?
Student: Our problems.

BAM! We had the perfect jumping off point for a conversation about the dragons that 4th graders face and they had a lot to say. Interestingly, many of them named their siblings as dragons :), but by and large, they talked about pressure to do well in school, athletics, music, etc... was at the top of their lists. These are 9 and 10 year olds - NINE and TEN.

Someone brought up being the new kid at a new school and I had the opportunity to point out that every 5th grader will be the new kid at a new school next year and this is their chance to decide how they want their classmates to remember them years from now.

We have many read alouds and discussions ahead of us in the coming weeks, but I could not be more pleased with the outcome this picture book instigated.

Little Treasures

I've had this bulletin board up for several months (FREE from Digital Divide and Conquer). As the students exhibit one of these friendship qualities, they can fill out a form to add to our bulletin board. As I was taking things down today, I noticed these gems:

I think this is my favorite :)

Miss Rumphius

While the children eat their morning snack, I read a picture book aloud. Lately, I've been on a nostalgia kick and have been selecting books from my early years of teaching. Today's choice was Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney.

Cooney wrote and illustrate this lovely story about a girl who chooses her own path and relishes all of the joy and all of the difficulties. Her illustrations, done in acrylics and Primacolor pencils, are reminiscent of American folk art and give the reader a feeling of walking through history. The double-page spreads of her island speak to me, perhaps because I, too, live on an island that I love. The cool colors, the fog, the friendly feel of the village give the reader the unmistakable urge to visit.

Miss Rumphius, the Lupine Lady, began life as Alice and her life story is told by her great-niece. She listens to her grandfather's stories of far away places and vows to follow in his footsteps - travel the world and then settle by the sea. He challenges her to also do something to make the world more beautiful.

Alice becomes a librarian (one of my favorite illustrations in the book!) and then goes off to see the world - and she does, with great flair and gusto. When she injures her back, she settles in a cottage by the sea to recuperate and begins to contemplate what she can do to make the world a more beautiful place. I'll leave the rest for you to discover, but I want to make one more observation about the illustrations - as she begins her journey to make the world a more beautiful place, she bears a striking resemblance to Katherine Hepburn.

Alice Rumphius models the excitement, adventure, independence, and even loneliness in the life of a woman who has chosen her own destiny and moves forward with faith and joy.

Though Barbara Cooney has been gone for 18 years, her books will resonate with young readers, and their parents, for decades to come. She believed in writing TO children rather than AT them, and that is one of many reasons that children love her stories.

The two-time Caldecott Medal winner wrote and/or illustrated 110 books during her lengthy career.  According to The Washington Post, Tim Moses of Viking Children's Books, states that she was Miss Rumphius.

"Of all the books I have done," she once told Moses, " 'Miss Rumphius,' 'Island Boy' and 'Hattie and the Wild Waves' are the closest to my heart. These three are as near as I ever will come to an autobiography." 

This is an excellent article in The Atlantic about Cooney and her work, a more verbose article in The Horn Book, and another, shorter, more personal article in The Washington Post, from which the above quote was taken, written shortly after her death.

The Wolf's Chicken Stew

I headed down Memory Lane with this one. During my 1st year of teaching (1996-97, yikes!) our 1st grade team used this charming picture book as one of our 100th Day of School reads. It was a stretch, but we made it work ;)

This is an adorable story of a hungry wolf who is determined to fatten up a chicken before popping her into his stew pot. So, over the course of 3 nights, he makes and delivers 100 pancakes, 100 doughnuts, and a 100 pound cake to her doorstep (see how we made it work?)

In a surprising twist, the hen kills him with kindness and I'll let you find out how.

This is the first book written and illustrated by Keiko Kasza. She has since published 21 more and been honored with more than a dozen literary awards.

Her bright, friendly pictures make the wolf in seem like a loveable neighbor even as he calls out, "Eat well, my pretty chicken. Get nice and fat for my stew!"

Classroom Library - Helping Them Expand Their Horizons

When we find something we like, we tend to stick with it - that's true of food, clothing, technology, people, and books.

My students will connect with a genre, series, or author, and it's like pulling teeth to get them to read anything else.

I have a large classroom library, so they have plenty to choose from, but right now the sections that are in demand and completely picked over are: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Heidi Hecklebeck (since I introduced it to my non-Outdoor Ed group right before Spring Break), and graphic novels.

So...I decided to try something new to encourage them to change it up and dare to read something outside their comfort zone. Each month (March was the first month I tried it), I select 4 books for my What's New in Room 302 shelf. I write up a little blurb (green tags) and place the books and their blurbs on the shelf and wait to see what happens.

Last month, 3 of the 4 books became popular and I'm hoping that by the end of this week, all four of these titles will be checked out and voraciously read.

Cross your fingers!

Happy Birthday to Margaret Petersen Haddix!

I've started having my "Social Media Team" create videos for author birthdays and we post them to Instagram. Here'e the one they created for Margaret Petersen Haddix.

Happy Birthday

They were so excited to do it because we just finished reading one of her older books, Running Out of Time. If you scroll down on the post, you'll see that she replied - they were over the moon!

I've been reading this treasure to my 4th graders for years and, as time goes by, I have to explain more and more about the 1990's to my students, but it's always worth it.

Haddix is well-known for both her Missing series and her Shadow Children series, all of which I recommend for young adult and middle grade readers. 

Be sure to visit her website. Her bio is interesting and kid-friendly, there's great interview in which she talks about herself as both a reader and a writer, and much more. 

Our class is in the middle of Dear Mr. Henshaw right now, so I was delighted to see a link on her site that says "Writing a Report? Here's some quick information about me." I laughed out loud.