The fifth Iowa Children's Choice Award nominee that I chose to read was The Fast and the Furriest by Andy Behrens. Kevin and his dog Cromwell are classic couch potatoes until Cromwell sees a dog agility contest on TV. Read on to find out how life changes for Kevin, Cromwell, and their family!
This book would work well for practicing identifying cause and effect, summarizing, and identifying main ideas and supporting details. Students could also compare and contrast beginning of the book Kevin and Cromwell to ending of the book Kevin and Cromwell.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Four Books Done!
The fourth Iowa Children's Choice Award nominee that I chose to read was Hiss-s-s-s! by Eric A. Kimmel. Omar wants a snake, but his mom is less than thrilled. Read to find out how the adventure unfolds and how Omar and mom grow and change from their adventure.
Scattered throughout this book are some examples of onomatopoeia. Other skills you could teach using this book might be make a picture or mental image. The descriptions of certain events in the book are well written and certainly help the reader create a mental image.
I am considering using this as a read aloud in my class. Our basal has an excerpt from the story Dear Mr. Winston by Ken Roberts and an informational text piece about snakes. I am thinking that I will read this to my class shortly before we get to that story and then we will compare and contrast the two fiction stories and use the nonfiction along with those to look at author's purpose.
Scattered throughout this book are some examples of onomatopoeia. Other skills you could teach using this book might be make a picture or mental image. The descriptions of certain events in the book are well written and certainly help the reader create a mental image.
I am considering using this as a read aloud in my class. Our basal has an excerpt from the story Dear Mr. Winston by Ken Roberts and an informational text piece about snakes. I am thinking that I will read this to my class shortly before we get to that story and then we will compare and contrast the two fiction stories and use the nonfiction along with those to look at author's purpose.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Three Books Down
The third Iowa Children's Choice Award nominee I chose to read was Waiting for the Magic by Patricia MacLachlan. William and Elinor's father left for "a while". Their mom decides to cope by adopting four dogs and a cat. Their new "family" members help them see how important they are to each other.
This story would be a good fit for many skills off the CAFE menu. The fact that it contains some illustrations makes is work for the skill cross checking. It would also work for students working on summarizing, identifying literary elements, and voracious reading.
This story would be a good fit for many skills off the CAFE menu. The fact that it contains some illustrations makes is work for the skill cross checking. It would also work for students working on summarizing, identifying literary elements, and voracious reading.
Two Books Down
The second Iowa Children's Choice Award nominee I chose to read was The Ghost of Graylock by Dan Poblocki. Neil and Bree are spending the summer with their aunts, who just happen to live by an abandoned, haunted state hospital named Graylock. Being typical kids Neil and Bree go explore Graylock. This is when the spooky twists and turns of the book begin to appear.
This story would be a good fit for students working on any number of skills of the CAFE menu. Here are a few I thought would work well with it: making predictions, inferring, asking questions as you read, and identifying literary elements.
This story would be a good fit for students working on any number of skills of the CAFE menu. Here are a few I thought would work well with it: making predictions, inferring, asking questions as you read, and identifying literary elements.
Monday, May 26, 2014
One Book Down!
I began working on my goal of reading the Iowa Children's Choice Award nominees with the book Hold Fast by Blue Balliet.
This is a fast, moving mystery about a father who disappears and his family who ends up living in a homeless shelter. The story unfolds as Early Pearl, the daughter of the missing man,works to solve the mystery and bring her father home.
Shortly into the book, I decided to use it as my first chapter book read aloud in August. Upon making this decision I consulted my copy of the Iowa Core, the Daily 5 and The CAFE Book to see what skills I could use this book to teach.
First off this book is filled with the love of words. Each chapter begins with a highlighted word or two which the author shares the origin and definition of the highlighted words with the reader. This makes it a great way to introduce your class word collector and the skill tune into interesting words.
To go along with this I am thinking about doing Wonderful Word Wednesday. Each Wednesday we would begin our day sharing in our community circle any wonderful words we have found in our reading during the prior week. This idea is not completely original, I saw a similar idea but can not recall where I saw it!
There are any number of spots in this story where you could use the check for understanding and backup and reread skills. This book could also be used to teach using prior knowledge. You could read the inside of the front cover and discuss the genre. Then have students share what they know about the mystery genre. You could discuss what you and your students know about the author. For information about the author check out her website "Blue Balliet" After reading page 5, you could have students share with an elbow partner what experience they have had with family pictures. These are just a few ideas for teaching skills using Hold Fast. If you have others chime in!
This is a fast, moving mystery about a father who disappears and his family who ends up living in a homeless shelter. The story unfolds as Early Pearl, the daughter of the missing man,works to solve the mystery and bring her father home.
Shortly into the book, I decided to use it as my first chapter book read aloud in August. Upon making this decision I consulted my copy of the Iowa Core, the Daily 5 and The CAFE Book to see what skills I could use this book to teach.
First off this book is filled with the love of words. Each chapter begins with a highlighted word or two which the author shares the origin and definition of the highlighted words with the reader. This makes it a great way to introduce your class word collector and the skill tune into interesting words.
To go along with this I am thinking about doing Wonderful Word Wednesday. Each Wednesday we would begin our day sharing in our community circle any wonderful words we have found in our reading during the prior week. This idea is not completely original, I saw a similar idea but can not recall where I saw it!
There are any number of spots in this story where you could use the check for understanding and backup and reread skills. This book could also be used to teach using prior knowledge. You could read the inside of the front cover and discuss the genre. Then have students share what they know about the mystery genre. You could discuss what you and your students know about the author. For information about the author check out her website "Blue Balliet" After reading page 5, you could have students share with an elbow partner what experience they have had with family pictures. These are just a few ideas for teaching skills using Hold Fast. If you have others chime in!
Summer Goals
One of my goals this summer is to read the Iowa Children's Choice Award nominees for the 2014-2015 school year.
Being a fan of Blue Balliet's book Chasing Vermeer, I decided to start with Hold Fast. I am almost finished. When I am finished I will do a short review and share some ways I think it could be used to introduce those early comprehension skills from the CAFE menu.
Being a fan of Blue Balliet's book Chasing Vermeer, I decided to start with Hold Fast. I am almost finished. When I am finished I will do a short review and share some ways I think it could be used to introduce those early comprehension skills from the CAFE menu.
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