Picture book month is over, but we still love our picture books!

Copy of Zervas 5th Graders Present: Our TOP TEN Favorite Books (of all time) on Prezi

If you can't view the Prezi, or don't want to wait for the reveals - here is our compiled Top Ten list.  The 5th graders ranked their top 10 favorite picture books in order, and we gave each spot ranked points.  Here are their favorite picture books!

10. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

      The Giving Tree

9.   One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

8.   The Sneetches

      The Dumb Bunnies

7.   Chrysanthemum

6.   Bats at the Ballgame

5.   Bats at the Library

4.   If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

3.   Green Eggs and Ham

2.   Make Way for Ducklings

and the UNANIMOUS TOP FAVORITE

1.   Elephant and Piggie!  (They couldn't pick just one, so Gerald and Piggie just get top honors together for all of their work :)

Picture Book Month - Week 1

Highlights from the library:

It's a unique challenge trying to convince 70 fourth graders you just met 7 weeks ago at a new school that picture books are cool.  And totally aimed at them (sometimes), or at the very least worth their attention.  After the incredulous inquiries ("Wait...Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants don't count?"), I may be cracking the surface... When sharing favorite picture books, one boy started...."I don't remember the name of it, but it's about a boy who finds a camera in the ocean..." Before he could go any further a collective gasp and sigh and murmurs of agreement erupted throughout the class.  "Flotsam!" another boy called out.  And...we're getting there.

Next, when sharing I Will Not Read This Book with a first grade class, there were some great comments as I read the title outloud ("No, Ms. Broderick, please read it!") and then as I continued along with the story and came to the part where a "dragon blows smoke in my eyeballs", a boy in the front row covers his face and says "OH! I can FEEL it!". Sometimes it's the little things that can make your day.

The students at Zervas who are more well versed with my love of picture books (and endpapers!) totally ate up this opportunity to check out huge amounts of picture books (15+ for some of them) - I'm hoping they have wheelie backpacks...

Now I'll get back to devising a better scheme for tracking my own reading between two schools and home.  I told the kids my personal goal is 100 books - 72 to go!

Picture books of the day...

I got to share some picture books today with Ms. Toran's class:

I Will Not Read This Book by Cece Meng (I LOVE THIS BOOK! I'm going to have them re-enact it as reader's theater next week)

Little Chicken's Big Day by Katie Davis

And with some new books that came in, my reading total is up to 7 picture books in two days.  I better step up my game!

It's Picture Book Month!

Picture books are important.  Picture books are powerful.  Picture books are FUN! Join me in reading, sharing and celebrating picture books throughout the month of November.  I will be keeping stats of the number of picture books checked out of the library, and each classroom has a tally chart to document any picture books read in class.  Students who want to keep track of the picture books they read, either at school or at home, can fill out their own calendar tally chart! Families reading books together totally counts!  The classroom with the MOST number of picture books read will win a prize!

I started out Picture Book Month with 3 great read-alouds in the library.  In first grade, we were wrapping up our author study of Brian Lies, so we listened to Bats at the Library and Bats at the Ballgame while creating bats for our final display.

With the Kindergarteners, it was Judy Sierra's Wild About Books that kicked off our picture book challenge!

Let's see how many picture books the Zervas Community can read in 30 days! 

Interested in participating?
Print out the themed calendar here: http://picturebookmonth.com/calendar/
See Ms. Broderick for a tally sheet.

Pick up a picture book and read with me! 

Read, Share, Celebrate!

More information here: http://picturebookmonth.com/