Book titles + Stacking = POETRY!

I heard of book spine poetry for the first time a few years ago, thanks to Travis Jonker over at 100ScopeNotes.com.  I tried it with 5th graders for the past 2 years and they came up with some amazing poems.  This year, my student teacher and I decided to try it with first graders - and we were very impressed with their creativity!

A selection of the 1st grade book spine poems, ready for sharing!

They had been learning about the Super3 (Plan, Do, Review) and we decided to make creating book spine poems an activity to practice the process of planning, doing and reviewing.  Honestly, I was a little worried about the chaos that would ensue, but it was totally worth it!  We preselected some titles for them (just for the sake of time) and put them out on tables all over the library.

The rush to pick titles!

The book spine poems they came up with were witty, insightful, funny and silly. It was a great experience for all.  As a follow up, each class reviewed what they did to create their poems and planned out a lesson to teach to first graders in a different school.

Class brainstorm to plan the Skype lesson!

Yesterday we held a Skype session to teach those first graders about book spine poems and how to start making their own - it was a huge success!  The kids felt invested in the process and proud to be the "teachers" - giving directions and sharing their examples.  I can't wait for more poetry fun in April!

Here's some of their work:

Rose 1H

Niamh 1W

Daniil 1W

Gaby 1W

Owen 1H

Vivi 1M

Lyanna 1W

Amanda 1M

Sam 1M

Ross 1M

World Read Aloud Day!

One 5th grade class had the perfect connection to WRAD:

Over the course of the day, I got the chance to connect with 10 different classes of students - 6 in my own school and 4 through Skype! We read stories together, I jumped in to take over their read aloud books, or I simply talked about WRAD and took pictures! It was an amazing day of stories, laughter and even disbelief (that there are so many in the world that don't know how to read). It made me realize that we have to do even more in my school and district to really make our students global learners.

Some of the books that were read aloud over the course of WRAD:

I had a great day- here are some highlights:

• Read one of my 1st grade classes from another school a story (they LOVED Pete the Cat) - Thank you Mr. Gaita!
• Read a few chapters of Wonder aloud to a 5th grade class 

• Witnessed a dictionary race in another 5th grade class when I read the word "curtailing" aloud
• Shared I Want My Hat Back with Ms. Lightfoot's 4th grade Animal Ambassadors via Skype (and had them each come up to share if they were more Team Bear or Team Rabbit)

• Observed 1st graders reading aloud to each other in small groups (Henry and Mudge!)
• Connected with Mrs. Reed and Mr. Schu via a double Skype session!

It was a whirlwind day, but worth every second of running around and troubleshooting connections.  I even got to learn about sharing my screen on Skype so I could use the ELMO to make the book easier for the other classes to see!

Hope everyone had an amazing World Read Aloud Day!  Thank you LitWorld!

It's almost World Read Aloud Day!

First Annual ZervCott!

This year I decided to extend my Caldecott lessons to include voting in a Mock Caldecott election for my 1-4 grade classes.  It was great fun.  The Caldecott Medal is awarded each year to the illustrator of the "most distinguished American picture book for children." We learned about the history of the award, looked at past winners, and spent time looking through potential winners as a class, individually, and in small groups.  I collected 24 books from our school library and public library; culled from other Mock Caldecott lists I researched, librarian reviews and my own personal favorites.  This was our master list:

Erin's mock-caldecott-2011 book montage

Erin's favorite books »

Neville

A Nation's Hope
Shout Shout
Mouse and Lion
Blackout *2012 Caldecott Honor Book!
Stars
Grandpa Green *2012 Caldecott Honor Book!
Swirl By Swirl
Orani
Blue Chicken
Red Sled
Subway Story
Naamah
Drawing from Memory
A Butterfly is Patient
Perfect Square
All the Water
Bone Dog
A Ball for Daisy *2012 Caldecott Medal Winner!
Me Jane *2012 Caldecott Honor Book!
Balloons Over Broadway
Ice
The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred
The Watcher

I tallied the votes for each class and each grade level so I could share those results with them - and then I took the grand totals (332 total votes!) and revealed our TOP 6 (Grandpa Green, Bone Dog, Blackout, Me Jane, Blue Chicken, and Swirl By Swirl). [What I thought was fantastic was that of our ZervCott Top 6 list - 3 of them received Caldecott Honor Medals!]  Finally, all of the 1st and 2nd grade classes voted AGAIN for just one favorite from the Top 6 list.  First graders were also tasked with designing medals to be used for the ZervCott medal and honors.  It was wonderful to see how invested they were in each book and the deliberation they went through.  Some were really hard pressed to make a decision.  As a final step, a class of 5th graders helped me chose the winning ZervCott medal designs by using their SmartBoard clickers to respond to a poll I created with 6 finalist designs.

Here are the final results for the first annual ZervCott Awards!

ZervCott Honor Books (and their medals):

Medal by Sylvie

Medal by Annie

And the 2012 ZervCott winner!

Medal by Kettie

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 :)

I'm Here...

I mentioned the book I'm Here by Peter H. Reynolds in my last post. Here's a great book trailer/companion video to it. Really speaks to the impact of the book. Check out his great work with Fablevision here.  Lots of great visuals, lessons, products and ideas for teachers.

Inclusive Schools Week

It's Inclusive Schools week and I've been having some great discussions with kids at all grade levels about what an inclusive school looks like, and the many meanings of inclusion.  We've shared stories, including I'm Here by Peter H. Reynold and One by Kathryn Otoshi and come up with activities to do together to try to understand how we are all different thinkers and learners.  I just came across this video, shared by a fellow librarian, and loved it too much not to pass on. Enjoy!