March 29, 2017

Focusing on Family

"Together, we make a family."

 

This week's selection of stories was intended to guide our collective focus on the concept of family - in its numerous shapes and forms.  The people you go home to every night, relatives or friends near and far, and even the family of learners that we become here at SATEC all add to our understanding of family.  The inspiration for this lesson came from our eighth Red Clover nominee for the 2016-17, Mango, Abuela, and Me.  In addition to this beautiful story, learners also heard titles like: My Wild Family, Wolfie the Bunny, and Salt in His Shoes.          

March 23, 2017

The Water Cycle

 How fortuitous to be able to support this month's Four Winds theme AND complete our seventh Red Clover book of the year!  It's hard to believe that we are winding down this incredible and inspiring Vermont reading program for the 2016-17 school year.  

 April Pulley Sayre's Raindrops Roll matches a beautiful collection of photographs with poetic text to create a unique, and well received, nonfiction story.  To enhance the experience, we listened to some rain sounds while reading the story aloud.

After watching a short clip on the three stages of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation) we then read Miranda Paul's Water is Water to see the cycle in action over the course of a year.  By the end of the lesson we were all dripping with new knowledge on the water cycle!       

        

March 9, 2017

Jon Agee - Author, Illustrator, & Lover of Words

"Sit on a potato pan, Otis!"

This week's mentor texts:

 
   

With returning to school after a lengthy vacation, I thought it would be fun to conduct another "author study week" - and decided to focus on the very talented, creative, and hilarious children's bookmaker  Jon Agee.  Learners discovered what led Mr. Agee to pursue a career as an author/illustrator extraordinaire here; experienced his love of creating wacky, off-the-wall stories (titles above); and listened to his take on poetry, oxymorons, and palindromes as well.  

For those that would like to know more about Jon, here is an interview from 2011.  I'm very much looking forward to another great month in the library with all of SATEC's curious and excited learners!