Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

March 9-13, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Too Many Toys by David Shannon. This author really knows true life! It was as if he had written an episode of my life with my son and his toys... that spill into the living room... his latest obsession being a box which he has decorated as a car that you can watch movies in!

Grade 1: The Boy Who Loved Bananas by George Elliot. A real crowd pleaser with lots of repetition and a humorous twist at the end.

Grade 2: Lemon Duck by Laura Backman. Lemon is not like the other hatchlings... a tender story with a good ending.

Grade 3: Jim and the Beanstalk by Raymond Briggs. This is what I call an "oldie but goodie" (copyright 1970)! A funny story about what happens when Jim climbs up the beanstalk to find that Jack's giant has aged. The old giant is in need of glasses, dentures and a wig. A sweet ending.

Grade 4: Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room! by Itah Sadu. Christopher's pet fish team up with the cockroaches next door. They go to extremes to try and get Christopher to clean up his room and eventually the stinky fish tank.

Grade 5: Camilla Camelion by Colleen Sydor. Camilla is born with some amazing abilities which make her popular with her classmates AND her teachers!

Monday, March 9, 2009

March 2-6, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Piggybook by Anthony Browne.

My son is in one of the Kindergarten classes that I read this book to. You won't believe this but in Church on Sunday, he'd begun looking through my bag and I whispered, "What are you looking for?" He asked me for some food because he was hungry and I told him, "Sorry I didn't bring a snack today but I do have a drinking box." And he retorts, "Okay, I'll just scrounge around for some scraps." So, if you've read the story, you know exactly the body position he took on the pew.... I was perplexed by this and it took me a few seconds to catch on ... (Ohhhhh! In the story, the kids "root" around for scraps against the wall when they run out of groceries.) I'm still shaking my head and laughing....

Grade 1: Dr. Drabble's Spectacular Shrinker-Enlarger; Dr. Drabble and the Dynamic Duplicator by Sigmund Brouwer and Wayne Davidson. (See also: http://www.coolreading.com/)

Grade 2: Goose's story by Cari Best. If you liked the movie: Fly Away Home, you'll also enjoy this book about a goose who arrives at the pond one spring with a mysterious broken leg. (See also: http://us.macmillan.com/author/caribest and http://biography.jrank.org/pages/219/Best-Cari-1951-Sidelights.html)

Grade 3: The Boy Who Ate the World (and the girl who saved it) by Don Gillmor and Pierre Pratt. Students were tickled by this hysterical tall tale.(See also:
http://www.mbwriter.mb.ca/mapindex/g_profiles/gillmor_d.html)

Grade 4: Victory at Paradise Hill by William Roy Brownridge. Brownridge at his captivating best.

Grade 5: Sydney And Norman by Phil Vischer (See also: http://www.philvischer.com/?page_id=70) A parable with a surprising and arresting twist.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

February 23-27, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Toot and Puddle : Top of the World by Holly Hobbie, now also a tv show (See also: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tootandpuddle/)

You might remember Holly Hobbie's more famous series "Holly Hobbie and Friends" (http://www.agkidzone.com/hollyhobbie.action)

When I was a little girl I had my very own Holly Hobbie doll but it looked more like this one http://www.amazon.com/Holly-Hobbie-12-Inch-Ragdoll-Blue/dp/B000CEFP0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1213021245&sr=1-1

We do have a sampling of Holly Hobby's books available but not a full collection.

Grade 1: Bad Boys by Margie Palatini (See also: http://www.margiepalatini.com/)

Grade 2: She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain by Philemon Sturges (See also: http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/HarperChildrens/Kids/AuthorsAndIllustrators/ContributorDetail.aspx?CId=12784) This is a book that is hard to read without singing! The story has a twist with students guessing who "she" is until the very end!

Grade 3: Gordon Loggins and the Three Bears by Linda Bailey. We just can't get enough of Linday Bailey in Grade 3. Students in a grade 3 class performed this story as a reader's theatre presentation in their classroom.

Grade 4: Library Lil by Suzanne Williams. (See also: http://www.suzanne-williams.com/) I love this story about an amazing Librarian who manages to turn a whole town of tv watchers into bookworms!

Grade 5: Sister Anne's Hands by Marybeth Lorbieki (see also: http://www.marybethlorbiecki.com/) I have a sheet that the students use to make their own hand to cut out. Then we laminate the hands and make a beautiful bulletin board out of them! We just received the first batch and sent them to the laminator yesterday.

This was also National Freedom to Read Week (www.freedomtoread.ca) (Book and Periodical council). Their slogan states: "The freedom to read what you want is your right. Protect it."

Well, I want to read Christian books and I want to read the Bible! I share with the students that I believe that the Library we have at our school is very special and a treasure because it has Christian Literature in it that is available to our students. Check out http://www.persecution.org/suffering/country_info.php for information about countries where a Library like this could not exist.

We also have a wonderful variety of books in our library- a luxury! We as staff and students appreciate it!

I also share a ballot form that shows where a student has written in a favourite Christian author's name. I explain that someday, maybe a student will write their name in that space because they are writing Christian Literature for children. I hope this inspires young students to become amazing writers! The writing can begin today!

February 16-20, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming (Students often ask us for an encore!)




(That's me with Nikki Tate at the BCTLA Conference in Victoria, October 2008.)







Grade 1-5: Grandparents' Day by Nikki Tate

This week we celebrated Grandparents Day on Tuesday. We also had a Christian Book Fair open Monday to Thursday. Lighthouse Books brought in quite an amazing selection of books and products! If you would like to have them bring a Christian Book Fair to your event, email Wendy Janzen at lighthousebooks@shaw.ca!

February 9-13, 2009 RABs

Kindergarten: Franklin's Valentines by Paulette Bourgeois (See also: http://www.franklin.ecsd.net/author_paulette_bourgeois.htm)
Grade 1: also Franklin's Valentines
Grade 2: George and Martha Back in Town by James Marshall
Grade 3-5: This week students filled out a Library Bingo sheet (3 by 3 squares) with titles from the Christian Book Fair Flyer (Get Reading published by Living Books) and I drew titles from a bin (I just photocopy or use an actual flyer and cut out the titles). Winners received a candy!
This is a really fun game which helps us get to know featured authors and titles before the book fair arrives.

Students also filled out a ballot form to vote for their favourite Christian Author and enter the draw to win free books from the book fair.

Do you have a favourite Christian Author? If you don't, it's not too late! Do some (more) reading of Christian Literature and find out who your favourite is!