Who's on First

I love reading. no... I LOVE reading! I think it is so amazing how books open the world to us. How by reading a book, your mind opens to things you would've never thought of before.

We are currently reading The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. In it, there is a refernce to Abbott & Costello's Who's on First skit. So, I thought it woud be a great opportunity to show it to the kids. I looked it up on youtube and pressed play. It was hilarious! The kids were cracking up and yelling back at the characters. You would've thought that they had never seen comedians before haha.

When all was said and done, I think it was a very succesful lesson. If you haven't seen it, go youtube it right now!! :)

xx00xx

brainpop.com

This is a fantastic website with awesome animated short clips to explain everything from tsunamis to long division. The kids get SO interested in the videos and they learn so much too! I like it because the videos are only about 3-5 min long (so they don't take up a whole period).

Apparently, the whole site used to be free but unfortunately it isn't that way anymore :( There are still a whole lot of free resources, but I'm sad that not all the videos are accessible...

xxOOxx

My FAVORITE Story Book EVERRR!!

I love picture books, and I enjoy reading them to kids. The simplicity of the books and their fun stories make them so enjoyable to read. I have many in my own collection that range from classics and fairy tales to newer books and contemporary stories. However, when it comes to reading a picture book to a class, I have one ultimate favorite!!



The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

This book is the most fun "fairy tale" book to read to a class. It's narrator, Jack, has no clue what he's doing. He puts the table of contents before the title page and skips pages in the book. Century-old tales are cut up, ripped apart, and thrown back together haphazardly to create a menagerie of new tales. It is witty, sarcastic, and hilarious.


Caution: this book does say "stupid"(gasp!) several times and the class goes wild. I wouldn't really use it for a read aloud for classes under second or third grade because they might not understand the smart-aleck anecdotes throughout the stories!


xxOOxx

Book Review: Olivia Kidney and the Exit Academy

This is the second book in a three book series. It was actually re-named Olivia Kidney Stops for No One. It's a great story for those classes that say "We want something scary!!" They all do. I was never a fan of goosebumps and you can't give them anything actually scary because they're still kids (event though many do watch horror movies with their parents, but that's another post altogether..)

Olivia Kidney is able to talk to spirits! This book is a great big mystery and is written in a way that both adults and students will enjoy the humor! I would say that it is a good read aloud for grades 3 and up and that by fourth grade, students could read it by themselves.

What's really convenient is that if you used it as a read-aloud, student's would be inspired to read the rest of the series on their own!! Way to go you inspirational teacher you :)

xxOOxx

Culture Shock

As most of you know, I am currently an employee of a solidly middle-class suburban private Catholic school. The class size in kinder was less than 15. The students are not 100% Caucasian but I don't think there are more than 10 students in the whole school that English is not their first language. It is my first real long-term job and the entire campus has welcomed me with open arms. I am flabbergasted everyday by the amount of knowledge in these young minds. Seriously. Today, I over heard two preschoolers (about 4 years old) discussing a bible story and one little boy pointed to a group of people in the illustration and correctly identified them as Philistines. Really?! Geeze, it's amazing. Most of the kindergartners can read first-grade level books and write simple stories. The assigned math book seemed too easy for them so we practiced mental addition and even some subtraction daily.

As some of you might also know, I recently began tutoring after school for a company that has a government contract with LAUSD in compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act. Three days a week, I do one-on-one tutoring with a kindergartner in a low-income district. Her mother speaks very little English and she is in a classroom with more than 25 other 5 year-olds. She is very smart but has a language disadvantage that we're working on adamantly.

It is culture shock in the truest sense of the word as I go from interacting with my classroom to the one student. She cannot read. She can barely write. She cannot express herself in coherent sentences. It is actually mildly frightening. For Dr. Seuss Day I read Yurtle the Turtle to the class and they thought it was the most hilarious book ever. I read the first two pages while tutoring today and she was so lost that I decided that maybe we should get through Green Eggs and Ham first. I enjoy the change of pace that a 1:1 provides and she tries so hard during our sessions, I know she'll learn very fast. Its weird to think that I might be making a bigger difference in this one little girl's life than in all the kinder class combined. Still, the culture shock is extreme.

xxOOxx

Book Review: Everything on a Waffle

Everything on a Waffle
by Polly Horvath

I believe that you should NEVER assign something to your students that you haven't and/or wouldn't read yourself. Therefore, I have begun to indulge in fun elementary level books for my future reference (much more fun than Dostoevsky for sure!)

.

I picked up Everything on a Waffle yesterday and just finished the 150pg. novel about ten minutes ago. It is a Newbery Honor Book and I would say it is good for the end of third grade/ beginning of fourth grade. Heck, who am I kidding, it would do as a read aloud in any grade actually!

.

The story is written in the first person and is very engaging from the very first page! It's about a little girl whose parents are lost at sea. She goes through a very rough time trying to get the little town to stop telling her that they're dead, because she knows deep down that they're not. She tells of her misadventures in the little town and how she lost two digits in the process. The book is littered with recipes that sound delicious and little anecdotes on life. Definitely worth a place in your classroom library at the very least!

.

xxOOxx