Bobcat Book Bingo!

Last year I challenged students to read their way around the world by reading one book set in or authored by someone from every continent. This school year there's a new challenge: Bobcat Book Bingo!

Even with thousands of new books published each year, it's possible to fall into a rut. This is a fun and easy way to expand your reading horizons.These 5th graders can't wait to get started:

Here's our bulletin board with a few suggested titles:

 

Want to participate? Just stop by the Library Learning Commons to fill out an entry form and pick up a book (or two or three...). There are 25 different categories to choose from.* Record your books as you go!

The challenge is open to K-8, and parents and staff are welcome to join in. The first person at each grade level to get a BINGO will win a $15 University Book Store gift card!

Happy reading!

*A list of categories in case you're wondering...

• Graphic novel
• Translated from another language
• Published this year
• Novel in verse
• Biography or memoir
• Published before 1990
• Narrative nonfiction
• Fantasy or science fiction
• Mystery or suspense
• National award winner
• Wilderness adventure
• Book that's been made into a movie
• Scary book
• Short story collection
• Set in another country
• Sports fiction
• Humorous fiction
• Book with animal protagonists
• Realistic fiction
• On a topic you don't know much about
• Story set during wartime
• In a format you don't usually read
• Realistic book about someone who doesn't look like or live like you
• Set in the Pacific Northwest
• Free choice (in the middle)

The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake.. and the OWS kids who were hot on its trail!

The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake by Robin Newman is a new beginning chapter book that introduces a pair of intrepid mouse detectives hot on the trail of a dastardly cake thief! In Kindergarten and First Grade we spent several fun weeks on this story which is full of clever puns and word play. Readers also have to pay close attention to the clues to figure out who might be guilty...

First we discussed the mystery genre and some specialized vocabulary words. To test students' skills as witnesses, I asked them what Ms. Bishop, our LLC Assistant, was wearing as they'd walked past her just a few minutes before. Here is a typical set of answers and a shot of what Ms. Bishop was actually wearing that day:

Next, we started reading the book, taking notes about the various suspects in our detective notebooks:

We discussed our suspicions with classmates and wrote down our conclusions before reading the final chapter and discovering whodunit... (You'll have to read the book yourself to see if this guess is correct!)

The real icing on the cake was our video chat with the author! Students were full of great questions and Robin gave us an interesting glimpse behind the scenes.

Here they react with stunned surprise upon discovering that the process of writing and publishing the book took 8 years! (Not the "couple of months" they had guessed!)

Not only did we have a lot of fun with The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake, but students learned the importance of paying close attention to information in texts and making predictions, as well as a better understanding of all the hard work that goes into being an author!

Who's in your books? And what are they doing?

Maybe you've heard about the We Need Diverse Books movement that is making waves on Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook? It was triggered in part by a report from the Cooperative Children's Book Center on the consistent lack of ethnic diversity in fiction for young people.

Much has been written on why it's important that all children be able to see themselves - and others - reflected in books. I particularly like Christopher Myers' take on books as maps that are supposed to open up worlds of "boundless imagination" and yet, "children of color remain outside the boundaries of imagination...at best background characters, and more often than not absent."

When was the last time you read a book for young people in which a child of color entered a fantasy world or solved a mystery? A book in which ethnic differences - specifically problems relating to them - weren't the primary reason for minority characters' existence?

Every year from the first week of school until winter break we focus in-depth on one cultural group during our K-3 storytimes. Instead of a scattershot approach, this focus gives students a deeper understanding of the region or culture. Frequently referring to maps, we cover folklore, nonfiction and fiction. In the past we have covered the Celtic countries, Latin America and Korea, among other locations.

A major goal of this unit is also to challenge stereotypes. For example, one year we focused on contemporary Native Americans - since so many children's books write as if Native peoples existed only in the distant past - and read books recommended in A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children for not being exoticizing or exploitative.

This year we are looking at African American heritage - from cherished folktales to stories of modern families who are recent immigrants. Although the history of slavery and the Civil Rights movement is very important, an overwhelming percentage of picture books about African Americans portray victims of oppression or focus heavily on a few well-known heroes. What kind of mirror does this hold up to young readers? And what map does it set down before them? 

I deliberately chose books that portray regular, happy families doing what regular, happy families do. We also read some set during the past in which ordinary African Americans show a sense of agency, rather than being either great heroes or downtrodden victims.


My hope is that by shifting the balance of the content of the books we expose children to, we can also shift some of their internal images and expectations.

Want to learn more? Come to the Parent Association meeting on December 5th, where I'll be talking about my summer grant in which I overhauled the book sets we use at our school! I'll also talk about how you can consider the books you read with or give to your children (of all ages) and the messages they may be sending.

5th grade tech + K-3 picture books = lots of fun for all!

Animoto is a great site that lets users quickly and easily make their own videos using a variety of templates and different musical scores. Recently 5th graders learned all about Creative Commons, why it's important to use images that are licensed for re-use, and how to search for, download and save the URLs for these images.

They worked individually or in pairs, selecting one of the Washington Children's Choice Picture Book Award nominees, and creating a video book trailer to promote their title. Along the way they also developed a greater appreciation of how trailers work - how to make them tantalizing by including a hook that catches your viewers' attention, and how to reveal enough, but not too much, of the plot.

In classes this week, K-3 students are viewing the trailers before voting. They deliberate seriously over their choices and wait with anticipation for the results to be announced! We will announce our school's winner next Monday but may have to wait a few weeks to find out who won at the state level - typically over 100,000 students vote every year!

All the 5th graders did a wonderful job with their videos. Here are a few for you to enjoy!

Out of This World: Poems and Facts about Space by Amy Sklansky - trailer by Zoe

The Monster's Monster by Patrick McDonnell - trailer by Lindsay and Tristan

 

Gilbert Goldfish Wants a Pet by Kelly DiPucchio - trailer by Thomas and Adam

 

Our Celtic cultural unit

Every year from September until winter break we focus in K-3 library classes on one part of the world in an in-depth cultural unit. Why not sample a broader range of books? We specialize because it helps students develop a deeper and more meaningful understanding of that region, its history and geography, ways of life, holidays, and so on. In the past we've learned about West Africa and Latin America, among other places, referring frequently to maps and flags, and enjoying realistic fiction, folklore and nonfiction. This year's area of focus is the Celtic countries of Ireland, Scotland and Wales!

I was fortunate enough to attend a spectacular high school in Wales where I developed a taste for black pudding and Marmite, made personal connections that persist to this day, and became acquainted with other Celtic cultures as well. I'm pleased to share what I've learned through some wonderful literature - but it's even nicer when students can connect lessons to their own heritage and interests.

This week several classes will be fortunate enough to experience a step dance performance by one of our 3rd graders who danced for us in the library to several lively Irish tunes:

 

She explained a lot about Irish dancing and how she got started, answered questions from the audience, and showed us a PowerPoint presentation she created about step dancing and her personal connection to Ireland:

 

It was a wonderful experience that was a huge hit with her schoolmates! This young woman shared her belief that champions are "made, not born" and described her dedicated daily practice in pursuit of her goal of excellence.

If you have a child in grades K-3, ask him or her to explain selkies, wee folk, and what the legends say about why there are no snakes in Ireland!

Check out the fantastic works of Susan Cooper, from Celtic folktale picture books to chapter books for older readers, such as her Dark is Rising series, set in Wales and Cornwall (another Celtic land). Two great Irish writers are Siobhan Dowd, for middle and high school, and Derek Landy for upper elementary and middle school. Gill Lewis is a Scottish veterinarian whose animal- and nature-themed chapter books are brilliant for middle grade readers.

Our children's wishes

We begin every school year in grades K-3 library classes by learning in depth about one part of the world. In previous years we have studied West Africa, Scandinavia and Latin America among other locations. This year we are learning about Japan! Recently students heard a kamishibai story about tanabata, a Japanese summer festival. They had the chance to write their own tanzaku, wishes written on strips of colorful paper, that we have hung from bamboo branches. Your child's tanzaku will be sent home soon, but for now we are enjoying them on display in the library! Here is a selection of what they wished for in their own words (and charming spelling)!

Kindergarten:
I wish to hav a pet dragin
I wish to be a princess
I wish for good book
Theat I went to the top uf the tollist scickrap
I wsh to bkme Harry Paddtr
I wish to go to India
I want to be a super hero
I hope flowers bloom any day
I wish that I grow a lollipop tree
I wish for I livd in Hwie
I wish the world was covered with water

First grade:
I wish I could be invisible
I rile hop that it is tro that I will get my on dog wen I am nin
I wish all the dogs in my family will come back to life
I wish to have more Calvin and Hoddes
I wish I cod be a krote mastr
To never die
I wish I cod have a mes or a rat or a pone

Second grade:
I want to be faster than my brother
I wish I could help my fish Bonie with her eye
I wish my fish wode stay aliv fore more then a year
I wish I was a person with a really cool superpower
I wish I can shoot lightning out of my hands
I wish for another dragon
Be a good prason

Third grade:
I wish to have a real wand
I wish that money would fall from the sky instead of rain
I wish that I will save endangered animals
I wish to solve mustries
I wish I could have a pet shark
I wish that I can like homework
To fly without wings
I wish to be world chess champion