PPBF: Orange Pear Apple Bear

And as usual on Friday, I bow to Susanna Leonard Hill and her Perfect Picture Book Friday Linky

_______________________________________

Title Orange Pear Apple Bear

Written & Illustrated By: Emily Gravett

Publisher, year: Simon and Schuster, 2007

Suitable For: ages 1+

Themes/Topics: fruit, bears, punctuation, inferencing

Brief Synopsis:

A truly lovely little children's book that combines the pleasures of punctuation, specifically the comma with beautiful illustrations. The four words of the title are repeated and rearranged, with sweet watercolor sketches as illustrations.

Mid-book there's a page with the words "Apple, pear", and a sketch of a pear atop an apple. The next is "Orange bear" with - of course! - an orange bear. A sight gag based on punctuation! The "pear bear" with a giant green pear-shaped bum blushed with pink is particularly nice.

This is the kind of book you wish were longer, while knowing that brevity and minimalism is its perfect soul.

Links To Resources and ideas for use in the classroom:

• Patton's Bookcase

• Use colors and rhymes to create your own book using this one as a mentor text

• Read other great books like:

Why I Like This Book: Most children know how to read fruit and color names from the very beginning of school. This means that this is a book that is meaningful and can be read independently. The kids learn about inferencing and how the order of words and punctuation changes what is being said. The pictures are beautiful and funny.

The way business should be done.

More about the pencil sharpener.

This morning I announced to my fellow colleagues that before school started, I would be demonstrating my SPECTACULAR new pencil sharpener that a TEACHER created and sells. "Bring your dullest pencil!" I summoned.

They came and watched (riveted I might add) as each dull pencil became as long and sharp as an awl.

Ooooo. Aaaahh.

My Principal came in and was clearly wow'd. She said, "send the info to the secretary and let's put in an order for 36 today." She NEVER jumps on stuff like this. We only have 10 classrooms at our school, so 36 is awesome for us! She even asked to bring it to "team" tomorrow which is when the district principals and central office administration meet.

I know a pencil sharpener seems benign, well maybe not to teachers. Maybe I'm preaching to the choir. But, ooo la la, my pencils today were sharper than sharp. The kids each got two this morning and NO ONE, I mean not one single child asked me to sharpen after that. I think I gained nearly 75 extra minutes back in my life.

So, thank you Troy Decoff, owner founder and seller of The Perfect Pencil Sharpener. Thank you so very much and I really hope my district buys more because this is exactly how business in America should be done.

PS Is there a child labor law against rewarding my more challenging children who complete their work with the job of sharpening pencils? They loved it and could have done it all day. Focus is clearly NOT their challenge when motivated.

My Pencil Sharpener is in the house!

I just received my green, quiet, beautiful, most excellent pencil sharpener today. To say that I love it would be an understatement. There are few things quite as important as a room full of sharp pencils.

My friends seem to think that no pencil can be sharp enough, but not so anymore. They were super impressed by how sharp this thing gets their pencils and immediately asked if there could be a new pencil sharpener job in the classroom.

To sum this quickly, BUY ONE. BUY THREE. Get your school to BUY THIRTY-SIX. This thing rocks.

PPBF: George and The Dragon

Title: George and the Dragon

Written & Illustrated By: Chris Wormell

Publisher, year: Random House Childs 2006

Suitable For: ages 4-8

Themes/Topics: dragons, fear, princesses

Brief Synopsis: Far, far away in the high, high mountains in a deep, deep valley in a dark, dark cave - there lived a mighty dragon. He was an awesome and frightening creature, terrorizing whole armies, destroying castles, demolishing forests and kidnapping princesses. But this mighty dragon had a deep, dark secret...he’s afraid of mice. Then a mouse (George) moves in next door.

Links To Resources and ideas for use in the classroom:

Check out my Dragon Unit for links to all kinds of activities...here and here.

• draw your own dragon
• make a tissue paper dragon
• write your own dragon story following the simple pattern of this book. What’s YOUR dragon afraid of?
• write about a page or illustration you love and have students guess which page you are referring to

Why I Like This Book:  The illustrations are completely amazing. I’ve been teaching the kids about the classic looking dragons and this one is so beautiful. Each page has only a few words so any of my kids can read it, but also it allows us to really focus on the illustrations and the simple story. It is a perfect mentor text for writing because there is an easily definable beginning, middle, and end, as well as a problem and a solution. The characterization is rich and the reader must use inference skill. This is a perfect book for showing kids that good writing does not need to be complex.

Dragons Rock

How goes my Dragon Unit, you ask? Dude, it rocks!

My kids are so invested in this unit, I can't stop them from investigating it every chance they get.

I have read about 15 dragon books. With each book we stop and talk about what the author was trying to teach us because we have learned that people have used dragon stories for years and years to share a message or explain the unexplainable. We track each kind of story and keep a list for ideas to use in our writing.

• Dragons who start small and grow very quickly
• Dragons who are not seen by adults
• Dragons who hatch from presumed chicken eggs
• Dragons who are scared of mice or other innocent things

We use all the books as mentor texts. I have learned so much about facilitating writing and teaching craft. They are writing amazing stories with detail and depth because they are writing from a wealth and store of knowledge.

We are also doing lots of dragon art. We followed what Patty teaches so beautifully in her blog: Deep Space Sparkle. We drew these (click on picture for lesson).

I am reading one chapter a day of My Father's Dragon aloud and then doing each part of this amazing lapbook.

We got a lot of practice with this study method from our plant lapbook, so it's going great. I have never seen such amazing comprehension.

The big plant show!

We studied plants all last month. We made our lapbooks. Each child grew their own plants at home. They tracked the growth and wrote reports about what they learned. They studied Georgia O'Keefe flower art and learned garden songs.

Tonight we culminated the study with a plant show. It was lovely. The kids were so happy. The parents thought the kid's work was amazing. It really made my year. My kids have grown so much. They were so confident about sharing their work and learning.

I can't believe that I've almost made it through my whole year. Only 15 1/2 days left. I can't wait to do it all over again. I feel proud.

PPBF - The Scar

Title The Scar

Charlotte Moundlic (author)

Olivier Tallec (illustrator)

Candlewick Press, 2011

Suitable For: 5-16 years old

Themes/Topics: death, love

Opening:

"Mom died this morning.

It wasn't really this morning.

Dad said she died during the night,

but I was sleeping during the night.

For me, she died this morning."

Brief Synopsis: When the boy in this story wakes to find that his mother has died, he is overwhelmed with sadness, anger, and fear that he will forget her. He shuts all the windows to keep in his mother’s familiar smell and scratches open the cut on his knee to remember her comforting voice. He doesn’t know how to speak to his dad anymore, and when Grandma visits and throws open the windows, it’s more than the boy can take—until his grandmother shows him another way to feel that his mom’s love is near.

Links To Resources and ideas for use in the classroom:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/bruceperry/child_loss.htm

There were many resources about talking with children, but I could find no activities. So I thought of a few…

• Create a collage of things that remind the child of his/parent
• Choose a special piece of the parent’s clothing and make it into a pillow
• Help the child write a letter to the parent and send it off with a balloon

Why I Like This Book:  

I still have both my parents. My children still have both of theirs.

My brother turns 45 on May 24 and is having a stem cell transplant next month to help him fight cancer. He is the single father of two children 10 and 15. I am bereft, so I cannot imagine what he and his children must be feeling. I am so grateful that Charlotte Moundlic had the courage and the skill to create this masterpiece. Thank God for Picture Books.

Susanna Hill's Picture Perfect Book Friday