It's A Book

It's a Book by Lane Smith is a perfect book for this day in age. The book is based around animal characters and the discussion they are having around a book. The donkey keeps asking what he is holding. Obviously, it is a book. The donkey keeps asking if he can download it, blog with it, plug it in, and so much more.

Check out the video below to get a better idea...




Considering how technologically driven we are in today's world, it is quite funny to see this conversation go on. This would be a great book to show kids just to let them know about the simplicities that a book has. It does not blog, text, nor need to be downloaded. You just pick it up and read! A simple message.

Warning: Be cautious of this book. The book refers to the donkey by its other name...if you catch my drift! It is already proving to be a bit controversial. If you use it in your classroom, be wary of your audience. If anything, just replace the name with donkey and you will be good to go!

If you like this book by Lane Smith, also try John, Paul, George & Ben. This is a great book about historical figures with fun illustrations.

The Journey: Stories of Migration

Cynthia Rylant has done it again with another great book. I have never really known Rylant to be a writer of non-fiction, but this book proves me wrong. In The Journey: Stories of Migration Rylant talks about many different animals and insects that have an incredible migration story. She talks about insects like locusts and butterflies to animals like whales and the caribou. It is amazing to think that such creatures are capable of such a huge task.

This book works perfectly for me. In science I teach life cycles and I can use this book to discuss the butterfly. The video below just adds to how amazing the monarch butterfly truly is!



If you like this book by Cynthia Rylant then here are some others to try: When I Was Young in the Mountains, The Old Woman Who Named Things,  and Scarecrow.

www.animoto.com

Even though this is not a book, you can sure use this site to do book reviews with your students. I just heard about animoto from friends in my master's class and I am obsessed. It is such a fun and new way to do book projects with kids and so much more. Animoto is a simple and easy way to create videos and they do all of the work for you. Just put in pictures from their gallery or yours, select your music, and then you are done. It takes about 5-10 minutes for them to create the video and you are good to go!

I am going to be ambitious and use this with my third graders at the start of 2011. I am so looking forward to their final products.

Bonus: IT'S FREE for educators!

Check out some of the examples I have created below.

The Book Whisperer

The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller is one of the best professional books I have ever read. I have very rarely found a teacher book that I was able to read cover to cover. This book was one of the very few that I can admit I read every single word. The ultimate message that Miller wants to get across to the reader is that every child has the opportunity to love reading. As teachers, Miller shares with us what we can do in our classroom to foster the love of reading to all of our kids. Miller, a 6th grade teacher herself, shares in her book things like "The 40 Book Challenge", student reflection forms like "Reading Interest-A-Lyzer" and an End-of-Year Reading Evaluation, also many tips that teachers can do to help students love reading as much as possible. My favorite section in the book is where she gives ideas on how to improve upon "Traditional Practice" ideas. For example, instead of doing traditional book reports, she suggests book commercials or book reviews. She goes into detail about how to make that work in the classroom.

When reading this book, my mind could not stop about how I could apply it to my own teaching. Granted, I cannot take everything from this book and make it work, but I can and have taken some things. This book made me reevaluate some of the things I do during my reading block. One of the biggest things I got out of The Book Whisperer was to just make more time for independent reading. I hope this is a book you enjoy as much as I did!

If you like this book by Donalyn Miller and want to see what she is up to, follow her blog:
Donalyn Miller's Book Blog