What are you reading now?

Hope everyone is enjoying Winter Break!  I've been having a blast spending time with my little boys and reading as much as I can.  I finished The Red Pencil.  I've also worked through several graphic novels: Ms. Marvel, Roller Girl, and I found the copy of El Deafo  that I started and finished that as well.  I am really glad I read all of them.  For pure enjoyment I really loved Roller Girl but I'd have a hard time picking a favorite.  I was struck by the fact that all three were very interesting in terms of depicting the changing friendships of their characters.  I also read The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus and Kinda Like Brothers which I loved.  I sped through that one!  

Next up, I've started Egg and Spoon by Gregory Maguire.  So far I'm really enjoying this novelization loosely based on  the folktale Baba Yaga.  I read one of Maguire's other retellings many years ago and didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to (I usually love fairy tale retellings) so I've been very pleasantly surprised.  It's beautifully written and so far the story is really holding my interest.  

Hope you all have had the chance to read something great over break!

Book Art

One of my favorite projects that we do most years is recycled book art.  This is something we often do the week before Winter Break for a variety of reasons: it doesn't make sense to start something new, it gives those students that need to make up an assignment the chance to do so, and - most importantly - it's fun!  The books that students use have been weeded from our collection for some reason.  Most of them are already falling apart, but their pages are still beautiful.


This year we had a little contest between Ms. Papadakis's seventh graders and Mr. Wiggins's eighth graders to see who could create the best art out of recycled books.  These are books that have been weeded from our collection for some reason.  Our science art teacher Mr. Vacanti very kindly agreed to judge their artwork in order to choose the winner.

Students were allowed to work in groups of up to four students.  They used scissors and glue sticks to help put scraps of the books together.  Their work was judged on three criteria: craftsmanship, originality, and use of the source material - the book pages.

The runners up:

The Blue Bear in the Wild 

Rose

 And the winner is...

Pray for Paris

Many students used images from old almanacs as they were so bright and beautiful, but this group really did an exceptional job of taking those bright pictures and creating something out of them.

Book Donations

We've been very happy this week to be able to pass out a new or gently used book as a gift to every child at Disney.  During their library time students have had the opportunity to choose the book that they would like from the donated books.  This was made possible through donations from the Molina Foundation, First Book, and from student donations.  Happy reading!

Eric Carle Artwork

Last week first graders completed one of my favorite author study projects: Eric Carle artwork.  Students used tissue paper to create their own illustrations of animals and insects in the style of Eric Carle.  Their work is then displayed in the library windows where the light shines through their beautiful illustrations.

What are you reading now?

I just finished Rain Reign which is one of the Battle of the Books titles for 4th-6th grade.  I'm now starting The Red Pencil which is another Battle of the Books title.  Like other books I've read this year (May B., The Crossover, and Hidden) this is a novel in verse.  Have you ever read a novel in verse?  What did you think?

Battle of the Books

I'm very excited that this year we are starting our very own Disney Battle of the Books teams!  Students in grades 4-6 and 7-8 are invited to turn in permission slips to participate in Battle of the Books.  

Battle of the Books is a team competition in which students are asked a series of questions pulled from a specific list of books.  Students will work together throughout the year to better understand the books and prepare for a school battle in late March.  At that point, a final Disney 4^th-6^th grade team and Disney 7^th-8^th grade team will be decided.  Those teams will compete against other schools in early April.  The top 30 teams in each age group will then move on to the City Finals Competition in early May.  The team that correctly answers the most questions about the books wins!

Here at Disney we will be meeting weekly with our preliminary Battle of the Books teams for students to engage in fun activities about the books as they work toward our goal of the school battle in March!  Students will be expected to set personal goals for reading the titles on the list.   Ms. Herceg and I will be coaching the 4-6 grade team and Mr. Fernandez and I will be coaching the 7-8 grade team.

If you have any questions please email me at gerowe@cps.edu or give me a call at the school.

CPS Battle of the Books Wiki

Monarch Nominee: If It Rains Pancakes Haikus and Lantern Poems

This Monarch nominee was a lot of fun!  I was familiar with haikus, as were some students, but lantern poems were new to all of us.  Both styles of poetry are originally Japanese in origin.  We learned that the haiku is traditionally about something in nature but this funny book has haikus about everything!  The first line of a haiku has five syllables, the second has seven, and the third has five.  The lantern poems starts with a one syllable noun and then the rest of the poem describes that one syllable noun.  The noun is then casting it's light over the rest of the poem like a lantern.  Students tried their hand at writing their own haiku and lantern poems.  Take a look at some of the lantern poems Ms. Arroyo's class came up with.