Finger Lickin' Fifteen

I don’t know if I’ll ever finish The Fiery Cross. I put it down again when I got my notice saying that Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich was in for me at the library. It’s been a while since I read #14, so I think I enjoyed Stephanie Plum that much more. Plus, this one is packed with Lula, Grandma, and Ranger, making it that much better! I’m a big fan of Ranger, by the way. In my mind, he’s Vin Diesel’s twin. Of course, Morelli isn’t so bad either because he looks just like Colin Farrell (Stephanie = Anne Hathaway, Lula = Sherri Shepherd, Grandma = Betty White). These books would make such great movies, or a TV series, if my vision of a cast was used. Fifteen books in, I no longer judge these books on the storyline. I judge them on the use of my favorite characters, how much the book makes me laugh, and the presence of memorable scenes. In my opinion, this is one of the better books in the series! But anytime Stephanie’s staying in the “Batcave”, I’m a happy camper.

By finishing the series (15 is the newest book), I was able to cross another task off my “101 Things in 1001 Days” list. Here’s my list, in case anyone’s interested: Tiff’s 101. I’m not making any New Year’s resolutions this year, I’m just going to keep at my list!

School Book Club Beginnings

We’re going to be starting a book club at school! My principal and assistant principal came to me a little while back and we talked about starting book clubs with some of our students. They came upon the idea after reading about Lit Blitz, a competitive reading incentive book club. After some of the articles that I’ve been reading about students needing to get away from being rewarded for being “smart” and the overuse of incentive programs (I’ve been reading the November/December edition of Knowledge Quest, FYI), I’m really thinking hard about the direction we should take this. I don’t think we’ll be going with the Lit Blitz model, but I am thankful that it planted the seed for our club.

I’m still in the brainstorming/idea bouncing stages, but here’s my direction so far:

  • Incorporate an online discussion board (perhaps BlackBoard, since our district has the program) that students access from home during their reading process.
  • Pull in nonfiction passages that pertain to fiction that we’re reading.
  • Have some type of hands-on/creative activity for the discussion meeting.
  • Really address teaching students how to participate in a discussion, not just answer questions.

This should be lots of fun and I can’t wait to get this thing started!

The Lace Reader

Once again, I barely finished the book before our book club meeting. I’ve got to start giving myself a little more time! We read The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. This really was a good book. I think we may have liked it better if we hadn’t read it immediately following The Thirteenth Tale, which is one of the best fiction novels of this generation, in my opinion. There were similarities between the two: the twin factor and the SHOCKER of an ending that makes you gasp out loud. Because of this, we couldn’t help but make some comparisons. We really felt that The Lace Reader didn’t have the resolution at the end or the feeling of closure that we liked so much in The Thirteenth Tale. Instead, the end left us with a few too many questions and a little too much confusion. The build up was so nicely written and detailed, but the end just felt rushed.  Would I recommend it? Sure, it’s a good read. But if I’m suggesting to someone who doesn’t read often and wants something really great: go with The Thirteenth Tale.

On a library note, I’ve been feeling kind of down since I heard about something rude that a teacher said regarding the library – basically she’d like my job because it’s so easy. It’s so upsetting when I put so much of myself into what I do and try so hard to be a resource to the teachers, to find out that some of them think I do so little. How do you find enough confidence in what you do so that jabs like this don’t bother you?

5 Favorite Christmas Stories

It’s the week before Christmas! The kids are wired – ready for Santa and ready for their break. And I get to read Christmas stories for an entire week!!! My students check out Christmas books all year long, but I have to start snagging the ones that I want to use for story time a bit in advance, because they’re sneaky when they want the book with the book with the Christmas tree sticker on the spine! (By the way, using those nifty holiday stickers from Demco to tag all of the holiday themed books was a job well worth the time – the kids can actually find holiday books without having to ask me 2.8 million times.)

So here’s a post that EVERYONE can use – because everyone should read at least one Christmas picture book this time of year. Read a book (with or without a child next to you) and remember what it was like to be young and anticipate Christmas. And be jealous, because I get to do that every day! Oh geez, I’m tearing up for the 20th time today. I’ve been overly emotional since I re-watched The Half Blood Prince DVD on Friday and (once again) mourned the loss of our beloved headmaster. I guess it’s just this sentimental time of year. So here’s where you can get sentimental: read one of these books, because they are my top 5 picks for my favorite Christmas children’s books.

5. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff

I love all of the “If you give a…” books by Laura Numeroff. Kids love the series of events and the way the stories loop back to the beginning. The illustrations (by Felicia Bond) are adorable. And here’s an added bonus – the book and a stuffed animal version of the characters from these series are available at Kohl’s for $5 each (which means I buy a set for myself and a set for my niece). Plus 100% of the proceeds from these items go to the Kohl’s Cares for Kids foundation that supports children’s programs nationwide. They change out the books/stuffed toys seasonally, so I stop by frequently enough to get whatever they have (because it’s usually something good – I got Curious George last Christmas).

4. Cajun Night Before Christmas by James Rice

I want to be able to read this book aloud just like my elementary school librarian, Mrs. Richard (Ree-shard), read it to me. I need to start practicing my thick Cajun drawl so I can do it justice next year, perhaps. But I refuse to read it aloud until I’ve fully mastered the exaggerated accent. This book cannot be read any other way. Shá, you gon love dis story!

3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

It’s Dr. Seuss AND a Christmas story! It’s so much fun to read aloud and like all Dr. Seuss stories, it leaves you with a lot to talk about with your audience. I have a shirt that says, “Everything I know I learned from Dr. Seuss.” It’s not that far off, really. The man was a genius and this book is proof.

2. The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

The illustrations in this book are out of this world. The story gives me chills every time. As I usually am with children’s books turned movie, I wasn’t into the idea and refused to watch the movie for quite a while. It’s actually pretty good, but nothing could possible do this one justice. And if you have never read this one, shame on you. It’s a work of art.

1. The Crippled Lamb by Mac Lucado

This is my favorite Christmas story. MY FAAAVORITE. I’ve probably said that 50 times today. My goal is to get everyone at my school to read this one. I had to use PhotoStory and record myself reading it because I get choked up every time. No glamour or magic here – this is a genuine Christmas story that will make you remember what it’s all about. I’d suggest you buy it and read it every year to everyone you know, because that’s what I do.

Yikes!

For shame, it has been a month since I’ve posted! With Thankgiving break, then jury duty the week after, I’ve been frantically trying to catch up at work. And I’ve been working on the yearbook quite a bit. I’m determined not to have a break down in February when it’s due. After Christmas break, I’m going to start really focusing in on my “Take One!” for National Board Certification, so I’m trying to get as much other stuff accomplished as possible right now.

Let me give the run-down on my library lessons for the past month:

The week before Thanksgiving, I had my last order of books come in from The Cookin’ for Our Kids fundraiser that was done for the libraries in our district last spring. Since I had an enormous amount of work to do (and I knew I wasn’t going to be at school for the next two weeks), I did something I hate to do – I showed a video. I found a really good one, though – William Bradford: The First Thanksgiving. It made for some really good conversation with the kids. I was shocked at how little they knew about the first Thanksgiving feast. Example: before starting the video, I’d ask, “Who was at the first Thanksgiving feast?” I got lots of “Jesus” answers. One girl even told me her grandma was there! So showing this video ended up working out. And I was able to get all of the new books processed and on the shelf! Yeah for Perma-Bound processing and MARC records – I don’t know how libraries functioned before it! They even put my AR tags on for me.

The week of Thanksgiving, I went up to school one day and put up my tree. It’s so cute and I’ve gotten tons of compliments. It’s a book tree, and my mom made the ornaments for it.

The week after break, I had jury duty, but great subs! And I didn’t have to go all week – thankfully! We read Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars by Douglas Florian. This is a book of poems about outer space. My subs didn’t care for it, but I had fun with it when I incorporated lots of discussion about poetry in general (rhyme, lines and stanzas, etc.), as well as discussion about their prior knowledge about outer space. I think this would be GREAT to incorporate into a science unit on space – very cross-curricular.

This week, I did The Mitten by Jan Brett. Such a fun story that completely sucks the kids in. They can’t believe when that bear crawls into that mitten!

After the story (which is pretty short), we played “Nanna Bingo.” I used http://print-bingo.com/ to make the bingo cards with different names that grandmothers are called all over the world. The kids had a blast with this game. It was a good activity for right before Christmas, because they are full of energy at this point! Next week will be a challenge, that’s for sure.