Book Love: The Mitten

Title: The Mitten

Author: Alvin Tresselt

Illustrator: Yaroslava

Why I Love This Book: The story of the mitten has been portrayed in a few different books, and I think each one brings something a little different to this Ukrainian folktale. While the most popular tends to be the one written by Jan Brett, I also really enjoy this earlier rendition that seems to be the most unique. The bright colors contrasted with the black and white drawings make for beautiful illustrations that also have an authentic Ukrainian feel to them. Young children love this story, and my students had fun experiencing it many times as we compared the different books. 

Space Show

My students were so excited to share their sun, moon, and Earth projects yesterday at our Space Show. Everyone did such a great job, and it's always fun to see what they can learn and create with the help of their families. It's really wonderful to be at a school where parents are so supportive of their child's learning at home!

Here are a few of their creations:

Exploring Day and Night

This month we have been talking about some space science concepts: weather, seasons, and the pattern of day and night. I loved this art project that our art specialist did with the kids. It is so simple, and yet we were able to discuss and learn so much from it! Why make a learning activity more complicated than it needs to be?

We used 3 different sizes of circles to talk about the size of the sun compared to the Earth and moon, the colors of these from space, the rotation of the moon around the Earth, and the rotation of the Earth around the sun. From there, we were able to build upon that background knowledge to start exploring why the Earth has day and night.

We also watched these short clips from You-Tube so they could get another visual:

The kids have really enjoyed this topic, and we are still looking forward to some more space fun. We are having our Kindergarten Space Show on Friday, where every student will be presenting a homework project they did with either the sun, moon or Earth. Next week we will be learning more about shadows, and we will wrap things up with a visit to the planetarium!

Book Love: The Sun is My Favorite Star

Title: The Sun is My Favorite Star

Author: Frank Asch

Why I Love This Book: This simple book explores both scientific facts and childlike interpretations about the sun. It is a great way to introduce and discuss basic facts about the sun with young children. The story with short, repetitive text and fun, colorful illustrations provides an engaging resource for teaching, and would be especially appropriate for preschool and Kindergarten-aged learners. 

Spectacularly Unlimited

"Teaching as the direct delivery of some preplanned curriculum, teaching as the orderly and scripted conveyance of information, teaching as clerking, is simply a myth.

Teaching is much larger and much more alive than that; it contains more pain and conflict, more joy and intelligence, more uncertainty and ambiguity. It requires more judgment and energy and intensity than, on some days, seems humanly possible. 

Teaching is spectacularly unlimited."

(Ayers, W. (2001). To teach: The journey of a teacher. New York: Teachers College Press.)

Book Love: Snow

Title: Snow

Author: Uri Shulevitz

Why I Love This Book: You don't always know when a few snowflakes are going to turn into a snowstorm big enough to cover the world with white, and that is part of the magic of this story. This book touches on the sometimes unpredictability of weather, as well as the simple delight that can be found in a good snowstorm. I especially love how the illustrations depict how the world changes as the snow falls. This is a great backdrop for talking about snow and winter, in addition to conveying the emotions that such changes in the weather can bring. 

Book Love: Pete the Cat- I Love My White Shoes

Title: Pete the Cat- I Love My White Shoes

Author: Eric Litwin

Illustrator: James Dean

Why I Love This Book: Honestly, I had seen this book around on teacher blogs, and I just wasn't that interested to look into it. I guess you could say I was judging the book by its cover... But this past week, the music teacher at my school used this book with my class by putting the pages on a projector and playing the song that goes with it. The kids LOVED it, and so naturally, I did too. This is a fun way to get the kids engaged in a patterned story that explores colors, in addition to providing a simple message about taking what comes in life and "going with the flow." I would definitely suggest using the song to read this book aloud, as the storyteller's voice and music really bring the story to life. This would be an especially fun book for preschool through first grade aged students. Now I'm kind of excited to check out the other Pete the Cat books to see what they have to offer!