An Experiment

I like fonts and clip art. A lot. Still learning how to embed the thumbnail but these are some VERY quick bookmarks I made the other day. Thanks to Scrappin Doodles for the clip art (see the license in my sidebar). Rest assured (I hope!) the quality will improve over time. ;]

Wintery-Type Bookmarks

PS Only print the first page. The second page is blank but I'd already made the pdf. :/

Stuff to Do

So, for a while now I've noticed a slight ... I don't want to call it a problem, because it's not really. Just noticed that kiddos are not always using their time in the library to the best advantage. If they were talking about books I'd be all for it. But they've gotten a little careless. Especially the ones that forgot to bring their books back!

Enter my friend, the mistress of all things Library Centers.


Taken me a while to wrap my head around it. And I've tried a few before now with some success and some not. Going to ask for more support from teachers ... explain it a little better to them and they'll be more likely to encourage their kids to participate! They're all tired of the same "freebie" books and magazines that we have for the ones who can't check out. They're tired of them and I'm tired of them!


But come January we are pulling out the stops. It's not as organized as I would have liked it to be, but if I wait until then I could be waiting for a very long time! Start with something and improve it as we go along.

Several of the ones we'll start out with I got off of TPT and the blog world. I should have kept better track of some of the ones from the blog world. I just saved copies in Google Docs. Ooops. Most of them were discovered via Pinterest. If anyone needs an invite just let me know! Lots of great teaching ideas on there (as well as other things to distract you ... recipes, decorating ideas, funny stuff ... just go into it saying "I have 20 minutes to play on Pinterest right now and NO MORE" and you'll be OK!).


Top 10 ListsI thought I'd print out a few of these on the poster printer and let the older kids have at it. Very curious to see what they'll come up with!

That same seller has some great creative thinking and analogy pages that I've laminated and picked up some super fun dry erase CRAYONS to use and reuse. Oh, have I mentioned on here how much I love the new home laminator I got on an Amazon lightning deal? Our laminator at school is ALWAYS BREAKING.

Writing Task Cards ... I love these. Still haven't figured out how to deal with the time issue ... some of the prompts will obviously take longer than others.

Some rhyming and ABC order things I found on blogs. Sorry. No links. Bad teacher librarian.


I totally want to get some of these Doodle books that I saw in B&N the other day. Not in the budget immediately but I hope to get some as soon as I can. They are not "just" about drawing ... some great creativity and thinking outside the box possibilities.

Oh, and some book puzzles.


And I just looked for something CC licensed on Flickr so that there would be an image on this post. Couldn't find anything I liked. Let's make that Resolution #3. Work on images to enhance posts with my pretty new blog design!

Resolutions

#2 Figure out a happy balance between getting to read all the stories/books that look interesting ... and taking the time to really enjoy them.

Today's Goodreads Quote said:
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” (Mortimer J. Adler)

Thought that was pretty ironic. Be more choosy, I guess? Sometimes I get caught up in wanting to know what all the fuss is about, or wanting to know about as many books as I can for school and the kids/teachers, and sometimes it's just because HEY IT LOOKS LIKE A GOOD BOOK. My Goodreads To Read list is almost ... what is it. About 950 books? Let's be realistic here. Some of them have been on that list for years. Just about every time I knock one or two or three off of the TO Read list I add another five or six. I currently have my holds maxed out at the public library ... and most of them are not even picture books. Plus I have about eight books from our school collection that need to get back into the hands of kids!

Quantity is not the same thing as quality. So ... this is not a great resolution because I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to measure any steps I might take. But that is my goal. :]

Polly's Pink Pajamas by Vivian French

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Literary value ... three stars. Pictures and four-year-old niece who LOVES pink ... lots more stars. She approves heartily.





Smitten by David Gordon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Pink mitten made this one a winner with my niece. Cute story about friends helping each other through thick and thin ... making a pair.





Danny's First Snow by Leonid Gore

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


So my niece did not approve of this one ... mostly because it was a BOY bunny. Pictures were darling ... just wasn't my most favorite story ever.



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Picture Book Biographies

The Adventures of Mark Twain by Huckleberry Finn by Robert Burleigh

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Love the pictures and even learned a few new things about his life (like the name Mark Twain comes from riverboats testing the depth of the waters ahead).



I may come back and change this to a four. I just can't help but think the dialect ... while interesting and true to the style of many of Mark Twain's stories ... is going to be a stumbling block for many kiddos. I could be wrong ... but I know, for example, they get very confused with some of the anachronisms in Bubba, The Cowboy Prince. Even the older ones. So we'll see.



PERFECT as an easy intro to Mark Twain for older students.






Barnum Brown: Dinosaur Hunter by David Sheldon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Though I still do not understand the fascination with dinosaurs ... the kiddos at my school love them. This is a nicely accessible picture book biography to encourage casual readers. Not quite enough info for research ... but more than enough to pique curiosity to look further!







A Wizard from the Start: The Incredible Boyhood and Amazing Inventions of Thomas Edison by Don Brown

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Great description of his childhood as promised by the cover ... but not much more. Liked the illustrations.


And EGADS. Reading the author's note at the end? Trying to compete with Tesla and his AC current Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant?


Wish I didn't know that. Before today I'd always thought of him as such a creative, hard-working innovator. Now I'm also going to remember that. :[







The Remarkable Benjamin Franklin by Cheryl Harness

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ben Franklin did many great things for our country. Didn't know he started from such humble beginnings or that he had so much ... family drama, shall we say?

Kid appropriate. Only thing I would say is that there is an awful lot of text for a "picture book biography." One of those cases where the teacher would say "no, that's not long enough for your report" but the younger kids would get lost in all the words.

Loved the quote around the portrait on the opening page ... "If you would not be forgotten, As soon as you are dead and rotten, Either write things worthy reading, Or do things worth the writing. B.F."






The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth by Kathleen Krull

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Great storytelling and I loved the illustrations.



Though ... I've always been told the first "TV" broadcast was in the BY Academy in Provo--well, the tour guide told me that when we went through it back in my undergrad days when it was all falling apart (they've since remade the building into Provo's Public Library). This book made it sound like it was in CA. I wonder who was right?



Thought it was interesting that Philo didn't do much in the way of TV watching ... except for the landing on the moon. It didn't turn out exactly like he might have envisioned but he was right. The shared experience of watching a story is a fun way to bring people together.



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The Apothecary

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Oh, this was a good story! It was late and I should have gone to sleep but I didn't want to put it down last night. Finally conked out and finished it this morning.



Mostly fantasy (truly!) with a dash of some history thrown in. Solutions that will turn you invisible or into a bird or make you tell the truth. Parents accused of being Communist even through they were not. CAN'T wait for the next one. And now, of course, after finishing the book and reading the author's note I totally want to visit the Chelsea Physic Garden.







Only ... one thing that I will have to think about. Our public library had it in the juvenile section. And it mostly is ... only not to spoil anything but there is some romance in there. It's definitely secondary to the main plot ... but I'm still not sure. If I get it for our school collection I can guarantee third graders will be picking it up. Some when they shouldn't because they can't read it ... but some really could. It's seriously secondary so I can't believe I'm even wondering about it ... but could they understand the kissing? Ugh. Drives me nuts when other people nitpick about small things in a book. Here I am doing it myself.



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It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now…who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Our Kid Lit to YA version is hosted by Teach Mentor Texts.


What I Read

Finished The Scorpio Races! Took me a while to get "in" to it but in the end it was awesome.
Finished Maphead. Still don't know what possessed me to pick that one because it is not my "usual" ... but I did enjoy it.
Picked up Survival at 40 Below. I really liked that one ... need to get it for our school collection ASAP!
Spent some time with my niece so I got in some picture books. Every Cowgirl Needs a Horse, A Firefly in a Fir Tree, and If You Give a Dog a Donut.
We did have two days of school ... with Kinder we enjoyed When Cows Come Home For Christmas.



This Week's Adventures

I am three-fourths of the way through Amelia Lost already, so I'll get that one done.
Still have most of my stack from the library from last week. Also some Netgalley titles AND a couple that I totally forgot I downloaded from B&N onto my Nook until they sent me a link asking me to review them.
Plus I am on my way to B&N this morning. Every year I go the day after Christmas because the calendars go on sale. Will I pick up some books, too? ;]


PS It has to be said again. I LOVE MY NEW BLOG DESIGN! My sister-in-law did it for me ... she is an excellent photographer but hadn't tried a lot of graphic stuff before but she did awesomely! I was watching her thinking "I don't know how to do that ... I WANT to know but I don't." Only ... shhh! Don't tell the people who might be attending my PD sessions in Jan/Feb. Will ruin the mystique. ;]

PS#2 For Christmas that same sister in law? She gave me a "I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie" totebag. Cute! I should go take a picture of it. This post needs graphics. I need to figure out how people put book covers up and link them to their review post. I don't know how to do that, either.