Wednesday – Remembering Mr. T.

After two lovely snow days, we are ready to get back on track with our book reviews.  Even though our school’s Diversity Week is over, we have more literature to explore, discuss, and write about.

Amy Tan’s Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat was first a book!  Many people just know it as the PBS Kids show, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat.  This was a story I read to my children when they were about 2 and 4 years old.  We had an old Siamese cat named Mr. T. , so we knew what characters Siamese cats could be!  Sagwa is curious… what ‘child’  isn’t?

I think this story can connect with everyone who remembers those times when you just got into a little bit of trouble over something that wasn’t entirely your fault.

Play this tangram game with the characters from the PBS Kids show, Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat.

Amy Tan, Elizabeth Howard, and Ezra Jack Keats later!

The Asian-American author Amy Tan is one of my favorites to read as an adult.  I own all the books she has written.  It was not hard for me to decide to buy her children’s books when they came out.  We just finished The Moon Lady, which is adapted from her novel, The Joy Luck Club.

It has great illustrations and a storyline that made us think of The Story of Ping (a class favorite).

We also read Aunt  Flossie’s  Hats (and Crab Cakes Later) by African-American author Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard.

Patrick reports: I like the book called Aunt Flossie’s Hats (and Crab Cakes Later).   I like Aunt Flossie’s hats and I like the part when they do a parade.  The dog saved the hat out of the water.  Then they went to the restaurant to get crab cakes.  I like crab cakes.

We also read Ezra Jack Keats’ Apt. 3.  Only eight more books in the “We must read these!” Diversity basket.  There is not enough time to gather and read-aloud all the great books.

We investigated things that had motion on the playground.   We were looking for circular, curved, straight, or back and forth motions.  The wordle shows what we found and reported.

Tuesday’s Diversity book review

Today’s read-aloud comes from African-American author, Melodye Benson Rosales.  She is also the illustrator of the Addy books from the American Girl series.  That certainly put her in high esteem with the first graders.  Many of them have heard of Addy and the American Girl dolls.

Leola and the Honeybears is an African-American retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  The retelling is warm with southern language (I know, because I’m from Louisiana), reminiscent of Ms. Rosales’ great-grandmother from Mississippi.  The pictures are fabulously rich with details.  You’ll enjoy this book.

Ariel reports:

I picked this book because I thought that it was like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  I liked the part when the weasel came and scared Leola.   The weasel had a mustache.  The Papa Bear was black and the Mama Bear was peach.  The Baby Bear was yellow-brownish.   I like the part when Leola’s grandmama told her not to talk to strangers.

Click here for a Goldilocks puzzle!

Monday with the Wonderful Ones

Our book reviews today feature two African American authors.  Auna will write her review of Brown Angels An Album of Pictures and Verse.

Auna reports: Beautiful pages!   I love it.  It is a cute book.  Walter Dean Myers made it.  He found lots of pictures that are old.  He searched probably for a long time until he found more of them.  They were pretty cute pictures and the whole class liked them.  Some of them are babies.

Drake is commenting today on Carousel by Donald Crews.  This book has a simple text, but very powerful pictures.  The students could recall being on a merry-go-round or carousel and getting dizzy!    We have read several Donald Crews books to add to our Diversity Rocks! Challenge poster.

Drake reports: I thought Carousel was a cool book.  I liked the part where it went really fast.

Thursday’s book reviews and our first voicethread!

Who needs to add more to this student book review?  Excellent reporting by Dalton:

The Gift of the Sacred Dog is a Native American book.  It is by Paul Goble.  It is about some Indians that have no more food and a boy went to the sun and asked it if it would give them more food.  It gave them the sacred dogs.  It said to take good care of them and they will get you more food.  The Gift of the Sacred Dog is a good book from Dalton.

Here is our Famous Americans voice thread.  We hope you’ll enjoy it!

Wonderful Ones on Wednesday!

Today we have two student reporters sharing their Diversity Rocks! picks.  Abby chose The Empress and the Silkworm, by Lily Toy Hong.  It is a Chinese folktale about how the silkworm was discovered.  Belle chose the Native American tale called Star Boy.

Abby writes: I like the pictures and I like when the lades took tea and took the cocoons and dipped them in.  I really liked the silk robe the ladies made.

Belle reports: I like it because it was pretty.  It had a little girl and she went up to the sky with the sun and the moon.

We are working on our voice thread about famous Americans.  We should be finished tomorrow, so come back and hear what we have to say about these great people!

Here is a Lookybook by another Native American author.  Enjoy the wonderful words and pictures.

The 100th day of school!

Today Lewis chose a book by African American author, Marie Bradby.  It is the childhood story of Booker T. Washington.  He was born as a slave in Virginia and more than anything else, he wanted to learn to read.

Lewis reports:  I like More Than Anything Else.  I liked it because he wanted to read.  The part about the salt mine was sad because he had to walk in salt.  That would hurt.  The man who could read the newspaper helped him learn to read.

We celebrated the 100th day of school by building, counting, stamping, and writing 100 things.  Here is a slide show of our afternoon.

Diversity Rocks! update

Yesterday’s diversity book was Sukey and the Mermaid.  Jordan is reporting about her choice.  Jacob N. chose The Good Luck Cat.  It is written by a Native American author.  We think that The Good Luck Cat could have really happened.  We also think that Sukey and the Mermaid is make-believe.  We have a slide show showing our Diversity Rocks! challenge poster and a few other happenings around the classroom.

Jacob N. reports: I chose The Good Luck Cat.  It was sad because of the cat’s tail getting hurt. And then the cat ran away. That is my favorite part in the book.  The name is The Good Luck Cat.

Jordan reports: Sukey and the Mermaid was good.  I liked it.  I liked the part when Sukey met the mermaid.

Happy Cold Thursday!

We had another Native American author pick today.  Heather chose Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back A Native American Year of Moons by Joseph Bruchac and Jonathan London.  Joseph Bruchac is a Native American storyteller.  An example of his storytelling can be seen below on the video.  Enjoy!

Heather reports:  Turtles have thirteen scales and goes slow.  This book had a story for each scale.

It’s snowing again, Wonderful Ones!

Our Diversity Rocks! Challenge is going well.  We have had six students choose books by authors of diversity, we’ve listened to them read aloud in class, and that student has written the review on our blog.  Way to go Wonderful Ones!  Today’s African American author pick (by Austin) was The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton and illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon.

Austin reports:  I thought that The Girl Who Spun Gold was a good book.  I liked the gold and the girl who spun all that gold.  Everything was gold!  The girl filled up 2 rooms with gold.  The story had lots and lots of gold and there was a greedy king and a mad queen and some kids.  It was a fun to listen to and at the end the king and the queen lived happily ever after, the end.