ReedALOUD: The Curious Garden

This week the first graders and I read, The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. This book is a wonderful read aloud and carries these distinctions: E.B. White Read-Aloud Picture Book Award (2010); Children’s Choice Illustrator of the Year Award (2010); and, An ALA Notable Children’s Book (2010).

About The Curious Garden: "While out exploring one day, a little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world. This is an enchanting tale with environmental themes and breathtaking illustrations that become more vibrant as the garden blooms."

We are continuing our conversation about both browsing (looking for books to read) and caring for our library environment while browsing. Lucky for me, this book also connects wonderfully to these two areas of focus in our library lesson.

Connecting with good browsing strategies

The students and I talk about things that good readers do such as making predictions while they read. I connect this with browsing by emphasizing the importance of making predictions before even opening a book. (Although, we never judge a book by its cover and always then open the book and do a picture walk or some reading to get a real sense of book.) There are three things that I ask the children to identify on the cover and use to help make predictions: the title, the name of the author and/or illustrator, and the cover illustration.

After talking about how the title, name of author and/or illustrator, and cover art can help the reader make predictions, I ask the students (that have not yet read the book) to make predictions (really good guesses) about the book.  It is a cool thing to hear their predictions about the book, they are such close readers of all media. I heard things like this:

"It's about a boy who finds a garden in an unexpected place like the desert."

"It's about a boy who reads."

"It's about a boy who reads about gardens."

"It's about a boy who makes interesting plants."

"It's about a boy who has a good imagination."

"It's about a boy who plants a garden and takes care of it."

We then read the story to great fanfare. "Would their predictions be correct?"

While Reading

I like to stop on the first spread and ask the students to use picture clues and context to think about what the word "dreary" means. The students come up with adjectives like sad, dark, polluted, and unfriendly. This year, I had two of my new students from China liken it to their city, this prompted another conversation, which was interesting. 

Spoiler alert! It's then fun at the end to have the children come up with a one word description for the last spread, which is anything but dreary.

About the word curious

We also stop on the page where Liam, our curious boy goes up the stairs to the train tracks. We talk about what the word curious means. The idea of curious to imply strange, odd, unexpected was not in their lexicon, so it is very cool to come back to the title at the end and talk about the curious garden that explores the train tracks, but also was an unexpected surprise for Liam to find.

Connecting with taking care of our library

Liam takes care of his environment the way that I hope the students will take care of our library. We talk about taking the  initiative to see what needs to be done and do it. We also love that Liam secretly spreads his gardening gifts far and wide. I hope my students will share their gifts as well.

We finish with talking about Peter Brown's inspiration and connect to the High Line in NYC. I showed the students this picture, which I took on the High Line this summer:

And share that I like to think that Peter sat at this particular spot to create this spread:

The High Line

It seems to cool not to talk about why they elevated the High Line and then why it was no longer needed and became a public garden. We finish with watching about one minute (from 1:40-2:34) of this movie about the High Line. 

Narrated by Ethan Hawke. This video is a concise introduction to the history of the High Line, from the days of Death Avenue in the 1840s, to Friends of the High Lines preservation efforts. Features historical imagery. Produced by Matt Wolf. Made possible by the Trust for Architectural Easements.

Want more information?
About the High Line

If you visit, you will see Peter Brown's book at the information stand!

Recent Reads: The Wild Robot

I am eagerly awaiting the publication of The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. 

I have read the ARC of The Wild Robot and love it, so why this eagerness to get my hands on the final copy? It is these words, "art to come." I cannot wait to see Peter's art for this book. Luckily, April 5th is not that far away.

The Wild Robot is an incredible story of awakening. It's about finding love and community along the way.  Roz, short for Rozum unit 7134, is a robot stranded on an island after a hurricane sinks the cargo ship on which she was a package. Roz takes in her surroundings and slowly begins to understand and communicate with the wild inhabitants that live on the island. 

Roz encounters a few missteps along the way. She accidentally harms some geese and ends up taking on the care of their goose egg (and the eventual gosling that hatches from it).  As Roz demonstrates her ability to care for her gosling, the animals perspective of her shifts from "monster" to "Roz."  Slowly Roz builds a support network around her new-found family. Robot and gosling take on the role of mother and child and a family is born. Yet it is not a story about humanizing creatures, these are not humans, they are animals and a robot. Brown allows for the natural tendencies of the animals.

The reader will not likely realize how attached he or she has become to Roz, Brightbill, and the island full of Beavers, Bears, Geese, Squirrels and others. It is only when it is threatened that our attachment is evident. The end is striking and violent as the new-found community is ripped apart, but sadness is tinged with hope; hope for for Roz, Brightbill, and the inhabitants of the island. Readers will see themes about the environment and technology. I see other similarities to society as well, with conversations around immigration, non traditional families, and the choices we are sometimes forced to make.

Once this books hits the shelves, I don't expect my copies will stay long on them. Students will love this robot adventure.

~~~~~~~~~~
About The Wild Robot

"When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. Why is she there? Where did she come from? And, most important, how will she survive in her harsh surroundings? Roz's only hope is to learn from the island's hostile animal inhabitants. When she tries to care for an orphaned gosling, the other animals finally decide to help, and the island starts to feel like home. Until one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her....

Heartwarming and full of action, Peter Brown's middle-grade debut raises thought-provoking questions about the environment, the role technology plays in our world, and what it means to be alive." ~ from the publisher

Thinking about perspective with My Teacher is a Monster! (No, I am Not)

How do you want others to see you?

To help frame this discussion, we read, My Teacher is a Monster! (No, I am Not) by Peter Brown.

I really like this book. I am drawn to Peter Brown's storytelling and illustration style and this one does not disappoint. I wrote about the book here.

My Teacher is a Monster! (No, I am not.) is a book that lends itself to many discussions. After reading it to 22 classrooms last week, I can tell you a few things:

1. This book appeals to students in grades 1-5.

2. The page where Ms. Kirby thanks Bobby for saving her hat received the same reaction  - laughter and chortles - demonstrating that the students understood that she had broken from her traditional response.

3. The "AHA!" moment never gets old, "Ms. Kirby has changed!

4. The students were eager to discuss and understand the transformation of Ms. Kirby. (The older students understood the perception aspect, but for some of the younger students, we worked our way around to perceptions. With the first graders, I heard creative thinking, such as: "I think she drank monster juice", "Maybe she turns into a monster when she gets mad", and "Maybe she's his mother." (hmmm...this last one got me thinking!)

5. Not all students understood that Bobby is short for Robert.

6. Those that knew that Bobby was short for Robert, completely understood the super subtle way that Peter Brown helped the reader see that Ms. Kirby's perception of Bobby had changed.

7. That final scene on the park bench when both Bobby and Ms. Kirby's perceptions have changed is a magical moment - they really see each other.

8. The fact that the shift in perspective for both Ms. Kirby and Peter takes place slowly (relatively) is an important message for students. Change takes time. Each year the students come together in a new grouping, we talked about how perceptions should shift and grow as they do).

8. The ending is another important message - no one is perfect, but if we allow our perceptions to change and grow, we can understand each other better.

It's is difficult to read, but we started the week with these words on the window: We want others to see us as...

After reading and discussing the book, I connected the story back to our original question, "How do you want others to see you?" I modeled the idea with a student and then encouraged all the students to think about how they would want a learning partner to perceive them and what they would want others who observed them working to see. The students contributed their ideas all week and I would add them each night. These are just a few of their words:

with their ideas and materials!

We all have strengths and challenges. 

There is room at our tables for all learners.

Here are some of the words I am writing out this evening: 

understanding

caring

fun

loyal

reliable

mindful

smart

brave

clever

supportive

artistic

sympathetic

(drat, I left the other words at work and will add those tomorrow)

If I were to add a word, I would add: courageous. I hope that students will have the courage to share, try, and create.

These words will stay on the window reminding us to think about how we want others in our learning community to see us. No one can embody these traits all the time or every day, but being mindful of them will help keep our learning community one that is a safe for all learners and productive for all learners.

Fourth Graders have their say about the Mock Caldecott books

The fourth graders cast their Mock Caldecott votes today

and

the results are in!

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild wins their Mock Caldecott Medal and honors go to The Dark, Nelson Mandela, Journey and Little Red Writing. If we had more time we would come back and discuss and vote again, but it is clear that Nelson Mandela, Mr. Tiger Goes Wild and Little Red Writing would end up at the top with Journey and The Dark securing honors.

What did they have to say about their choices?

As with the 1st and 2nd graders I wonder how much the reading order has to do with the votes.  This is something to ponder for next year.I did try to make the book each week memorable by following the process below.

The Process

Going backwards, the students used a google form to cast their votes and share their opinions. You can find it here.

Prior to today, we had been reading a discussing books and the students would evaluate them on a Google Form. You can find those forms here.

Nelson Mandela by Kadir Nelson

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown

Little Red Writing by Joan Holub and illustrated by Melissa Sweet

Journey by Aaron Becker

Inside Outside by Lizi Boyd

The Dark by Lemony Snicket and illustrated by Jon Klassen

Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle

It was interesting to track their process as they became more critical readers. Now, how soon is Monday?