Do you want to build a snowman?

Are you a Disney fanatic like us?

Do you love singing Disney songs at random times in random places? Do you hold your pets up to the moon? Do you wear mouse ears on your head? Do you bleed pixie dust? 

Have you ever visited a frozen land?

We have!

We recently read a Little Golden Book entitled Frozen. Frozen was written by Victoria Saxon and illustrated by Grace Lee, Masimiliano Narciso, and Andrea Cagol.  This book was published by Random House Disney. 

This book is about two sisters, Elsa and Anna

Elsa and Anna are princesses of  Arendelle. Elsa is born with the ability to control and create ice and snow. One day, when they are young Elsa and Anna have fun playing in the snow that Elsa makes inside the castle. She accidentally hits Anna with a blast of ice, which knocks her unconscious. The king and queen take the girls to see a group of trolls who are able to heal Anna. However, they warn Elsa that she must learn to control her powers or else they could cause great destruction. When they return home, Elsa locks herself away in her room and avoids her sister as much as she can because she is afraid she might harm her. Several years pass, and their mother and father get lost at sea. The two sisters grow into beautiful young ladies. Elsa is still avoiding any contact with the outside world, while Anna yearns to explore the outside world and find true love. On the day of Elsa's coronation to become queen, Elsa gets scared and upset and accidentally places a curse on the kingdom where the kingdom is in a state of an eternal winter. She then runs away to live in isolation. What does Anna do about the curse? Does she find her sister? Does she save the day? Does she find true love? Read this awesome book to find out. 

Frozen is a book that would be good for children to use the reading strategy of visualization.

First, we would read the book to our students.  Students will then complete the following activity.

Visualization activity:

1.       Students will first think of their favorite part of the book. 

2.       Students will then imagine what that part looks like in their head.

3.       Students will then draw their favorite part that they visualized in their head.

4.       Students will then write in their journal why this was their favorite part.

We feel like this would be a wonderful activity to help children with visualization.  Most children love Disney movies and books so they will thoroughly enjoy this book and activity.

We feel this would be an amazing book to show and read to children.  As we are Disney addicts, we feel that any Disney book is a great book.  Disney books have such good imagination in them that they would be good books to help children with visualization.  We thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  The movie is also a great movie to show children after they create their visualization activity

Read this book to find out who these other amazing characters are:

Click this link to LET IT GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fang-tastic Inferences

Jennifer: Halloween is my favorite holiday. I am too old for trick-or-treating but I love it because I love spooky things.

Do you like Halloween? Did you like it as a kid if not presently?

We recently read a book called Who Will Haunt My House on Halloween? By Jerry Pallotta and David Biedrzycki. The story takes place on Halloween night. This little girl is getting ready by making sure the candy is ready to give out to trick-or-treaters who may stop by her house. She wonders who will “haunt her house” that evening. She thinks about all kinds of monsters and how scary they are.
There could be:
 Ghosts:

 Bats:

Witches:

Skeletons:

To find out how this book ends, read it for yourself!

Making interferences is a hard reading strategy for children to grasp.  We need to really guide the students in this process until they have a complete mastery. 

We would read Who Will Haunt My House on Halloween? to the students before they started the activity.

For the activity, we would give each students three sticky notes.  For each sticky note, there is a different category the students have to write on.  The three categories are as follows:

1.       Observe

a.       The author’s words written in black and white.

2.       Schema

a.       The students’ prior knowledge about the subject.

3.       Inference

a.       What the students are inferring using the author’s words and their own prior knowledge.

An example of this activity is:

	1. Observe = the holiday is Halloween 2. Schema = Halloween is in October 3. Inference = this book takes place in October After the students write something in each of the three categories, the students will share with the class and put their sticky notes in the correct column.  We feel this this book would be a great one to show to children.  Children love to dress up for Halloween and go trick or treating.  Some children might get scared during Halloween, and this book would be a good one to show them that people do get scared just like them.  Children will remain focused when you read this book because it is fun and entertaining.  Children have a lot of prior knowledge about Halloween so this would be a good topic for children to make inferences with.  All in all, we believe that this book would be a great book to show to children. Boys and Girls of every age watch this video to see our town of Halloween!! Check out the website we got the inference activity from!

Spread Kindess and Love Wherever Life Takes You

Has anyone ever made you feel small or that you were worthless? Have you ever at some point in your life, whether it have been in grade school or your current life, been picked on, bullied, teased, or left out? Have you ever felt like you were unpopular or not important?

We want to tell you that YOU are all special in every single way. Everyone of us is. Each of us has a light and it shines brightly to others around us. No one is more important than anyone else. We are all born into this life and we all eventually leave it. It is just up to us to choose what we do with the time given to us.

Kindness is a virtue. Kindness is showing love and compassion to someone with not being asked or expecting anything in return. We should strive to be kind to everyone we meet. Our words can be a lethal weapon or a healing miracle. We believe people hurting people is the worst, most powerful form of destruction in existence.

We recently read the book called The Berenstain Bears and the Golden Rule by Stan and Jan Berenstain.

What is the golden rule?

The Berenstain Bears are a family of 5 bears. This family includes: Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Brother Bear (the oldest child), Sister Bear (the middle child),and Honey Bear (the baby). The Berenstain Bears is a very popular children's book series that has been around for over 50 years. These books always have an important life lesson to teach.

This particular book tells about how Sister gets a golden locket for her birthday. It is shaped like a heart and on the inside it says, “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” Sister did not quite understand what this meant at first. Her mother explained that this was the golden rule and it was one of the most important rules there is. Mama tells her that “It is called the golden rule, because it is precious, just like gold. But it's not about the gold you wear around your neck or on your finger. It is about the golden treasure we keep inside our own hearts.” Sister still did not really understand what her mother was telling her yet. The next day a new girl comes to Sister's school. How do Sister and her friends act towards this newcomer? Does she eventually learn the meaning of “The Golden Rule”? Read this book to find out!

One good strategy to use for helping students make connections is role playing.

Role playing is when students act out a situation.  This situation can be from a book, a movie, or real life. To help students make connections with the book they are reading, we will have them act the situation out in a fun role playing activity.

We will read the book to the students first.  The students need to pay close attention to the characters and think about how the characters are feeling as you read the book. The students will then do the activity below.

We will have the students first act out the scene where Suzy MacGrizzie was on the playground and no one would play with her.  We will ask the students what you think she was feeling when this happened. If the students do not remember what happened during this scene, the students will then go back and use the book for reference. 

Then the students will think back to a time when they were left out when their classmates are playing.  We will then ask them to ponder the following questions:

1.       Do you think you and Suzy MacGrizzie felt the same way?  And why?

2.       Is there another time in your life that you felt that way?

The students will then role play about that time in their life that they were left out of something.  The students will have to tell us why this time was like the book.  

We will then ask the students about the the golden rule and what they think it means and how they can connect it to their own lives.

Jennifer: I personally feel a deep connection with this book. It hits home in more ways than one. When I was in elementary school, I was bullied, teased, picked on, and left out of a lot of things. True friends for me were rare. It seemed like knowing the golden rule didn't mean much to the kids in my school. That is why when I have my own classroom, the golden rule will be the most important rule. I do not want any child to have to go through what I did. EVER.

We believe that this book would be a great book to show and read to children. Since bullying has become a big thing in schools today, we need to expose children to great morals at a young age. The golden rule is a great thing for children to understand that they need to be kind and nice to others.

Kindness should be an international concept. Please watch this inspirational video. Do you make sure you show kindness on a daily basis?

DON'T FORGET!

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

What did you worry about when you were 9 years old?

We worried about natural disasters, friendships, popularity, and school.

Why don't you tell us a few things you worried about?

American Girl  is a renowned children's book series. The series is split up into many different sub-series. Each sub-series centers around a different girl from different eras in American History. We chose the sub-series about Kit Kittredge. The book we chose from her series was Meet Kit by Valerie Tripp which was book number 1.

"Kit Kittredge is a nine-year-old girl with a nose for news. But since most of the news is about the hard times of the Depression, Kit writes her own newspaper stories. She reports on the happenings at home—like the day Mother invites fussy Mrs. Howard and her son to stay with them. Kit is excited to have a boy her own age to play with, but Stirling causes Kit nothing but trouble. Then, when Dad loses his business because of the Depression, Mother gets a brainstorm that turns the Kittredge household upside down."
                                              ---http://www.americangirl.com/play/historical-character/kit/#page=stories

Kit wants to be a Journalist when she grows up. She loves to make newspapers on her trusty typewriter and give them to her dad when he comes home from work. Her mother's garden club friend Mrs. Howard and her young son, Sterling Howard, come to stay with the Kittredges. One day, Kit finds out that both her and Sterling love baseball so she runs to grab a newspaper article on their favorite player to show him. On her way back into Sterling's room, she opens the door hard on Mrs. Howard who was trying to serve Sterling tea. Mrs. Howard drops the tea tray, and Kit's mother's china is broken. Even though this was an accident, Kit's mother comes down hard on Kit, making her upset. She goes back to her room to write her dad's newspaper and makes the lead story about how it was not fair that Kit got scolded so badly for an accident. Her brother, Charlie, happens to see the newspaper before Dad gets home and tells Kit she should not bother their father with her newspaper today. When she asks why, Charlie tells her their father is about to lose his job. Which is something far more unfair than Kit's accident.

Earlier the book says, "About three years ago, people got nervous about their money and stopped buying as many things as they used to, so some stores had to close down. The people who worked in the stores lost their jobs. Then the factories that made the things the stores used to sell had to close down, so the factory workers lost their jobs too. Pretty soon the people who'd lost their jobs had no money to pay their doctors or house painters or music teachers, so those people got poorer too. Kit was glad that her dad still had his job at his car dealership. She and her best friend Ruthie knew kids at school whose fathers had lost their jobs. They'd seen those fathers selling apples on street corners, trying to earn a few cents a day. Dad said the Depression was like a slippery hole. Once you fell in, it was almost impossible to get out."

The book also has a section in the back where you can learn about things that really happened in the year 1934.

Check out this video about Kit and The Great Depression

This book follows along with SS5H5, “The student will explain how the Great Depression and New Deal affected the lives of millions of Americans.”

The activity that we would have the students do is create a classroom newspaper.

The students would have different jobs in creating the classroom newspaper.

These jobs are as follows:

1.       Reporters

2.       Artists

3.       Journalists

4.       Ad Writers

The Reporters article topics are as follows:

1.       soup kitchens during the great depression

2.       prices of merchandise

3.       President Roosevelt and the New Deal

4.       Stock Market Crash

5.       The Dust Bowl

6.       President Hoover

The Artists will get in pairs with the Reporters to draw pictures that go with the Reporters article topics.

The Journalists will put themselves back into the Great Depression.  They will create life stories about how people lived in the Great Depression. An example is like in the book, Kit’s Dad lost his job.  The Journalists could talk about the effects of that in their day to day life. 

The Ad Writers will create ads about things people were selling during the Great Depression.  An example from the book is people selling apples on the street for 5 cents.

We think this would be an excellent book series for the students in the classroom.  The students would enjoy these books very much.  They are fun, entertaining, and knowledgeable.  They turn hard historical facts into a fun and engaging book.

What would you do if you were living in the Great Depression?

The Sky People Have Sent Us A Message..

Pumbaa: Hey, Timon, ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?
Timon: Pumbaa, I don't wonder; I know.
Pumbaa: Oh. What are they?
Timon: They're fireflies. Fireflies that, uh... got stuck up on that big bluish-black thing.
Pumbaa: Oh, gee. I always thought they were balls of gas burning billions of miles away.
Timon: Pumbaa, with you, everything's gas.

                                                - Walt Disney's The Lion King (1994)

Have you ever felt intrigued about space? Ever thought NASA was one of the coolest organizations ever? Was it ever your life's ambition to be an astronaut when you were 5 or 6?

Well, we want to take you on an adventure through the Milky Way Galaxy. We recently read a book called The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. In this book, a quirky and unpredictable teacher named Ms. Frizzle decides to take her children on a field trip to the local planetarium, only to find out when they get there it is closed. So on the way back to school, the school bus spontaneously sprouts rockets, blasts off into the sky, and eventually arrives in space. They start their journey with visiting the Moon and the Sun and learning things about them. Then, starting with Mercury, they proceed to visit each planet in our solar system in planetary order. They also visit the asteroid belt (do you know where that is?) and end up losing Ms. Frizzle as she is trying to fix a broken taillight on the bus. Read the book to find out what the children do when they lose their teacher and are alone in space, and if they find her again.


This book follows along well with the CCGPS, S4E2.d, "Demonstrate the relative size and order from the sun of the planets in the solar system." Can you tell us what the order of the planets are?

Have you ever wanted to take a tour in space but did not have access to a space shuttle or rocket? Well we have a much safer and cheaper way, and you don't even have to leave Earth!

The activity we found for this book is creating Planet Tours!
1. We will break the students up into groups
2. Each group will have a different planet to research
3. The students will create posters, brochures, or commercials about their planet
4. Each project should include real facts about the planet.
(Examples from the book: Venus is the second planet from the Sun, Mars has two moons, Neptune is about 50,000 km big, etc.)
5. Students shall also think up possible attractions that you might find on the planet.
(Example: The dodging Venus' sulfuric acid contest)
6. Then students will present their planet tour to the class.

We think this book would be a good choice to teach students about the solar system because it is fun, engaging, and entertaining. It also presents scientific facts and ideas in a child's point of view. Children will also enjoy looking at the pictures and little cartoon inserts that contain facts about the solar system.

ATTENTION BLOG READERS!!!

DO NOT ATTEMPT A TRIP TO OUTER SPACE ON YOUR OWN!

1. Attaching rockets to your vehicle if the planetarium is closed will upset your parents, your insurance agent (Geico does not cover outer space travel! I do not care what the commercials say!), your friends for not taking them with you, or your friends for taking them with you and risking their lives. An ordinary vehicle such as a car or truck cannot travel in outer space, and you cannot become astronauts without switching your major and most likely attending more years of college, along with many years of training.

2. Space travel could make you miss dinner, Monday Night Football, or The Walking Dead.......for the rest of your life!!!! Even if your vehicle could go to outer space, it could never travel through the entire solar system in one day. It took years for The Voyager space probes to do that. By the time you got to Uranus.....you'd be dead anyway.


"On the other hand.........If a red-haired teacher in a funny dress shows up at your school....START PACKING!"


Click here to watch the video based on this book.

                                               This is what happened to Pluto! The ex-planet!

The Raja's Cāvala

Do you like math?

The subject of math is not everyone's favorite field. Math can sometimes have a bad reputation. However, even if you don't like it, math can still be surprising and entertaining! Let's say someone decided to give you a dollar bill and told you they were going to double the amount they were giving you everyday for the next 30 days. Would you think you would be rich on the 30^th day or not? After you read the book One Grain of Rice by Demi you may be highly surprised. This story is a folktale. What in the world is a folktale? This means that there can be many versions of this one story and it can teach community values and social mores. This folktale teaches us how to think, about cleverness, social responsibility, and of course math. Don't worry, this math is fun!

A very long time ago in India, there was a raja who thought he was wise and fair. However, every single year, he kept almost all of his people's rice to himself. Then when a famine came, the raja would not share the rice, and all of the people went hungry. Then one day, a village girl named Rani devised a clever plan. She did a good deed for the raja, and in return the raja lets her choose her reward. Rani asks him for just one grain of rice, doubled everyday for 30 days. Through the amazing and surprising power of doubling, that one little grain of rice becomes more than one billion grains of rice. Rani is able to teach the raja a lesson about what it truly means to be wise and fair.

Are you starting to rethink your answer for the money?

By following the standard, MCC.4.OA.5, which states, “Generate a number or shape pattern that follows a given rule. Identify apparent features of the pattern that were not explicit in the rule itself” can anyone figure out how many grains our rice Rani had after 30 days? (Remember she started with one grain of rice and it doubles every day).

There are many different activities we can do with this book. One activity is have the children create a table to find out how many grains of rice she received after 30 days. We would not recommend having students do this activity if they are below 4th grade. Another good activity would be to have the students act the story out. One person can play the raja, one girl can play Rani, and so on. We will tell the students that for the first day she only asked for one grain of rice but each day the rice would double. From this statement, the students would act out and tell the class how much rice she got each day. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

So, how much money do you think you will have after 30 days? (Remember you started with a dollar on the first day, and it doubles every day.)

Check out this cool video!

It All Started With Hide and Seek

As a child, have you ever imagined a box as a cave or blankets and chairs as a fort? Well, we can say we have done those things. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is about siblings that go into a wardrobe, and they find themselves in the wonderful world of Narnia. Just like the title says, it all started with hide and seek.  If Lucy did not hide in the wardrobe during the game, the siblings would have not found Narnia.  

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantasy because it has a lot of magic in it. The White Witch throughout the story is turning animals and magical creatures into stone. Have you ever heard of animals talking? Well in this book, all of the animals talk.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe starts during World War II.  Four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, have to be separated from their mother because of the war.  They are sent to live with Professor Kirke.  When they were playing hide and seek, Lucy hides in an old wardrobe.  When she steps inside the wardrobe, she finds herself in a winter wonderland.  She meets a mysterious creature.  She finds out that the creature is a faun named Tumnus.  He tells her she is in the land called Narnia.  He tells her over tea that he is a reluctant servant of the White Witch who has cursed Narnia with a never ending winter with no Christmas.  When Lucy comes back from Narnia, none of her siblings believe her.  When Lucy enters Narnia again, Edmund follows her.  He meets the White Witch who makes a deal with him for food.  Edmund and Lucy return from Narnia.  Lucy believes that Edmund will help her show that Narnia is real, but Edmund denies it out of spite.  All four of them eventually end up in Narnia.  They meet Mr. Beaver who brings them to his house and tells them the story of Aslan.  Edmund leaves the house to tell the White White that his siblings are in Narnia.  When they discover where Edmund has gone, they quickly leave to meet Aslan at the Stone Table because they know the White Witch is coming for them.  They meet Father Christmas on the way to the Stone Table, and he gives them each a gift.  When they meet Aslan, he promises to save Edmund.  Edmund is saved before the White Witch can kill him.  The White Witch demands that she can kill Edmund because he is a traitor.  Aslan makes a deal with the White Witch.  He is going to take Edmund's place.  After the White Witch kills Aslan, she starts a war with Peter's army.  Aslan is reborn.  Aslan then kills the White Witch and Peter's army defeats her followers.  Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are crowned the Kings and Queens of Narnia.  They rule Narnia until they are adults.  On a hunting trip, they find themselves going back through the wardrobe and back in England once again. 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was written by C.S. (Clive Staples) Lewis. This book is a fantasy and also a novel. It was written in 1950 in England. The narrator of this story is anonymous. This story is written in the eyes of a child. The point of view of this story is third person. The narrator is omniscient and knows all about the characters. Wouldn't you like to know all about different people you come in contact with? We sure would. There is a relaxed tone in this novel. World War II is the setting or time, and England and Narnia is the setting or place. Aslan is the protagonist, and the White Witch is the antagonist. Have you ever got into a major conflict? Well just like you, this story has a major conflict. This conflict is Aslan, who is good, defending Narnia against the White Witch, who is evil. There are two major themes in this fantasy. They are redemption and rebirth. 

We believe that this would be a wonderful book for children. This book gets children's imagination flowing. You could have your children read the book and watch the movie. The children can then write about the similarities and differences between the two. 

What would you do if you ended up in a wonderful world of fantasy?

Here is a look at the adventures that will happen in the book....

You Can't Always Get What You Want!

Hey guys! We have a question for you. Have you ever made plans without even making sure it was possible for those plans to come true? We sure have. 

We recently read a story about this milkmaid. She was very poor, but she was also a hard worker. Since she was poor, she of course did not have the money for nice clothes. Since she did not have nice clothes, she felt she could not attract the attention of any of the young men in her village. 
Since she worked so hard, her boss decided to give her a pail of milk to sell at the market. So right away she left for the market. On the way, this girl thought about what she could do with the milk money, "I will buy myself a nice big hen. I will gather the eggs until I have a basket full and then sell them at the market. With that money I will buy a nice new gown for the ball. Then I shall attract all of the attention of the young men at that ball and they will all be fighting for a date with me." As that milkmaid was thinking of this, she twirled around as she imagined wearing her new gown. When she did this the pail of milk, which had been balanced so carefully on her head came crashing down and spilled all over the ground. The dirt then soaked up her dreams in an instant.    
The writer of The Milkmaid and Her Pail was Aesop. Aesop was an Ancient Greek story teller. Today, his works are called Aesop's Fables. His existence on this earth is an uncertainty because none of his written works survived. His fables were passed down by word of mouth through generations until someone decided to publish them. We are glad someone decided to publish them because of the good life lessons they tell.

The Milkmaid and Her Pail is a piece of traditional literature. It is a fable which means that there is a moral in the story. That moral is to teach generations and generations a very good lesson. Since the Milkmaid and Her Pail is a fable, it is also a prose narrative. There is only one motif in this fable. It is a journey. The milkmaid is taking a journey to the market to sell her milk. She is also on a journey to learn a very good life lesson. Can anyone guess what this lesson is? Well if you guessed, "Don't count your chickens before they hatch", you are correct. The Milkmaid and Her Pail has many elements of traditional literature. It has a plot that is very fast moving. The setting is vague; you know that she is walking on some type of road, but you do not know where and when. The theme of this piece would be the moral that you learn in the end. We hope you learned a little bit about the elements of traditional literature in this fable.

In our opinion, this fable would be a good lesson for children to learn. Children are now looking at toys that are coming out in the future and some expect to get the toy the moment it comes out. This fable will teach children that good things come to those who wait. We believe that this would be a good fable to introduce children to in the classroom because it is easy to read and understand. We can also have children write about a time they got their hopes up way ahead of something and then turned out disappointed in the end. 

Remember to never count your chickens before they hatch, or your dreams may go to waste. 

Here is a variation of the story about the milkmaid and her pail

Homework stands for Half Of My Energy Wasted On Random Knowledge

Man, we sure HATE homework, don't you? It is so boring and takes up too much time! We would rather be doing fun things like video games or hanging out with our friends. We mean, who would want to do work at home after school is over? We would rather do anything in the world other than homework. We want to tell you about a poet that feels the same way we do about homework. His name is Jack Prelutsky. He did not find a love for poetry until adulthood. His poems are aimed at children. They are humorous, and children of all ages can relate to them. His poem that we chose was "Homework, Oh Homework." This is a humorous poem that any child can relate too. Katie's favorite line is "Homework, Oh, Homework! you're last on my list, I simply can't see why you even exist." Jennifer's favorite line is "I'd rather take baths with a man-eating shark, or wrestle a lion alone in the dark, eat spinach and liver, pet 10 porcupines, than tackle the homework my teacher assigns." "Homework! Oh, Homework!" is a narrative poem. It tells a story in the first person perspective because it is written in the author's point of view. It is supposed to be humorous. It also rhymes. This poem has rhythm, consists of stanzas, uses assonance, and also demonstrates emotional force because it makes you realize, “Yeah! I hate homework too!” This poem tells about the author's personal opinion and views on homework. He seems to view homework as worthless and useless. He would rather do anything else than sit down and complete any homework assignment. We could see this poem being used in a classroom to teach the elements of poetry such as rhyme, rhythm, stanzas, and repetition. It would be a great opening to a lesson about poetry since it will help engage the students because they will enjoy reading this poem.

Here is a fun video of the poem being read.