Sunday, October 19, 2025

The Worm Family Has Its Picture Taken

In fourth and fifth grade, we are practicing the Somebody / Wanted / But / So / Then method of summarizing a story. 


We read The Worm Family Has Its Picture Taken - written by Jennifer Frank and illustrated by David Ezra Stein - as a class and then the students worked together to write these summaries: 


Mrs. Worm 
wanted to take a picture with her family. 
But Emma wanted her family to be more colorful, 
so she got a box of a bunch of accessories. 
Then they looked drippy. 


Mrs. Worm 
wanted to remember her family, 
but she had such a small brain that she couldn’t. 
So they decided to take a picture. 
Then they made the word “Cheese” with their bodies. 


Emma 
wanted her family to have a picture like her friends’. 
But she wasn’t like her friends. 
So she was sad. 
Then she decided to order what her friends had: colors, hair, and teeth. 


The family 
wanted a family portrait to hang up in their house. 
But when Emma saw her friends’ family portraits, she felt bad. 
So they dressed up. 
Then the photographer couldn’t recognize them. 


Emma 
wanted to have a special picture like her friends, 
but all of her friends’ pictures kind of made her sad because she wasn’t like them. 
So she got stuff to look like them. 
Then the photographer didn’t recognize her family. 


The family 
 wanted to take a picture, 
but they looked drippy and Mr. Muskrat didn’t know who they were. 
So they took their costumes off, 
Then Mr. Muskrat recognized them as Emma’s family. 


Emma 
wanted her family to take a picture, 
but Mr. Muskrat didn’t recognize them with those big goofy buck teeth. 
So they took all of it off. 
Then they took the picture and it was “perfectly perfect.” 


The family 
Wanted the photographer to take their picture 
But he didn’t recognize them. 
So they took off their costumes. 
Then they turned their bodies into letters and spelled “Cheese.”

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Grade 2 Covers Inspired by "The Z Was Zapped"

During the year, students in grades K-2 create pages for “books” based on mentor texts (aka readalouds that model concepts). 

Our first 2025-2026 publication is The Z Was Zapped … Continued, based on the book by Chris Van Allsburg. It features the letters of the alphabet meeting sad fates. The students had to guess the action happening to them, which started with the same letter; for example, the F was flattened by a foot, and the Q was quartered. 

The very first time I read the original book, I said to myself, “This will make a great lesson!” It teaches alliteration while students stretch their brains to come up with vocabulary words. Below are some sample pages designed by the kids; your family can make their own version at home!















Sunday, September 21, 2025

Mapping the Library

The first activity we did in the older grades this year was mapping the library, recording on a diagram where each section of books lives. Here are some students in action












.

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Book Talked Books 2024-2025

I can recommend books all day long, but sometimes (often?) kids' opinions and tastes differ greatly from mine. So I have students in grades 3-5 recommend books to each other via book talks - short little "ads" for titles they love. 

Here are their recommended books from last year - most popular at the top. Series and graphic novel favorites endure, so I've indicated NEW titles in those categories from last year. 


Already in collection



Series

  • Babysitters Club (#1 again)
  • Dog Man (#2 again)
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid (up from #4 last year)
  • I Survived (up from #11 last year ... probably because we have graphic novel versions now)
  • Wings of Fire (down from #3 last year)
  • Dork Diaries 
  • Harry Potter 
  • Cat Kid Comic Club 
  • Percy Jackson 
  • Lost in ... 
  • The Last Kids on Earth 
  • NEW: First Cat in Space 
  • Super Potato 
  • Bad Kitty 
  • Captain Underpants 
  • Hooky (I purchased this thanks to a book talk the previous year) 
  • Magic Tree House 
  • Babymouse 
  • Big Nate 
  • NEW: My Weird School 
  • NEW: Hilo 
  • NEW: Junie B. Jones 
  • Ivy & Bean 
  • Elephant & Piggie
  • InvestiGators (I purchased this thanks to a book talk the previous year)
  • NEW: Max and the Midnights
  • NEW: Warriors
  • NEW: My Life as a ... 
  • NEW: Judy Moody
  • NEW: Sparks
  • NEW: Spy School
  • NEW: Meesh the Bad Demon (RICBA nominee)
  • FGeeTV (I purchased this thanks to a book talk the previous year)
  • Bad Guys
  • Total Mayhem (I purchased this thanks to a book talk the previous year)
  • NEW: Max Crumbly
  • NEW: Notebook of Doom
  • NEW: Chunky
  • Whatever After
  • NEW: Nat
  • NEW: Goosebumps
  • Owl Diaries 
  • NEW: Katie the Catsitter
  • NEW: Nnewts
  • Amulet 
  • The Cardboard Kingdom
  • NEW: Diary of a Pug


Picture books

  • Pete the Cat books 
  • Where's Waldo
  • Mel Fell
  • Where is My Butt?
  • It's Only Stanley
  • Spring is Here
  • Puppy Cam
  • David Goes to School
  • Grumpy Cat


Standalone Graphic novels

  • Allergic  (#1 again)
  • Smile 6 (up from #3 last year)
  • Guts (up from #5 last year)
  • Sisters
  • No Such Thing as Perfect 
  • Art Club (RICBA nominee) 
  • Ghosts 
  • Frizzy (I purchased this thanks to a book talk the previous year)
  • Dream Jumper
  • Explorer: Boxes
  • Swim Team
  • Expedition Backyard 
  • Miss Quinces
  • Growing Pains (RICBA nominee)
  • Forget Me Not
  • Roller Girl
  • Click
  • Short & Skinny
  • Awkward
  • Copper
  • Bad Sister


MG Novels

  • The One and Only Ivan 
  • The Wild Robot 
  • Hatchet 
  • Wonder
  • Travel Team
  • Flying Solo
  • Million Dollar Shot
  • Lulu and the Brontosaurus
  • Holes 
  • Ollie's Odyssey 
  • The Lost Library (KRARI read)
  • If This Were a Story 
  • The One and Only Bob
  • Framed
  • I'm Trapped in a Video Game
  • Fever 1793
  • Coraline 
  • The Mysterious Benedict Society 
  • The Tale of Desperaux


Nonfiction

  • Gator Bites
  • Gone Again Ptarmigan
  • Patrick Mahomes
  • Beluga Whales
  • Who Would Win?
  • Taylor Swift
  • My Little Book of Football
  • Sand Tiger Sharks
  • I Spy
  • Lebron James
  • Secrets of the Zodiac
  • All About Lions
 

Books I will add to the collection


Series

  • Campground Kids - added in the fall!
  • Search and Rescue


Graphic novels

  • Inspector Fly Trap


MG Novels

  • Pax



Tuesday, August 26, 2025

New School Year, New Books!

The last box of books that I bought with book fair money has been unpacked (purchases from the spring are listed here), as well as the ones that I bought with my district budget. If you are reading this before your first library checkout, you can go ahead put holds on any titles you'd like to read via Destiny Discover.