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.”

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!

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

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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

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.

Best Reads of the Summer

Over the summer, I read dozens of books to prep for Mock Caldecott and Mock Sibert; these were my favorites. All images and summaries from Goodreads.

 

Picture Books

One pair of pants? Two pairs? Three? How many pants should Little Freddie wear? And where should he put them? What about underpants? Where do they go?

In a book with text and art that are sure to induce giggles, Drew Daywalt and Lucy Ruth Cummins settle the age-old question: Do a dog’s front legs deserve pants, too?

OH MY CRIKEYS! Doesn't life move fast? One moment you're in the Wibbly, relaxing with your Wibbly friends. The next, they've all grown tails and turned into tadpoles! And what's more, they are bursting OUT of the Wibbly ... AND you've got to keep up! 

Some tadpoles don't feel ready to become frogs.

And some never wanted to become tadpoles in the first place. 

Why, dear reader, must you NEVER EVER trust fish?

1) They spend all their time in the water where we can’t see them.

2) Some are as big as a bus—that is not okay.

3) We don't know what they're teaching in their "schools."

4) They are likely plotting our doom.

This nature-guide-gone-wrong is a hilarious, off-the-rails exploration of the seemingly innocent animals that live in the water.

Did the title just say that this book is dangerous? Jelly doesn't do dangerous. Can you help Jelly find a way out? Just don't move a muscle or make any loud noises, okay? And definitely DON'T touch anything!

In the tradition of interactive classics like The Monster at the End of This Book, Jelly has got to find a way out of this book, and it's up to the reader to help this little jellyfish . . . or not!

Did you know, there was a time when people could get in trouble—really, really BIG trouble—for being LEFT-HANDED!?

It’s true!

Lefty and Righty hand out the facts in a theatrical performance that spans the ages. Once upon a time, left was considered wrong . . . but now, left or right, it’s all alright. (And there are scissors for everyone!)

Can you tell when a storm is coming? Can you feel the wind coming and growing? Do you hear the branches bouncing together, hear the whispers of the wind through the leaves? Join in the journey as two siblings bear witness to the steady start, thrilling apex, and gentle end of this island storm. They’ll shelter soon, but first they want to feel it all.

Children who fear thunder can take comfort in seeing it captured in the pages, while those who relish watching the sky crack open can enjoy battling this storm from the comfort of their homes.

POP! As a hot day sizzles into evening, everyone on stoops and sidewalks looks skyward on this special summer night—the Fourth of July! Words and art blossom into flowers of fire across the sky, making this a perfect read for firework enthusiasts in cities and suburbs everywhere. POP! POP!

 

Fossil records show that the first humans were born in Africa. Meaning, every person on Earth can trace their ancestry back to that continent. The History of We celebrates our shared ancestors' ingenuity and achievements and imagines what these firsts would have looked and felt like.

What was it like for the first person to paint, to make music, to dance, to discover medicine, to travel to unknown lands? The History of We takes what we know about modern human civilization and, through magnificent paintings, creates a tale about our shared beginnings.

Nonfiction

Meet Grimpy! He’s a dumbo octopus, and he’s taking us on a tour of the whole cephalopod class—underwater creatures such as cuttlefish, nautiluses, octopuses, and squids.

Grimpy knows all about what makes these many-armed marvels so special, like how the coconut octopus uses tools or the cuttlefish talks with color! It seems like every creature has a special ability—except him. When Grimpy gets stuck on everything a dumbo octopus can’t do, the other cephalopods show him why it’s great to be a dumbo.

Did you know...
... a praying mantis only has 1 ear?
... a squid has 3hearts?
... a giant African land snail can have up to 18,000 teeth?

Toes, Teeth, and Tentacles celebrates and highlights the numerous unusual and strangely fascinating features and appendages of all kinds of animals, from horns to toes and stomachs to hearts. From the two-tongued loris to a scallop's 200 eyes, readers will find joy in numbers with this latest book by these two masters of nonfiction.

Welcome to the world of Sleuth & Solve: History, a collection of 20 clever mysteries where the clues are in the details and crafty twists put readers' wits to the test. These mind-bending mini-mysteries transpire across eras and civilizations, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance to the French Revolution and beyond.

Sleuth & Solve encourages readers of all ages to practice deduction, inference, and logical reasoning to crack each case—and develop critical thinking skills at the same time.

Growing up on a dusty farm in Southern California, Ruth Aiko Asawa lived between two worlds. She was Aiko to some and Ruth to others, an invisible line she balanced on every day. But when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, suddenly she was only Aiko.

Like many other Japanese Americans, Ruth and her family were sent to incarceration camps. ... The barbed wire would inspire Ruth’s art for decades. Throughout her career, she created enchanting twisting sculptures and curving shapes that connected, divided, and intersected.

Born in 1738, Mary Katharine Goddard was homeschooled by her mother in reading and math. She took over her brother’s printing shop a few years later and became an expert in printing newspapers, essays, and posters. When the American Revolution started, she published important news that helped the fight against the British – even if it meant that if she was caught, she’d be punished for treason.

In 1776, Mary was asked to print the Declaration of Independence – she is the only woman whose name is on the Declaration.

How did math work before zero existed? A STEM nonfiction book that unpacks a fascinating history of a number we can’t imagine our current world without. From place value to being created and destroyed before being created again, zero has had quite a journey. Respected children’s author and consummate researcher Sarah Albee lays out the history of zero alongside the complications that initially hampered its development, including Western imperialism.

Did you know that deep in the ocean, fish are loud? Scientists have recently discovered that fish and shellfish grunt and groan, crackle and cluck, and even burp and boop to communicate. They warn each other, woo each other, and welcome each other with all kinds of sounds, making the ocean quite noisy! 

Once upon a time, children's music was just Mother Goose, nursery songs, and lullabies. And then came Ella Jenkins.

Ella Jenkins is an American folk singer and living legend dubbed “The First Lady of Children’s Music.” For nearly 70 years, she has been writing and performing music that has entertained and engaged generations of young listeners. In Make a Pretty Song, Ella’s life and legacy are captured in vibrant sights, sounds, and stories that leap right off the page.

From the first human settlements to today’s modern metropolises, we have always relied on the sun for light, energy, and sustenance. We Carry the Sun traces the history of solar power from ancient south-facing villages to the Industrial Age and modern innovators; and from solar-powered steam engines to silicon solar panels. Lyrical and informed, Newbery Medal winner Tae Keller’s debut picture book is also a timely call to action that asks young readers to imagine a brighter, cleaner future.