Day 89: Triple Digits

Last week our class stopped to reflect on our reading streak. What should be our next mini milestone goal that we set for ourselves? At what day of our streak should we celebrate our accomplishments by treating ourselves to a reading reward?

After much discussion and debate among students, we arrived at our next mini milestone reading goal. Triple Digits. 100 days. Straight. Reading aloud together. Ah!

If all goes as planned, we will reach our 100 day mark on Friday, February 1st. Because simply occurring on a Friday makes any event better, the class was even more enthused to find out that we should reach our goal on a Friday. Just announcing the date led to a round of applause and cheers.

We talked about what would be a good reading-related celebration to have and decided upon and found a way to incorporate a majority of the students' ideas, and I must admit, I couldn't have come up with a better plan myself. But for now, I'll have to leave you hanging...until, of course, we reach our 100 day goal.

If you're finding your streak to be running a bit stale among your children, I'd highly recommend setting some mini milestones for celebration. I found that talking about our streak, setting a mini milestone, and planning for a reading reward was a great way to re-energize the class and get students excited about reading together again.

Have you found any ways to revitalize the enthusiasm among your streak participants? What ways do you keep your reading exciting and fresh? How have you celebrated your accomplishments? Do share!

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Hartman

Connecting Over Dinner & a Book

Feels like only yesterday when I had two little babies ...toddlers... then preschoolers shadowing my every moment.  The three of us did everything together.  At the end of those long days, I often read to them at dinner.  I ate quickly.  They didn't.  In fact, they ate so slowly I'd be tempted to just clean off their plates myself so I could say dinner was over.  My reading to them really started as a way to help me sit through those long, drawn out dinner times.

My boys aren't so little anymore.  They're now full fledged school kids hauling backpacks, responsible for homework and juggling their own after school activities.  There's no one dogging my footsteps every waking hour anymore.  Now they can eat faster than me... and on more than one occasion they have finished off my dinner...

But I still read aloud to them after dinner.

Doesn't matter if we're all running in different directions all the live long day.  Because at the end of it, we can sit down to a meal together, catch up with each other and then share a chapter or two of our current read aloud book.

I treasure those together moments.

Even more so because I got a glimpse of the teen years coming on way too fast.  Dinner and reading were over.  Homework finished.  Piano practice checked off the list early.  I asked them what they'd like to do next?  And that night, they decided they needed to have some time to chill out alone in their rooms.... which left me staring at their closed doors and wondering what on earth happened to the little boys who followed me even into the bathroom and then climbed on my lap... as I tried to sit on the toilet.....

Our baby, toddler, preschool years are long behind us now.  I may have started reading to them to keep them eating and to stop myself from picking at their food or wandering away from the dinner table.  But our evening ritual has continued and grown into something really special to me.  It's our time to slow down.  To be together.  To eat together.  And then to go an a little adventure, laugh over funny book characters and quote favorite lines to each other

Dinner and a book.  It's our time to connect.

From Our Reading List - Toy Dance Party

Hi there!  This is Val, Simon & Ethan.  Checking in & happy to report our reading streak is still alive.  Today marks our 196th day straight of reading aloud for at least 10 minutes a day.  Still loving it.  Still going strong.

This week's read aloud is Toy Dance Party by Emily Jenkins.  Sweet.  Warm.  Funny.  We highly recommend this book for kids of all ages.

If you're curious about what we're reading each week or want to hear about our opinions on the books we've read, I blog about our book choices each week.  You can find me here.

Happy reading everyone!

Day 82: Wonderstruck

A few weeks ago, our class finished a unique read that left us, for lack of a better word, wonderstruck (how appropriate).

When I first showed my students the book, Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, I heard the usual gasps and exclamations of disbelief. "Whoa!" "It's going to take us forever to finish that!" "That book is HUGE!" If you aren't familiar with this beast of a book, it's massive (as far as children's books are concerned, at least). A solo picture of it does not fully do it justice. And if for no other reason than simply feeling impressive for sitting such a large book on their desks, students love it.

What is unique about this book is that the author/illustrator tells the story using both words and pictures. If you have read his other work, The Invention of Hugo Cabret (also recently made into an awesome movie, Hugo), you are already familiar with this concept. Wonderstruck is intriguing in the fact that for the majority of the book, the pictures and the words are telling two different stories, taking place with separate characters, decades apart from one another.

Ben's story (told with words) begins in Gun Flint Lake, Minnesota in 1977,

while Rose's tale (told through illustrations) is set in Hoboken, New Jersey fifty years prior.

What I love, love, love about this book is all of the comprehension skills that students need to use to understand the text. Flipping through the detailed illustrations instantaneously sparks conversations amongst the students. The way Rose's story is told through pictures lends itself to great, effortless conversations. Students are asking questions, noticing details in the picture clues, making connections between Ben's and Rose's story, inferring about characters' emotions and actions.

Seeing the story come to life, almost like a movie, gives readers the scaffolding to help them to create their own mental visualizations. And all of these discussions come with such ease because there are no words to limit the readers' thoughts or constrain their metacognition.

In addition to all of this conversational ambrosia, there are so many strands of different topics that you can explore, visit, or learn more about from reading this book. You may have guessed by now, based on some of my previous posts, that connecting what my kids read in books to the real world is another one of my favorites. Readers can learn more about deaf culture, museums, and New York, doing their own research to find out more about the true strands of knowledge in this fictional masterpiece.

You won't regret adding this visual treasure to you and your child's must read list.

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Hartman

The Value of Daily Reading

Many of you may have seen this popular infographic (courtesy of Perry Lecompton School District) floating around on social media sites recently. It is such a great visual reminder as to why reading every day is so important, not only our children and students, but to ourselves as readers.

Think about all of the learning that takes place when you open a book. Just twenty minutes a day can make all the difference in your child's education and life.

Have you enriched your child's life through a book today?

Day 119: A New Holiday Tradition

Being a new mom, one of the most exciting times of the year for me now are holidays. I love the opportunity to share cherished family traditions with my little guy, while starting new ones together.

One tradition that I was especially excited about starting this year was one I had found on Pinterest (where else?)-- a Christmas "advent calendar" of books. What an awesome way to share the excitement of the holiday spirit and the joy of reading together with my son all in one!!

The way I originally found this idea presented was to wrap up twenty-five books, put them under the tree, and have your child pick one each day to enjoy together. For this past holiday, I modified this idea a bit for my son because of his age, so instead of wrapping each gift separately, I reused the same gift bag and tissue paper each evening, but replaced the book with a new one for him to unveil each day.

I decided that I wanted to have all holiday books for our 25 Books of Christmas tradition. Choosing the books was hard (there are too many great Christmas favorites!), but finding them proved to be less difficult. I rummaged through my childhood book collection, visited used library sales, and browsed online book stores.

Each day, he really enjoyed exploring the tissue paper as he unwrapped each book. And I enjoyed cuddling up next to the fireplace and colorful Christmas tree lights to read a holiday story to my son. I can't wait for this tradition to continue again next year and grow and blossom into a cherished holiday memory.

Do you have any holiday traditions with your family that involve books or reading? What stories are a must read for your family around certain times of the year?

Happy Reading and Happy Holidays!!

Movie Book Club Update

I’m a bit behind on my Reading Promise Book Club updates so forgive me for that. 

In November, we met to discuss From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler written by E.L. Konigsburg and watch the movie based on the book, The Hideaways. This group does love their books for the details that they provide. “Way more details than a movie,” commented one young reader. “I like picturing it in my mind,” responded another.

Our group was horrified by the idea that running away would make anything better, much to the delight of their parents. They found the movie a bit lacking as it failed to hold their attention at times, but gushed enthusiastically about the book. When my older boys were younger, we were able to watch the movie version with Lauren Bacall with the same title as the book, however my library no longer carries it and I found it on Amazon.com for a mere $180. Ha! 

Our holiday read was A Dog Named Christmas written by Greg Kincaid. Our family did this one backwards: last year we watched the movie and this year we read the book. It is a great family tale and I highly recommend it! The other three families (yes, we had another one join our group!) thoroughly enjoyed the story and the kids loved watching the movie tonight, snuggled under fleece blankets and cuddled up with stuffed animal friends. One thought the cougar scene was too detailed in the book and liked it better in the movie. The rest thought the book was better, of course. 

We’re choosing a favorite for next month, Matilda by Roald Dahl. Many have seen the movie, but not read the book. 

Happy reading in 2013! 
Momma Holmes

My Reading Streak

Hi! I'm Lindsey! Last year when I was in 4th grade, my teacher, Mrs. Hartman, read a couple chapters of The Reading Promise near the end of the school year, to my classmates and I. It was about a girl in 4th grade (just like me!) and her dad that made a promise to read every single night for 100 nights! Once they got that achieved, they made another promise to read for 1,000 nights in a row!

When Mrs. Hartman read just the first and second chapters of that book I got inspired to do that with my mom. So on May 30th, 2012 my mom and I started to read the book: Now You See Me... It was great! It was also part of the Poison Apple series. Since I had the first six books in that series we started reading all of them! Each of the books were between 150-180 pages.

From May 30th to November 21st my mom and I have read the 3rd, 4th, 5th and we are almost done the 6th book of the Poison Apple series! We also have read 172 nights in a row, so far! I remember when my mom and I reached 50 nights in a row! I freaked out!

When my mom and I reached 100 nights I couldn't believe it!  Then came 150 nights! I was so happy I couldn't stay still! My mom and I are now trying to reach 200 nights! I think we can do it! If we complete that we are going to go for how long we can go, and hopefully never stop!

Thank you for reading my short story and hopefully you got inspired too!

The Stay at Home Teacher's Promise: Including the Family

Back in August, I received an email from Mrs. Hartman about Alice Ozma and The Reading Promise.  I found it ironic that I received this note on this particular evening because I had just had an especially wonderful reading time with my then 13 month old son.  One of the stories we read that night was Ten Little Ladybugs. I can remember bringing this book out a few months before and Colin showing little interest.   On this night, however, it was as if the whole book opened up for him. He was mesmerized by the pages, "counting" the ladybugs, and finding them on the page.  As I was putting him down to bed, I actually whispered in his ear how much I cherish all our reading cuddles.  In my moment of joy, my heart ached wishing my husband could take part in this time too. He is active duty Air Force and has been away from home since July and will not return till Christmas. When I received Mrs. Hartman’s email, I had already made several recordings of my husband reading story books to my son.  He also did one of the Hallmark recordable books.  Although I had these recordings I wasn’t consistent with playing them for my son.  

Reading with Daddy at 3 months old

Once I heard about The Reading Promise I knew that mine and my son’s reading promise would be a little different than others.  After several years as a teacher (three of which were at Sinking Springs, go Panthers!) I am now a stay at home mom.  At least for now, reading to my son throughout the day is something we do without even having to think about it.  I don’t think we have missed a day of reading since he was six months old.  My husband, on the other hand, is rarely given this opportunity.  I decided then that our reading promise would be Daddy “reading” at least one story a day to our son.  Starting August 21^st, Colin and I listened to one of Daddy’s stories each day.  We were also fortunate enough to visit Daddy shortly after this where he was able to read in person.  These days are always the best.  Unfortunately, after a few weeks it became apparent that some days Colin didn’t want to listen to Daddy’s story.  Although only a toddler, he is well aware of his Daddy’s absence and it seems the stories are a reminder that he is not here.  

Our reading promise was in need of some adjustments.  Not only is my sweet Colin often separated from his Daddy he’s also hundreds of miles away from his grandparents, aunts, and uncles.  I decided to add all of them to our reading promise.   Now, in order to keep our Streak going, Colin must listen to at least one family member other than Mommy each day.  Just like Alice and her father, Colin listens to the family member just before bed.  I make sure it is the first story we do each night so that I don’t accidentally forget.  He’s not quite old enough to remind me yet.  I have audio and video recordings of family members on my iPhone that we use most often.  On evenings when our schedules align, Daddy reads a story over the phone in real-time, and whenever we are visiting family or they are visiting us Colin will get his story read in person.  

Reading with Pappy as part of the Streak

We have been going strong with the Streak so far. I have to admit that there have been a few nights Colin has had a babysitter or he's fallen asleep in the care late in the evening and we missed our reading promise story. I guess it can't be a Streak with missed nights. I've figured out some solutions like playing one of the recorded stories in the car during those unexpected late nights. Since I can't even remember the date of our last missed night, we will officially call today, November 12, 2012, Day 1 of our Reading Promise Streak. 

How can our reading promise relate to yours?  Perhaps you have a relative far away that you’d like your child to be able to connect with or maybe your child’s father travels for work as well and you’d like him to continue being a part of everyday life at home.  Maybe you have to work late or you’re busy taking care of another child but still want to read to your other child.  

I have lots of hopes and dreams for our reading promise.  I know that it will evolve over the coming years.  I imagine my son writing emails to his grandmother about chapter books they are reading together and listening to stories with ear buds on long car rides.  No matter how our reading promise changes, one thing I know for sure, my son will be read to every day.

Jackie Goodwillie

www.thestayathometeacher.blogspot.com

Day 50: Summitting Mt. Everest

Our classroom reached two exciting milestones this week!! First, we reached one of our mini Reading Streak goals-- 50 consecutive school days!! This goal also coincided with a second amazing accomplishment. We successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest! Let me explain...

Last year, my class was introduced to the topic of Mt. Everest courtesy of one of our favorite class Mystery Readers, Nicholas' mom. She read a book called, To the Top! Climbing the World's Highest Mountain to my class. Immediately, my class became engrossed with the topic of Mt. Everest. They just wanted to devour any and all information about the peak that they could find. As we explored some of the other resources that our school library had to check out about Mt. Everest, we came across a great find on Sinking Springs' library shelves: Worst-Case Scenario, Ultimate Adventure: Everest, You Decide How to Survive! , a choose your own style book where readers are faced with real life decisions on their journey to try to reach the top of Everest. With only one path through the book to successfully reach the summit and return, it takes quite a bit of research, decision making, and thoughtful discussion to accomplish this task successfully. It took our class several unsuccessful tries, but eventually, we made it!

Check out the book trailer for a sneak peek of what adventures we encountered in this book:

Since my class could not get enough of this book last year, I decided to try it again with this year's group of students when I needed a new read aloud book. To help prepare them for their ascent, we started by reading some non-fiction books about Everest to give them some background information.

The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins

To the Top! Climbing the World's Highest Mountain by S.A. Kramer

 We also referenced, but didn't fully read, To The Top: The Story of Everest by Steven Venables.

Once my students had learned more about the real life perils on Mount Everest, they were eager to begin their climb. I was pleasantly surprised by the care and thought that they put into their decisions throughout the reading. Sometimes kids think it's fun just to see how many bad decisions they can make to lead themselves to the quickest ending for laughs, but my class didn't! They discussed, debated, used facts and evidence they had gained during our research, had me go back and reread parts of the informational knowledge to hear it again and listen for specific details-- all to make their way to the top. And they did it too! Almost on the first try. (We made it to the top on our first try, but made a tough decision and froze on our way back down the mountain, so we didn't successfully complete the mission, technically.) We nailed it on our second attempt.

 I love sharing choose your own adventure type books with my students because it starts great conversations among students and encourages them to support their opinions with details and evidence from the text. (The teacher in me has to sneak some extra learning in somehow, of course!!)

I typed up this quick worksheet for students to record some of their thinking and practice explaining their thoughts along with supporting evidence in writing. It's free to download if you're interested.

Also, this style of writing help get my students interested in a new type of book that holds their interest. When I went to pick up my students from library last week, the librarian told me suddenly my class just couldn't get enough of choose your own adventure books when it came time to check out books.

If you're not familiar with these types of books, there are a wide variety to check out. Some of the most popular ones can be found at the Choose Your Own Adventure website. It lists all the books in this series (for both younger and older readers alike) sorted by reading level, topic, etc. Another series, You Choose Books, is based on historical events or time periods. There are also even a few more books in The Worst Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure Series: Mars, Amazon, and a new one being released this month (yay!), Deadly Seas. Personally, I love the ones based on real life experiences that can tie fiction and non-fiction together for students and help them make connections in their reading and learning. But, there again, that's the teacher in me talking.

Happy Reading!
Mrs. Hartman

PS- Satellite view and travelers' photographs from some of the Everest Base camp trails are available on Google Maps. Another way to connect your readers to their setting and adventure while adding some geography lessons to the mix as well!!


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