Yet ANOTHER Picture Book I'd Use in the Classroom - GOING PLACES

The Reynolds brothers - Peter and Paul - collaborated on a picture book about thinking outside the box (literally) and collaboration (ironically)! Going Places stars Raphael and Maya who are excited about their school's "Going Places" contest where every student receives a box-car kit with specific instructions. At first Raphael builds his car by following those directions very carefully, but when he notices Maya is researching nature and brainstorming ideas before she even opens the box, he becomes curious. Together, the two friends work to create something wonderful.

Based upon Fablevision Learning's animated short film Above and Beyond, Peter and Paul (I wonder if they have a sister named Mary) wrote and illustrated Going Places that tells the delightful story about creativity and teamwork. My delightful friend Camille Osborn introduced me to this fun picture book as a retirement present, and I have to say I am inspired by its message. I am "re-purposing" my golden years by doing things I love to do that may or may not be what many senior citizens plan for their 60s, 70s, 80s .... (But I digress, and that's another story.)

There are so many fun activities that teachers can do with their students when using this book as an anchor. As I researched ideas, I found some resources that you and your students may be interested in. Click on the following links to explore a few.

• Going Places backstory and trailer
• Above and Beyond animated short
• Going Places activities - a PDF file - good for starters or activities for "fast finishers"

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts about what you might use in your classroom. Please comment on this post or on the JCIRA Facebook page. Have a great, Great, GREAT day!!!

ANOTHER Picture Book I Would Use in the Classroom

"chalk + sitting = school"

"chalk + jumping = hopscotch"

clever words + lively illustrations = This Plus That: Life's Little Equations

Amy Krouse Rosenthal is the author of this delightful book that adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides experiences, feelings, challenges, and celebrations. And Jen Corace's fun artwork is the perfect complement!

My dear friend Rebecca Smith gave me this great picture book as a retirement gift, and on the back two pages, she placed white sticky labels so that I could add original equations after reading the book with my grandchildren. Mia, age 8, wrote "Mia + Daddy = Happy". 

To my amusement, I often see similar equations on Facebook and Twitter, and I wish I had written them down so I could share them with you, but I didn't!! The point is that after reading the book with students, they can create equations about their world along with original artwork to illustrate them! 

grumbles + rumbles = hungry for lunch time

12 hours light + 12 hours dark = autumn equinox

This can also be a fun starter or "ender" for older students. Let's say 8th graders have been reading Anne Frank - the play or her diary, and you want students to track and reflect upon the moods, experiences, and writing quality of Miss Frank. To enlist the attention of this "hard-to-engage" age group, assign partners to create life equations for Anne. Some examples might be as follows:

comfort source + confidant = Kitty 

Jews - rights + yellow stars = persecution 

Franks + Van Daans + Dussel + Mouschi = 2 many x 2 years

I hope you'll try this idea on for size, and then share some of your equations and those of your students. In the meantime, take care! 

Picture Books I Would Use in the Classroom, part 1

I LOVE all books, but I have a special fondness for picture books. And even though I finally broke down and gave away about 150 tomes, I could not part with but a handful of my picture books. To my delight, when I said auf Wiedersehen to my colleagues at Jordan School District, I left with 3 new picture books - two were retirement gifts from friends, and one was a recommendation that I gave to myself: The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt with pictures by Oliver Jeffers; Going Places by Peter and Paul Reynolds; and This Plus That, written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Jen Corace. All were published fairly recently.

If I were in the classroom - elementary or secondary - I would find a way to work these books into my curriculum because they are humorous and because they represent what I would like to see in a classroom.

The Day the Crayons Quit

In a bevy of protest letters to their owner Duncan, the crayons "wax" poetic to convince the young artist to "think outside the box" when working on his artwork. Red feels overworked; Purple, a bit of a perfectionist, grows irritated when Duncan doesn't color in the lines; and Black thinks he has more uses than merely outlining things. And so it goes. In the end, Duncan wants to make his crayon friends happy, and so he experiments with a yellow sky, a pink dinosaur, and an orange whale. Oh, and the black rainbow rules! He earns an A for coloring - but an A+ for creativity!

In this test-crazy culture we're currently experiencing, I would want my students to know there is room for creativity in my classroom. And I would also hope, students could see another message in this sweet book: Avoid jumping to conclusions and look for possibilities beyond quick assumptions. And I'm not just talking about crayons. 

I want my postings to be short, and so I'll stop here for today! In the meantime, have a great weekend! Renae