Ladybug Book #6 : Blackout

This picture book tells the story of a city family who experiences a loss of electrical power on a hot summer night. Many of the details of the story were taken from the experiences of New Yorkers the night of the Northeast blackout of 2003, as shown in this book trailer.

When asked what they would do to entertain themselves if the power went out, first graders responded:

Use the iPad.
Play a board game.
Play with a friend.
Color a picture. 
Dress up. 
Swim in your pool if it was summer. 
Use a headlamp. 
Play with a remote control vehicle if the batteries work. 
Play with your toys. 
Jump rope.
Sit in a circle and tell spooky stories with a flashlight.
Read at books and learn from it.
Go bike riding by the headlights of your car.

The beautiful illustrations from this book have already won a 2012 Caldecott Award! Maybe it will win the Ladybug Award, too!

Ladybug Nominee #5: Stars

Stars is a beautifully illustrated book by Mary Lyn Ray, a popular children's author who lives in New Hampshire, in Danbury! Some children remembered that she was a visitor to our school just last year. The illustrator is Marla Frazee, who has won several awards for her artwork in children's books.

After reading about Stars, first and second graders looked at Starfall, a website for young readers. We read an online book there called Pumpkin, Pumpkin and observed in the photos that pumpkin blossoms do look like stars, just as Mary Lyn Ray wrote in her book!

Many of us hope that Stars wins the Ladybug Award because Mary Lyn Ray would not have to travel very far to pick up her trophy!

Ladybug Nominnee #4: Neville

Poor Neville. His family moves to a new house in a new neighborhood and he has lost all his friends. Ask your student to explain the creative way Neville solves this problem and makes many new friends in a very short period of time! In several classes, there was great debate about whether Neville was being honest!

At one point, Neville "walks around the block" in his new neighborhood. We turned to GoogleMaps and annotated an image of Bristol to better understand this concept - because New Hampton doesn't have many neighborhood blocks!  Do you see the streets that Neville could have walked around? Students found lots of reasons why that would be called a "block"!

One student suggested that the fleet of yellow school busses looked like sticks of butter! We equated this view of town to what a bird must see as he flies over!

Ladybug Nominee #3: Calvin Can't Fly

Calvin Can't Fly is a story about a starling who would rather read books than learn to fly. When the time comes for his flock to migrate, Calvin needs the help of his family to follow along. But Calvin's knowledge ends up saving the flock from  a great disaster. Children loved the ending of this Ladybug nominated book!

See the flock of starlings on the cover of the book? Here's a video showing how starlings like Calvin and his family swarm and swoop as a group. How do they do that?

Ladybug Nominee #2: Cloudette

Cloudette, by Tom Lichtenheld, is the story of a tiny cloud who likes being small but sometimes wishes to be big and powerful like the other clouds in the sky. Cloudette is the second book primary grade students have heard that is nominated for the 2012 NH Ladybug Award.

In this book, children encounter an asterisk in the text, next to an over sized RIBBIT from a frog. The reader needs to look to to the bottom of the page and find a second asterisk to see that the frog is actually saying "thank you" to Cloudette! An asterisk is one of the elements of print students will see as they read more difficult texts, especially non-fiction. We talked about how the "aster" part of the word means "star" - like in astronomy and astronaut!

Bigger clouds called Cloudette nicknames like "pipsqueak", "small-fry" and "shortcake". We took a few minutes to talk about name-calling and how some names can make us feel happy and loved, while others can make us feel badly. Students shared pet names that parents and grandparents called them, like "sweetie", "peanut" and "pumpkin"! We like those names!

2012 NH Ladybug Award

This fall, NHCS students in kindergarten, first, second, and third grade will be introduced to the ten picture books nominated for the 2012 NH Ladybug Award. In November, they will join students across the state in selecting this year's winner. Watch this blog for details about each book - and ask your student about them as we have fun reading them all!

My Favorite Book

Second graders used Kidspiration, a graphic organizer program, to outline the elements of their favorite picture books. After each section was filled in, students used the program's picture database to enhance each area. In the process, they learned how to search for appropriate pictures and place them in a  designated spot. After writing a short reflection, they exported their work as a picture file, a jpg, so it could be saved to their digital portfolios.

2011 Ladybug Award Winner

And the winner is...

Memoirs of a Goldfish!

This book got 4,892 votes from kids in New Hampshire. Interrupting Chicken came in second with 4,880 votes. How many more votes did Goldfish get than Chicken?? Leave your answer in the comment section!

Ladybug Book #9: Interrupting Chicken

The author of Interrupting Chicken is David Ezra Stein. The little red chicken interrupts his Papa when he reads to him at bedtime. He promises he will not to do it again, but he does! The illustrator uses tea over the paint in the illustrations to make them look old, and it does! It is a very funny story! 

written by Miss Bocko's Class

Ladybug Book #7: Guyku

At school today, Mrs. Wilson's class was the first to hear this Ladybug Award nominee, Guyku by Bob Raczka and Peter Reynolds. Guyku is a collection of seasonal haiku poems written to appeal to boys (and girls too)! We learned that haikus are short, structured poems with a pattern: line 1 has 5 syllables, line 2 has 7 syllables, and line 3 has five syllables. We counted syllables as we read some of the funny haikus in the book!

Suddenly the fire alarm rang! We filed out of the building and waited for the all-clear from Mrs. Cook. When we got back to ICT, we wrote this haiku about our experience!

Fire alarm beeps loud

Makes you jump and hurts your ears

We line up and leave!

Ladybug Book #6: Rubia and the Three Osos

We listened to this book. Miss Bocko's class thinks the story was special because it had Spanish words like osos (bears), Rubia (girl with blond hair), sillas (chairs), and las tres camas (three beds). Can you guess the name of the story in English? That's right! Golidlocks and the Three Bears!

But Rubia and the Three Osos by Susan Middleton Elya is different from other Goldilocks stories we've heard. In this version, Rubia ate Bebé's sopa, not his porridge. After she ran away from the osos, Rubia did a good deed and made soup at home which she delivered to the bears to replace the soup she'd eaten. She glued the chair and she apologized to the family.

We noticed a Welcome mat in on one page said Bienvenido - and we even figured out what that meant!

Ladybug Book #5: One

Many classes have already heard this Ladybug Award nominated book One, a picture book by Kathryn Otoshie. One is filled with colors and numbers but that's not really what the book is about. When Miss Bocko's first graders heard the story of One, this is what they thought of it:
      It was about bullying.

      It was about working together.

     At the end, the bully was smarter and nicer.

     He wanted to join the others so he could have fun, too.

Click on this link to hear author Kathryn Otoshi read her story aloud while elementary students act it out. It's a good message for us all. 

Ladybug Book #4: Ugly Pie

Primary grade students have heard a story about an ugly pie and Ol' Bear's quest to gather the ingredients. The author, Lisa Wheeler, wrote Ugly Pie in a regional dialect. Words like Ol', hankerin', and taste-bud-temptin' made for some interesting discussion about the purpose of apostrophes in words along with a quick review of contractions. The illustrator, Heather Solomon, used interesting art techniques like drawing Ol' Bear five times on the same page to show that he's traveling down a path in the woods.

At the end of the story came the recipe for Ugly Pie! Most children knew what it was just from looking at the formatting of the text! A quick email to Lisa Wheeler gave us permission to reproduce the (copyrighted) recipe here in case you want to try it at home with your children. If you make it, leave a comment to let us know how it was! By the way, the author reports "The pie is yummy. Tastes kind of like carmel apple."

If you've been itchin' for some Ugly Pie, today is your lucky day! 

Here's Ol' Bear's recipe, handed down from bear to bear for generations. 

Recipe for Ugly Pie  

Ugly Crust 

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup lard (or shortening)
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 to 8 tablespoons icy cold water (brrrrr) 

First, mix together the flour and salt. Then, using a fork, cut little chunks of that ugly lard into your flour until you get what looks like itty-bitty pea-sized balls. Set aside half this mixture in another bowl for later. Next, sprinkle 1 tablespoon of icy cold water over those pea-sized balls. Gently toss it with a fork. Repeat until your flour mixture forms an ugly ball of dough 

Spread a little bit of flour on a flat surface (like your kitchen counter). Pat that ball of ugly dough down like you mean business. Then roll it with a rolling pin until it becomes a flat, ugly crust. It doesn't matter if it looks nice and round and pretty. This is Ugly Pie! Place in a 9" deep-dish pie plate. 

Ugly Filling 

6 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon lemon juice 

In a large bowl, toss apple slices with lemon juice. Then mix in molasses until apples are completely coated with ugly brown goo. Set aside. 

5 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar 

In a medium-sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients listed above. Add to the ugly apple mixture until everything is nice 'n' moist. 

3/4 cup red raisins or cran-raisins
1/4 walnuts chopped fine 

Toss raisins and walnuts into apple mixture. Make sure all ingredients are well coated. Place into pie crust. Your pie should look fairly ugly by now. 

Ugly Topping 

Take the crumbly flour mixture you set aside earlier. Sprinkle over the top of the pie. 

Cover the pie with an aluminum foil tent to prevent overbrowning. Bake at 400° for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20 minutes. 

When your pie is done, you will have the most delicious, most beautiful UGLY PIE you ever saw!

reprinted with permission from Ugly Pie by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by Heather Solomon.  Thanks for showing kids an example of copyright in action!

Ladybug Book #3: Memoirs of a Goldfish

This week's picture book was Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian. It's the tale of a lonely goldfish who ends up with more companionship than he can handle! The illustrator of this book is Tim Bowers. We visited his website and noticed that all the illustrations in his gallery were copyrighted. Copyright shows that the work belongs to the person who created it, so when second graders drew self-portraits using TuxPaint, they made sure to copyright their own work!

Ladybug Book #2: In The Wild

In The Wild by New Hampshire author David Elliott is a collection of short poems about wild animals. Primary grade students listened to these poems, then visited the author's website to hear some of the poems read aloud. We noticed that the online version of the poems had music and animal noises in the background to enhance the setting of the poem. Take a listen for yourself!

This book is nominated for the NH Ladybug Award. The illustrations are done with woodcuts and watercolor paint.

Kindergartners also visited Bembo's Zoo, where letters make animal sounds and turn into wild creatures!

2011 NH Ladybug Awards

Every fall, kindergarten, first, and second graders have the opportunity to see and hear the picture books that are nominated for our state's award, the Ladybug Award, in preparation for voting for their favorite in November. Oddly enough, two of this year's nominees were already in our library so many of the children have heard City Dog, Country Frog and Interrupting Chicken.

NHCS loves cookies!

This week's Ladybug-nominated book was The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson. It's a funny rhyming story about a cow who is always eating cookies. After we read the book, we visited the author's website, then made a Wordle showing our favorite cookies. Here's a combination of two classes responses  - can you tell by the size which is our favorite kind of cookie?

Earth Day Week

In honor of Earth Day this week, we read a final Mary Lyn Ray picture book called Welcome, Brown Bird. It's the story of a wood thrush who travels between the homes of two boys - one who lives in hemlock woods in the north and another who lives in the tropical rain forest of the south. Both families protect the habitat of the migrating thrush because they so enjoy listening to its song. Many children said they've heard it here in New Hampton - have you?

Book Awards

Every January, two important children's literature awards are presented by the American Library Association. Most NHCS students are familiar with the Caldecott Award, given for the best picture book. This year's winner is A Sick Day for Amos McGee illustrated by Erin Stead and written by her husband, Philip. I have ordered the book for the NHCS library and will share it with the children the minute it comes in!

The Newbery Award is given for the best children's novel and this year's winner is Clare Vanderpool for Moon Over Manifest. I have not yet read it but know that its setting is Kansas during the Depression. It has gotten wonderful reviews for this first time author! You can read the Amazon.com reviews here.

I just read on a Seattle news site that Moon Over Manifest was ranked at 49,676 in sales on Amazon.com the morning of the awards ceremony. By the end of the day, it was number 17. Amazing the power of these two awards. 

Ladybug Book #9: Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep

Second grade listened to Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep. It's about a bear who can't hear very well and is really tired because it's time to hibernate. Every time Old Man Winter said to go to sleep, the bear thought he said something that rhymed with it. Instead of going to sleep, he was driving a jeep, sweeping the house, and leaping with a frog!

The illustrations in pencil and pixels are beautiful. It's a silly story but some of us will still vote for it. It's a pretty good book!

Ladybug Book #8: Princess Hyacinth

Here's another Ladybug book with a subtitle: the surprising tale of a girl who floated!
Princess Hyacinth always floated on the air. She had to be buckled and strapped in and she had to wear a big heavy crown and socks that had diamonds and weights in her dress. Princess Hyacinth wanted to have fun outside and she was bored because she couldn't. She really wanted to float outside the palace.
This story was so funny because it talked about Royal Underwear! The author is Florence Parry Heide and she's 91 years old!