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Showing posts from February, 2013

New to Who

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Thankful that my Whovian friends told me I didn't need to "begin at the beginning" (which would have been incredibly intimidating) I started my Doctor Who Newbie journey by diving into the rebooted series from 2005 with the appearance of the ninth Doctor. I have to admit, the first 20 minutes or so left me feeling skeptical. The manikins coming to life and attacking people seemed over the top silly. About halfway into the episode, though, something changed. I don't know whether it was his delightful grin or something deeper -- but I was hooked. In fact, in just writing this much of my post so far, I realized that so much of what I enjoyed the first time needed to be repeated. Plus, as a new Whovian convert - it's my geekly duty to try to proselytize the rest of you! So here I am rewatching the first episode, "Rose". On this second watching, the start of the episode still seems so goofy. Goofy, with a twist of horror. How's that for fun? Thos

Bookish March Madness - Brackets

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If you haven't already read about the Bookish March Madness event that I'm doing with two colleagues, check out my first post. There, I describe the process we used to select the 32 books for our challenge. The students from the five schools represented in this event are all upper elementary gifted students. Thus, our selections may be slightly different than other 4th and 5th graders would pick. Honestly, though, I think it's only slightly different. Most of the books that made it to our brackets are books I've seen many other kids cradling to their chests and stuffing joyfully into their backpacks. Creating the Brackets: I'm thankful for my colleagues - one of the other teachers actually made the bracket paper. We discussed a few things we wanted to see in the brackets before she began, though. Our main goal was to maximize the chance for multiple genres to make it to later stages. To this end, we made sure that several of the initial pairings were either

A Slice of Manic

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There's always something with little boys in the house, right? (Shh... don't tell me that it doesn't get better as they get older, please). I had big plans for all the items I would accomplish this past weekend. Reading to do, blog posts to write, loads of laundry to... well... launder. Instead, my weekend was spent making memories. The yearly trip to the vet went without a hitch, now that each boy can manage one of his "sisters". When did they get so big? I transported my boys and one of their cub scout friends to the annual Museum overnight trip. We traveled through the exhibits, learned about scientific concepts, and slept beside a dinosaur skeleton. Of course, I made the mistake of allowing my fifth grader to watch a black hole documentary a few days before this trip. Why is that a mistake, you may ask? Well, it's clearly a miscalculation when he pesters the poor college kid running the session on Newtonian principles with questions like, "b

It's Monday February 25th

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A bit of a light reading week.... but still managed to accomplish some good things. Be sure to stop by Teach Mentor Texts to find links to other posts sharing their weekly reads! Thanks, Jen and Kellee! Another Newbery bites the dust! Onion John was an odd piece, but enjoyable. Kind of "whack you in the face with the lesson" though. The way the town treated Onion John was a lot like the patronizing way Native Americans are often handled in texts from the early Newbery books. Listened to the Chaos Walking prequel - The New World . It was good, but I missed the extremely unique voice of the first novel. I'm planning to listen to the second book in the series next. I finally finished The Son of Neptune with my younger son. He adored this book, and I loved the humor and adventure of the story. It's funny - the younger one always sticks with a book with me at bedtime, even when it takes forever! The older jumps around, having me read a few nights

Sci Friday - Herbert's Wormhole Review

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Welcome back to another edition of Sci Friday! Today I have a book that's a great starter science fiction for the younger crowd. Herbert's Wormhole by Peter Nelson , Rohitash Rao (Illustrator) Hardcover, 304 pages Published May 5th 2009 by HarperCollins (first published April 25th 2009) ISBN 0061688681 (ISBN13: 9780061688683) (acquired during an ebook sale!) Goodreads Summary:  Greetings. This story concerns a scientific anomaly that opens a portal, allowing us to traverse the space-time continuum and triggering an adventure that those of limited intelligence might simply describe as "awesome." Hey This is a book about how we get sucked into this wormhole thingy and it drops us in the future where there's all this really cool futuristic stuff, but also these super-freaky aliens and we mess everything up and have to save the world. How awesome is that? My Thoughts : Two voices blend in the narration - one boy who loves science and is constantly inv

You Are Stardust - NF picture book review

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In my quest to read more picture books AND find some great nonfiction to spark the thinking of my students, I discovered this gem. I'm sure one of my Twitter pals mentioned it to me... and I wish I could remember who it was so I could thank you! You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey , Soyeon Kim (Illustrations) Hardcover, 32 pages Published September 11th 2012 by Owlkids Books ISBN 1926973356 (ISBN13: 9781926973357) Goodreads Summary:  You Are Stardust begins by introducing the idea that every tiny atom in our bodies came from a star that exploded long before we were born. From its opening pages, the book suggests that we are intimately connected to the natural world; it compares the way we learn to speak to the way baby birds learn to sing, and the growth of human bodies to the growth of forests. Award-winning author Elin Kelsey — along with a number of concerned parents and educators around the world — believes children are losing touch with nature. This innovative picture book ai

Treat Tuesday - Dragons & Black Holes & Heroes - Oh my!

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It's Treat Tuesday! A wonderful excuse to share what we are reading at the Selke lair. The boys love this, especially because it means they get to eat a treat. Thanks to Niki at Daydream Reader for this weekly theme - be sure to hop onto Twitter and look for the tag #TreatTuesday. A bigger photo today so you can see what the older is reading with his ears. Younger: The Son of Neptune  - this is actually what he and I are reading at night. We are so close to being done, so he wanted to share it with you all. Older: Dragon Rule by E.E. Knight (from the Age of Fire series) He's listening to this one, since we had the first four on our kindle app but didn't have the fifth. He's a bit of a dragon fan at the moment, having read this series, Eragon, and the D'Lacey dragon books. Me: George's Secret Key to the Universe . (Yes, that IS Hawking listed as the author - Stephen and his daughter Lucy teamed up for this title). I haven't started it yet.

Nonfiction Top Ten

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When I heard about the chance to share a "Top Ten" list of my favorite nonfiction titles, I wasn't sure if I was the right teacher for the job. Sure, I read nonfiction. Sure, I have a lot of recent titles I've loved. As a gifted support teacher, though, I don't get the chance to dive into nonfiction books with my students as often as a classroom teacher might. Still, I'm going to go ahead and share 10 titles that I hope you'll be able to use with your students. I'll try to give an indication of the age range I see the title being useful for - though your mileage may vary. Check on Twitter for more #NF10for10 and at the blog Reflect and Refine AMAZING WOMEN: (Click through for either the Goodreads page or my reviews) Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller  - a graphic novel biography of an amazing woman. The art really brings home the story in a way that pure text never could. Upper elementary and up (some very sad parts!) Almost Ast

Prepping for Bookish March Madness

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Click here to get Images  & Basketballs Pictures  -  Pictures March Madness - the Bookish Way! It started as many of my best classroom ideas start - with an idea from a colleague. We can plan ahead as much as we like, but those small sparks get me more excited about teaching than any intricately planned unit. So when she sent me a Facebook message asking if I thought it would be fun to set up a March Madness event for books, I jumped right on board. We had to figure out how it would work along the way. How would we choose the 32 books for our brackets? 1) We decided to have students in 4th and 5th grade nominate their top ten favorites using a Google Doc form. This ended up being a lot of fun to watch! Three of us had our students participate (which represents 5 separate elementary schools). As my students entered their favorites, I kept hearing phrases like, "Oh, I thought of another great one! What will I have to eliminate?" and "Yes! I have th

It's Monday Feb 18th

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It's Monday - and you all know what that means! On the off chance this is your first Monday visit to the Mélange - Monday is the day I share what I read last week. Check out the website Teach Mentor Texts for links to other amazing teachers, librarians, and bloggers to discover your next read! Newbery Challenge: I tried to plow through a few this week. I'm finding that my stamina is lagging here, so I may end up taking a week or two off. But I finished THREE this week! (audio) I know Walk Two Moons is a popular one, but it just didn't wow me. Maybe it was the narrator, at least partly. I felt much less sympathy for Phoebe than I think I was supposed to - she just annoyed me. I liked it more as I got toward the end, and saw the strands weaving back together. But I think Moon over Manifest did a better job with that. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for a realistic fiction that was such a bummer. Crispin - I enjoyed this one. I have read it before, and I l

You Let Him Read What?

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Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear. Judy Blume , as quoted in Good Advice (1993) by William Safire , p. 125 A child comes up to you and asks to read a book that concerns you. Another child discusses a book at recess with their classmates, and you wonder if you should allow them to continue. What happens if that child convinces others to read it? It may be a third grader who wants to finish the Harry Potter series. Is it too dark? Will it terrify him? Perhaps it's a dystopian novel with overtones of mature content. Will it create uncomfortable conversation? With the popularity of books like The Hunger Games and the proliferation of young adult novels, this comes up more and more when I talk with parents. As a teacher of gifted students - who often read well above their grade level - this question becomes a huge concern

Sci Friday - The Pearl Wars

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Welcome back to another edition of Sci Friday!  The Pearl Wars  (Skyship Academy #1) by Nick James   Paperback, 376 pages Published September 8th 2011 by Flux  (first published September 1st 2011) ISBN 073872341X (ISBN13: 9780738723419) Goodreads Summary:  A devastated Earth's last hope is found in Pearls: small, mysterious orbs that fall from space and are capable of supplying enough energy to power entire cities. Battling to control the Pearls are the Skyship dwellers--political dissidents who live in massive ships in the Earth's stratosphere--and the corrupt Surface government.    Jesse Fisher, a Skyship slacker, and Cassius Stevenson, a young Surface operative, cross paths when they both venture into forbidden territory in pursuit of Pearls. Their chance encounter triggers an unexpected reaction, endowing each boy with remarkable--and dangerous--abilities that their respective governments would stop at nothing to possess.    Enemies thrust togethe

Wordless Wednesday - Nonfiction Shelves

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My new display!

Treat Tuesday Celebrates Great Books

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And it's time for Treat Tuesday! Don't forget to check out other posts on Twitter. Thanks, Niki! (At Daydream Reader ) Once again, my boys joined me for this weekly posting. Younger: He devoured The One and Only Ivan and declared it "a great book!" Older: Loved this YA spy thriller - Cherub: The Recruit. Me: I'm packing these two as I head off to orchestra rehearsal. I'll let you know what I think!

It's Monday February 11th

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It's Monday, and I'm here with my weekly reading update! Don't forget to check out Teach Mentor Texts for other great roundups - or come join in yourself! Newbery Challenge: Moon Over Manifest - by Clare Vanderpool Did this one as an audio book. I always wonder how that impacts my enjoyment of a novel. The narrator was fabulous, and I really liked Moon over Manifest. I have to say I only "liked" it until I got near the end. Then Clare Vanderpool pulled the threads together in a way that I partially expected - but still surprised me. It was a good surprise. One that made sense and helped the entire storyline come together in my mind. Nicely done. I didn't know how I'd feel about this one. It has an intriguing premise - "A" wakes into a new body every day. The way the story was told made it so much more than a fascinating tale. I gulped it down, because I just had to know how it ended. This is the kind of book that makes m

Batty About Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities - THE END!

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Today we wrap up discussing  Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities by Mike Jung My thoughts are hosted here in purple, Kathy (aka @thebrainlair ) responds in blue, and Sherry (aka @LibraryFanatic ) chose the green pen. It's been a treat to have her along for the ride this time! As always, be sure to check out the other blogs for more of our discussion. The Brain Lair The Library Fanatic Don't miss our other chats: Part One Part Two Part Three - Endgame I’m working off of just some notebook entries, because several children in my class begged me for my copy. As I mentioned last week, I’m doing a brief unit on humor with a small group of advanced fourth grade readers. They each have a different book, and we’ll be sharing the things that we found funny about the stories (or writing style). Just looking at the cover and hearing the back blurb made the whole group chuckle. I’m curious to hear what the girl who ended with with this one thinks. (The other title

Celebrating a New Look!

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It's my first official post with my brand new look!  What do you think?  *Twirls around to show off all the lovely* Pretty sweet, no? I'm so excited by how it turned out. If you are looking for a makeover, absolutely check out Lori at Imagination Blog Designs . Through sheer serendipity, the design fits me even better than I had hoped. When I was a little girl (in elementary school) I always signed my name with a Saturn symbol drawn beside it. Go ahead, check out my signature line below.... Since I don't have a review ready to go live today, I'm going to share a few of my upcoming science fiction review titles. Already finished this one - my son insisted I read it! Review to come.  George's Secret Key has been "on the list" for a while. Looking forward to reading it.  Stuck On Earth was highlighted today on Children's Book Almanac ! That's how I discovered it. Thanks, Anita. I'll be hitting 300 blog p