Maria's Mélange

I'm tossing my cap into the "Non Fiction Picture Book" arena once again... even though today's selection is in graphic novel format. The Great American Dust Bowl by   Don Brown Hardcover, 80 pages Published October 8th 2013 by HMH Books for Young Readers ISBN 0547815506 (ISBN13: 9780547815503) Goodreads Summary : A speck of dust is a tiny thing. In fact, five of them could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. On a clear, warm Sunday, April 14, 1935, a wild wind whipped up millions upon millions of these specks of dust to form a duster—a savage storm—on America's high southern plains. The sky turned black, sand-filled winds scoured the paint off houses and cars, trains derailed, and electricity coursed through the air. Sand and dirt fell like snow—people got lost in the gloom and suffocated . . . and that was just the beginning. My Thoughts : If you are looking for a way to interest kids in a time period that often gets missed

It sounded like a great idea at the time. Signing up to receive a set of 36 Rubik's Cubes to help build my students' visual spatial skills and attention to detail seemed like a fabulous notion. Add in the fact that the entire set would be shipped to me - for me to borrow for six weeks - for FREE? Heck, yes! The unit incorporates solving the cube (with directions) and creating fictional creatures using a codon table and some basics about DNA. My first step was to relearn some of the basics about the proteins that go into those DNA strands. I don't expect my students to become genetics experts, but they did need some background knowledge to make sense of what we would be doing. Thank goodness for Tim and Moby at Brainpop! Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi. Fortunately , my box of Rubik's Cubes finally arrived on the Friday before my unit was to begin. Unfortunately , I was at the PA gifted conference that day. Fortunately , I had to go to work for the day on Saturday (is

Wow - I managed to get a post up in under three weeks this time! I had an odd little assortment of completed titles since last week... Head over to www.teachmentortexts.com and www.unleashingreaders.com for more posts.  One of my students chose to research the Salem Witch Trials, so I grabbed a few books from my local library. This first one was a solid overview with some interesting source material. Jane Yolen is a master, and I love this series of unsolved mysteries.  Awesome series! I'm so glad I'm all caught up now for the newest title.  Not quite as fun as the first, but a worth addition to the humorous history graphic novel collection.  This comes out in mid May - and is well worth your time. More thoughts below...  4.5 stars It made me laugh - a lot. A trio of book loving friends form a group of "literary saboteurs". The bookish humor is amazing. The lessons are great. The friendship - and a touch of romance

Part Two discussion: Welcome to all those who decided to do a read-along with Batty. Welcome to those who are just stopping by the blog to hear about Not a Drop to Drink . Today’s post has some spoilers , though I tried to be cautious about what I said.   Want to join in the fun? Check out our… Facebook Page Tumblr For those of you who are new to our Batty Chats - Maria’s thoughts with Kathy’s responses are hosted here on the Melange. Kathy’s (aka @thebrainlair) thoughts with Maria’s responses reside on The Brain Lair . Take a peek at both of sides and add your own voice into the mix! Don’t forget to check out our discussion of: Cover Appeal Part One (pages 1-95) Let’s start by saying that I wanted to keep reading. I think Not a Drop to Drink is a book that would bring greater enjoyment if I could gulp it down. Not to say that I’m not enjoying reading it in three chunks - because I really am - but I was just itching to plow on. I think sometimes when we

Another three weeks have gone by already? I'm making this a quick write-up, because I have a few other pieces of writing I promised to complete today. I hope you find a new book to add to your piles from my list! Be sure to go directly to  Teach Mentor Texts  and  Unleashing Readers  to find the links to other "It's Monday" posts and check out our tag on Twitter - #IMWAYR Graphic Novels: An excellent assortment over this past few weeks. Silver Six was one my son discovered at our library, and I'm now purchasing a copy for my classroom. Picture Books: All of these were good, but none of them really "wowed" me. Stonehenge was a good introduction to the history and mystery, but lacked the backmatter to make the title sparkle. Poe's Pie  will be fun to use with kids in math, but the poetry itself didn't amaze or thrill me. (this was a "must read in 2014" title) Tuesday Tucks Me In had some excellent

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis  - Part One  (pages 1-95) Welcome to all those who decided to do a read-along with Batty. Welcome to those who are just stopping by the blog to hear about Not a Drop to Drink . Today’s post has some spoilers , though I tried to stick to things that happen early in the story.   Kathy’s post kept much more spoiler free. Want to join in the fun? Check out our… Facebook Page Tumblr For those of you who are new to our Batty Chats - Maria’s thoughts with Kathy’s responses are hosted here on the Melange. Kathy’s (aka @thebrainlair) thoughts with Maria’s responses reside on The Brain Lair. Take a peek at both of sides and add your own voice into the mix! Don’t forget to check out our discussion of: Cover Appeal Questions: Why is water a problem? I know that Lynn and her mother are concerned about the quality of the water in their pond and the local streams, but what happened? I’m hoping we get some of the overall world b

During the March Slice of Life, I attempted a Blackout poem using a page from The Hobbit. It was a lot harder than I imagined it would be... more like sculpting a block of marble and less like writing poetry. And yet... I went there again. This time I tried to use some color. I went with a backing of rainbow colors to fit the theme of uniqueness in the poem and story. Then I decided to post my poems on the classroom door. I put up the first one, and kids started to notice. They stopped to read it, and they asked me about it. I offered an invitation - "Anyone who would like to try one, just hand me a book with a page marked for me to photocopy." Believe it or not, I immediately got a taker. She had me copy two pages from The Wig in the Window and went to town. Today I had a third grader request a copy of a page of The One and Only Ivan . I can't wait to see what she does with it! We work so hard to get kids writing and thinking...