Dot Day 2014 a celebration of creativity. It's Monday What Are You Reading? #IMWAYR

It's Monday! What are you Reading is a meme began by Sheila at Book Journeys as a way to share what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and what is in store for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading. I first learned about it from Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee and Ricki of Unleashing Readers and have become a regular linked up blog. Thanks #PLN

Dot Day Celebration

We started Dot Day a little early this year, in fact, we started two weeks before Dot Day. I read The Dot to all classes and collaborated with our new art teacher. One of my favorite parts about Dot Day this year was using The Dot Song.


Make Your Mark bookmarks: Download here

We also learned about the art of pointillism and obliteration art. A virtual trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art allowed us to take a "closer look" at the works of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac. The link shown above is a DOTS DOTS DOTS sing along.


A book of looking at art
through the eyes of children and Dots!

Spot the dog and a dot headed Ms. Murphy greet families to Open House night and invite them to create family dots. Thanks to Barnes and Noble for lending us Spot the dog for the evening.







Spot was the highlight of the evening. Families were excited to snap a candid photo of their children having a great time. Spot was quite the celebrity under a lightning storm of camera flashes.

I found several items that would work well for creating dot shapes.

 4, 5 and 6th graders worked together in groups to create these welcome dots to 

greet families to Open House night.

Kinder kiddos made these window art dots. Here are a few samples.

 

I collaborated with our art teacher and she focused on her lessons on ancient civilizations and cave paintings. These are samples of foil etchings her students created. She also let 2nd graders crawl under their desks to get a feel for cave art.

Upper grades created original art that they cut into quarters and exchanged with other grade levels. Don't they look great?

We didn't forget our old friend Bot. Our Boy + Bot book by Ame Dyckman has stayed checked out every since school started but we still wanted to "Give Bot the Chicken Pox" dots again. It gave me a good time to talk to kids about a time when children used to catch chicken pox and how today's children will not have to experience chicken pox.



Well, you might have guessed by now but I haven't done a great deal of reading this week other than Dot Day reading and a lot of research on education topics.

I look forward to setting aside some time for Young Adult fiction for an upcoming Twitter chat and for our first annual Teen Book Fest by the Bay. Yesh, it's tough to stay on top of emergent reading through Young Adult reading. I read all levels since I work with kids from age 3 to university students. I find all level books fascinating.

  

Mr. Bones Shares Books #IMWAYR September 2, 2013

 It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme began by Sheila at Book Journeys as a way to share what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and what is in store for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading. I first learned about it at Teach Mentor Texts. 

The timer is set for 45 minutes. As my days get fuller and jam packed, I find that setting a timer helps me stay on track PLUS I love to compete against myself. Oh, the little thrills in life. 

 Here is a cool time keepping tool you can  download 
 Scholastic Reading Timer









 What I am reading electronically:

I would read this faster but I have to compete with the 3 year-old for use of my Ipad. It's that face and the "May I use the Ipad, please? I want to learn too" The kid is a genius at manipulation using a smile and those nice manners.

Maggie Stiefvater: The Dream Thieves

I have been getting nervous about things that can escape from our dreams but that's all I can say about it without revealing anything. Like all of Maggie's books, it's a good read and her personality shows through in all the car references and interest in things Celtic. I also learned that there is a possible anti-laser paint that can be added to a car's paint job or headlights to help avoid speeding tickets. I, of course, am like that older person who wears those large, heavy, dark sun shades that drives 20 in a 35 mile per hour zone. Please note that I also never make left turns if it can be avoided. Maggie would plow me over in her Camero.

What I am Reading at School

Since I am pouting about having to report to work on Labor Day, I am going to ask my colleague, Mr. Bones, aka the ECDC Library Watch Dog to take over for me and share what we read to students this week. (Mr. Bones on Twitter @BonesBooks)
Mr. Bones will be sharing all the happenings in our school library on Twitter as a way to keep our families updated.

PK 3 year-olds really loved this one: 
Five Little Monkeys Reading in Bed.

Kinder-2nd
What Happened to Marion's Book
I love to use this for teaching about good book care. If you don't have it, good luck. It appears to be out of print. I have great resources for this book including our example of a Book Hospital.

PK, Kinder, and First also listened to these books about Library manners and the care of library books.

Wild About Books by Judy Sierra. All other grade levels (even 6th graders) were treated to this picture book about a librarian who introduces animals to reading and a love of books. 

 Mr. Bones caught these kiddos reading in the hallway before school. Way to go, guys!

Time is running out! Only 15 minutes to go because Mr. Bones and I get too easily distracted.

Greg Heffley revealed a secret to Mr. Bones but the kids overheard them whispering. A new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book will be released November 15, 2013! We can pre-order it at our upcoming October book fair! Happy cheers were heard for miles!







Hard Luck
by Jeff Kinney











We love this resource! Jeff Kinney's Cartoon Class: How to Draw Greg Heffley

Ms. Murphy also re-read The Dot by Peter Reynolds at home this week to brush up and get ready for our upcoming Dot Day Celebrations. 

Look how this clever Kindergarten class created their own interpretation of The Dot.  Love it!

...and that's time up! Here is the same timer that I was using. I ordered it though the Scholastic Resource catalog using Scholastic dollars. It has come in handy for many library activities.