Happy 2014

Happy New Year 2014!

This will be short and sweet because I have so fortunate enough to have these last few hours off before I head back to work tomorrow.
I am looking forward to what 2014 brings and have even added a new challenge today. I am going to accept Alyson Beecher's challenge at Kid Lit Frenzy and set a goal for reading non-fiction titles this year and do a better job of recording them into my Goodreads goal tracker. I love to read but like many kids, I am not fond of recording what I have read. I will talk a book for hours but simply write down the date I finished reading it? Forget it. That will change this year. I will be more disciplined in that respect.

For now, I will set my goal at one non-fiction titles per week. I have a mountain of titles to get through each week and I want the challenge to be fun. So that makes 53 non-fiction titles to read in 2014. I will start tomorrow. For now, it's time to check on dinner and play zombies hide and seek with L.

Best wishes to all for a safe, prosperous, and happy new year!

Non-Fiction Monday: Prehistoric

Picture Book Month

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Day 26 theme: Non-Fiction Monday-Prehistoric

I LOVE DINOSAURS! Always have, always will. I even kept my son's old Playskool brand dinosaurs. They were THE best. We have a huge bin full of them being played with by a new generation in our family. Does anyone ever quit loving dinosaurs? Even the youngest kids can spout out the most difficult dinosaur names. Dinosaurs are part of that magical world of childhood that some lucky grownups have been clever enough to turn into a profession.

Love those dinos

During this morning's hall duty, a first grader handed me a book about dragons. So I asked the assembled first graders:

Me  "Are dragons real or pretend?"

First graders  "Pretend"

Me  "What about Dinosaurs? Real or pretend?"

First Graders "Real"

Me  "How do you know dinosaurs were real? Had any of you ever seen one in real life or in a zoo?"

Pause, Fist graders 
"They are real because they lived a long time ago." 
"We have heard stories about them."
"We read about them."

Still I pressed them, "Some stories aren't real. What proof do you have that dinosaurs were real?"

First graders. (Now they grasp what I am after) "There are bones left behind." "Fossils"

Me: I have some really interesting books all about fossils and dinosaurs in the library that I would love to show you guys.

First graders: "Yeah!" 
"I love dinosaurs"
"I read a book about a _____________________ (insert hard to pronounce dinosaur name)."

Fossiles Tell of Long Ago by Aliki

Publisher Harper Collins

Summary: What is a fossil? Sometimes it's the imprint of an ancient leaf in a rock. Sometimes it's a woolly mammoth, frozen for thousands of years in the icy ground. Sometimes it's the skeleton of a stegosaurus that has turned to stone. A fossil is anything that has been preserved, one way or another, that tells about life on Earth. But you can make a fossil, too--something to be discovered a million years from now--and this book will tell you how.

Teaching Resources
lesson plans, videos about fossil hunting, and activities.


Here is one in particular I really like. Plus Click here for a PDF version
The folks at Texas Parks and Wildlife are the best. They believe in sharing the knowledge.