Category Archives: Book Love

Story telling with Fairies

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We are all a little fairy mad here; stories, movies, toys, gardens, pinatas and parties.

Daisy enjoys playing with her fairies and I noticed her telling stories and acting them out. I asked if she would like to make a book to tell one of her stories. The response was one of excitement.

We sat down and discussed the story she would like to tell. I mapped it using a graphic organizer so we had a set story to follow.

Yes, this does seem very organized for a simple story but I wanted to be able to read the story again and again and not cringe. Daisy tends to tell a story one way and then forget what happened and change it for the next retelling. This is a wonderful way to improve and develop story telling skills but in this case we wanted a strong story with a problem to work with.

I helped her identify the characters, setting, problems, event and solution. I used a great Flip Chart which comes with a teacher’s photocopiable book. I have used it when tutoring a grade 7 student and have found it very useful for learning how to structure and plan writing.

We used our plan to tell the story. I wrote the story and photographed…

… while Daisy acted it out with her fairies and various other toys and props we found.

Here the fairies are chilling by the pool. The story was simple but it had a problem to be solved.

This allowed us to finish with a satisfying ending. This picture in particular made Daisy very proud.

The fairies were trapped in the building. Big people had left a bowl of beans out for the fairies but didn’t realize they were trapping the fairies behind the gates. The hummingbird took a message to the fairies chilling by the pool who came back and rescued the trapped fairies. They did this by sprinkling fairy dust on the bowl of beans. Daisy loved the realistic flying bowl of beans (I cropped her hand out of the picture).

The story (Daisy’s story, in her words), photos and a little photo shoot in a fairy costume were made into a beautiful book.

Daisy was very proud to receive her own book ‘Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Dust Rescue” for her birthday. It has been well read and shared already.

Sounds Like Reading Series

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“You cannot write for children. They’re much too complicated. You can only write books that are of interest to them.”

Maurice Sendak, 1928 – 2012

I was saddened to hear of Maurice Sendak’s passing. I love “Where the Wild Things Are” and so does my oldest. The youngest has yet to want to sit and listen to the whole book but begins to enjoy snippets between play moments. I love the darkness and playfulness of this book.

I have been reading little readers with Daisy as she begins to enjoys some independence as a reader. However some of these books quite simply bore me to tears. I have been searching for something a little bit more entertaining. The Sounds Like Reading Series is something that I hoped would fit the bill. It is always a risk as a teacher and book selector, that something I might find funny, flops with the children. The first book in this series was a hit with Daisy.

The Sounds Like Reading Series uses rhyme, repetition, phonics and illustration to help children learn to read. The first book in the series is called ; The Bug in the Jug wants a Hug.

The first page has an explanation of the book for educators and parents. It describes how the sentences gradually become more challenging and the reader is asked to find “discovery words” that sound alike, by a cute little mouse.

Daisy loved meeting the challenges this wee mouse set for her.

Each double page has three rhyming words on the left side with corresponding pictures. These pictures are then used in the sentence on the opposite page.

Our Process:

  • I read each rhyming word to Daisy, splitting the onset and rime “r” “id” and then reading the whole word “rid”.
  • I read the sentence while finger pointing under each word
  • Then we discussed the picture, laughed and pointed out other words or information not mentioned in the sentence.
  • Daisy then read the sentence while I finger pointed. She was able to read the bold rhyming words but was often hesitant with the non bold words. Some of these are sight words and difficult to “sound out”. When this happened I said the word and we carried on. At this point we are not actively learning sight words, simply reading them as they come up. The emphasis is on enjoying the book and reading rather than learning each word. Sight words is something we will tackle at a later date.
  • We will be hopping over to Sounds Like Reading to play on their website. They have games, topics and teacher’s tools available for free play to support the books.

We both really enjoyed this book and Daisy was eager to share reading expertise with her Papa. As a teacher I could see these as ideal home readers. Parents are likely to enjoy reading them as much as the students!

The eight books are available at Quality Classrooms for CA$58.75 and if you order before May 15th, 2012 you qualify for 15% off; we are 15 years old this year!

Books that make us happy – 5 a day books

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Theses are the books that we are reading now. As I consider happy to be the most important emotion… we are focusing on it first!!

How to Catch a Star

A boy loves stars and sets out to try and catch one of his own. He attempts various methods and eventually succeeds in catching his very own star and a friend.

Your Personal Penguin

This is a book I have been reading with Daisy since she was 6 months old. The bewildered hippo doesn’t know how lucky he is. His personal penguin is loyal, persistent and extremely cute. Listening to and singing along with Davy Jones from the Monkeys cannot help but make you smile. Go on give it a go!

Howard B. Wigglebottom Listens to his heart

Dancing makes Howard B. Wigglebottom happy but he decides not to dance again when kids at school make fun of him. Howard tries lots of different activities but nothing make him happy like dancing. His Grandpa teaches him new dance moves and Howard learns to embrace his ‘Wigglebottom’.

The Story of Ferdinand

Ferdinand loves nothing more than sitting quietly under his favourite tree and smelling the flowers. His need for a peaceful existence ends up saving his life after he is thrust into the bull fighting ring. He sits down and smells the flowers worn by all the lovely ladies who are there to watch him fight. “There is no better passport through life than a smile and a laugh.” the illustrator Robert Lawson stated.

Have you Filled a Bucket Today?

Daisy was intrigued with this as soon as we looked at the cover. I don’t know if it is the illustrations or the magic bucket. We will be using this book to explore ways of filling buckets rather than being a bucket dipper. Super classroom book to encourage thoughtful behaviour and empathy.