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I was talking with our school librarian the other day to find out her current favorites in children’s books. She was very enthusiastic about a new book purchased by our parents’ club, Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. I can see why. It’s hilarious! She generously loaned me the book and I had a great time reading it to my students. The kids enjoyed it too.
The story begins,
“Once upon a time, there were three Dinosaurs: Papa Dinosaur, Mama Dinosaur, and some other Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway.
One day for no particular reason, the three Dinosaurs made up their beds, positioned their chairs just so and cooked three bowls of delicious chocolate pudding at varying temperatures.”
The three Dinosaurs decided to take a walk and when Mama Dinosaur laughed, “Hey hey, hey . . .” and said, “I sure hope no innocent little succulent child happens by our unlocked home . . .” we stopped right there and had a mini vocabulary lesson. After they understood the word “succulent” we moved on to inferences, such as, what did Mama Dinosaur really mean when she said she hoped a child wouldn’t happen by? A couple of pages later when the narrator said the dinosaurs “were definitely not hiding in the woods waiting for an unsuspecting kid to come by.” The second-graders laughed. They weren’t surprised to turn the page and see dinosaurs peeking around trees in the forest.
My students enjoyed retelling this tale so it was easy to work on the second Common Core Reading Standard for Literature where students are expected to
“Retell stories, including key details . . .”
And it was especially fun to work on the ninth Reading Standard for Literature where the second graders are asked to,
“Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g. Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.”
They had a great time comparing this story to the more traditional one.
When discussing this tale, one of my second graders thought there were lessons to be learned other than those covered by the standards. Noah thinks if you are going for a walk in the woods “you might want to listen for really strange noises and if you hear something that sounds like an evil laugh – go away!” That sounds like good advice to me. I asked my students if they had any other advice for readers of this blog and they all agreed, “If you haven’t read this book, you should.” I couldn’t agree more.
This was a busy book week at Redwood. We celebrated Read Across America on Monday with volunteer readers from around our community. In Marcia Douglas’ class, a high school student came to read Green Eggs and Ham to her kindergarteners. The kids decided to ham it up when I took their picture.
Marcia had a creative activity lined up to accompany the story. She introduced the students to the art of making green smoothies.
They took their jobs seriously as they chopped the fruit and kale leaves for this creation.
Speaking of chopping greens, Yoyo had a similar task in the original folktale, The Market Bowl by Jim Averbeck.
In this wonderful tale, set in Camaroon, Yoyo had to slice bitterleaf (a leafy green vegetable) “thin as a whisper” to make her first bitterleaf stew. She was impatient and ignored her mother’s instructions because; “people just chew everything up anyway.” So she didn’t bother slicing, grinding or measuring the ingredients. When she showed her mother the creation, Mama Cecile gasped. My students grimaced at the clumpy, dripping greens in this fabulous illustration. Yoyo hid her stew in the market basket and several students cried, “oh no.” Others started laughing. They were sure there was trouble ahead and they were right.
The striking illustrations in this book inspired my second grade students to try some of their own.
I read this book to several speech groups and a first grade class in celebration of World Read Aloud Day. It was the perfect choice for March 6th, a day celebrating the power of words across the world. After reading the story, we looked at Cameroon on an African map in the back of the book. Then we went online to find out more information about the author.
Jim Averbeck brings personal experience to this story. He was a Peace Core volunteer in Cameroon for four years. On his website, he shared some interesting facts and I passed on one to the kids. When Mr. Averbeck was in Cameroon, he ate crocodile, boa constrictor, and fried termites! That created quite a stir with my students. They loved the drawing on his website, depicting his Cameroon diet and they tried their own rendition. Take a look at one:
I haven’t shared this book with Ms. Douglas’ class. If I do, I’m curious what sort of cooking project it might inspire. Fortunately, there is a recipe in the back of the book for bitterleaf stew and it sounds almost as good as the green smoothie I had with that generous kindergartener group.
I discovered Lori Mortensen’s book, Cindy Moo, last spring and fell in love with it. From the cheery cover to the expressive cows within the book, Jeff Mack’s illustrations are a perfect match for the text. I had planned to use the story with my students when I first read the book but it was due back at the city library before I had the chance. This week, my students finally got to meet Cindy Moo.
The story begins when a charming barnyard cow eavesdrops at a farmhouse window where she hears a child reading the nursery rhyme,
“Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such sport
And the dish ran away with the spoon.”
Eyes wide, ears perked, Cindy Moo puts a hoof to her mouth and smiles. She is inspired by the cow of the nursery rhyme and hopes to follow his example. The other cows of Diddle farm don’t share her optimism and an argument ensues about the probability of a cow actually making it over the moon.
“The cows began to argue.
Each took a different side.
But in the end they all confessed
that none of them had tried.
So Cindy Moo raised up a hoof
and said that it was true.
‘If thatcow could jump the moon,
by golly, I can too.’ ’’
My students loved the rhyming text, the charming illustrations and the optimistic cow. When they first heard the words “debate” and scoffed,” they didn’t understand their meaning, but a quick vocabulary lesson took care of the issue. The book opened up other learning opportunities as well. We talked about rhyming words and used Mortensen’s premise to create stories of our own.
We wondered; what if a barn cat was listening at the window instead of a cow. And what if that cat heard the line, “Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle;” what would he think?
Ariel decided we should give our imaginary barn cat a name and she suggested Andro. Mariah thought the cat should sneak into the house looking for a fiddle to play. Malachi suggested he wouldn’t know what a fiddle was so first he’d try to find out. That opened up some wild possibilities. Andrea thought perhaps there should be a dog in our story named “Fiddle”.
We moved from plot ideas to rhyming structure and compiled lists of words to use in our story. We especially had fun with “fiddle,” “middle” and “riddle.” Our story isn’t complete yet but this activity kept several five and six-year-old students fully engaged. All the while, they were working on the common core standards: learning new vocabulary, recognizing and producing rhyming words, and retelling stories. We may not end up with a book to compete with Lori Mortensen’s, but I can’t be too sure. The kids have caught Cindy Moo’s optimism. They now have high hopes for their writing futures and I must say – I do too.
Alex was a fact collector. He collected many things over the six years I worked with him: marbles, containers, floor plans from model homes, but by sixth grade, his largest collection was a wide variety of facts.
Alex has autism and he’s brilliant. In the sixth grade, he aced all his math tests; in fact, he was one of the top math students in the school. He was also great with computers and could navigate the Internet to discover any bit of information you might want to find. He knew the make and model of every car in the school parking lot and the Blue Book value. More than once he recommended I get rid of my old Toyota and move up to a BMW. (I didn’t.)
But Alex had his struggles with social language and reading comprehension. He could read fluently at a high school level but, if the subject didn’t interest him, the information didn’t stick.
He had failed every comprehension test of his sixth grade year when his teacher asked if I might be able to help him prepare for his next exam. I had him bring his novel, My Side of the Mountain, to speech the next day. If you know the story, you know the main character, Sam, ran away from home to live in the wilderness where he trained a peregrine falcon.
I asked Alex, “What did you think of Sam’s bird?”
“There isn’t a bird in the book.”
“Yes there is. You know, the peregrine falcon.”
Alex scowled. “There’s no falcon.”
“How far have you read?” I asked.
“I finished the book yesterday.”
“Alex, take a look at the cover. What do you see?”
“A boy and a bird.” Alex said.
“A book cover usually gives you some idea of what the story will be about. That bird is a peregrine falcon.”
I then suggested we research falcons on the Internet. Alex loved the idea. After we read a few facts about the bird and looked at several pictures, Alex read portions of the story with new interest. Then we expanded our research, read another section of the novel and soon he was hooked. We didn’t have time to reread the entire book before his next exam, but his scores improved substantially after a few sessions.
I think about Alex often, especially with the growing emphasis on nonfiction in the Common Core Standards. I imagine students like Alex will benefit from this shift. Of course, not all students are like Alex. Some seem to need a story to help the facts come alive and lodge in their memory. A blend of the two will likely be good for all students. I remember wishing my high school history teacher would find a good novel about World War I instead of insisting we memorize a list of facts and dates.
I have a new kindergarten student this year who has autism. He’s not interested in books yet, but I imagine that will change. He is just beginning to discover that language is powerful and he has started making requests for objects he wants. Before long, I’m hoping, books will be one of those objects. I’m not sure if he’ll prefer fiction or nonfiction, but I’ll be armed and ready for him with a good supply of both.
It has been several years since I last saw Alex but he is one student I’ll never forget. And from the way things are going with my new kindergarten student, I think I’ll be saying the same thing about him in years to come.
Monday, February 18th is President’s Day and since our school celebrates with an entire week off I thought, in preparation, this week would be a good time to talk with my students about US presidents. I found an inspiring picture book to help me out, America the Beautiful: Together We Stand. The words of Katharine Lee Bates’ patriotic song are paired with stunning illustrations. How fitting - ten illustrators interpret lines from the song, demonstrating the diversity of this country and the process of “standing together.” The illustrators, in alphabetical order, are: Bryan Collier, Raul Colon, Diane Goode, Mary GrandPre, John Hendrix, Yuyi Morales, Jon J Muth, LeUyen Pham, Sonia Lynn Sadler, and Chris Soentpiet.
This book features quotes from past presidents, one on each two-page spread. Since the speeches weren’t written for early elementary school students, their words create opportunities to introduce new vocabulary. I was also able to probe for sentence and paragraph comprehension. When I came to a quote from Thomas Jefferson, I asked the kids what they thought he meant by, “I believe . . . that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.”
Zayd said, “Be good to other people and don’t do anything bad to other people and don’t teach them bad words. Be kind, be safe, and be responsible.” His last statement was a quote from our school rules. I’m glad he made the connection between those words and Jefferson’s.
Malachi said, “Be kind, be safe, be responsible and don’t ever jump off a house roof.” He expanded a bit on our school rules, but it’s good advice, all the same. And it’s pertinent.
Madison said, “Help other people and be nice. It makes you feel good.” She really understood.
I did some pre-teaching on vocabulary before I introduced Ronald Reagan’s quote. By the time I read the words, “Our most precious resources, our greatest hope for the future, are the minds and hearts of our people, especially our children,” the kids grew quiet. I asked what they thought president Reagan meant and Joden said, “We’re important to our parents.”
I agreed, but told him, he, and the other students, were also important to me and to our country andour world. I reminded them that some day they’d grow up; they might become leaders or teachers or work in ways that make our world a better place. Their eyes sparkled with solemn enthusiasm.
The illustrated children on the cover of America the Beautiful also seem to sparkle with enthusiasm as they stand together, supporting one another in reaching for a star. This special book celebrates America’s values and introduces information about national landmarks and symbols. However, it also celebrates human diversity and unity. My hope is that children everywhere will find loving support, enabling them to reach for the stars.
I was walking by a Kindergarten classroom last week when the teacher, Marcia Douglas, invited me in to see her students’ artwork. The kids were sure I’d want to use some of it on my blog. They were right – their art is gorgeous! Our principal thought so too, and now their work is displayed in the front hallway of our school. Take a look:
Their work was not done in response to a story, but they know I normally post about books so they assumed I’d come up with one to match their artwork. I didn’t. However, we had a nice discussion about what kind of story they might want to create to accompany their work. And that led to another discussion about books they’d like to have in their classroom or at home - books that have not yet been written.
That reminded me of an email I recently received from another SCBWI member. She was considering a topic for an upcoming event and thought of inviting me to speak as part of a panel, focusing on reading and speech development and how authors might support these skills through their work. I was flattered. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to make it but I think the topic is an important one.
I can use almost any story with my students, if it is appealing and captures their interest. For students working on articulation (or pronunciation), I love books with repeated phrases and sounds. Kids automatically chime in when there is repetition in a story and that gives them a lot of practice on their target speech sounds or phrases. For students with language delays, books that introduce new vocabulary and model appropriate grammar are invaluable.
If you look at the Common Core Standards, you’ll see how easily a good story can be an effective tool in school. In the language Arts area, kindergarteners are expected to:
“With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.” ELA-Literacy. RL.K.3
By first grade, following the same strand, they are expected to:
“Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.” ELA-Literacy. RL.1.3
And by Second grade:
“Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.” ELA-Literacy. RL.2.3
If you are unfamiliar with the standards, ELA means, English Language Arts and RL stands for Reading Literature. K= Kindergarten, 1= First grade, 2= Second grade. For more information on the Common Core Standards take a look here:
http://www.corestandards.org/
To keep this post from becoming too academic, I interviewed a few of my students to find out what kind of stories they’d love to see.
Enrique would like a book about how to catch a dinosaur and another one on how to catch an alligator – nonfiction.
Liam is willing to give you his plot ideas. He’d like someone to write a book about him walking down the road, seeing a baby dolphin and taking it home to put in the bathtub.
Skyler wants a book about Goldilocks and the ten pigs.
Moises wants a nonfiction book about George Washington or Michael Jackson. He also likes fiction and thinks someone should write a story about food coming to life and then going trick-or-treating. I didn’t think to ask him what sort of treats they might get.
Jose would like to see a Santa Series:
Santa on Halloween
Santa passing out Valentines
Santa on Jose’s Birthday
Santa and the Tooth Fairy helping Jose get braces
Raul wants a story about his foot – nonfiction.
So there you have it from the young kidlit advisers. I started asking teachers, and our school librarian, what authors might consider when writing for students but I’ll save those answers for another post. In the meantime, let me know if you have any stories that can accompany the artwork from Ms. Douglas’ Kindergarten class. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you.
You can’t judge a book by its cover – right? Well, maybe, but kids often do just that. I did a little research this week and spread out six shiny new library books on the speech room table before a group of Kindergarten students came in. I asked them which story they’d like to hear and they all chose the same book. (That’s a dangerous way to operate but I did it in the name of science.) I tried the same experiment with two more groups and all but one child chose alike. Hailey picked a book with puppies on the cover – she absolutely loves dogs – but
her second choice matched the others. The book the kids (almost) unanimously chose was,
Oh, No! by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann.
The fierce looking tiger on the cover captured their attention as soon as they saw his bright orange and black stripes.
The story was fun to read aloud with the rhythmic repetitions.
“Frog fell into a deep, deep hole.
Ribbit-oops!
Ribbit-oops!
Frog fell into a deep, deep hole.
Ribbit-oops!
Frog fell into such a deep, deep hole,
he couldn’t get out to save his soul.”
You would have enjoyed hearing all those frogs around my table. But the students were more excited about the tiger and that reminded me of a student who is no longer at our school. I related this story on my blog a little over a year ago but I think it is worth repeating.
Late one afternoon I gathered paper and fabric scraps for a collage project I’d planned for the following day. Slivers of paper fell to the floor and I scrambled to clean up my mess. The next morning, one of my speech students found two long scraps I’d missed – one sliver of orange felt and a slip of black construction paper. His eyes went wide. He held them close to my face and whispered, “Did you have a tiger in your room?” The other children looked confused for a moment then their faces lit up as they saw the tiger in their imagination, the one that had lost his stripes. Their thoughts took off faster than the animal they’d imagined tearing around the room leaving two stripes behind. They all spoke at once and started scouring the room for the jaguar’s spots, after-all something must have been chasing the tiger. Their story grew with their excitement and so did the opportunity for learning.
Many of the content standards for education can be taught through stories, both those read to children and those they create themselves. When they learn to write or dictate their tales, they’re learning correct sentence structures and grammatical forms. It was easy to remind the students that the tiger hadn’t “runned” through the room but he “ran”. And when students begin to create their own stories, they listen more closely to the structure of others and they begin to understand central ideas.
I didn’t throw out my lesson plans the day we found the tiger’s stripes but I was certainly able to expand on them. And the next time I find a couple slivers of paper on the floor, I doubt I’ll sweep them away without a thought. I hope I’ll think of the tiger that lost them.
I still have those two scraps of paper taped to the side of my file cabinet so I won’t forget the tiger or the child who brought him to life.
You really can’t judge a book by its cover any more than can you judge a child by his outward appearance – even when he appears unfocused and distracted. Who knows what treasures lay within? And that brings me back to Oh, No! by Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann. Open that beautiful cover and you’ll find a treasure of words and pictures that can ignite the imagination of a roomful of children.
On Thursday when I walked a group of kindergarten students to the speech room, one of them told me she had a baby sister on the way. In fact, she said, “Baby Lucy might come out today!” Her mom was in the hospital expecting at any time. Mariah looked excited one minute and apprehensive the next. Almost as soon as we got to the speech room, the excitement disappeared and apprehension took over. She burst into tears. I put aside the language activity I had planned and pulled out the book, Meet Me at the Moon written and illustrated by Gianna Marino.
Mariah moved her chair close to mine as I read and the other students circled around. The all loved the soothing words,
“Beneath the shade of the baobab tree, Little One sang the calling song, and Mama came with a loving nuzzle.
‘The land is dry, Little One,” Mama said. ‘I must climb the highest mountain to ask the skies for rain.’”
The baby elephant did not want Mama to go but she assured Little One,
“. . . you will feel my love in everything around you.”
“What if I can’t hear you, Mama?”
“Listen for my sound on the wind, Little One. I will sing to you.”
By the end of the book, Mariah’s tears were gone. She related to the separation of mother and child in the story and she was absorbed in the beauty of the illustrations. All of the students were. They were especially intrigued by the drawings of the mother’s song so I asked them to draw their own pictures of songs carried on the wind.
Mariah drew children singing to a rainbow.
Ariel is at the beach singing ocean music.
Olivya drew the sounds a rainbow makes when it sings.
Zayd drew an ant singing. “He likes black music because he’s black. The Mommy ant is calling back to the baby ant. She’s trying to find the sun because the lake is too full.” He went on and created a whole story as he drew!
When I asked the kids how they liked the book, Brenden said, “There were sad bumps along the way but I liked it.” The others agreed. I suppose a good story has this in common with life – the bumps make the resolution that much sweeter.
On Friday Mariah reported that her sister had arrived. She said, “She’s got my skin and she has my nose and she has my ears and we kissed her all day.” Mariah wanted to make another “song-on-the-wind” picture. I snapped a quick photo with my iPad before she headed out the door. It’s a bit shadowed but I can’t think of a better way to end this post than to share it. I wish you could have heard her singing as she created this work of art.
With Martin Luther King Jr. Day around the corner, I was looking for an appropriate story to share with my students and lucky for me, our librarian, Allison Brown, directed me to a new library book, I Have a Dream.
This stunning picture book contains the last third of Dr. King’s famous speech with powerful illustrations by Kadir Nelson. The oil paintings captivated even my youngest students. The book begins with King’s words,
“I say to you today, my friends, that even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”
I’m sure you’re familiar with the rest of the speech but most of my young students were not. It was moving to read these words and see the kids respond. They were especially interested when we came to the illustration of Dr. King’s four children and they heard,
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
I read the book to several speech groups with ages ranging from five to seven. After hearing the repeated phrase, “I have a dream,” they were ready to talk of their own dreams for the future. Most had dreams you might expect from children of their age like a dream to have a real motorcycle or a dream that the world would turn into Candy Land. But some dreams surprised me.
Ariel dreams that everyone would take care of our planet and not dump garbage everywhere.
Landon dreams that there would be lots of food for lots of people.
Alex dreams that everyone would be nice to each other.
Esmeralda dreams that some day her name will be on the cover of a book (as the author) and I will go into the store and buy it and read it to other speech kids. I must admit, I grew a little misty-eyed when she said that.
Avery picked up the cadence of the speech and was expansive. She has a dream that when she is older she will help kids and teach them to be smarter and smarter. She dreams that she’ll be able to teach them to be nice. She said, “If people were smarter and nicer, then the guy that died would be happier.”
She has a dream that some day we would keep the ocean clean and keep the earth clean and we would stop cutting down trees so animals would have enough food and a place to live.
She has a dream that people will some day read and read and read lots of books.
Avery was inspired by the speech and the illustrations. She may not grasp the issues of racism (after all she is only six) but she seems to understand that people can make a difference in the world. And words make a difference - whether they are stirring words of a famous speech, a word spoken in encouragement, or words written in a memorable book. Words can change lives.
We may not all have the personal power and charisma of Dr. King but each of us, parents, educators and writers, can use our words to build a better world. As Avery said, that would make Martin Luther King Jr. happy. Avery has a dream, several of them actually, and her dreams give me hope for the future.
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The New Year has arrived; the students are back in school; and I found a great book for the first school week of 2013 – Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution by Pat Miller, illustrated by Kathi Ember.
On the first day of January, while Squirrel is hanging her Nut-of-the-Month calendar, she hears the radio announcer say it’s a great day to make a resolution. She is not sure what that means and so she does what any resourceful squirrel might do, she heads to her local library and asks the librarian, Bear. “Do you know how to make a resolution? Is it like making a snack?”
Bear assures her it is more important than snacks and explains, “A resolution is a promise you make to yourself to be better or to help others.” By the end of the story, my students had a good understanding of resolutions and they decided to make a few of their own. Esmeralda wants to draw more pictures this year and share them with others. Maddie resolves to help people, like Squirrel in the story. Joden plans to teach people magic. Many of my second grade students actually chose to meet their speech goals for the year. I was all in favor of those resolutions and we wrote kid-friendly versions of their goals so they’d have their own copies.
Calob asked if I’d made any resolutions. I’m hesitant to make them since I become less resolved as the year goes on but I have made a New Year’s “Intention.” After my three-week vacation from blogging, tweeting, and reading blogs, I started thinking about finding a comfortable balance. So, my New Year’s Intention for the year is to strive for balance in my life. That’s a difficult concept for children to understand but they had no problem understanding the more concrete definition of the word when I showed them my balancing eagle.
The students were amazed to see the eagle stay firmly in place while they flew it around the room. We talked about other things that balance and Juan tried balancing on one foot. We even discussed balanced diets since that is a popular topic around our school.
One of my students raised his hand and told me he had a new resolution. He was going to have a balanced diet this year. He was going to balance a chocolate bar on his finger. I was about to explain in more detail what a “balanced diet” actually means when I noticed his mouth twitching into a smile. He understood perfectly. He is only six, yet he is able to slip humor into conversations on a regular basis. Not a bad way to interact with the world – a dose of humor and a bar of chocolate – talk about balance! I might incorporate his example into my own goals for the year.
With one week of school behind us, I think our New Year is off to a good start.
What could be more delightful to children than a story about a tugboat? I found out when I introduced my students to The Christmas Tugboat. A story about a giant Christmas tree riding down the Hudson River on the back of a full-size trailer truck, sitting on an enormous barge, pulled by a diminutive (by comparison) tugboat – now that is a winning combination in the eyes of my students.
The authors, George Matteson and Adele Ursone, brought personal experience to this picture book. George was a tugboat captain who, late one November, got the assignment to bring the towering Rockefeller Center Christmas tree to New York City. His wife, Adele, and their daughter went along for the two-day adventure and the idea for this book was born. I was intrigued to learn that the Rockefeller Center tree has been a tradition since 1931 – it’s about time we have a book to commemorate the event!
James Ransome’s illustrations richly depict the changing light from the early morning hours of the book’s beginning through sunset and the beginning of a new day, when the tug continues its trip down the river to New Your City. His illustration of the quote below is as beautiful as the words.
“As the first sunlight brushes across the land, Mom points back to the tree. It sparkles all over as if covered with tiny diamonds. ‘The night and the cold have decorated it just for us,’ she says.”
My students wished they could have helped decorate the tree when it finally stood in front of the Rockefeller Center. Since that wasn’t possible, we made a large tree of our own - out of paper. It isn’t as elegant as the Rockefeller tree, but it was adorned with enthusiasm.
Our winter break has begun and I will be taking a mini vacation from blogging to spend time with family, friends and with other writing projects. I will miss the next two Saturdays but I’ll be back on January 12.
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or the coming of winter; I hope you are enjoying this festive time of year. And if you happen to pass by the Rockefeller Center, please send us a picture of the tree – I know my students would love to see it!
Last week’s interview was so popular with the students, I decided it would only be fair to give another class an opportunity to participate in the process. Lucky for us, Dashka Slater’s book, Dangerously Ever After, beautifully illustrated by Valeria Docampo, arrived on my doorstep Monday while I was at work.
Tuesday, I brought the book to school and read it to Ms. Wardlaw’s first grade class. You may recognize a few names of interviewers - some of my speech kids are in this class. The story was a hit!
Welcome Dashka. The students were spellbound from the moment I read the title of the book. We’d all like to know, what inspired you to write this story?
I love hearing that! I was inspired by an idea that came from my son when he was the same age as your students. He came home from first grade one day telling me he had a great idea for a story about a queen who wanted to plant rose seeds but ended up planting nose seeds. I loved the idea and couldn’t wait to read the story. When he didn’t end up writing it, I asked permission to write it myself.
I’m glad he gave you permission; but perhaps we’ll be reading his version of the story one of these days. How long did it take to complete the book?
It depends on what you mean by “complete.” I started the story in March 2006. Looking at that very first attempt, I see that the princess was named Anne and she wasn’t all that different from your average princess. But by May of that year her name was Amanita and she loved dangerous things and the story was pretty similar to the one you read – just longer. But the book still went through a lot more revisions before it was accepted for publication in 2008 and a few more revisions afterwards. And then we had to find an illustrator!
What perseverance! It’s nice for the students to hear they aren’t alone in needing to revise their work. When did you first become interested in writing for children?
In some ways, I’ve never been interested in anything else. I started writing when I was 4 (or dictating, as I couldn’t really write on my own) and I never stopped. When I was a kid I wrote for children, because I was writing for myself. But I didn’t start trying to write for children professionally until after my son was born, by which time I was already making my living as a writer for adults.
What were some of your favorite books from childhood?
I loved all of E. Nesbit’s books -- Dangerously Ever After is in many ways an homage to her. Other books that I loved enough to read many, many times include Winnie the Pooh, Harriet the Spy, The Phantom Tollbooth, Swallows and Amazons, Charlotte’s Web, The Chronicles of Prydain, The Egypt Game, Half Magic, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Alice in Wonderlandand many other books too numerous to mention. I was a big re-reader and still am.
Reading is one of my favorite hobbies. I’m hoping to pass along that love to my students. Do you have any new projects in the works?
I’m working on several new picture books and my first middle grade novel, called The Roving Trees Railroad, as well as a new book for adults. Too many new projects, actually!
FROM THE FABULOUS FIRST GRADERS & SPEECH STUDENTS:
Esmeralda liked the beginning, the middle and the end. She seems to understand good story structure. Would you like to comment?
I find endings are the hardest. Beginnings are the easiest. I love to write beginnings! But then sometimes I don’t know what to write next. Does that ever happen to your students?
All the time, but they usually push through and try to fill a page. Joden wanted to let you know, he likes dangerous stuff too. He likes to go up into his attic where even his Mom won’t go. (He always carries a lantern.) He wondered if you like dangerous stuff too.
Joden, you sound very brave. If I hear a bump in the night, will you come with your lantern? As for me, I like some dangerous stuff. I have a dangerous cat, for instance, and I like him. He’s sitting on my lap right now and he bites if I spend too much time typing and forget to pet him. Ouch.
Chloe asked, “Was there a wedding at the end?”
What do you think, Chloe? I think the noses want to marry the roses, but I’m not sure the roses want to marry the noses.
I will be sure to ask her on Monday. Sebastian wanted to know if the noses are going to grow fingers. He thinks then, they could pick their noses. (Perhaps he is hoping for a sequel).
This is the best idea ever. I think you should write this story, Sebastian, but if you don’t want to then maybe I will.
I think I saw Sebastian working on the story when I left his room but I can’t be sure. I’ll check in with him and get back to you soon. Felicia wondered why the flowers snored.
I think Amanita wondered that too. I wonder why my cat snores.
Allison loved the princess and the little cat. She would like to write a book some day. She asked, “Do you like thorny things?”
I like thorny things but I don’t like being pricked by thorny things.
Natalie wondered, “How did you think of all those funny flowers?”
Some of those funny flowers are based on real ones. The stink lilies were inspired by some real lilies that grow in my backyard. They are a beautiful velvet purple and smell like rotting meat. I didn’t know that at first though. I picked them and put them in a vase on my dining room table. And then I began wondering, “What’s that terrible smell?”
I love bringing lilies indoors. I’ll have to watch out for the smelly variety. Felicia asked, “Why did the princess get sent nose seeds? Was it because she wrote so messy?
That’s something I have in common with Amanita -- I have kind of messy handwriting too. Sometimes I can’t read my own notes! That’s why I’m typing this. Otherwise my answers would look like this: ncv kpinie vim5t bbriohj.
That looks just like my handwriting! Malachi loves the story and he asked, “How did you write this book?”
With a six inch cactus spine as a pen.
I’m going to have to get one of those. Zayd asked, “Do you know somebody that loves so many dangerous things?”
My cat loves dangerous things. He comes home with stickles and prickles all stuck in his fur.
Skylar wanted me to tell you, she planted roses in the grass and they are orange and puffy and they smell nice and she has nose flowers too. She also wanted you to know she made up a story about spinach. First she made Mr. Spinach with Play-dough and put spikey spikes on him like in your story. I told Skylar I like to write stories too and she suggested I get a can of Play-dough. I think I’ll try that! She’d probably love to hear about your writing rituals.
I would like to see Mr. Spinach. I don’t have Play-dough but I have a lot of toys on my desk that help me act out the ideas in my head, including a plastic palm tree, a stuffed cat, and a shoebox that I pretend is a house. Also a llama and an elephant.
I loved the drawings you sent me, and so does Princess Amanita. She says that the pictures make her look very dangerous, which is just how she wants to look. She would like to know if the flowers in Madison’s picture are poisonous and if she can have the seeds for the big thorny plants in Eli’s picture.
Thank you, Dashka Slater, for taking the time to answer our questions. We loved the story and look forward to reading more of your work in the future.
If anyone would like a personalized bookplate to put inside your own copy of Dangerously Ever Afteror OH NO! Little Dragon by Jim Averbeck, you’ll find the information here.
Artwork from the interview team:
I saw the horrific news of the Connecticut tragedy yesterday while sitting at my desk. Outside my window our students played at recess; their happy, carefree expressions amplified the loss experienced at Sandy Hook Elementary School. My thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost loved ones, the survivors, and all the people of Connecticut. Our nation mourns.
It was another rainy week at Redwood Elementary, at least it began that way, and by Wednesday the students were feeling a bit squirrely – too much time indoors – so when I asked a kindergarten teacher if I could share a book with her class during my lunch break, she jumped at the opportunity. A roomful of five year-olds who have been cooped up all morning can be a challenge to engage but when I pulled out,
OH NO, Little Dragon! I had them captive. My motives weren’t entirely selfless; I enlisted the students to help me interview the author and illustrator, Jim Averbeck.
Welcome Jim. My students and I think Little Dragon is adorable. We’d all like to know, what inspired you to write his story?
I began writing the story while I was traveling in China to see a solar eclipse of the sun. Our Chinese guide told us his name was Frankie. But I knew he only said that to give me a name easy for me to pronounce. I asked him what his real Chinese name was and he told me it was Xiao Long, which he said meant “Little Dragon.” I thought that would be a good name for a book. He also told me that in imperial China it would have been illegal for him to have that name, punishable by death. Only the emperor could bear the name “Dragon.”
No wonder there aren’t many dragons left in China! How long did it take to create the book -from initial inspiration to publication?
The eclipse happened in July of 2009. The book was published in August of 2012. So it was three years from first inspiration to published book.
That may sound like a long time to my students but it sounds like a speedy turn-around to me. Will Little Dragon make an appearance in future books?
Right now I am writing a story about Little Dragon’s relationship with Papa Dragon. Little Dragon likes to sleep in Papa’s bed, but when he “phooshes” during a bad dream and burns up the book Papa is reading, it’s time for him to get a big boy bed!
What a clever idea! When did you first become interested in writing and illustrating children’s books?
I lived in Cameroon in Western Africa from 1990 – 1994. During that time I had a sort of dream that inspired the first story I ever wrote. It was a visual story, so I knew it needed to be illustrated.
Wow - you’ve seen a lot of the world! What were some of your favorite books from childhood?
I was just thinking about that the other day. I remember loving “Bread and Jam for Frances.” It was the book I had to have read over and over, until it fell apart from use.
FROM THE KINDERGARTEN CREW:
Bryson asked, “How hard was this story to make?”
Harder than making your bed but easier than making up for lost time.
Peter didn’t have any questions but he wanted you to know he loves the story.
That makes me very happy Peter. Every author wants someone to love his story.
Leo wondered, “How did you make the dragon?”
Little Dragon is made up of basic shapes. His head is an oval. His body is a circle. His tail is a big triangle and he has thirteen small triangles that run from the top of his head to the tip of his tail. After I draw those shapes, I trace over them and add arms, feet and a face. Then Little Dragon is ready to face the day.
Skylar had no questions although she wanted me to tell you she has a pet dragon and a little baby fish.
Oh my! What does she feed her dragon? Mostly they eat princesses and warriors, but some are vegetarian and others like hamburgers. I hope her pet dragon doesn’t eat princesses.
Skylar said he eats chips and dip. April liked all of the illustrations and she asked, “How did you draw the bathtub?”
I looked at a lot of pictures of bathtubs. I liked the old ones with feet best. I decided a dragon would have a bathtub with feet made out of bones.
The kids spotted the bones right away and a few wished they had similar tubs. I shared the book with a first grade speech group and Jared asked, “Why do dragons really have hats with horns on their bathtubs?”
Dragons often fight with Viking warriors. When they win, there is nothing left of the Viking except for a hat with horns and possibly a badly dented or melted sword. Dragons get to keep these things. They are called the “spoils of war” and dragons use them to decorate their homes.
Joden informed me that dragons are half-bird and half-fireplace because they fly and have flames. He wanted me to tell you that he writes stories for his little brother and they are about dragons too.
I think Joden must be right about that. I think they have a little bit of dinosaur in them too. If Joden could be half-boy half-something-else, what would the something-else be?
Joden was happy to answer your question. If he could, he’d be half-boy and half-fireplace so he’d be the only fire-breathing boy.
Malachi wants you to know he ate peppers and his eyes didn’t water but flames blew out of his mouth for two years. He wants to know if you ever ate hot peppers and did a lot of fire come out of your mouth?
When I lived in Africa, they had peppers so hot if you breathed out you would catch the trees on fire. That’s how the Sahara Desert was created.
I'm glad I wasn't there at the time! Jared asked, “Did you use crayons to make the hot red flames?”
Actually I used a computer program called Photoshop. The flames have many different layers- one for the yellow, one for the white, and so on. There were over 15 different layers. How many can Jared count?
Jared counted only four – he was surprised by all the layers. Hailey wanted me to mention she writes every day and she wondered why you don’t. I assured her, there is every possibility that you do too, but we don’t get to see everything you write. I think she was implying, she wants to see more Little Dragon stories. Would you like to comment?
I try to write every day too.
Sometimes I can’t though, because I have to walk the dog or visit a school to speak to a class. But I try to write every day.
My students wanted to share some of their artwork. Esmeralda, who did the blue dragons kissing, wanted your opinion on her art. All the art is beautiful. The dragons kissing makes fine use of a monochromatic palette, which means it used only- or mostly- one color. In this case blue. Please tell Esmeralda that the most famous artist in the world, Pablo Picasso, also went through a time when he used mostly one color. It is called his “blue period” and his art is worth a million dollars.
Here is an example:
Ariel, who created the yellow dragon wanted me to tell you she is an artist too.
The yellow dragon I also like a lot, because he is yellow like fire.
And I like the dragon in the bathtub. This is an example of a contour line drawing. Tell Zayd, that Picasso, that famous artist I mentioned, also had a time when he did line art like this.
Here is a Picasso camel:
And here is a Picasso wiener dog:
I like the brown dragon too, but he scared me a little because he is so fierce!
Do you have any last words of advice for future writers and illustrators?
The best way to learn to write and illustrate is to read a lot of books. Read every day. Read, read, read, read, read, read, read!
What good advice, and you’ve given children a great place to start with OH NO, Little Dragon!
Thank you, Jim Averbeck!
I received more artwork from Mrs. Douglas’ kindergarten class after the interview so please take a look below.
We are in the midst of a storm in Northern California and my students had to brave the weather to make it to the speech room this week. Our classroom doors open to the outside and the sheltered walkways don’t provide protection from a downpour when it comes in horizontal and pelts us from the side. The kids didn’t complain – it was an adventure. They were happy to borrow my umbrella and fight the wind and rain. One group was especially thrilled when the wind caught the underside of my umbrella and turned it inside out. When we got to the speech room, I cranked up the heat, circled our chairs and pulled out a book: The Extraordinary Music of Mr. Ives, written and illustrated by Joanne Stanbridge.
It tells the story of composer, Charles Ives, who hears music in almost any sound he encounters, from the click, click, click of an adding machine to the ear-splitting whistle of the ocean liner, Lusitania.
“He grabs that big sound with both hands and shapes it into a song.”
My students and I had fun with that line. We whistled and hooted into our own hands, then held them to our ears to see if we could really grab sound. We couldn’t. But we all agreed it was a lovely idea.
Next we read,
“He writes music that is as busy as a city street. There are train whistles in it, and football games and rowdy picnics and cars rushing past.”
One of my students, Deigo, thought hard on that passage and began to sing, “Ding, ding, pucka, pucka, choo, choo. Ding, ding, pucka, pucka, choo, choo.”
“Do you know what that is?” he asked. Before I could answer he said, “the train.”
It did sound a lot like our local Skunk train, but with a better rhythm and Diego had all the rhythmic moves to go with it. Then he started chanting, “boom, shhh, shhh, shhh, boom, shhh, shhh, shhh. That’s the music a chimney makes when you have a fire.” The other students looked a bit confused, but impressed.
The kids became very attentive when I read about the Lusitania sinking in 1915. They poured over the four, two-page spreads of the tragedy and caught the mood in the words,
“The news spreads from office to office like fire. It hangs over the city like smoke, and it tastes of war. When it reaches Mr. Ives, his music goes away. An awful loneliness seizes him, and his heart stretches out across the ocean – out into a dreadful silence.”
* * *
“Mr. Ives listens for the old familiar music of the office, but it has gone away. Even the city streets are hushed.”
And they remain hushed until Ives hears a hurdy-gurdy player spinning out an old hymn,
In the Sweet Bye and Bye. One by one people on the street start singing until it seems as if the whole city is singing.
“To Mr. Ives, the sound is as beautiful as raindrops falling together to make a river. Up the song flows, into the evening sky, rolling out across the ocean . . . ”
When we read those words, rain was beating our rooftop and wind rattled our windows. It was easy to imagine raindrops falling together to make a river and I couldn’t help but envision a torrent. But when I asked the students what kind of music the rain seemed to make, one student, who has autism, started singing in a high sweet voice. She sang about her heart, her school and her perfect day. I liked her song and I especially liked her attitude. With a storm raging outside, we still didn’t need more than a warm room, charming company, and a good book to have a perfect day.
I had fun reading the book Stuck to my students this week. They loved Oliver Jeffers’ absurd story. It started believably enough,
“It all began when Floyd’s kite became stuck in a tree. He tried pulling and swinging, but it wouldn’t come unstuck.
The trouble REALLY began when he threw his favorite shoe to knock the kite loose . . . and THAT got stuck too!”
Things got a bit crazy when he threw his cat, Mitch and crazier still, when he threw the ladder into the tree. By the time Floyd sent a Titanic-sized boat flying, the kids were giggling with their own ideas – “I’d throw the universe!” said one precocious first-grader.
This book worked well as a speech activity. We talked about the sequence of events, cause and effect, answering “wh” questions and, for an articulation group, we thought of all the “l” objects Floyd could throw into the tree, like a lunging lion and a lady lounging on the lawn.
As often happens, one of my students wanted to take the book home. I couldn’t let him because it belongs to our public library but I suggested we take a look at our school library to see if we could get him a copy next week. Speaking of our school library, our librarian, Allison Brown, is a creative woman who goes to herculean efforts to keep the kids supplied with good books. Most recently, she created intricate paper stars to sell as a fundraiser so she could buy more books for our shelves. Here is the star I bought:
My students love our school library, but some kids, who don’t have any books of their own, wish they had a few with their names on the inside cover so I keep a shelf in my speech room full of give-away books. Most have been given to me and I, in turn, give them to my students. I know there are kids all over the world who don’t own a book but I was surprised to find out that this is also also true in my own community. I’m all for changing that, even if it’s one child at a time.
I’m not alone in this quest. Our local bookstore, Gallery Bookshop & Bookwinkle's Children's Books, promotes books for young readers in a program called, “Book Angels.” They collect the first names of children (along with their age and interests) who might need a book and display the pertinent information on a “book angel” so customers can become that angel and purchase a book for the child.
Over the years, I’ve had young students with grownup-sized problems: a mom lost to cancer, a father in prison, children abandoned by parents, homeless families, abused children. When life gets complicated, sometimes kids need a little help getting unstuck. Humorous stories often help that process, as do others, like those with characters children can relate to. I wish every child in the world had at least one book in which he could write his own name. There are worldwide organizations with that goal in mind. What are some of your favorite methods and organizations for getting books to children? I’d love to hear about them.
This has been a grueling week at school. I have 56 students and I love working with each one, but when report cards come due, that’s a lot of progress reports to write. And to prepare for those reports, I test each student to see how they’re coming along on their goals. It’s worthwhile; however, tedious for all of us.
On Tuesday, when I walked a first grade student to my room for testing, he asked if we could read the story about the kid with a really, really big voice. I wish you could have seen his excitement when he asked. He twirled once, squatted and hopped frog-like a few times and then started skipping backwards, all within about fifteen seconds. Landon does everything fast and when he is excited he speeds up. I hated to disappoint him, we’d have no time for a story, but all the same, I was happy to know he remembered Holler Loudly, by Cynthia Leitich Smith, illustrated by Barry Gott. I read it last spring when he was in Kindergarten - I’ll have to get it from our school library again.
Students asked for stories all week, trying to tempt me away from testing: I held fast and they were cooperative. When I went to the middle school, I tried to get language samples from my students to see how their speech and language skills were progressing. I asked about school and usually got one-word responses; I asked about home and got a shrug and a grunt from one student and not much more from others; I asked about friends and got a few side-ways glances so I turned the conversation to books. That opened a floodgate of language so I got what I came for. One student told me about a book he is writing. He detailed the plot with such perfect articulation and skilled language, I found he is ready to graduate from speech therapy. I’ll miss working with him.
I may not have been able to read stories to kids this week, but at home, I was able to read about kids’ books. Earlier this week I purchased Mary Kole’s Writing Irresistible Kidlit and it reminded me of why I love reading to, and writing for kids. Take a look at what I found in this treasure:
“ . . . I also like to extol the sheer potential of children’s books:
They turn people into lifelong readers, planting the seed early.
They stay with kids (we tend to fondly remember books from our childhoods).
They help kids relate (books can guide kids through their own turbulent coming-of-age waters).
They inspire kids to become better, stronger, braver, more confident, more goofy, more artistic, more imaginative people.
Quite simply, kidlit changes lives.”
So true, and I get to see it every day!
A few weeks back, after I read Chloe and the Lion by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Adam Rex, one of my students came to my classroom, dragging her mother behind her. She wanted to show her mom the book we’d been reading. Esmeralda pointed to the illustration of Mac and explained to her mom, “This is author. He wrote story.” Then she pointed to Adam and explained his role in making the book. Finally, she turned to her favorite page and asked me to read it to her mom who was still learning English. We may not have communicated perfectly, since I can’t speak Spanish, nonetheless, Esmeralda clearly communicated her excitement over the book and her mother was inspired to get more books at home.
Next week my testing will be over, the progress reports will go home and we’ll get back to life as usual in the speech room. We’ll all be ready for a good story and I’ll be on the lookout for more to share with my students. Through those stories, I’ll be able to work on grammar, sequencing, articulation, and other language skills. More than that, I’ll be able to introduce my students to other worlds, other lives and inspire their own creative endeavors. And who knows where that will lead them, after-all, “kidlit changes lives.”
You can’t turn on your radio, TV, or computer without hearing news about the coming election; not to mention, all the phone calls encouraging you to get out and vote. It is such a hot topic that I decided to bring it up in a speech and language group this week. What a great opportunity to build vocabulary, practice tricky speech sounds – like “v” in “vote” – encourage correct grammar all while emphasizing civic duty to my young scholars. So, I brought in the book, Duck for President, by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin.
When a group of kindergarten students settled down around my classroom table, I asked if anyone knew the name of the president of the United States. One child looked around for clues and seeing the book in my hand, said with confidence, “Duck”.
“Well, no,” I told him, “actually, it is Barack Obama.” Then we had a nice discussion about fact and fiction. That fit in nicely with the subject of politics but I didn’t expand in that direction. Instead we talked about candidates, elections, and ballots then moved on to the book.
Duck charmed the kids but they felt Farmer Brown gave him too many chores. The cows had only to weed the garden and the sheep just had to sweep the barn, but Duck had to take out the trash, mow the lawn and grind coffee beans. The unfairness of it ruffled their feathers, as well as Duck’s,
“Why is Farmer Brown in charge, anyway?” thought Duck. What we need is an election!”
He made a sign and hung it up in the barn.
Farmer Brown
MUST GO!
Farm Election
Tomorrow!
Farmer Brown was furious when he found the animals registering to vote the next morning. On Election Day, the animals filled out their ballots, counted the votes and posted the results. “The voters had spoken. Duck was officially in charge.”
He soon discovered that running a farm is hard work and so he decided to move up the political ladder and run for governor. His aspirations didn’t stop there but I will. If you haven’t read this book, I suggest you get a copy. It is a fun introduction to our political process as you see Duck hitting the campaign trail, attending town meetings and giving speeches “that only other ducks could understand.”
When we finished the story, I brought up the subject of our candidates for president of the United States. I mentioned we will soon be voting for Obama or Romney and I asked whom they wanted as our next president. One student blurted, “I want three presidents, Obama, Romney and Duck.” He may not understand our political system yet, but he understands kindergarten politics – we share, we play fair, and whenever possible, we make sure there are no losers – not a bad way to operate.
One of my second grade students, Anna, started jumping up and down when I picked her up for speech yesterday. She could hardly wait to get to my classroom. Her enthusiasm was touching but I must admit, it wasn’t ignited by having the opportunity to spend time with me; she was excited because she was going to have a chance to work on her eBook.
Technology is changing fast. Two weeks ago I discovered a fabulous app for my iPad which makes creating eBooks a breeze. With “Book Creator” you can create iBooks using the student’s own stories, photos and illustrations. When the book is complete, you can load it right onto your iBooks shelf or email it to parents – and the app costs only $4.99!
The kids are still working on their stories but since I wanted to become familiar with the app, I created an iBook version of The Ghostly Night. If you’d like to check it out, you can download it free at the iBook store on an iPad (or iPhone). Just open the app, click on “store” and search for The Ghostly Night. The app is free as are thousands of books. I downloaded several classics like Pride and Prejudice and The Tale of Two Cities but you’ll find other free books for kids.
After we left her classroom, Anna couldn’t stop talking about her story. In her tale, she was walking home when she noticed something following her. Apples! There were creepy apples everywhere!
(Now if you think this story sounds familiar, you are right – Creepy Carrots, by Aaron Reynolds, was a huge hit with my students.) There were creepy apples in bushes, in trees, bouncing up the steps.
Anna yelled, “Mom! Creepy apples! Creepy apples!” She ran into the kitchen. She ran down the hall. She ran into her room and then . . . well, I’d better stop there. Anna may want to publish her story one day and I don’t want to spoil it for you. But I will tell you, the ending was a happy one and I’m hoping for more happy endings in the lives of my students, when they reach their educational goals and continue on toward higher ones.
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| Artwork from Marcia Douglas' Kindergarten Class |
School is closed this week for our “Fall Break” and since my sister is visiting from Washington, I’m taking a blog break as well, but I thought I’d share a few photos I took as we toured around town.
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| A view at the edge of our village |
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| A roomy bench with a view |
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| In the garden of the restaurant where we had lunch. |
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A bench in a village shop
 | | A rustic "bench" outside the Kelley House Museum |
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| A flower in the restaurant garden |
If you've notice a theme - benches and beauty - you've caught the mood of my fall break. It has been a wonderful week of refreshment and relaxation. See you next week.
On Thursday, I was walking a group of kindergarten students to the speech room when they all began talking at once. Joel, one of the three, abruptly stopped walking and grew quiet. He had been very animated moments before but I couldn’t catch what he was saying because of the verbal outpouring around him. When I turned to check on him he had a frustrated look on his face so I asked what he’d been trying to tell me. He spoke again, very loudly, repeating one word from his previous sentence, “dose”. I had no idea what he was talking about and probably looked confused so he repeated the word, louder this time. That didn’t help at all so I asked him to tell me more. He didn’t. He repeated the one word again, leaning closer to me, willing me to understand. After a few more one-word attempts he finally expanded his question and I realized he was asking for a particular story. The single word he was trying to say was “ghost”.
As you might have guessed, Joel uses “d” for “g” sounds. He moves his tongue forward when it should go back - speech therapists call this “fronting”. He also leaves out sounds in consonant blends, like “st” in ghost. We call that tendency, “cluster reduction”. If I had thought hard enough, I might have recognized “dose” was his attempt at saying “ghost” but it took a few more clues (and help from the other students) before I got his message.
I was happy he wanted to hear “The Ghostly Night” again because it would give him practice making the “g” sound. In fact, that is the reason I created the story, to give students like Joel an opportunity to practice their target sound without relying entirely on drills.
In the book, Kristy cannot sleep.
“The wind rattled her window. The full moon threw grasping shadows across her bedroom wall. They swayed with the rhythm of the wind.”
Soon, Kristy calls her mother,
“Mom!” she cried. “There’s a g - g - g ghost in my room.”
She calls again when the wind howls, when a branch scrapes her bedroom window, and when she sees her curtains move. Each time the kids join in on the repeated line, “There’s a g - g - g ghost in my room.” They can’t seem to help themselves. That gives them a lot of speech practice pronouncing the “g” sound as well as giving them an understanding of the sound the letter represents. We call that “phonemic awareness.”
At the end of the story there is a twist that the leaves the kids laughing, even on the second and third reading. They seem relieved there is no real ghost in Kristy’s room and when the tables turn on the Mom . . . well, I’ll stop there. I don’t want to spoil it for you.
This book isn’t a Halloween tale but it is especially popular with my students at this time of year. I’m glad of that since I work with several kids who mispronounce “g”.
When the students got ready to leave the speech room on Thursday, Joel asked about our speech session for the next day. He wanted to know if we could play a “dose dame”. Obviously, we still have a bit of work to do.
SpeakWell, ReadWell has reached its one-year anniversary! That inspired me to look back and consider why I began this blog in the first place. Originally, I posted a welcome message with a story of one of my students. After a few weeks I removed that section to give the page a cleaner look. But now, in honor of the blog’s birthday, I’m reposting the original welcome.
Speech therapy can address a wide variety of communication difficulties – problems pronouncing specific sounds, weak vocabulary, speaking with incorrect grammar, using language in socially inappropriate ways . . . and the list goes on!
Strong speech and language skills provide a foundation for reading and that is how I came to choose the name for this blog. When a child cannot speak with correct grammar or vocabulary he’ll have more difficulty predicting words in stories, and prediction is an invaluable skill to becoming a proficient reader. Speech and reading are both aspects of communication; our ability to communicate helps us establish relationships with others, enabling us to share our stories. And speaking of stories . . .
One afternoon I picked up a group of Kindergarten students for their speech session. On the way to my classroom one of the kids became very animated; he gestured expansively and a rush of unintelligible words came pouring out. His poor articulation made it difficult to pick up more than a couple words but he supplemented with expressive body language. When we got to my room he demonstrated even more effectively what had happened to him while on vacation. He pointed his finger like a gun, grabbed a chair and laid it on its side, then pounded his fist into his arm. What trauma he had been through since I last saw him! I pieced together his tale through his words and pantomime then confirmed more details later by talking to his teacher and parents. The family had been robbed at gunpoint and this child needed to tell his story.
Fortunately, most of my students don’t have such dramatic stories to tell, but they do need to tell their own – stories of a new kitten, a trip to the county fair, or a new pair of shoes. They also need to develop skills to read the stories of others. My purpose for this blog is to open a discussion about communication, introduce appealing children’s literature, and share experiences. I fervently hope that we all - parents, educators, and writers - help the children in our care learn to tell their own stories.
Yesterday, in my last speech group of the day, the student whose family had been robbed came for his speech session. I’m happy to report I can now understand his speech though he still has a slight lisp. I’m also happy to report he has become a wonderful storyteller and the stories he tells are not traumatic; they are full of joy, adventure and a rich family life.
I know it is still September but October is only two days away and my students have been asking for Halloween activities for about three weeks now. So this week I introduced a story with hints of Halloween, (and it shouldn’t offend those who don’t celebrate the holiday), Creepy Carrots! by Aaron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown. My students loved this book and I must admit I loved reading it to them on Monday - I still loved reading it when they wanted to hear it again on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. By Friday, I’d convinced the kids to start writing their own creepy vegetable stories and I heard some fabulous tales.
Creepy Carrots! is about a young rabbit who loves carrots, especially those found in Crackenhopper Field. He couldn’t get enough of them . . . until the carrots started following him (at least he thinks they are following him).
“Jasper was about to help himself to a victory snack . . . when he heard it. The soft . . . sinister . . . tunktunktunk of carrots creeping. He turned . . . but there was nothing there.”
You can’t be sure, until the end of the book, if Jasper has an over-active imagination or if the carrots have actually uprooted and are trailing him. Poor Jasper sees fleeting images of carrots with jack-o-lantern faces peering out of windows, peeking around the shower curtain, popping up from a gutter – they’re everywhere. Always, when he turns, he sees something orange – an old soda bottle, a curtain, a washcloth – but no carrots. Lest you think this story is too frightening for young children, I must tell you, my first and second grade students found the idea of carrots tunktunktunking behind a rabbit hilarious and the carrots are depicted with a perfect combination of humor and creepiness. The dark illustrations – black, white and gray with a splash of orange – add to the creepiness. When I read this book aloud, the kids’ eyes widened, their shoulders went up, and they held their breath a couple of times, but their mouths twitched upward into smiles.
By the end of the week, my students were writing their own creepy stories, and that created a great vocabulary building opportunity. We talked about categories (fruits and vegetables), adjectives, (synonyms for creepy) and we came up with a few interesting alliterative titles like: Spooky Spinach, Bizarre Broccoli, Gruesome Green Beans, Ghastly Gourds, Terrifying Turnips, and Monstrous Mushrooms. Two of my students wanted to include fruit and so we added Weird Watermelons and Appalling Apples.
The students didn’t have time to finish their creepy fruit and vegetable tales but they are off to a good start and they are saving their work for next week when October finally arrives. I foresee some great stories in the weeks ahead and when Halloween comes, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I have a few creepy carrots knocking at my door.
Across America, schools celebrated Constitution Day on Monday of this week. There are books, posters and artwork scattered around our elementary school in honor of September 17, 1787, when the U.S. Constitution was signed. The younger students don’t have a deep understanding – well maybe I should say, they don’t have any understanding – of our constitution or the terms that are batted around like, Founding Fathers, Bill of Rights, or three-pronged government. But they understand the three-pronged rules of our school – be kind, be safe, be responsible – and that’s a good springboard for discussing national freedoms and responsibilities. Fortunately there are excellent children’s books that help explain some of the terms and information surrounding this historical event, like this one by Lori Mortensen, illustrated by Siri Weber Feeney:
This book is loaded with facts and they are presented in simple language, making the information accessible to my early elementary students. One of my speech groups was especially interested in the argument over representation. The kids looked at the size of the thirteen states and saw the problem. In the book, after the Virginal Plan was presented, we read, “The plan upset leaders from states with large populations. They said it was not fair. Large states should get more votes!”
These second graders agreed – it wasn’t fair. Their solution, however, was different than that of the founding fathers. The students thought the state boundaries should have been redrawn so all of them would be the same size. (Fairness is a big issue in elementary school.) That created some new discussion opportunities, as I’m sure you can imagine. Another second grader wished he had been on the committee making all the laws. If he had been there, he would have made a law to never kill dinosaurs! We have more to learn in our speech and language sessions, but we are having fun in the process.
This book is a great tool for building vocabulary. It has a glossary to help students learn the terms and it has a timeline to chart important events. The only drawback I see – perhaps the author could have started her timeline earlier, like when dinosaurs walked the earth.
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It looks like a really fun book with a lot of possibilities for engagement. Thanks for telling us about it.
You are welcome. Thanks for stopping by.
I bet they'll remember "succulent" to the end of their days!
I think you are right!
Hi Jeanette,
It's nice to connect with your fantastic blog...I discovered you on Google+ Great Books for Kids community. Although this story is not a favorite of mine for the younger set (for whom it is written as supposedly the range is 4-8), I can see how effective it was for your second grade class. Discussing the sequence of events and comparing it to the older version would make great lessons! Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks for visiting my blog.
Children love Mo Willems. When I taught kindergarten, his works were definitely a favorite. I don't care for the art work in these books, but it children seem to find it appealing. You are right about the book's application to new common core. It was featured in Columbia University's reading and writing workshop as well.
Thanks for passing along that information. If Columbia University is featuring the book in their reading and writing workshop, then I can't be too far off track!
We read this one sometime back and loved it! Thanks for sharing! Mo Willems is the best!
-Reshama
www.stackingbooks.com
His books are a lot of fun.
This book is going on my wishlist! Thanks for sharing!!
Carrie
Carrie's Speech Corner
Thanks for dropping by.