Balloons Over Broadway

I am reading at least one RI Children's Book Award nominee to all of the students in grades 3-6. We started with Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet, which is about Tony Sarg, the inventor of the huge balloons that float through the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. Then we worked on different activities with the different grades.

See some of the balloons through the decades.

• Grades 3 and 4: This packet of activities includes a maze and a template for drawing your own balloon.

• Grade 5: We discussed the concept of apprenticeship. Tony's apprentice was Bil Baird, who did the Lonely Goatherd marionnettes for "The Sound of Music." Bil's apprentice was none other than Jim Henson, inventor of the Muppets!

• Grade 6: When I asked students what they noticed about today's balloons v. ones from the past, they totally picked up on the fact that modern parades use them as advertising. So many of the characters floating down the streets are corporate mascots ... how many mascots do YOU recognize? We explored persuasive tactics in the following weeks.

Most Borrowed Books - October

• Big Nate Out Loud by Lincoln Peirce;
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid : a novel in cartoons by Jeff Kinney 
• Diary of a Wimpy Kid : The Ugly Truth (5) by Jeff Kinney 
• Dork Diaries : Tales from a not-so-talented pop star [3] by Rachel Russell
• The Alphabet Theatre Proudly Presents The Z was Zapped : a play in twenty-six acts by Chris Van Allsburg 
• The Thone of Fire by Rick Riordan
• The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas

Summarizing Rumpelstiltskin

In fifth grade this week, we practiced the Somebody / Wanted / But / So / Then method of summarizing a story. Here is what the students came up with for Rumplestiltskin (note: the afterword gave an alternate fate for R.; students picked the one they liked better).

• The girl's father wanted to please the king, so he said that his daughter knew how to spin gold, but she really didn't. So when the girl was crying, then a little man came to spin all the gold and wanted to have her baby. Then she found out the man's name and kept her baby.
  
  
• The poor miller wanted his daughter to have a good life, but the king made her spin straw into gold. So she sat and cried in the room. Then Rumpelstiltskin came in and helper her spin the straw to gold for her necklace.
  
  
• The king wanted gold, but the girl could not spin gold. So she began to weep and Rumpelstiltskin came. Then the girl told R. his name, and he ripped himself in half.
  
  
• The king wanted gold, but the girl didn't know how to make gold. So Rumpelstiltskin helped her. Then the queen had to guess the small guy's name, and she got it right and didn't have to give him her baby.
  
  
• Rumpelstiltskin wanted the queen's child because she owed him for the favors he did for her. But the queen had guessed his name correct[ly], so R. was surprised and angry. Then he hopped on his spoon and left the queen alone.
  
  
• Rumpelstiltskin wanted the baby, but the queen knew his name, so he stomped his feet and then ripped himself in half.
  
  
• Rumpelstiltskin wanted the queen's child but she did not want to give up her child. So R. gave her three nights to guess his name and keep the baby. Then R. flung himself on a spoon.
  
  
• Rumpelstiltskin wanted the girl's child, but she cried so harshly, so he let her guess his name. Then she guessed his name and kept her child.
  
  

Don't Let the Pigeon Touch the Books!

I have so much fun with the Stadium kindergartners! Right now, we are discussing book care in preparation for their first checkout. I decided to have them teach THE PIGEON some rules.

In case you haven't been introduced to the Pigeon yet, he is the star of a series of books by Mo Willems; the first one is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! We read that and Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!, and I am happy to report that MOST students resisted his arguments.

Then we watched this video:

The students compiled a list of rules that the Pigeon should know. For example:

DO	DON'T
use clean hands	spit on the books
turn the pages gently	rip the pages
keep your book out of the bathtub	spill your food on the books
bring your book back to the library	give your book to a baby

In our next class, we drew our own Pigeons; Mo Willems has step-by-step instructions for drawing the Pigeon on his site. Then each student chose a rule to teach him. Here is some of their work:

FYI, the green coloring means that this Pigeon is an alien.