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Book Recommendations for the September Scholastic Reading Club

8/31/2015

New School Year = New students to share books with!

I love the beginning of the year - meeting my new best buddies for the year, buying new school supplies, butterflies of nervousness and of course new books! Today I sent home our first set of Scholastic Reading Club order forms. I love the excitement of book orders. To this day I still grab a marker and circle all of the books I want as I pour over the forms. I wanted to start a monthly blog post where I can share some of my favorites. All of the books below are available from Scholastic Reading Clubs. You can find them in the Kindergarten, First & Second Grade flyers as well as on their website.

Of course there are lots of great books in the book orders - these just happen to be my VERY favorites and ones I HIGHLY suggest to parents and teacher friends!

I have to start with two of my favorite characters! Elephant & Piggie are back for their latest adventure in I Will Take a Nap. You can also find many other titles on the Scholastic website including My New Friend Is So Fun and paperback packs of multiple Elephant & Piggie adventures!

I think I own six of seven copies of this year's Caldecott Winner. You don't need that many, but be sure your classroom or home library has at least one copy of Beekle!

I laughed all the way through The Boulder Brothers: Meet Mo and Jo! A graphic novel with easy text, readers will be hooked instantly. (I haven't found A Jump-into-Chapters Book that I haven't liked yet - check them all out!)

This Book Just Ate My Dog! was a favorite in my classroom all last year. Students never stopped giggling as the book consumed the dog, the girl and more.

Be sure your favorite kid artist gets to meet Louise in Louise Loves Art. Louise loves art more than anything. It's her imagination on the outside.

The Princess in Black was a favorite chapter book in my classroom last year. It was loved equally by both princesses and princes! Princess Magnolia transforms into her alter ego The Princess in Black to stop monsters! Be sure to get this first book in the series because the second one will be out in October! (Utah Friends - Shannon Hale will be having a book release party at The King's English, join The Book Catchers there! More info HERE!)

Everyone loves The Day the Crayons Quit and now we get to enjoy the sequel The Day the Crayons Came Home!

I could add many, many more but I'll leave you with those. Wondering what kind of books to get a specific reader? Tell me about them in the comments and I'm sure I have a book recommendation, or two, or three!

Happy Reading,

1 Comment

Creative Thinking Art Books

8/14/2015

2 Comments

I am going to throw out favorite books of mine that I use all the time in teaching the arts. I am excited to be our district's new art integration coach and am looking forward to exploring and finding more books in drama and dance-as you can see my favorite is visual art. I am a list person and very informal, so these are going to be in list format and very informal of my top 5ish favorite books in the arts. I will continue to add more as I read more. Here goes . . .

5 creative thinking books:

Don't let someone tell you to be something else. Be Yourself! The illustrations inspire you to make mobiles.

I love how this boy's imagination grew out of his head in doodles. If only we could all be this brave.

If your imagination could be worn like a hat-what shape would it be?

For kids and adults who don't like change, introducing Mr. Flux!

Stop! Look! and Take the Time to read, doodle, dance, sing and play some.

5ish visual art books:

Great visual book about art-the pictures are gorgeous. She has another book called Color.

A simple book on drawing and using your skill of observation.

This collection of books takes paintings and then weaves a story about them. My 2nd graders loved Hokusai and responded to this story by creating a scene from Legos and painting with oil pastels.

Joseph Albers-- need I say more. Here is a great book to pair with math and how to play with color.

This books talks about one of the principles of art-Line. A great book to introduce line.

This series is the 13 things you need to know . . . there is many books in this collection-a must have.

I love Lois Ehlert! This is one of my favorites of all time-I go to this book the most when I am talking about the arts.

5ish music, dance and drama books:

After reading and while listening to Joshua Bell, ask your kids to "spill ink" about how they would stop their mom if they saw or heard something they wanted to stay for

I gathered music used around Kandinsky's time and put it in a listening center on some iPads and had them paint while listening to music.

Great for mindful listening.

A fun book to read while the kids are in their space bubbles and imagining what the words mean as they dance the book.

This book has a recording that has John Coltrane's music on and a reading of the story. It is also a fun listen, paint book. I have even had kids paint and then act out the book in a tableaux form.

5ish go-to art books:

I have a lot of books by Carla Sonheim- she is great for mixed media and having the kids doodle

This is the book that inspired me to make my "idea" books for my gifted kids-which are all my kids. I use her a lot for creative thinking activities.

Any of the art Usborne books are my favorite.

This is one of my favorites about the teaching of art to kids. I bought it while in New York and it reminds me of the great art and museums.

Another great book I got at an art museum. A great resource for responding to art pieces by artists.

it is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute for the force and beauty of its process.
- Henry James

happy creative
reading,