Lit Picks and Tech Tips

Harcourt Publishing has a great math resource called Think Math available to teachers and students. You will find great online math games, interactive demonstrations of math concepts, math jingles to sing along with, and more! The activities are categorized by grade level and concept. Be sure to check this one out!

The 2010-2011 Show Me Readers Award nominees have been announced. This award is given for the best picture book as voted by kids in the state of Missouri. Be sure to start looking for these books on your book orders to prepare for next year. Here’s the list!

2010-2011 Show Me Award Nominees

Violet the Pilot by Steve Breen
Titanicat by Marty Crisp
Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio
My Chincoteague Pony by Susan Jeffers
Owney the Mail Pouch Pooch by Mona Kerby
Two Bobbies, A True Story by Kirby Larson & Mary Nethery
Willow by Denise Brennan Nelson
Mr. Muddle’s Holidays by Laura Mielsen
For the Love of Autumn by Patricia Polacco
Lucky Star by Judy Young

As many of you know, I am on the Mark Twain Award committee this year. We just received the list of books that have been selected as the 2010-2011 Mark Twain Award nominees. The committee starts by reading over 200 books that are suggested by publishers, teachers, librarians, and students. We rate the books and narrow them down to a list of 35 that is then sent to several reader selectors across the state. Their rankings are then compiled, and that’s how we get the list!

Now, here’s what you’ve been waiting for (drum roll, please…):

Mark Twain Nominees 2010-2011

Seer of Shadows by Avi
The Magic Half by Annie Barrows
Margret and Flynn by Kathleen Duey
Found by Margarte Peterson Haddix
Go Big or Go Home by Will Hobbs
Stolen Children by Peg Kehret
School Spirit by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel
Safe at Home by Mike Lupica
The Totally Made Up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish by Claudia Mills
Bringing the Boy Home by N.A. Nelson
The Leanin’ Dog by K.A. Nuzam
The Mysterious Case of the Albright Society by Diane Stanley

You  might start keeping an eye out for these titles in your book orders and stock up on them for your classroom for next year.

Enjoy!

This is a just for fun post. I’ve had Christmas on my brain since Halloween, so it’s a good thing I work in Branson where the Christmas season officially begins on November 1. Amazon is giving away 25 free Christmas song downloads - one each day in December! Enjoy some free holiday tunes and have a great holiday season.

Your library lady,

Cindy

I know that many of you use Beth Newingham’s website as a resource for reading workshop. Here is a nice article by her about what reading workshop looks like in her classroom. The best part is that it has a video to actually show you what her workshop looks like! Be sure to check it out and let me know what you think.

Happy reading!

Cindy

Many of you search for sites where you can find copyright-friendly images, sounds, etc. for your websites and blogs. Instead of stressing about the “copyright police”, check out this wiki by Joyce Valenza. It has links to several sites that might help you in your search. This is definitely a resource for you as a teacher. I would not link this for elementary students. I hope you find it useful!

http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/

Scholastic has two live webcasts coming up in the next few weeks that you might want to consider sharing with your students. The first one is a live webcast with R. L. Stine, the author of the Goosebumps series. Even though it is not my personal favorite series, the kids love it. So, if you have a bunch of ghost-story-loving kids, check out the live webcast on October 28 at noon. It’s always fun to hear an author talk about his books. (Second grade - I would probably skip this one.)

Live Webcast with R. L. Stine

The other webcast is with all five of the authors of the 39 clues series! I’m pretty excited about this one. The authors of these books are top-notch, and the kids are crazy about these books (especially the fourth graders). The 39 Clues webcast will be on November 2 at 12:30 p.m.

39 Clues Webcast

Enjoy!

On October 21st, five new sets of books will be added to Book Flix! Here are the new pairs:

• Chrysanthemum and We Help Out at School (this pair is also available with a Spanish translation)
• Giraffes Can’t Dance and Kids Can Dance!
• Harold and the Purple Crayon and Where Can Art Take You?
• Leo the Late Bloomer and We are Alike, We are Different
• Trashy Town and Our Earth: Making Less Trash

Also, you might want to show your kids Where the Wild Things Are (find it under the Earth and Sky category) before the movie comes out on October 16th. (Do be aware that the movie is PG before you recommend it to younger students.)

Happy Reading!

This is a pretty snazzy online tool. Using a scanner, printer, computer, and this website - http://www.fontcapture.com/ - you can create a font from your own handwriting!  You could have students create their own font from their handwriting to use when writing papers on the computer. They could even be artistic and create their own “wingding” font. There are lots of creative possibilities with this tool. It was easy to use and only took me about five minutes to fill out the form, scan my document, and upload it to the site (it would probably take your students a bit longer to fill out the form).

Here’s a sample of the “matzat” font:

Well, the people from Google have the entries in the Doodle 4 Goole contest narrowed down to the finalists. Now, it’s your turn to select your favorites. This would be a great sponge activity to do as a class. I hope you enjoy seeing the results. The winner will appear on the Google website on May 21st, so cast your votes now! Voting ends on May 18th. You can cast your votes at http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html.