Mo Willems!

Yesterday my school got to be part of Mo Willems simulcast! It was SO much fun! After lots of headaches getting the technology to work in our school (thank you to my AWESOME technology guru at our school and the awesome Internet guy in our county who made it happen) it all went off with out a hitch. My only disappoint with the program, I was REALLY hoping he was going to show us his dinning room (the one with the chalk board walls) so I guess this means that I will still have to hold out for an invite to his house for dinner - I'll even bring desert Mo - really I will!

Between watching this yesterday and watching the video : Eric Carle: Picture Writer this week with my story time classes, I want to quit my job and go work in an art studio - one problem, I have NO artistic talent what so ever. But it does make me want to go out and buy new colored pencils and crisp white paper!

Thanks Hyperion & Mo for letting me be a part of this!

Mo again

I am feeling like this blog is turning into the Mo Willems blog, BUT really, it isn't.. I am NOT a stalker - really!

But this week we are reading Mo - I am reading Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and then I am reading his newest book, Naked Mole Rat gets Dressed. The kids love these books and I love reading them (and I have the coolest voices for both books) but I also love how I can relate both of these books to non-fiction selections. I read both of Mo's books, then we talk about how they are fiction and how we knew (the pigeon talks, the naked mole rats wear clothes etc...) and then I introduce non-fiction books about birds (I don't have a book just about pigeons) and a book about naked mole rats - which is always a hit because these things are UGLY - and of course the boys think they are great!

To finish up the story time I am having the kindergartners draw a pigeon and the older kids (I do a lot of story times with 1st & 2nd grade) are designing clothes for Wilber, the naked mole rat, to wear. You can get the coloring pages for the naked mole rat and a how to draw a pigeon guide on Mo's website under grownup stuff.

Of course, I will take a few of my students creations and send them in to Mo - he loves fan mail you know!

Holiday Mo

Mo Willems has a funny piece up on NPR - radio cartooning. My favorite caption is the one about killing Rudolph! Make sure to not only listen to the piece, but take a look on the website to see more captions to his cartoon!

Can I just say again how much I love this man!!!

What do you think it would take to get him to come to my school....... how AWESOME would that be! That is what I am asking Santa for this Christmas!

More Mo!

A picture from Saturday





and a picture of me from Read Across America Day - can you guess who I am???






Book fair is in the background and it has been CRAZY - we had an AWESOME Literacy night at our school last night and will give more details later - I worked 13 hours yesterday and now have to go off and open book fair!

I met MO!

at the GA Children's Literature Conference yesterday - one word for his presentation - 

AWESOME!

I will add a picture tomorrow when I am at work (at home we have a MAC and Blogger does not support adding pictures with a MAC!!!)

Also heard David Wiesner - he also had a FABULOUS presentation, although he made me feel a  little guilty, he told us his Mom saved ALL his artwork and he showed us quite a bit of his work from his younger years - while I do save some of my kids artwork, I have been in the mode of look and throw lately, we just have too much darn paper in our house - I just know now that one of my kids will be come some famous artist some day and I'll be wishing I had them.

Tomorrow is our schools Read Across America Day celebration - I am SO excited about my costume (the teachers dress as a children's book character). Be on the look out for some pictures!

Just had to say...

GO PATRIOTS!!!!!

Can Brady do it and go 19-0?  Lets hope so!  I am going to a party with mostly Giants fans - even my HUSBAND is rooting for the Giants ? oh well, won't they be disappointed at games end :) But I did make a FABULOUS stromboli to take with us to the party,  it is a pizza dough filled with capicola (italian ham), salami, deli pepperoni, provolone cheese and roasted red peppers - and served with some good marinara sauce - YUM!

Before the game I am off to get ready for Mo Week (as in Mo Willems) in my media center - more info. on my Mo week activities to come tomorrow!

Another reason to Love MO!

Mo Willems that is.

He has a great article on Scholastic on making reading FUN.

Although, I can tell that his daughter is still fairly young, he mentions in the article that
"You may not know this, but you are a very cool person (to your kid, at least). Seriously, pretty much everything you do is cool. If you mow the lawn, that's cool. If you eat chocolate ice cream, that's cool."

My eleven year old thinks that NOTHING I do is COOL and his almost 10 year old sister is *almost* at that point also, she only thinks about 10% of what I do is cool and only if it involves me buying her something!