What Kindergarten's Reading: Moe The Dog in Tropical Paradise

There are some weeks when I just don't know what I want to read to Kindergarten. This is the week before spring break here and our schedule is crazy (events for religious education, field trips etc..). Many of the teachers have been reading my good Easter and Spring books, so I didn't want to repeat them to the students, so I went shelf surfing. This is where I look through the shelves to find something different to read to the kids, something that they wouldn't normally read themselves, or even have had a teacher read to them. And usually, I find something "new" that I hadn't seen before in the collection.

My shelf surfing led me to Moe the Dog in Tropical Paradise by Diane Stanley and illustrated by Elise Primavera.

This is the story of two dogs, Moe and Arlene. They are on vacation for the week, but are stuck in their snowy, cold town. So Moe gets inspired and creates a tropical paradise in his house, complete with pool and sand! He invites Arlene over and the two of them have a grand vacation, without getting a sunburn.

I chose this book because, although many of my students are lucky enough to be going away for spring break, their media specialist is NOT, so this story is making ME feel better about not spending my week sitting on a beach sipping a fruity drink. Instead I will be playing crowd control to my own 3 kids, and maybe getting a little sand and a wading pool for my backyard to create my own paradise (at least here in Atlanta it is warm and hopefully the weather will stay warm and sunny next week.)

I wish I had found this book earlier (don't I say this every week!) and had thought to bring in my beach chair and pool toys to liven up the atmosphere in the media center - oh well, maybe next year!

What Kindergaten's Reading: Dr. Seuss

It is Dr. Seuss Week here in our neck of the woods in honor of Read Across America Day so, big surprise, I am reading a Dr. Seuss book to kindergarten this week. I chose a book that teachers might not necessarily read to the kids, Horton Hatches The Egg. I also realized why it is a book that teachers don't read to their students, it is LONG - I am EXHAUSTED after I get through reading this to the kids!

This is the story of Horton, he is a nice elephant, always stays true to his word and when he decides to help out Mayzie the bird sit on her egg so she can get a vacation, nothing, NOTHING will stop Horton from sitting on that egg. It is typical Dr. Seuss rhyme and classic Dr. Seuss illustrations. As with most of his books, it does have a message in there that most adults get but it skips right over the kids. The kids enjoy it when I read Dr. Seuss because I tend to do it very quickly and with a lot of energy, something about the way he writes makes me think that his books were meant to be read this way. This is also why I am exhausted and froggy voiced after reading this book, especially when I have to read it 3 times in a row to different classes.

Tomorrow is the big day here at my school. Check back tomorrow and I will have some pictures of what people dressed up as for Read Across America day - and I will unveil my costume (I think I finally have a decision made!)

What Kindergarten's Reading

Just Like Abraham Lincoln by Bernard Waber (1964)

This is an oldie (I couldn't even find a picture of it on the net) but I think a funny read for President's day.

A boy tells us about his neighbor, Mr. Potts, who looks just like Abraham Lincoln. He describes some of Mr. Potts traits and, coincidentally, he acts just like Abraham Lincoln too. The boy talks about how he is learning about the REAL Abraham Lincoln in class and gives a little historical information about ol' Abe. At the school's Lincoln Birthday celebration, there is a special visitor, none other than Mr. Potts. At the end of the book there is a little twist of fate, so to speak, when a new neighbor moves in and looks like... George Washington.

I am a big Bernard Waber fan, for me it started with Ira Sleeps Over, one of my favorite books as a kid.

I am actually looking for a stove pipe hat to wear this week while I read the story, I just wish these ideas came to be a few weeks in advance so I could order a hat, rather than trying to find one today at my local party store/costume store. I guess I could always make one!

What Kindergarten's reading this week

Going Someplace Special by Patricia McKissack, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney

I am continuing with stories related to Black History Month this week with a fictional tale about a young girl taking a trip through a southern town in the 1950's in the midst of Jim Crow laws. The girl, Tricia Ann, encounters having to sit in the back of the bus in the colored section, a sign on a bench in a park that demands "Whites Only" and being swept by a crowd into a hotel lobby and then yelled at by the manager for being a colored girl in a hotel that does not allow blacks.
The story has a happy ending when Tricia Ann makes it to her "someplace special", the public library.
The book has an afterward from the author, which is a little too involved to read to my kindergarten kids, but explains that this story is based on her life in Nashville, TN in the 1950's.

I use this book to explain segregation and Jim Crow laws to the kids. Since they recently read books in the media center and in their classrooms about Dr. Martin Luther King , I was able to tie together what we had read about him and his work to repeal these laws and what life was actually like for someone their age living with these laws (although the girl in the story is older than my kindergarten kids, she is still a kid).

I have also suggested this book to my middle school teachers to use when they are studying segregation and Jim Crow laws, again it helps to tie together the facts and the feelings of what it was like to live during segregation.