Russ Cox

Russ Cox is a Maine Author/Illustrator.  If you haven't heard of him, you should check him out immediately!  We discovered his book Far Away Friends last summer in a local bookstore, The Briar Patch, and it was a huge hit with my 6 year old (and me, too)!

Fast forward to the fall, when Russ Cox visited my school.  During the day he met with students and showed them some art from his sketch book, and played a drawing game with them.  In the evening, he came back to meet with parents at a Title 1 event.  He drew pictures with students and did a read aloud of his new book...wearing a homemade space helmet made from a  paper bag!

Here are some pictures of my son participating in Title 1 night with Russ...

       

The students came up with a list of things that their drawings had to include.  Some of the things on the list that night were...

1.  bird                      4.  female                  6. feathers
2. eating                   5.  no clothes             7.  worms
3. flying

Russ drew this picture.  My son drew the, "lady bow tie"...whatever that is!

Russ is also doing the illustrations for a great series called Puppy Pirates.  It is a great series for lower grade readers and my 1st and 2nd grade students love it!  This series would make a great addition to any elementary school library!

Russ is an amazing artist with great ideas for upcoming stories and he is one of the nicest people I have ever met.  Check him out today!

Author Spotlight - David Shannon

Our author spotlight bulletin board featured David Shannon for the month of October.

The students loved reading Duck on a Bike, A Bad Case of the Stripes, Jangles, and No, David!  We learned facts about David Shannon and even got to draw David!

         

Jim Henson

Jim Henson was a genius!  He brought us the Muppets and Sesame Street.

 

Jim Henson, the Guy Who Played with Puppets was a fantastic biography that we picked up at our local library.  After reading it, I wanted to know more about the genius behind the Muppets so we got some seasons of the Muppet Show (from the 70's) and threw a Muppet party.

I found this great video that Jim Henson did for Iowa Public Television on making puppets.  We watched it, made a list, and set off for the Dollar Store.  We bought tennis balls, socks, buttons, elastics, envelopes, thumb tacks, spatulas, and any thing we thought would work for a puppet.  We had an amazing time and made some great puppets!!  Here are a few shots of our puppets...

Also, what's a Muppet party without good snacks!?!

                

                       

Happy Birthday, Bessie Coleman!

Today is the 125th birthday of Bessie Coleman!  In honor of her birthday, she is featured as today's Google Doodle.  She was an American civil aviator and the first African-American woman to hold a pilot license.

We have set up a little display in our library to celebrate Bessie's life along with other African-American women that have been "first" and other first women.  

Some of the women included in our display...Mae Jemison, Amelia Earhart, Melba Liston, Wilma Rudolph, Venus and Serena Williams

10 stars out of 5

Today, my 7 year old read, "The 26-Story Treehouse."  He started it at the library and just finished it! When I asked him if he liked it he said he, "loved it!"  After giving it a bazillion stars, I asked him how many stars he would give it out of 5.  He said 10!  He likes it as much as Bad Kitty and he said it was really funny.  We will definitely be going to the library tomorrow to check out the 1st and 3rd books of the series!

I looked through this book a little bit and it reminded me of a Wimpy Kid book.  So, if you have a reluctant reader or a child that loves Wimpy Kid, give this series a try! Happy reading!

Non-Fiction can be fun!

I was shelving books at the local library and I came across a cool non-fiction book called Mysterious Patterns, Finding Fractals in nature...

 

In this book, I learned about fractals (similar patterns that occur on a smaller scale) like this picture of a tree.  For more fractals in nature, click here.

I thought this book was so cool and very easy to read.  It had amazing pictures and even gave me directions to make my very own fractal!

Over April vacation I went to Chicago and visited the Museum of Science and Industry. This was probably one of the coolest museums that I have even been to and if you ever find yourself in Chicago, you need to go there!  Anyway, there was an exhibit called Numbers in Nature  that reminds me of this book.  Here are some pictures of our time spent in the exhibit...

 

What I'm trying say is...non-fiction can be fun!  Let me know what cool non-fiction books you have read!  Happy reading!

Bad Kitty

My son has read Bad Kitty Goes to the Vet and Bad Kitty Drawn to Trouble by Nick Bruel.  His review..."I give it a billion and a half stars out of a billion and a half stars."  What if it were out of 5 stars?  He says, "I give it a 5 out of 5!"  He said you should read these books because they are funny.  He also says that Drawn to Trouble is, "really funny!"

If you would like to read more about Nick Bruel (author of the Bad Kitty series), check him out here!  

You can learn to draw Bad Kitty in Bad Kitty Drawn to Trouble.  Here is a picture my son did...

Look for more Bad Kitty activities here!  Happy Reading!!!!