don't let the pigeon...

I didn't discover Mo Willems until Knuffle Bunny came along.  I wasn't even a huge Pigeon fan until this year.  Yup...it took me until the year 2013 to fully back Mo Willems.   

Please, Mo Willems, take this as a personal apology.  I made a huge mistake.  Pigeon is amazing.  

It started with this video which I found on Pinterest (another obsession which will get it's own post soon).

My 1st grade students fell in love with it.  They learned book care and fell for this character.  I'll be honest, this is when I first read Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems.  And then I found this video...

Omygosh.  The kids went NUTS.  So I read the rest of the books.  And then read them to my students.  And they exploded.  With excitement.  With giggles.  With desire to share out in COMPLETE SENTENCES (with the help of these Read a loud Sentence Starters).  And, with the inspiration to WRITE IN COMPLETE SENTENCES.  See these examples:

"Don't let the pigeon fly in the library with the books."

"Don't let the pigeon eat cotton candy bcause it is somebody else's."

"Don't let the pigeon play video games."

Other favorites:  "Don't let the pigeon eat grapes."  "Don't let the pigeon touch the flowers."  "Don't let the pigeon watch tv."  I love how random these guys are.   If they struggled to come up with an idea I asked them what their favorite thing to do was.  This got the best responses, and next year is how I'm going to start.  I got: "Don't let the pigeon eat cookies."  "Don't let the pigeon play Angry Birds."  "Don't let the pigeon make a mess."  "Don't let the pigeon play on the swings."  First grade has been one of my harder groups this year, and this activity alone has made me fall in love with them all.

These are 1st graders.  Half of the students are NOT native English learners (hence the translations provided in the caption)...  I am beyond proud of these students.  I've been showing off their work to ANYONE I can, and now you are the latest.  I'll be emailing them to Mo Willems once they are done.  I'm not kidding.

--A very happy Book Lady

the librarian who doesn't read?!?!

Wait!  Obviously I do read.  I read books aloud to students (almost) every day.  I read news articles online, I read magazines, I read street signs (hey...it's reading)--but I don't give myself time to read for myself or time to read new children's books.  And I miss it.  While reading and inspiring students to read is not my sole job, it's a big part of it, and it's probably the number one reason I started to pursue this profession...the other pieces just fell into place.  I'm not a big before bedtime reader (I fall asleep after a page or two), and I tend to veg in front of the TV when I get home (shhh...don't tell my students).  The only time I get to read is when I carve out a morning/afternoon/whole weekend day to make it through a stack.  I rarely sustainably read books.  And it's driving me nuts.

So I've come up with a plan.  My lunch-hour (ha, 45 minutes, but really 30 minutes, once I run into/converse with teachers, heat up my lunch, and make it to the bathroom for the first time all morning), will now be devoted to reading.  I can read whatever I want (adult or young adult or children's, fiction or non-fiction, but it must be a book (or e-book).

Follow me on GoodReads and hold me accountable!  (I started this on Monday and am already 120 pages into a book...it's looking promising!)

Blueberry muffins...

http://www.bettycrocker.com/products/muffins/products/betty-crocker-premium/wild-blueberry

:::Shhh:::  It's a secret.  I take fabulous Betty Crocker muffin (and cookie) mixes and tweak them to make them even yummier.   People love them.  This is my latest, but I promise, I will share the others.  Thank you to Betty Crocker for creating mixes that mean I can bake without having to try THAT hard.

One of my many allergies is egg whites.  But I love to bake.  This causes problems, and tends to lead to sinus infections (don't ask...it's annoying yet true), which tends to make being a human, let alone a teacher, quite difficult.  I decided I would start testing out different baking substitutes.  This weekend was applesauce.

I took the Betty Crocker Wild Blueberry muffin mix and did this to it:

• exchanged blueberries provided with a pint of fresh blueberries
• instead of two eggs, used a snack applesauce cup (approx. 1/2 cup)
• added a mashed banana
• 2 T of flax seed
• 1/4 c of oatmeal

I baked these in the oven at the prescribed temp and time and was pleasantly surprised.  No idea if this will turn out twice in a row, or how it will work for people not at altitude (5,280 feet).  

Good luck.  Enjoy.  And next time can it snow after I make it home?

Ms. Book Lady