Following Good Models of Writing: A Nest For Celeste

This morning we read a passage  from A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole:

"Thousands of birds---some dark, some light, some long---necked, some short, but thousands of them---- floated in groups forming giant carpets in the water."

We thought this was a very interesting paragraph. So, like good writers do, we thought we could follow Henry Cole's style. We noticed how one sentence is separated by dashes, and that Cole uses phrases with the word some to give details.

Here's a sample Mrs. Alaniz wrote:

Downtown, there are many building with windows. Dozens and dozens of windows---some tall, some rectangular, some shiny, some dull----stare out into the street creating geometric patterns with sunlight on the sidewalk.  

Can you follow Cole's style and write a sentence of your own? We came up with 5 topics this morning in class. Write your own Cole-type sentence about one of these topics and be ready to share in class tomorrow!

Why Do We Love Picture Books?

This is a screen capture of a graphic organizer we made in class using the Idea Sketch app.

We have been reading picture books in class because we are trying to predict the Caldecott winners for 2012. This caused us to have a great discussion about why we enjoy picture books so much. Each students created a graphic organizer using the Idea Sketch app on our iPod Touches. It was fun to show our thinking this way. Here are some samples of our ideas!

Mrs. Alaniz collected our work on on iPod Touch using the Bump app. In a few seconds, everyone's sketches now appeared on one device!  We love these apps! Thank you, Mr. Vincent, (from Learning in Hand )for showing our teacher this great app. )

BabyMouse Celebration!

4A LIKES BABYMOUSE BECAUSE: 

1. The first reason is that she loves to read.
2.The second reason is that the books are pink.

3. The third is that the books are funny. 

4. The fourth reason is that she is cute!!

5. Babymouse has messy whiskers and we like that! 

6. It's a graphic novel.

7.  She loves cupcakes, and so do we!

8. She says "Typical" a lot.

9. They are quick to read.  

10.  All of the books have interesting adventures. 

  We love Babymouse so much, we made a poster for her. We all pitched in and added our part. 

Read a Babymouse book today! 

Another Caldecott Candidate?

Today we read A PERFECT SQUARE by Michael Hall.

These are our thoughts about the book.

The author was creative about the illustrations.
We like how he used his imagination.
Someone said "I liked how he used different words like 'crumpled', 'ripped', 'wrinkled', and 'rigid', and he did not use basic words."
Some people said, "It makes you want to get up and make paper objects such as the ones in the book."

What can YOU make out of a square?

Grandpa Green: Is It A Caldecott Winner?

Today we read Grandpa Green by Lane Smith.

It is a picture book that has interesting illustrations. The narrator is a little boy who is telling us about his great grandfather. His great-grandfather is a gardener who trims hedges to look like people and figures and objects.  As the boy tells  the story, we see the great-grandfather's lifetime events told through the bushes/hedges.
Every picture is colored green and white.

We liked the book because it's creative and the author used his imagination.
Some of us think this will be a Caldecott winner this year. 
We are still reading possible winners. The winners will be named January 23rd. We can hardly wait to see who wins!!

Have you ever read this book? 

A Very Special Friendship

Today, Mrs. Alaniz read us this picture book. (Even though we're in fourth grade we love picture books because they are short and they are usually good stories.)

This book is called The Two Bobbies by Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery.

This book is about two pets named Bobbi and Bob Cat. After Katrina, they are homeless and lonely. Along the way they meet people who care about them, but they are always looking for a home. 
Read this if you love animals and want to hear a good story.
We highly recommend this book!

Have you read this book or a book like it? Did you know this is a true story?  Did you enjoy our first book review?

Happy New Year!

*Happy New Year!*

The new year is here! I know 2012 will be a wonderful year!

Did you also know it is a Leap Year? This means we will have 366 days in the year 2012 instead of 365. Do you know what day that will be? The Egyptians were the first people to use a leap year. 

The new year is a good time to set goals.  I've set a book total goal for myself, and I am taking part in two reading challenges. You can set a goal for the number of books you'd like to read, a book total within a genre, or to read all the books on an award list such as the Texas Bluebonnet Award. Set a goal that is right for you!

What reading goals have you set for yourself?