The Brainstorm Plus: E.B. White Read Aloud awards 2013

Bookish Stuff

The E.B. White Read Aloud awards and Picture Book Hall of Fame awards just opened up voting for members of the Amercan Booksellers Association. No, most of you probably can't vote, but that doesn't mean you can't use it. Want to generate an interesting class discussion? Ask students (and adults) which picture book on the list of nominees they think should win and why. It is qutie the list. I don't know if I could decide. Look at those choices, can you pick just one???

• Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell Hoban, Lillian Hoban (Illus.) (HarperCollins)
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?, by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle (Henry Holt & Co.)
• Caps for Sale, by Esphyr Slobokina (HarperCollins)
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, Lois Ehlert (Illus.) (Beach Lane Books)
• Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann (Putnam Juvenile)
• Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson (HarperCollins)
• If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Laura Numeroff (HarperCollins)
• Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow)
• The Napping House, by Audrey Wood (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Stellaluna, by Janelle Cannon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers/Aladdin)
• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith (Illus.) (Viking Juvenile/Puffin)

Of course, you can have your classes discuss the other lists as well. None of them seem easy choices. In fact, the only award list I'm certain about is the E.B. White Read Aloud - Middle Reader division. I would pick The Last Dragonslayer hands down because, let's face it, lots of writers know how to make you cry and touch your hearts (I'm looking at you Wonder and The One and Only Ivan), but how many writers can weave a good plot line, keep you guessing at a mystery and make you laugh out loud so much you decide it would be safer not to read the book in public? Those books are much fewer and farther between.

Teaching Tools, Resources, Ideas, Etc.

April is Poetry Month. Well, it is national Poetry Month in the States, and since we're an American-based curriculum international school, we're celebrating too...even though we're on the other side of the globe. A teacher is about to come in next period and use the Media Center to make book spine poems with her creative writing class. I hope to share some of those in the future. For now, Edutopia has some resources for other Useful Resources for Teachers and Students in the poetic realm. Everything from online vaults of poetry to lesson plans to online activities. It is a great place to start in planning some poetry activities.

I came across this list of 25 Awesome Virtual Learning Experiences Online today. The post is almost four years old, but I tested a several links and they all still seem to work. It has a great list of resources for multiple classrooms, like a virtual tour of the Louvre or the Taj Mahal or Mount St Helens or the cardiovascular system.