As a Social Studies and Reading teacher(who also happens to be an AVID book lover), I am always on the hunt for picture books that I can use to help teach content topics, introduce important people and events, and bring some joy and excitement to learning. That is why I am so excited about the following 4 books. I learned about most of these titles while I was at Nerd Camp this past summer and knew that they would be valuable stories for me to share with my students. The first is Unspoken by Henry Cole. Three major things make this book a must have. 1) The book has no words. The story is told strictly through the remarkable black and white illustrations. This also means that the students are encouraged to really pay attention to the details of the pictures and the sequencing of the illustrations in order to piece together the storyline. 2) The story offers a unique twist on the Underground Railroad. Instead of telling the story through the eyes of a ...
Archives for September 2016
You Matter Postcards
After reading the book Kids Deserve It! by Todd Nelsoney and Adam Welcome, I was eager to find ways to reach out to students in our school because they deserved to be recognized and celebrated! I often wonder how often students, who we love and adore, don’t know that we feel that way about them. Do students realize that we see all of the amazing accomplishments that they are making? Do they know that we notice their hard work and effort? Do they realize that we are celebrating all of their moments with them-both big and small? One of my favorite phrases/chapters from the book is YOU MATTER. Those two words are so powerful to me. They mean that we see you. We know that you are working hard. We know that you are giving us everything you have. We know that your story is important and that your struggles do not define who you are. This postcard is something that I created for our school to send home to students to let them know that they matter. We leave little ...