Celebrating The Little Things

    Thanks to Ruth  at Discover.Play.Build, Ruth Ayres Writes for creating a place for everyone to share their celebrations. 

                  It's a week of sweetest 'little things', some already shared on this blog, on Facebook or Twitter, but still it's a pleasure to remind myself that those 'Little Things Mean A Lot', as an old song says.  

*On Monday, the ALA Youth Media awards were announced, and my Newbery club celebrated our own vote along with the official vote of the committee.  What an exciting morning!

          

*We awoke Tuesday to hear of the death of Pete Seeger, and since then, music has been much on everyone's mind.  Posts on blogs and Facebook along with tweets have celebrated his life of songs that touched and influenced so many in his life.  I remember more than one time seeing him in a small concert place in Denver with my family, my kids loving seeing him after hearing and learning his songs while growing up.  Among them, one I've always loved and shared with students, this song, one for females of all ages.  Written by his sister Peggy, and made popular by Pete, it speaks to me still:

Winter Chalking

Betsy Hubbard, a teacher who manages two blogs, Teaching Young Writers and I Think In Poems, and writes for Two Writing Teachers, also started a tradition at the end of the month last year sometime where some of us link up after having "chalked" a poem on our sidewalks or driveways somewhere.  I've been using a chalk app, but today, with snow falling, I thought I'd take a picture and use Skitch to share a chalky poem.  Here's the result of chalking in the snow!

It's My Weirdest Giveaway EVER!

Tricia, at The Miss Rumphius Effect is our lovely host for Poetry Friday today, filling us up with mathematical poetry from a lovely group of poets.   Thanks Tricia!

         It's an exciting day for me because I have the pleasure of sharing Catherine Johnson’s newly published poetry book, Wierdo Zoo!   Thus far, you can find it here, on Amazon! The poems are both written and illustrated by Catherine, who blogs at Little Red Riding Hood, eating the cake and writing poems instead!  Even from the title of Catherine's blog, you can tell this is going to be a treat!

            Giveaway:  Catherine has been kind enough to offer a copy of her book to one lucky commenter.  I'll put them all in a hat and draw a name to be announced next week! 

         So here we go into an adventure, of all things, well, weird, when you visit Catherine’s house.  At least that’s where I think she found all these amazing  and marvelous creatures.  And I’m not trying to honeyfuggle Catherine at all (new word just learned) because once you begin to travel through the pages, you will adore the trip!

A Bookish Slice

Thanks to those writers at Two Writing Teachers, we share parts of our lives on our Tuesday slices. Link up to add your own story.

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations--something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own.

- Katherine Patterson

      It was a good day to remember, and those of us who are readers and teachers, will remember it and keep reading.  Those of us who are writers will smile and be happy for those who were celebrated with such fanfare today, the day of the ALA youth media awards.  And we will continue to give book love to all those other books who aren’t going to wear shiny medals on their covers-so, so many wonderful ones, too!

     Our own school Newbery club readers met for the celebration today, and because we are two hours behind, the awards had already been announced so we were unable to watch. The archive hadn’t come up yet.  We’ve been meeting at lunch every couple of weeks since September, and had about ten students at any one time, but six consistently showing up, and reading at least one book a week, if not more than one.  They are 10 or 11 years old, and avid readers and book talkers.  We had a wonderful meeting this morning, first announcing our own vote results, then announcing the Newbery and the Caldecott winners, and later sharing the other awards too. 

Terrific Monday-Awards Coming!

       

  It's Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Jen at TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS, and shared with Ricki and Kellee at UNLEASHING READERS.   

         And, also visit Sheila at BOOK JOURNEYS for more reviews. Visit as many blogs as you can to find your next terrific read!   

 Tweet! at #IMWAYR

             Remember - today is Multi-Cultural Children's Book Day!  Celebrate by finding books from multi-cultural backgrounds and authors!

     It's been a good week of reading, some discoveries, and some finally found at the library that I've wanted to read for a while.

     What a day this is, full of excitement over the awards to be given today.  As I write, some authors and illustrators are very happy because they've received "that" call.  We're having a Newbery party Mon. morning to see if OUR favorite is going to have a shiny medal on its cover.  HERE is a link to the ALA press releases!

Here are my reviews for the week!

Picture Books

The Deer Watch – written by Pat Lowery Collins and illustrated by David Slonim

         This book is reminiscent of Jane Yolen’s Owl Moon, but this time it’s daytime in woods by the ocean, and a father takes his young son for a walk along the beach, and into the woods to look for deer.  The boy worries that outside noises might scare away the deer, but the father reassures that it will be okay. The illustrations are paintings, beautifully filling up the page with additional details. We see the boy balancing on a fallen log, the father steadying him, and other sweet moments between father and son.  The story captures a memory worth keeping.

The Way We Were

         Thanks to Ruth  at Discover.Play.Build, Ruth Ayres Writes for this Saturday tradition of sharing our celebrations.   

Tweet at #Celebratelu

        It was a good week, starting with my older granddaughter Ingrid spending Saturday night and Sunday morning with me.  There is something very sweet about the words, "Are you awake, Grandma."  Really!  I had more than one good meeting with colleagues, both individually and in groups, and more wonderful book group meetings with one group.  We're nearly finished with Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, and it's been a joy.  I'll share about that another time.  
         Today I want to celebrate my husband because yesterday would have been our forty-ninth wedding anniversary.  Despite the good week, it's also been sad, and Arvie has been even more on my mind. 

Poetic One Little Word

             Tara Smith at A Teaching Life is hosting Poetry Friday today from the snowy east, and it's her birthday!  Thanks Tara, and happiest of birthdays to you this special Friday!

         At the beginning of the month, when I shared my One Little Word here, more than one person shared a poem with me that connected, and several times since I have discovered other references to my word, which is wander.  I now have, through my own discovery and through gifts, a growing file of poems and a few quotes that have some connection to wander. The word is "hanging on", so much that some poems have been now appearing more than once! Serendipity, destiny?  Whatever the reason, I am thrilled to have discovered so much just here in January, and I'm starting a scrapbook of sorts about the word in all its permutations.
photo credit: rottnapples via photopin cc

Slicing and Dicing Monday

                       The Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by the Two WritingTeachers blog.  Thanks to all who make us so happy (and well-informed).

                 The day moved into a slice and dice, cook-the-day-in-a-big-pot kind of day, often the taste of Mondays.  Numerous things to do keep me dicing! 

          The day moves slowly in the early am. Coffee perks while I open the computer to check e-mail, Facebook, and my blog, nearly always posted the night before. It’s dark, so I sit with coffee and wake up…

          Light peeks in, and I go to the side door to see if there is a good photo waiting outside. Funny how habits form!  I started doing this when I moved, because while my new home has good windows, the best views face different ways than my old home had. So I started watching for the sun which is more blocked now, and started taking pictures.  Here’s this morning’s sunrise.

On Facebook too-It was amazing!

Challenges met this week!

          It's Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Jen at TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS, and shared with Ricki and Kellee at UNLEASHING READERS.   

         And, also visit Sheila at BOOK JOURNEYS for more reviews. Thanks to all these blogs we are able to discover many, many new books!  Thanks Ricki, Kellee, Jen and Sheila!

 Tweet! at #IMWAYR

Happy Reading Everyone!

I read books that met the three challenges on the sidebar this week.  Week by week this year, I hope I can find time to read all that are on my list found here in this post.  Go to Carrie Gelson's post here to discover what it's all about and who's participating (tweet at #MustReadin2014), or go to Gathering Books with Myra, Fats & Iphigene to see their challenge!    

The Latin@s in Kidlit Challenge is here!

        I've kept seeing this book of poetry from two important writers and Caldecott winning illustrator in reviews, so decided it was a book I wanted to own. I imagine this will be used to learn, but would be thrilled to also use it as a mentor text for older students who might research and write their own poems about their lives, including the historical background of their personal heritage.  Wouldn't it be a fabulous project!  

       Yes! We Are Latinos – poems by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, and illustrations by David Diaz

Live It Up!

           Thanks to Ruth  at Discover.Play.Build, Ruth Ayres Writes for this Saturday tradition of sharing our celebrations.   

Tweet at #Celebratelu

        So, it was a good week, a full week, but a three day weekend is something to celebrate for everyone SO tired even though they recently had a long winter break. We all decided coming back into the 'swing' of school is more tiring than starting school. Reminds me of a marching band getting back into their cadence, practice helps, but still…  

        And I'd like to start with a thought for Dr. Martin Luther King, someone I am glad to have known as a part of my living history, and feel sorrowful for his too early death.  He is quoted as saying: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

"A Little Consideration"

                Poetry Friday, a lovely time to end the week with poetry celebration. This week with Keri, at Keri Recommends, where she's also celebrating her birthday!  Go on over to help her celebrate! (She has cookies!)

       Every day to and from work, I walk past this bird feeder, created by a class at my school, and enjoy the color, the joyous look of it, especially in winter.  I decided to write about its purpose, as I see it.  Here is my celebration of it.

 "A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the    
                                                   difference."
                                                                -- Pooh's LittleInstruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

A Sunny Slice to Share

               

The Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by the Two WritingTeachers blog.  I'm getting excited about March, slicing every.single.day!  Are you?  

I thought I was going to take a little bit of time, and share this slideshow from the morning of the final day of school before the winter break.  I struggled with how to embed the slideshow although I've done it before.  Argh! I need a brain compartment just for techie stuff! And that is part of my slicing today, I do spend quite a bit of time figuring out some things, and I enjoy it, but it does take time. And often the time is worth it!

              Years ago we at school wanted to find a way to celebrate all our students' holidays at this time of year.  Although some of their most important holidays don't always occur in December, most of them do have connections to the specialness of light in some way.  Some classrooms focus on learning about all kinds of celebrations, and others focus on what metaphorically brings light into our lives, but everyone creates a display in the classrooms, small offices, library, and so on that connects to light. 

It's Monday-Reading - New Ones & Old

 It's Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Jen at TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS, and shared with Ricki and Kellee at UNLEASHING READERS.   

         And, also visit Sheila at BOOK JOURNEYS for more reviews. Thanks to all these blogs we are able to discover many, many new books!  Thanks Ricki, Kellee, Jen and Sheila!

 Tweet! at #IMWAYR

New challenges!  See the sidebar for all three.   Week by week this year, I hope I can find time to read all that are on my list found here in this post.  If you're interested in having a group help you keep track of your reading, go to Carrie Gelson's post here to discover what it's all about and who's participating (tweet at #MustReadin2014), or go to Gathering Books with Myra, Fats & Iphigene to see their challenge!  

                   The Latinos in Kidlit Challenge is here!

              The Cybil's finalists--especially the wonderful poetry books can be found HERE!   

      It's been a fun week of reading, although I only finished one long book.  I'm starting another book group, reading and making notes for the Cybil's Poetry finalists, reading for our school Newbery Club, and still going with a couple of professional books.  I have a lot of reading to do!

professional book:

Opening Minds – by Peter Johnston

                Finished reading this for the second time, but this reading was with a group, a satisfying series of conversations.  What a marvelous book to enhance learning about being a better teacher, and even learning about working with anyone.  There is research that backs so many concepts that aren't exactly supported in some classrooms today, like choice for and empowerment of students.  One of many favorite lines: "Our main advantage as human beings lies in our ability to think together."  Much of value here in this second book of Johnston's.

Celebrating and Ruminating

Thanks to Ruth  at DiscoverPlayBuild,  for this Saturday tradition of sharing our celebrations.   
Tweet at #Celebratelu

        “Sometimes “right back where you started from” is right where you belong.” anonymous

Resonate

 

This Saturday…

I wish to educate

and also illustrate

that I can elaborate

and never hesitate

‘cause I wish to demonstrate

we should perpetuate,

not underestimate

writing’s power to facilitate

those who celebrate!

             Linda Baie ©all rights reserved

             Just couldn’t resist a little celebration of words.  It’s been a very busy, but good week back to work.  

Books Are Gifts In More Than One Way

 Donna of Mainely Write, our host today, began blogging at about the same time I did, nearly three years ago and what fun it's been to get to know each other.  She is a clever poet, as you will see from her welcome poem.  Visit her and all the other poets sharing today!  Thanks for hosting, Donna!

Don't forget to check out the Cybil's finalists, especially the wonderful poetry books!  You can find them HERE!   
                                                        -------------------------------------

Available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/JLu6DB

          I opened my mailbox last week and found one more Christmas gift, also filled with more gifts given within this family.  As a tribute to her father and his art, Margaret Gibson Simon (blogging at Reflections On The Teche) has published a book, Illuminate.  

Okay-It wandered in!

The Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by the Two Writing Teachers blog.  Go there to visit the other"slicers"! I'm looking forward to more great posts from Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Anna, and Elisabeth!

  Hurrah!  The Cybil's finalists are HERE!  Great lists of books to discover!

It's been a struggle for me to continue with my One Little Word these past two years.  I signed up for the class, purchased the pages, found a nice binder, and created pages through January, then stopped. During the years, I thought sometimes of my OLW, but not with much enthusiasm for doing anything. Sometimes I was too busy, or I made myself be busy with other things.  It's rather like my sewing. I used to sew a lot, and am fairly competent at it, but days hold only so many hours, and I prefer reading, writing and working for my job, so I do have time to sew, if I make the time, but I'd rather be elsewhere.  
           Back to the OLW.  I've read many posts in the past week about people choosing or discovering and the posts have been inspiring. I loved hearing from Dana recently, and remember Claire and Tammy's, Terje's, Deb's, Jennifer M.'s…  I really do love the idea!  But this time I thought I wouldn't do it. I don't have a good track record as you can see.

Reading - Making Terrific Plans for 2014

 It's Monday! What are you Reading? is hosted by Jen at TEACH.MENTOR.TEXTS, and shared with Ricki and Kellee at UNLEASHING READERS.   

         And, also visit Sheila at BOOK JOURNEYS for more reviews. Thanks to all these blogs we are able to discover many, many new books!  Thanks Ricki, Kellee, Jen and Sheila!

 Tweet! at #IMWAYR

New challenges!  See the sidebar for all three.  Today I'm checking off a couple of books that are on my TBR list.  Week by week this year, I hope I can find time to read all that are on my list found here in this post.  If you're interested in having a group help you keep track of your reading, go to Carrie Gelson's post here to discover what it's all about and who's participating (tweet at #MustReadin2014), or to Gathering Books with Myra, Fats & Iphigene to see their challenge!  

                   The Latinos in Kidlit Challenge is here!

     For contemplating challenges here in this new year when many are making resolutions and signing up for challenges, enjoy the quote!  "I hope everyone who is reading this is having a really good day.  And if you are not, just know that in every new minute that passes you have an opportunity to change that."  Gillian Anderson

Here are books that I completed for the challenges:

Allegiant – Veronica Roth

           Finishing a series over several years is challenging, especially since I read each of the first two books when they first were published. Also, considering this includes a main group that belong to a faction named "dauntless", my "daunting" task is to write about a book series I thoroughly enjoyed without giving much away to those who haven't read number three!   I feel that sometimes this particular book was a bit slow going.  Some details seemed to be repeated more than I needed, and I wanted to "get on with" the story.  There was less action and perhaps that was part of what I missed. None of this prevented me from enjoying the book thoroughly, however.  

Sunshine All Around

Denver has an average of about 245 days with sun or part sun each year.  Our weather is mercurial for sure.  Consider this from the Post news of Friday and Saturday:  With near-record highs and plenty of sunshine during the day followed by multiple inches of snow overnight, Colorado weather once again can't make up its mind.

It was beautiful Friday, with the high reaching 62 degrees at 2:15 p.m., which was 3 degrees shy of the record high set in 1918.  Saturday will reach a high of about 20 degrees! 
            Today a high of 16, then by Tuesday, back to 50.  But almost always sun!

My sunshiny days of the year!

I imagine many of you have seen the posts circulating about sharing some Sunshine by tapping a few bloggers that are in your network.  This time, I'm sending some sunshine to a few blogger friends!  Here is how it works!

Wandering!

 Thanks to Ruth  at DiscoverPlayBuild,  for beginning this Saturday tradition of sharing our celebrations.   

The finalists were announced on Jan. 1st!  You can see the list here! 

          These final days of vacation held more good, but small things.  My son, daughter-in-law and grandson left a week ago to avoid snow, and the house was quiet enough to echo! Music helped!  So I got busy, and, in my mind, celebrated all the good things that happened during Christmas week.  As I put most decorations away, did laundry, and munched on leftovers, I relived family meals and laughs and shopping we did after Christmas (NOT Black Friday).  It's been a sl-o-o-w second week, including much reading and doing some other things I just wanted to do.

Poetry Friday - At The Beginning Again

          I Think In Poems starts the year for Poetry Friday as the host!  Thank you, Betsy!

           First, I want to congratulate and share a link to the Cybil's Finalists in ALL the categories.  What a tremendous amount of work the Round One Panelists had to do, although the reading is a pleasure!  I have the honor of serving again this year as a second round judge in poetry, and look forward to examining the following wonderful books, although it's always so hard to "eat" just one.  Congratulations to the poetry finalists, wonderful to see!

Finalists!