Last Friday, Camp Nash hosted the first in a series of guest reader visits this year.
In an effort to model and share the habits of good readers, I’ve arranged for many familiar faces, and some, perhaps, not so familiar, to come share their lives as readers with us. We’ll hear about what these readers like to read, when they read, where and how they find books to read, and any other special habits or “rituals” they may have.
Our first visitor, Mrs. Holtsman, also shared with us one of her children’s books, Kamishabi Man by Allen Say, a warm story about a retired Japanese storyteller remembering long ago days.
I hope you enjoy watching this video of our special guest. I’m looking forward to sharing more with you soon!
Posted by Jenny Nash | Posted in Battle of the Books, reading, writing | Posted on 28-08-2008
I hope you enjoyed our first installment, today, of The Homework Machine, by Dan Gutman. I chose that book as our first chapter book to share together this year for a number of reasons. First, it is a book from the Battle of the Books list, and I wanted to “jumpstart” your reading for that fun event. Second, I thought it sounded fun and appropriate for the beginning of a school year — a book about homework. (We’re beginning our homework rituals next week!) Third, I love the style of the book!
Isn’t it different to read a book written from the perspective of so many different characters? I read a few books this summer that were written this way. One thing I noticed about this style of writing is that I really had to pay attention! There was so much more to juggle in my mind! I found myself flipping back in the book to reread sections, confirm details I thought perhaps I had forgotten or misread, and reading slower at times. If I wasn’t careful, the story could start spiraling out of control and I would be left in the dust, wondering what happened and how I got so lost!
Tonight I was thinking about this story. I received a couple of comments to a post from a classmate of ours, and started thinking about blogs as a conversation. It’s a lot of fun for me to sit down and compose a little post, or article, for you and your families to read at home. I feel like I’m spending time with you when I do this! However, it is even MORE fun to get comments from you and your family! That’s when this site becomes a place that we can get together!
Think back to our book we’re sharing. So far we’ve heard a lot about Brenton, the “nerdy” character that doesn’t even bother to try to be cool. We’ve heard from Judy, the stuck-up, overachiever who hopes to be a lawyer someday. We’ve heard from Kelsey, who refers to herself as “stupid” and admits to copying off of Bernard’s papers. And then there’s Sam, the “cool guy”. He seems very proud of his “bad boy” image. They’ve all been talking about the same event, but from their own perspective. They’ve all explained to us that they’ve been called to the police station to “make a statement” in private. About exactly what, we still do not know.
I thought — Our blog could be a fun way to try this style of writing out! We could all add comments to a post sharing OUR OWN perspective of an event! Anyone reading our blog would live the same type of reading experience as we are currently reading in our book! Wouldn’t that be neat?
Tomorrow, let’s talk about this. Let’s come up with a plan and an idea for an event. If you have any ideas — share them with us here! This will be great!
Posted by Jenny Nash | Posted in back-to-school, reading | Posted on 24-08-2008
As Emma, my five year-old daughter, and I sat at the dinner table this evening, we both agreed that we were excited to finally be returning to school tomorrow. It has been a long five days! Thanks to Fay, we’ve played board games until our spinner fingers hurt! We’ve read books, played dress-up, sculpted with Play-Doh, sang songs, played flashlight games, sewed puppets, and (finally, once the sun emerged again) shopped!
I hope you have accepted this unexpected break as a little gift and enjoyed time with your family. As we all, once again, attempt to get back into the school year routine, know that i am anxiously awaiting my time with your children! This week, in addition to learning and practicing our rituals and routines for readers’ and writers’ workshops, we will begin a study of memoir writing. Our read-alouds in readers’ workshop will focus on the theme of building community, as we work together to create a community of learners in our classroom.
As a fun treat to share with your family, I’d love for you to enjoy the book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox. Follow this link to www.storylineonline.net listen to the story read aloud by Bradley Whitford.
See you at school!
