Ms. Knight Reads- June 2017 Edition

To say it's been a long time since I posted a blog would be an understatement. The one about Follow the Moon Home? Yeah. That one was written last year, and I forgot to publish it. OOPS!! I did update it with information about it being a nominee for the 17-18 Texas Bluebonnet Award though, so I feel like that counts for something.

If yo've ever had the chance to talk to me about books or follow me on Twitter, you know that I'm a part of an amazing group called #BookVoyage. We are a group of 10 educators across the country that read books, share our thinking on post-its (our Post-It game is STRONG), and use Voxer to share our love of reading and our lives with one another. While I've never met them in person, I consider them some pretty great friends! It's nice to know how many people love to read as much as I do! This has given me the opportunity to read and review some fantastic books before they are published, but I wanted to have a way where you could go back, see what I've read, and not have to scroll through 1,000 tweets to find something. As I move forward, I'm open to suggestions to improve, so always leave feedback in the comments!

For the month of June, I didn't read near as much as I planned to. I spent 2 weeks in Italy (swoon), and then came home to move 6 days later! As I write right now, I am surrounded by boxes and bags that I just can't bring myself to unpack just yet. ALL OF THAT TO SAY- here's what I read this month, that I think you should read, too!

 Let me know if you want me to continue doing this once a month, and how I can improve it for YOU! :-)

Cassie

Follow the Moon Home by Philippe Cousteau & Deborah Hopkinson

When I go to public library, I love to pull out random picture books to read, because you never know what you're going to find! This book, Follow the Moon Home, did NOT disappoint! To make it even MORE exciting?! It's a Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee for the 2017-2018 school year! Here are some resources for the book (and others) compiled by the TBA Program Committee! 

I love how this book perfectly aligns with Challenge Based Learning, which is the initiative that my school has taken on! It shows that, yes, even kids can make a huge difference in our world and encourages learners to become environmental activists!! 

Here is how Goodreads describes it:
"Acclaimed Activist Philippe Cousteau and renowned author Deborah Hopkinson team up to offer a story of the powerful difference young people can make in the world. Meet Viv, who has a new home and a new school by the seat, and follow her as she finds her way in a new place and helps bring together a whole community to save the sea turtles of the South Carolina coast.

When I read picture books, I want to 1) enjoy the book and 2) think about how I can use it in my classroom! Here are my thoughts:

Challenge Based Learning (CBL) Idea:
Big Idea: Environment
Essential Question: How can we protect our environment?
Challenge: Be an Activist

While you never know all of the guiding questions your learners will come up, you typically have a good idea, so you can start pulling some resources and creating guiding activities to help them! 

Science Ideas:

• Learn more about Sea Turtles
• The book offers several resources for further investigation in the topic! 
• Life Cycles
• Tides
• Adaptations
• Animal Research 

ELAR:

• Types of Print
• Predicting
• Questioning
• Making Connections
• Inferences
• Drawing Conclusions
• Summarizing
• Sequencing

What ideas do you have for this book? Share in the comments!