Eli (Bill Peet)

This is a really fun one to read. It's fun to make a screechy vulture voice and a cranky lion voice. We really had a good laugh while reading it. Connects well with our friendship unit. Good vocabulary discussions too. I feel like we should do an author study some time on Bill Peet. We've read a number of his books this year and today when I showed this one my students commented that this is probably going to be a good one since it's by Bill Peet.

Goodreads says:

A proud but decrepit lion learns a lesson about friendship from the vultures he despises.

The Great Paper Caper (Oliver Jeffers)

This seems to be one of those books you could look at again and again and discover something new every time. There are so many little interesting details to look at and discuss in the illustrations. I wish we had a little more time for it in class because it seemed to cause a bit of a pause when I read it to my class.

Goodreads says:

The picture book features funny looking characters with dots for eyes and stick for legs who live in the forest conveys a sense that everyone is responsibility for the environment in which we live.

IMWAYR

This week I'm finishing Ivy and Bean for grade 3 book club.



I'm hosting for my book club this month and I haven't got much into this book (although I have read it before). I really need to get going on Daring Greatly:



I didn't plan things very well and I missed the date for my community book club last week and never did read One Perfect Lie. I still want to....but it's time to move on. So instead, I'm reading next months' book: The Heart Goes Last. It's a Margaret Atwood book and kind of bizarre...not that surprising.



I'm also doing some professional reading: Reading in the Wild and the BAS Assessment Guide (some people might think that's boring...but it's amazing!)
 

Happier At Home (Gretchen Rubin)

I'm a big Gretchen Rubin fan. She speaks to me. She speaks openly about herself. She and I share many traits. When I was reading, I'd say, "Wow! That's so me!" This book is going on my list of books to re-read. I'd really love to start a "Happier at Home" group to help keep myself accountable. I also need to go back and read her "Happiness Project" book.

Goodreads says:

In the spirit of her blockbuster #1 New York Times bestsellerThe Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin embarks on a new project to make home a happier place. 
One Sunday afternoon, as she unloaded the dishwasher, Gretchen Rubin felt hit by a wave of homesickness. Homesick—why? She was standing right in her own kitchen. She felt homesick, she realized, with love for home itself. “Of all the elements of a happy life,” she thought, “my home is the most important.” In a flash, she decided to undertake a new happiness project, and this time, to focus on home.

And what did she want from her home? A place that calmed her, and energized her. A place that, by making her feel safe, would free her to take risks. Also, while Rubin wanted to be happier at home, she wanted to appreciate how much happiness was there already.
 
So, starting in September (the new January), Rubin dedicated a school year—September through May—to making her home a place of greater simplicity, comfort, and love. 
 
In The Happiness Project, she worked out general theories of happiness. Here she goes deeper on factors that matter for home, such as possessions, marriage, time, and parenthood. How can she control the cubicle in her pocket? How might she spotlight her family’s treasured possessions? And it really was time to replace that dud toaster.
 
Each month, Rubin tackles a different theme as she experiments with concrete, manageable resolutions—and this time, she coaxes her family to try some resolutions, as well. 
 
With her signature blend of memoir, science, philosophy, and experimentation, Rubin’s passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire readers to find more happiness in their own lives. 

IMWAYR (It's Monday, What Are You Reading?)

Well, actually, it's Tuesday, but yesterday was a holiday (Thanksgiving Day) so today is my Monday.

I need to get into my school book club book! It's going to be lots of fun. I've read it before, but I really need to refresh my memory. I'd kind of like to read the entire series, but I'm not sure I'll have time.



For personal reading, I'm reading Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin. I love it!



Next, I plan to read One Perfect Lie by Lisa Scottoline.



What are you reading?

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Roald Dahl)

Makes me chuckle every time. Foxes are awesome! The old farmers in this story are particularly nasty. Totally up to Roald Dahl's standards! :)



“I think I have this thing where everybody has to think I'm the greatest.And if they aren't completely knocked out and dazzled and slightly intimidated by me, I don't feel good about myself.”

“I therefore invite you all," Mr Fox went on, 'to stay here with me for ever.'
For ever!' they cried. 'My goodness! How marvellous!' And Rabbit said to Mrs Rabbit, 'My dear, just think! We're never going to be shot again in our lives!'
We will make,' said Mr Fox, 'a little underground village, with streets and houses on each side - seperate houses for Badgers and Moles and Rabbits and Weasels and Foxes. And every day I will go shopping for you all. And every day we will eat like kings.'
The cheering that followed this speech went on for many minutes.”