Thrifting at the Library

Yesterday it rained off and on. At one point during the afternoon, my son and I took shelter at the Pape Avenue Library. There, I discovered a treasure trove of withdrawn hardcover books that cost $1.00 apiece. I've bought several books from the Toronto Public Library over the years. The selection is hit-and-miss, but the prices are great and you always feel like you've made a donation to a worthy cause. If you live in a different city or town, find out if your library sells withdrawn books. It's another great way to collect books for the classroom.

Here's what $6.00 bought me. All of the books were in pretty good shape.
I love the story and illustrations in Hot City. I grab Eyewitness books whenever I see them used. They are packed with information and fantastic photos and illustrations.
On the left, a book about George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. On the right, Monica Hughes' A Handful of Seeds, which I'll use for teaching inferencing.

Here we have a factual book about Halloween and a book about the various multicultural special days observed in Canada.

Detail from Hot City.

Above and below: Gorgeous illustrations from the Gershwin book.

Poster Storage

In the short time I've been teaching, I've amassed a huge collection of posters and anchor charts. At first, I piled them on top of a shelf in the classroom, but as I collected more, it became difficult to find what I needed. In frustration, I rolled them up. This made the problem worse because I still couldn't find what I needed. Often I would find myself hog wrestling curled up posters as the class walked in.

One of my favourite store-bought posters.

This rounding anchor chart took a while to make. I wanted to keep it.

Last year, I was visiting the office of Leslie Pike, an instructional leader in Math. I noticed that she had her posters hanging on a garment rack from Ikea using wooden clamp hangers. What a brilliant idea. Off I went to the great Swedish retailer. The rack cost about $20.00. The hangers cost also came from Ikea. If my memory serves me well, they cost $1.49 each.

The rack was in my classroom last year, but it took up a lot of space, so it's now in our basement (hence the dark photos and basement clutter).

Organization: the final frontier!

Backyard Science Part Two

Biking home from the park today, I discovered this gorgeous dragonfly in the middle of the road. I thought it was dead, so I gently scooped it up and placed it on Duncan's beach towel. When we got home, we realized it was still alive, but possibly injured.

The wings really are a sight to behold. So intricate and beautiful.

I managed to gently coax the dragonfly off the towel and onto the edge of the "Critter Cabin." I'm not sure what to do. Hopefully it will fly away. If it's still there this evening, we'll have to figure out what they eat and drink. We're calling it Mercury.


It's official: Kiki the caterpillar has built a cocoon around herself. Duncan chose the lamb's ear leaf for Kiki because he thought she'd enjoy the softness. Funny thing that she built her cocoon on that leaf. We've turned the leaf over the way we found it and we'll leave Kiki to work her magic.

The Black Book of Colors

While in a book store yesterday, I discovered The Black Book of Colors. It is unlike any book I have seen before. It is a book that invites sighted people into the world of someone without sight. On one side of the page is text written in print and in braille. The text describes colour through imagery. The accompanying page features a raised line drawing illustrating the text. There is no colour in this book of colours.

I can think of so many ways to use this book in our class. It ties in with Science (anatomy/the eye), Art, Language, and Character Education (equity and empathy). I will create a lesson plan connected to this book, which I can post at a later date. The pages were difficult to photograph. You really need to touch this book.

If you look at the top of the page, you'll see braille. There is also a braille alphabet at the back of the book.

Dan Zanes' Great Music for Kids

A few weeks back, my son was watching Playhouse Disney and this guy with tall hair appeared on the screen singing a song that was surprisingly spare and cool. The singer looked like he'd been playing in clubs his whole life. Who was he? Dan Zanes - former singer of The Del Fuegos - a roots rock band from a long way back. I thought I'd share a clip of his music. He's got a CD out called Catch That Train. It would be a great choice in a JK - Grade 3 class. The songs are fun and folky. I like that his bandmates play such a variety of musical instruments. Great tunes!

Here's a short interview with Dan. I love the intro by the father who posted the interview. Check out his little daughter responding to pictures at the beginning. Hilarious.

Backyard Education

If you stop and smell the freshly cut grass, you'll notice that opportunities for scientific inquiry are all around us. My four-year-old son, Duncan found a caterpillar recently. We happened to be throwing out an old gerbil cage that was cracked and full of holes. Duncan helped me patch it up with cardboard and when we were done, Kiki the caterpillar had a huge new home.

Crude, but effective. We made sure that there was plenty of ventilation.

Here's where the science comes in. I asked Duncan to think about what the caterpillar would like to eat. We talked about The Very Hungry Caterpillar and also his new Little Einsteins book about the life cycle of a caterpillar. Duncan found grass, leaves, a cherry tomato, Swiss chard, and lettuce. When he brought me the hosta leaf, he said that an insect has already been chewing on in, so that made him think the caterpillar might like it.
Duncan also said the caterpillar would need water to drink and sticks to climb on. Kiki made itself at home quickly.
The next day, we noticed caterpillar poop in the cage, so we decided that Kiki must be eating the leaves and grass. Our next step will be researching what kind of caterpillar/butterfly/moth Kiki is. We also need to clean out the cage. Stay tuned.