Thursday, March 12, 2009

Humphrey

Adventure According to Humphrey 
by Betty Birney is the latest in the Humphrey series of books. Humphrey and his classmates are setting sail for adventure.  They are learning about making boats and getting them to sail. Humphrey is visiting the library to learn everything he can about building sea worthy boats. The will take their boats to the local park to see which sails the best in the pond. Humphrey is there along for the ride.
I love these series of books about Humphrey. He is a classroom pet hamster who learns with the children and keeps a journal of information.  Kids will love him and his curiosity.  This series of books had a lot of appeal for second to fourth graders.  
Surprises According to Humphrey is on the Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List for this year.  Humphrey is a winner with kids!




Saturday, March 7, 2009

Reading and Blogging

I've been taking some time off from blogging and miss it!  Having one TAKS test down and another in April, I'm hoping that I can get back to reviewing and talking about books.  

My focus at school this year has been getting a SSR program started.  We began in September (after Hurricane Ike) and it is going well. This has been a great change from the AR program.  The kids seem to enjoy it and they are reading books of their choice!

My next focus will be encouraging teachers to reading aloud to their classes.  Many are doing this already but we need everyone on board!  I've been reading some great blogs on this topic which is inspiring me to promote reading aloud.  Also, I want parents to know that they need to read to their children every day and the difference it can make! I hope to share more books that will be great read alouds. 

So let's get busy reading to our kids!