Non-fiction Monday: Let’s Count to 100!

 

 

Let’s Count to 100! by Masayuki Sebe is a colorful book filled with pages and pages of groups of 100. Each page has a question such as “how many moles are snuggled up with a frog, how many cats have striped tails, or how many different kinds of fish are there.

Besides counting to 100 emergent readers and mathematicians will learn concepts such as few, many and counting by ten.  If a reader looks closely they will begin to notice some hidden links and details.

Sebe has created bright, fun and simple to count illustrations that will engage young readers.  Counting to 100 is a big event in kindergarten. This book will be a welcomed addition to any library.

Title: Let’s Count to 100!
Author: Masayuki Sebe
Illustrator: Masayuki Sebe Date Published: 2011
Pages: 24
Reading Level: K-3
Publisher:Kids Can Press
ISBN: 1-55453-6618
Source:  Donation to the library

Nonfiction Monday is over at Jean Little Library.  See what else is available.

Happy Reading.

MsMac

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Poetry Friday: Edgar Allan Poe

I loved reading Poe as a child.  Today I found one appropriate for Hallowe’en on Monday:

The Haunted Palace published in 1939

In the greenest of our valleys
   By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace-
   Radiant palace- reared its head.
In the monarch Thought’s dominion-
   It stood there!
Never seraph spread a pinion
   Over fabric half so fair!
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
   On its roof did float and flow,
(This- all this- was in the olden
   Time long ago,)
And every gentle air that dallied,
   In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
   A winged odor went away.

Wanderers in that happy valley,
   Through two luminous windows, saw
Spirits moving musically,
   To a lute’s well-tuned law,
Round about a throne where, sitting
   (Porphyrogene!)
In state his glory well-befitting,
   The ruler of the realm was seen.

Read the rest HERE.

It is thought that Poe created this word Porphyrogene from porphyrogenite.
(A Byzantine emperor’s son born in the purple or porphyry room assigned to empresses, hence a prince born after his father’s accession; a person born into the nobility.)  ( Thanks to Poe Stories.com)

Friday Poetry is rounded up at Random Noodling.

Happy Reading.

MsMac

Poetry Friday: Robert Frost

First grade is studying harvest and apples. 

I’ve read two books, Applesauce Season by Eden Ross Lipson and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman (to which a first graders was shocked to learn that chocolate milk didn’t come from chocolate cows). 

So it’s a great find to discover this poem by Robert Frost.  I am going to make applesauce this weekend.

After Apple-Picking

by Robert Frost

My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still,

And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.

But I am done with apple-picking now.

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,

The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight

I got from looking through a pane of glass

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough

And held against the world of hoary grass.

It melted, and I let it fall and break.

But I was well

Read the rest HERE

For other poems go to Jama’s blog Jama’s Alphabet Soup.

Happy Reading.

MsMac

Nonfiction Monday: Swirl by Swirl

What do you love in nature?  Are you keen on spider webs in early morning dew, a spiral shell found on the beach, or the spirals found in the ocean or rivers?  If so, you will love, love, this Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Beth Krommes.    

This new non-fiction book which was originally nominated in the Poetry category for the CYBILS.  Sadly, I had to move it to the NFPB category as it was a single poem.  Poetry is all about the poetry collections. Each page is a two page spread in which the words and wood-graving illustrations swirl in and out of each other.

It begins:

“A spiral is a snuggling shape.
It fits neatly
in small places.
Coiled tight,
warm and safe,
it waits….

The accompanied illustrations show a woodland scene both above and underground. Readers see the tight coils of the bull snake, the eastern chipmunk, and the woodchuck as the slumber in winter. The next pages show the animals as they have “a chance to expand.” by wakening for spring.

From ferns to ocean waves, underwater creatures to creatures of the jungle, readers will be engaged with both text and pictures for hours on end.  A bonus is that the flora and fauna are named discreetly with in the illustration.

The author and illustrator collaborated with one another and it shows.  The text and illustrations are seamless, working in concert with one another.   Additional information about spirals can be found at the end of the book including the Fibonacci spiral.

This book will be an excellent addition to any library.  It can be used on so many different levels from math to poetry to art. Even the copyright information is listed in a spiral.

Title: Swirl by Swirl
Author: Joyce Sidman
Illustrator: Beth Krommes
Date Published: 2011
Pages: unpaged
Reading Level: K-3
Publisher:Houghton-Mifflin
ISBN: 978-0-547-31583-6
Source:  Local Public Library

Nonfiction Monday is hosted by Simply Science.  Go and see what other fabulous nonfiction is on tap for today.

Happy Reading.

MsMac

Poetry Friday: Found Poem

Silver Falls Lodge

Last weekend I attended the SCBWI-OR Fall Writing Retreat.  It was productive, fun, and had several fantastic speakers which will be another post.  Today’s poem is from the last session by Suz Blackaby (author of Nest, Nook, and Cranny). She had  us write a found poem about our writing space:

My Writing Room

My great aunt’s aprons
hung on the
windows
a book-case filled with
Robert Burns
Naomi Shihab Nye
William Stafford
a thesaurus
signed copies
treasures
Kachinas stand guard
protecting the words
photos for
inspiration
my new computer
a comfy chair
an original print of a
girl under a tree
dark chocolate for the muse
a tea coaster
wind chimes beyond
the window to
bring the
word.

My writing room has been my summer project.  While I am not ready to share photos, hopefully you can begin to see a picture in your mind.

More on the conference soon. Dave Elzey is hosting over at FOMAGRAMS. 

Only TWO DAYS left to nominate your favorite Poetry book of this year at the CYBILS.

Happy Reading.

Cheers,

MsMac