reflection

When getting this assignment at the beginning of the year I was not very excited to plaster my thoughts on books out there for the whole world to see. I was really nervous about making people angry. But as the year went on I felt much more comfortable with expressing my true thoughts and feelings about the books that I read. Also, by having to do this it made me actually sit down and read and think about all sorts of books. It has taught me about different genres of books that I now love and can't wait to put into my classroom.

It is true that sometimes I found it hard to sit down and really get into some books. Some I just did not want to write about at all because I really just did not have anything to say about them. I never realized all of the different kinds of books that there were out there and the different things that sparked my interest. It was also cool to read some of the other posts that people wrote and how their thoughts compared to mine. I liked how blogging is so easy and laid back (unlike writing it out on paper). I even got my niece and nephew interested and they started their own blogs (one on pokemon and the other on horses). If anyone out there is interested I will give you more information...ha.

I thought that it was so funny how excited I got when I had a new follower. At the beginning of all of this I was scared to death that I would say something bad about and book and the author would invite me and then hate me but I wasn't too worried about that by the end. I realized that everyone likes different kind of books. It is based on your personality and all else.

I didn't mind that all of my friends made fun of me for having my own blog because I think secretly they wished that they could do something like this in there own class and have there own.

So I haven't decided yet if I will continue on with this blog. I think that it would be a great resource for my students and myself to have to look back on when I do become a teacher. I also think that I will have my students (if old enough) create their own blogs. I think that overall it is fun to do and interesting to be able to go out and look at different things that people are saying. I never realized how many people blogged. A thing that I used to think just geeks did, I realized wasn't SO bad. So, I am glad that I took this class. It made me work a lot and do a lot of reading, but that will only help me from the future. It made me think about the books that I read and myself in the books and how others could connect as well which I think is AWESOME!

Rain by Robert Kalan

I thought that this was a great book because it was very simple and got right to the point with what it wanted you to learn. The pictures were also very simple yet when there was rain in them it was really cool.The rain would be made out of little "rain" words, like you see in the picture. The words would be as simple as "rain on the red car" and then in the picture it would show it raining on the red car.

This book wasn't like a normal book that I enjoy so I don't know why it caught my eye so much while reading it. I thought that the concept was really well done and that the pictures were amazing (even though they were not complex). I think that it would be a good book for preschool to second graders. They could look at the pictures and learn a little bit about outside and the weather.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

So Emily was helping me look for books for my text set. I was thinking about doing it on rain when we came across this book. She told me it was her all time favorite book and I just had to read it. She also said that it had to do with rain...kind of, so it would work.

I picked it up and was amazed by how many words were on each page...tons!!! It was even more crazy to me that it was recommended for preschool to third grade (well I guess if you read it to the younger ones). I told her this and she said just suck it up and to keep reading. Well, it was about a town where it rained their breakfast, lunch and dinner. They never had to buy anything because it all came in through some type of weather. After some time, things went bad. Everything started messing up...too much food would come or just weird things together.

I did like how they answered a lot of questions in the book that I even had. I was wondering how nothing ever got dirty but they did have a sanitation team to clean everything up. I didn't think a book like this would be so clever, but it was!

I ended up enjoying the book but probably not as much as Emily does. I thought that it was a really good book to get a child's imagination going. It is a new look at the weather. So I guess...what would you do if food fell from the sky cause I know that I would be in heaven!!

Ramona Quimby Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

I never really remembered why I loved Ramona Quimby books when I was younger until I picked this one up again to try it out. The funny thing was that I still could not put the book down when reading it. I loved Ramona's emotions during it.

It reminded me of things that really could have happened in elementary or middle school. The feeling that your teacher does not like you and that you are not cool enough is a big thing for a lot of students. So I think that this book would be great. My reading buddy, who is in 2nd grade, was also reading this book while I was and she talked about it every time we got together. She would do many encounters of text to self which was great and really helped her to learn and enjoy the book.

Ramona Quimby books also have great voice. You feel like this little girl is really telling about her problems. I love how she gets so annoyed with the kid at the babysitters because this happens to so many people. Overall I just thought that this was a really good book and I would recommend it to any age group above first or second grade. Like I said I even enjoyed it and I am 21!

The Guild Geniuses by Dan Santat

A book about 4 geniuses who say that they can solve anything and if they don't then they will give you a present is what ends up happening in this book.

This book is kind of crazy. It is about a monkey who is best friends with an actor. It is almost the human's birthday and Mr. Pip the monkey got him a present. On the day of his birthday he woke up early to find the human but realized that there were tons of presents from many people sitting there. Mr. Pip got sad and did not want to give his friend the present. Fredrick, the human, didn't know what was wrong with him so he took him to tons of vets but all of them said he was fine. So then he saw a sign for 4 geniuses that could solve anything. The geniuses tried many things to help Mr. Pip feel better, like sending him to the moon, but none of them worked.

When Fredrick came back to pick Mr. Pip up he still was not better so he got a tie as a present. After that though Mr. Pip decided to throw Fredrick a great party and gave him a moon rock and his card that he had made him. Fredrick loved it.

I think that this book could be good for classrooms. I know that there have been times when I felt bad about something that I got my friends because I felt like other things were better. But I didn't realize that they would love it because they loved me. This book can teach a lot of lessons and has some wonderful pictures. I think that it would be good for Kindergarten to second graders.

Rain Makes Applesauce by Julian Scheer

All I can say about this book is great pictures with a not so great, confusing story. If you are just looking at the pictures, they are amazing as you can tell from the Caldecott Honor on the front cover of the book. As for the story there is another story. I just didn't get the story. I don't necessarily think that you are supposed to but it just seemed pointless to me there.

A couple things that I did notice though was that on every other page it had a predictable sentence at the end and it was written in the poem form. One more thing that I did not like about the book was that it was super hard to read some of the words, or even find them. Some were really small and some were in really weird colors.

So I liked the pictures but I would recommend this book for my classroom unless I just wanted to confuse them.

Shadows by April Pulley Sayre

I picked up this book because of the amazing illustrations on the front cover. I have always really enjoyed art that was made with acrylics and this one was just so colorful and beautiful.

The story was about a very simple subject: shadows. It talked about all of the different ways that shadows come alive and come about. And it is even in poem form! I think that kids would enjoy this book because of the great pictures and they could connect with everything that is said in the book. Tracing shadows on the ground with chalk and then a few hours later seeing that they have moved, shadows under trees to make a cool spot, and even making shadows with parts of your body are just some of the things that they talk about.

My favorite part of this whole book was the page that read, "My friend catches my shadow's hand. Hand in shadow we walk the sand." It is just a great book and I think it would be great for Preschoolers to second grade.