Picture Book Month

I know it's a little hard to see this picture, but what's important is this:

 

 

It represents the collective work of my students for about a month. We celebrated Picture Book Month in November. I learned about it on Twitter and decided it was a good goal for my students to work towards. My students love to read picture books already, and I love sharing them. So, all we had to do was count them and keep track of totals.

 

Week 1: 155

Week 2: 187

Week 3: Thanksgiving (We weren't in school this week, so we didn't keep track. )

Week 4: 88 (Lots of things going on at school this week, but still a good amount.)

 

I had volunteers who were ready to keep track and ask other students for their totals. They tallied and totaled. They created this chart for all to see.

 

We worked as a class to accomplish this, mostly by sitting in the library and reading picture books together. I didn't have to do very much except introduce the challenge and provide the reading time.

 

Our grand total was 430 books! I am so proud of my class. 

I confirmed this belief: Students enjoy meeting a challenge, working towards a goal, and working on something together that's connected to the real world.  Along the way, we talked about many aspects of reading: how illustrations tell stories, how the title of a picture book is so important, an author's choice for size of text and more!

 

What makes this even better is that Picture Book Month was a great lead-in for our Mock Caldecott voting in December. By this point, students are good judges of what makes a good picture book.

 

 

We ended Picture Book Month by reading ONE COOL FRIEND by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by David Small. It's such a fun book!

 

This week, we'll be discussing our favorite picture books as we begin our Mock Caldecott. Read my blog next week to see what picture books are 4A's favorites!