He has two new books coming out! Listen to My Trumpet! will be released next week, on February 7. The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? will be available on April 3.
I’m doing my happy dance!
i broke my trunk February 27, 2011
Two weeks ago, I told my class that I was going to buy the new Elephant and Piggie book over the weekend. When I got to the bookstore that Saturday, however, they didn’t have a copy. When we came back to school on Tuesday, after our Presidents’ Day holiday, they asked me, “did you buy I Broke My Trunk?!” I told them what had happened, and that I would try again this weekend.
One boy reminded me to buy it every single day last week.
And I did! I had to go to two stores, but I did get my hands on a copy. It is as silly as I had hoped, and I can’t wait to read it to my class tomorrow.
i want to drink beer with the new children’s librarian February 12, 2011
Our local library has a new children’s librarian. The old one was good, but she went on maternity leave and didn’t come back, and her temporary replacement was a bit…hyper. We’d walk down the street for preschool storytime, and I would cringe watching her read to my students. She wasn’t nearly as good at reading stories as I was (very few people that I encounter are), and things would get kind of chaotic.
But now — now we have a new children’s librarian. She rocks. She came to us (instead of us braving the cold to come to the library), and she brought three books. And those three books are why I want to be her friend, and her new drinking buddy.
First, she read Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed. Since I am a huge fan of Willems’ oeuvre, as you all know, I have that book. And while I liked it when I got it (and had it signed by Mo himself), I couldn’t really read it right. So I never brought it to school. The Rockin’ Librarian, on the other hand, read it beautifully. My Americorps volunteer couldn’t stop giggling through the whole thing. The children and I were absolutely delighted.
Look, if you can read a Mo Willems book better than I can, then you are my personal hero.
Next, she read Bark, George, which is one of my family’s favorites. I read it at school, sure, but my husband and sons and I have our own collection of favorite funny children’s books (in the living room, of course), and this is one of them. I was thrilled that she was reading books that I love, too.
She stopped at two, but I convinced her to go on. She had not expected that a preschool class would be as great at sitting and listening raptly to a story as mine is, but saw that a third book would be just fine.
She pulled out Punk Farm. I nearly fell upside down, the way George’s mother does when the vet pulls out a cow, or the way Piggie does in almost every Elephant and Piggie book. Punk Farm is legendary at my house. We love to yell, “THANK you, Wisconsin!” And we do, regularly.
So this woman is my new soulmate.
Can I Play, Too? August 7, 2010
I am now the proud owner of the latest Elephant and Piggie book by my favorite children’s author, Mo Willems. I had a 25% off coupon from Borders, so I also splurged and bought the Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog gel gems window clings. So psyched to have the pigeon and the duckling (not to mention the hot dog) gracing my windows.
reading crazy books and being very silly July 15, 2010
On the first day of school, I read Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and I make sure to totally freak out on the page when the pigeon yells, “LET-ME-DRIVE-THE-BUS!” I stomp my feet and shake my head and use a loud voice and the kids think it’s hilarious. And then — I’ve got ‘em in the palm of my hand. On the second day of school, when we read The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog, they are practically shaking with anticipation. If they didn’t before, now they LOVE books.
Plus, I get to introduce them to the idea of an author, and within a few weeks, we’ve read the complete oeuvre of Mo Willems, they can spot a Mo Willems book at 20 paces, we’ve got our first genre box on the shelf with all of our Willems books, and every day at reading time the kids pour over the books and “read” them to themselves.
So yes, I like funny books.
I generally like funny ones with slightly twisted humor, or that are a little bit “meta.”
Do Not Open This Book is a great example of this. The first time I read it, the kids are in rapture. The pig keeps telling me not to turn the pages (because he’s not done writing the book), and I ask the kids, “should I turn the page?” and they always say “YES!” Then when I turn the page the pig gets really mad at me for not listening to him and for being so rude as to interrupt him while he is trying to finish the book (because the words fly around and get in the wrong order and suddenly there is a big mouse with fierce pink teeth menacing him).
It gets pretty meta because I am doing the pig’s voice, but also being myself, the target of the pig’s anger. The best part is the fill in the blank rant that he does near the end of the book, where I put my name in for all the blanks, and he’s hysterically mad at me, Mrs. X, the kids’ teacher. They love that part. It’s so surprising and funny to them to think of their teacher doing something “wrong” and getting in trouble.
Anyway, awesome crazy books are one way that I help my preschoolers fall madly in love with reading.
pigs make me sneeze September 26, 2009
Mo Willems has a new Elephant and Piggie book out! I think I might just have to buy it today.
Elephants cannot dance! July 14, 2009
There is a new Elephant and Piggie book out — I cannot wait to read it!
light at the end of the tunnel September 28, 2008
The worst is behind me. I’m pretty sure about that.
- This week is a short week, to fit in parent conferences. That always helps.
- I will finally have an assistant teacher — hooray! She starts Tuesday, and I can’t wait. She was so awesome in the interview the Prince kept sending me these looks saying, “let’s hire her on the spot!” and I kept sending him back looks that said, “Let’s have some decorum here, and wait until we’re finished interviewing candidates before we hire her, okay?”
- The weather is getting colder. That makes me happy because I usually love fall, and I definitely am done with warm weather. I want to dig out my pretty sweaters and my flannel sheets and wrap up in a blanket while I’m watching my child do sports….And I am loving the fall colors that have begun to pop up here and there.
- David will be going in a week to a classroom where he can be successful. He has been experiencing so much failure in my classroom that I know it has been awful for him. I will just love him while he’s with us, and send him off with good will. I’m also going to write a note to his guardian to let her know what a wonderful job I think she is doing with him.
- Lola 2 turns out to speak English pretty well, as does the other new girl, and the new boy went from being utterly unable to sit on his bottom or cross his legs to sitting properly and attending to every word I said by the end of the week.
- Leo’s mom sent me an email saying how surprised she has been by how good the transition has been for him, and that she can tell each day that he is learning new things. He has been happy because Miss Nelson and Nan have been reading him pirate books. I think I’ll make a genre basket of pirate books for our reading center so he can read them whenever he wants.
- Elephant & Piggie were a huge success. I had a blast reading them (I really get into the voices and doing facial expressions), and the children were delighted by the twosome’s adventures. I will not be happy until I own every single E & P book. (Now if Scholastic would quick make them all available in the book orders so I can buy them at affordable prices!)
knuffle bunny saves the day September 19, 2008
Hooray for Mo Willems. I decided that September would be Mo Willems month in my classroom. Usually I have this “welcome to school” theme and I read all these books about school, but this summer I admitted to myself that I think all those books are boring, so I went straight to a unit on bugs and an author study on Mr. Willems, my hero.
I also decided to start the Repeated Interactive Read-Aloud method right away. So I dug out the Knuffle Bunny lesson plan I wrote last year, and on Monday, we read the book for the first time.
The children loved it. On Wednesday, we did the second reading, and I had the class in the palm of my hand. They raised their hands (or shouted out, in some cases) often to make comments and answer my questions.
On Thursday, we did the third reading, and Max came back from OT part-way through and exclaimed, “Knuffle Bunny!” with glee and joined us on the carpet as quickly as he could. My native Spanish speakers (except for Lola, who wasn’t talking to her invisible friend, but wasn’t paying attention to the story, either) followed along and a few of them even raised their hands and whispered a few words in answer to my questions.
My most reliable participants in the discussion were David, Trixie, and one other little boy, but the pattern is being set. Miss Nelson said she was impressed, and I told her I’m teaching them how to discuss books.
The best moment, however, was when they noticed the man in the park who is wearing Pigeon t-shirt. “The pigeon!” they shouted, and all was happiness.
