My Google Lit Trip is Published!!!

I am very excited to announce that my Google Lit Trip that I developed with the first graders at Pelham Elementary School has been published on the Google Lit Trip Web Site. The Lit Trip is based upon David Weisner's Caldecott winning book, Flotsam. Please take the time to check out other great Lit trips by students and teachers. A very big THANK YOU to Jerome Burg for this wonderful resource.

Here is an excerpt from the web site.

Flotsam is defined as debris floating on the ocean and is usually from shipwrecks. In the Caldecott winning book Flotsam, by David Weisner, the flotsam that washes ashore is a very special underwater camera. Come along for a trip around the world that follows the fantastical trip of a camera, the marine animals it captures on film and the children that find it.

This project was the combined effort of eight first grade classes and over 200 students. Each class listened and viewed the book Flotsam and each class was assigned a photograph from the book to investigate. Classes were divided into small groups and using Atlases and the Internet, each group decided where in the world the picture occurred. Using a large map and Wiki Stix, small groups picked locations, marked them with stickers and explained their decision making process to the whole class. Each class then voted and decided where their placemark would go on Google Earth. When all of the placemarks were decided, Mrs. Doe connected the locations with a path around the world. Students explored the Google Trip using Google Earth in the computer lab.

Check out the screen shots of the Google Lit Trip.

Flotsam Google Lit Trips Preview from GoogleLitTrips on Vimeo.

My new favorite book!

The book trailer doesn't quite do the book justice. There has been a little controversy on one of the words in the book. (Jackass) In my opinion, if you are going to read this book to kids skip over the word if you don't like it and hold it far away so they cannot read "the word." I am going to use it with my up-coming ECOMP 6008 class in Exeter, New Hampshire.

What's on your shelf?

Work Space shelf,
originally uploaded by hdoe.

Wouldn't you like to see what books are on other book lover's shelves, especially kidlit book lovers and bloggers. Well, here is one of my many bookshelves in my house. This one happens to be in my work space and holds my most favorite books along with my current reads. Click on the picture and you will be brought to Flickr where I have added notes (a very, very cool feature) to give you some of the specific titles on my shelf.
Once I started doing a little searching on flickr I realized that I was not the first to label my bookshelves. I was very naive in thinking I had an original thought here. There is actually a bookshelf project that has 1,331 members and 2,155 photos of people's bookshelves.

Book Heart

Book Heart Bokeh,
originally uploaded by Eric M Martin.

WebKinz and Kids Social Networking

I came across this post from David Warlick's blog, 2 cents Worth. (Where is that cents sign when you need it?) The post discusses the pros and cons of worlds like Webkinz and how the kids are interacting that makes it different than just watching a TV show. My kids are spending some time online with WebKinz lately and up until recently their computer knowledge was very small. I think I figured they spent enough time watching movies and PBS that the computer could come later for them. E-mail , going online, logging out, and www.webkinz.com are now common terms in our house and I am glad they are getting some exposure to the online world. It is fascinating that my three year can completely navigate through this world of WebKinz without help. Our next task is to learn how to send mail and packages to our WebKinz neighbors across the street. Into the world of social networks we go!

I'm actually considering using WebKinz in my next Internet class for Lesley University?? I wonder what the teachers would think?

Here's another look at some social networking toys out there.

Where have I been!

January is a time to set the New Years Resolutions and update my blog roll. The problem is I have not been keeping up with reading or writing in blogs for a few months now and I really miss it. So I thought it best to catch everyone up on my past three months by telling you my story through books. This may also help explain why the blogging has been absent from my life.My Car is where I spend most of my day! I know I am not alone. I would love to know, though, what techie toys people are using to do their blogging on the run. Leave a comment if you have a suggestion!
Everyone Poops in my house and my three year old poops in his underwear alot.
For Thanksgiving we had a delicious beer-fed turkey. Run, Turkey, Run! Too late, we ate you. No grill cheese sandwiches on our Thanksgiving day. (But a really great story for reading aloud or for the beginning reader.)
Walt Disney World with Kids was everything we expected. Magical, tiring, and sensory-filled!
I should have read How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon to my husband while we were all sick over the holidays. He may have been the most difficult patient in our very sick house.
Oh, David!, (substitute David with the previously mentioned poopy underwear boy) I really do love you but how challenging you can be.
My number one New Years resolution is to feed my family healthier food and when two out of three kids Will Not Ever Eat a Tomato than I must make spinach and carrot brownies that are Deceptively Delicious!
***We have read all of the books listed and we highly recommend them in our house!

Join the Nation-Read Ferdinand!

I have not been blogging for one entire month, but I am hoping to return to a nice routine of writing and reading soon. Tomorrow I will be participating in Jumpstart's Read for the Record. The chosen story is The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. The Today Show will be reading aloud the book tomorrow and if you do not own a copy the book is also available online!
For a more adult read, I am also participating in New Hampshire Reads. The chosen title is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
I cannot believe I have never read this book so I am excited to be reading in a format where I can discuss the book through events at our local library and throughout New Hampshire.

Scribd-What a cool site!

Through my technology wanderings I found this site that pertains to literature. I am not sure how they are dealing with copyright, but it reminds me a bit of Google Books. Scribd's mission is to "create the world's largest open library of documents." Go there today and search for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. You won't believe it!

Inspired by a Dot

Peter Reynolds has some great books that inspire the artist in everyone. I happened upon this site where a parent has used the book The Dot to inspire a summer of many dots. See their posts and gallery. How simple but how much fun to link art to literature.

Check out Peter's bookstore in Dedham, MA where they offer artist workshops for the young.
His Fablevision web site is a must see with it's free downloadable ebooks.