This is the newest "Fancy Nancy" book which I sent to my granddaugher, Mary Mace, earlier this week. The title is: "Fancy Nancy, Poet Extraordinaire!" written by Jane Conner and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. Mary Mace has all of the books in this series and has an extraordinary vocabulary, partially from reading these books or having them read to her by her Mom. Each book teaches a few 'fancy' words to the reader, then explains them and uses them in sentences. Also, the artwork in each book is amazing, totally sparkly and vivid.
Ralph Fletcher writes for children, and I have four of his books about writing. They're as good as or better than any writing book I have written for adults. My daughter, Sarah, is teaching Poetry this month in her 4th grade class and Mr. Fletcher will be visiting her class. I sent her five of his books as a birthday present. The one above is one he'll be teaching from. How amazing for children to meet a published poet? I'm hoping lots of new poets will be born and inspired by him.
This is a closeup shot of the Poet-Tree in Sarah's classroom. Guess who she got this great idea from? None other than the teacher in the "Fancy Nancy" books, Mrs. Glass. The trunk is made of the kids' poems, the leaves are vocabulary words they are learning about poetry and the acorns are Sarah's comments on their work. She called me laughing at the perfect synchronicity of me sending Mary Mace that book and her teaching Poetry at the same time. All of her teacher friends loved the idea and borrowed it for their classes, too.
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Happy TGIF, and the last day of Winter.
Love & Blessings,
~Marion, proud mother of two teachers
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Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing. ~John F. Kennedy
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The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. ~Kahlil Gibran
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7 comments:
I am the proud mother of two teachers as well, although one is a principal and as such, no longer has that much to do with classrooms.
This is so inspiring I am going to show it to my daughter when I travel to see her over Easter. It's a great idea...and I love Kahlil Gibran's quote. Thank you!
Marion, we have so much in common besides our names. LOL! I hope your daughter loves the idea. Those "Fancy Nancy" books are just awesome. I hope you have a wonderful Easter visit with your daughter. Blessings!!
These sound like fun books!
Oh, more books to buy. You'll have me poor(er). I laugh. I haven't bought the Kahlil Gibran book yet though and need to do that first.
I laughed the other day, spit really, in a second hand store with my son and we were looking at some books in a corner. I said, hey, what about this kid's poetry book. And he said very slowly and with measured eyes, Mom, poetry is very hard for a lot of people to like. It's not really my thing, right? He had such hope I'd understand. And I did! But frig, we poetry lovers are on the decline! A real good dose of poetry that can be liked and felt is in order for my kids.
xo
erin
Erin, I talked to my daughter last night about her poet-tree and she said the kids were so excited about writing their poems (and having them displayed) that they wanted to extend the poetry chapter for another week! She said one little boy never did good in writing, but he came in yesterday morning with a folder full of poems and gave them to her!!! How exciting is that? She's midwife to hundreds of budding poets. She's going to type up all the poems and get them copied and bound at Kinko's. She asked me for inspiration for the cover and I told her to take a photo of the completed poet-tree and she loved the idea. That's going to be the cover of the anthology. Imaine being a 4th grader and having your poems published!!! I'm so proud of her. She's going to make the book on her on time and with her own money. Love & Blessings!
What a great post. Something for everyone. I loved how you pulled poetry and grandma-ing together, loved the picture!
You make me smile, kid.
quid
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