PPBF: When You Dream Big!

I've always loved taking pictures of sleeping,

doesn't Everly look so comfy as she rests?

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PPBF: Who Will I Be?

Wait, what? Picture Perfect Book Friday on a Thursday? Yep, because I'm leaving town and this is a title you will not want to miss. It's the perfect PPBF pick to kick off November, a month to celebrate gratitude and service.

Title: Who Will I Be?

Author: Abby Huntsman

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Astronaut Annie Blasts Off

This week flew by because after State Conference, I ended up working mornings at the Junior High helping with 9th-grade course selection. I love that our district does this, offers a one-hour parent/student conference with a school counselor, administrator or team leader to get their questions answered and their four-year plans written. It was my heart's delight to see students I'd not seen since third grade and help them prepare their high school pathway.

Interestingly enough, the three families I helped on Friday each had girls I had showcased at the Corner. Find those posts {here}, {here} and {here}. 

It doesn't really seem possible that they're headed to high school. In fact, it seems like we were just hosting Career Awareness Day for them at Westwood and asking them what they want to be when they grow up. The time has come when it's no longer a rhetorical question for them. If we could turn back time, I'd share this new book with them, for sure.

When her school announces their upcoming Career Day, Annie wants to keep her career choice a secret to surprise her family at the presentation. So while they may know that Annie wants to be an astronaut, each family member guesses something that he or she wishes Annie would consider. And while you already know from the title and some pretty obvious clues throughout that Annie wants to be an Astronaut, I suspect you might be as pleased with the end as I was, when Annie took a little piece of each of her family's influence and values to blast off into the dream career she wants to pursue. 

If you want a new title {Release is set for March 8, 2018}, check out Astronaut Annie by Suzanne Slade. In the back, you'll find some info on space travel and a spotlight on some women astronauts to share with your budding scientists. Compare and contrast it with Jeremy's Decision. Use it as a springboard for your own Career Awareness Event. 

If you're hosting a Career Day and you'd like to Skype with an author (that's me!) or a planetary scientist (that's John!), email and we'll try to make that happen.

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Empowering Empathy

Just before Thanksgiving break, our school staff took time out during a faculty meeting to share a little bit about our college colors to inspire out learners to 

dream big.

Here's how mine turned out.

So grateful to Karen S., who created and shared the template.

I'm super excited about how our display pops.

Tomorrow as we launch into our lessons about caring, 
we'll work on empowering empathy.

We're going to start by watching this film clip

without any sound. Just watch, not listen.

We'll talk about what they think happened and what they think about what happened. Then we'll watch it again, this time with audio.

After what I think will be a riveting discussion,

students will get to choose from the following activities in Social Stations, 
to get them stepping into another's shoes

and thinking about how certain situations feel, 

what they would want, 
what they might need to make it work.

We'll be building a huge figure 8 with Jenga blocks, blindfolded.

We'll be putting together a Scramble Square puzzle

without speaking to one another, silent.

We'll be playing catch in a circle

with our feet, no hands.
{See the orange ball in the air?}

We'll be writing notes to our President-elect

 
using our non-dominant hands.
It's super tricky to erase with only one hand available!

I'll have my copy of Hey, Little Ant in Latin out
and see who chooses to attempt language translation.

We'll be writing mirror-image messages about empathy.



And, in the end, I hope that we will have empowered empathy,
that glorious virtue that I firmly believe could be the change
for our superheroes and their future.
Click {here} for more empathy simulation ideas.

Check out these empathy posts for more empowerment:

Why Empathy Holds The Key 
This Is Your Brain On Empathy 
Empathy By The Book 
Teaching Kids Empathy In Denmark A Piece Of Cake

Oh, and if you haven't read UnSelfie by empathy expert Michele Borba yet, 
put that on your Christmas list today.

It has my enthusiastic endorsement.

  

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PPBF: Clothesline Clues

It's that time of year again, 

time to talk with our littles about the end goal of school, 

to find out what they want to do when they grow up, 

to find out what they dream about for their future. 

Time also, to get out the tissues you'll want as you listen to a group of my littlest superheroes singing that signature kindergarten graduation song 

Big Big Dreams!

Doesn't that dreaminess just bring happy tears to your heart?

So today I'm delighted that my friend Tanya Kirschman, 2014 Montana School Counselor of the Year, selected our PPBF and offered to share a lesson she created with this career-clues treasure.

Title: Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do

Authors: Kathryn Heling and Deborah Hembrook

Illustrator: Andy Robert Davies

Publisher: Charlesbridge

Date: July 2012

Suitable for: ages 3-7

Non-fiction

Themes: careers, jobs, professions

Brief synopsis: Readers look at what's hanging on and surrounding the clothesline and guess which career they would complement.

Opening page: 

Look at this clothesline and see every clue. 

Who uses these things for the jobs that they do?

Resources:

Christy Grisson has a comprehensive Career Collection {here}.

Read a review and find extension activities at book's webpage {here}.

Enjoy an interactive game of From Crayons To College {here}. 
Make a word search bulletin board; hide the word careers 
and related words like profession, job, work, and calling.

Why I like this book ~ Hung Up On Careers by Tanya Kirschman 

Who doesn’t love a good surprise? In this engaging lesson, you're sure to be amused as young students practice their detective skills and likely keep you in suspense as well. Begin the lesson by asking students to clap once if they know someone who has a job. Then, ask if they know reasons why people work and, if time permits, what they want to be when they grow up. I've had kids who want to be the tooth fairy, the president, a Maurice's worker, a professional wrestler. 

After listening to their answers, confirm or clarify that people choose jobs that interest them so they can do something they're passionate about or think is exciting and important. Students may want to talk about salaries, too, because people get paid money for their work and money helps to buy things they need.

Explain that each page of the book contains a mystery with clues, clues your students will have to figure out, clues that will lead your students to a certain career. Challenge students to use their detective skills to make smart guesses about the jobs in the book. While reading, make reference to the featured clothing, as well as different tools and the workplace shown. 

Discussion Questions:

* This book only mentions seven jobs; what are some other jobs you know about?

* Why do you think specific clothing might be required for a job?

* How tools are important to a job?  What if someone didn’t have the tools they needed to do their job? 

Click image for a freebie download

Worksheet Activity

Encourage students to close their eyes and think about a job that they want to do someday, and have them imagine getting ready for their first day of work.  They’ll need to get their clothes washed and ready. Ask, “What clothes would YOU be hanging on your clothesline for your first day of work? What tools will you need to do your job?” Read the worksheet and instruct students to draw and color the clothing they would wear hanging from the clothespins.  Encourage them to draw related tools near the bottom of the page. 

Then say, “Now you get to create your own mystery! Don’t tell anyone what your job is. If someone tries to guess or ask, tell them it's a surprise. When we’re done drawing, we’ll sit in a circle and you’ll each get to share your clues while others guess what your job is.” 

If students are struggling to identify tools, I allow them to whisper their job to me and I whisper back tools used in that career.

A teacher with pencil, apple, whiteboard, Expo marker, umbrella

When students have completed their drawings and the circle is formed, allow each child a turn sharing their picture. Encourage them to describe their tools and clothing. In the interest of time, one classmate takes a guess before revealing the job and moving on. Encourage your students to keep their surprise and challenge their parents to guess their job, too. Or, for an eye-catching bulletin board, display students’ work on a makeshift clothesline with clothespins.

Extension: Bring clothing (i.e. Halloween costumes) of different job apparel in a laundry basket and have students identify the job that goes with each clothing item. 

Enrichment: Use Lakeshore Community Block Play People to review the jobs represented in the book. Figurines also give students additional ideas for career clothing and tools.

Another reason I like this book is that it avoids gender stereotypes. For example, the text features females as a mail carrier, carpenter, fire fighter, astronaut. Males work as a farmer, a chef and an artist. Students will probably notice that the mail carrier delivers something to each person as the book goes on culminating with a launch party for the astronaut. Ask what the mail carrier was delivering. {Answer: Party Invitations!}

Thank you, Tanya, for sharing your inspiration and expertise. 

For today's other PPBF picks, visit Susanna's blog.

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PPBF: The Secret World Of Walter Anderson

Today I am super excited to share that my book,

What's Under Your Cape? SUPERHEROES of the Character Kind,

has won the Mom's Choice Gold Award for Adult Books.

I am feeling oh, so grateful. What a wonderful honor.

And if I wasn't jazzed enough, it's also the return of PPBF.

Title: The Secret World of Walter Anderson

Author: Hester Bass

Illustrator: E.B. Lewis

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Date: September 8, 2009

Suitable for ages: 8-12

Picture Book Biography

Themes: creativity, artistry, individuality

Brief Synopsis: This book tells the story of reclusive painter Walter Anderson.

Opening page: There once was a man whose love of nature was as wide as the world. There once was an artist who needed to paint as much as he needed to breathe. There once was an islander who lived in a cottage at the edge of Mississippi, where the sea meets the earth and the sky. His name was Walter Anderson. He may be the most famous American artist you’ve never heard of.

Resources:  *Read a review at The Picnic Basket {here}.

*Read about the life of Walter Anderson {here}. 

*Watch an author interview {here}.

*Read more at the Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast blog {here}.

*Talk about Walter's odd obscurity with your budding artists.

Encourage students to write a reader's response considering why they think Walter Anderson wanted to live on Horn Island, his private paradise. Do they have some things that they prefer would be kept secret? Is there anything that can't be kept a secret? Explain. Use this as a time to talk about secrets that we shouldn't keep.

*Listen to the song Me, Myself, I {here}. How does this ballad parallel Walter Anderson's story?

*Using a Venn Diagram, compare and contrast Walter Anderson's secret life with Charlie Anderson's secret life. Do you know this story? Charlie is a cat who lives two distinct lives with two different families, one by day, the other by night. 

What would they consider the same about their stories? 

What's different?

Why I like this book: The first reason it's special is that I got it from my mother-in-law for my birthday. I love it when people pick out books that they think I'll like. Secondly, it's just such a great metaphor for escape and expression. There was so much that people didn't know about Walter (known to his family as Bob) and he wanted it that way. On one hand, the book made me wonder why. Why would he want to leave his family for weeks at a time and hide like that? And yet, I can kind of understand his desire for privacy. Sometimes it's good to get away and enjoy your therapeutic resources, like drawing and painting, in private. By yourself. Alone. Additionally, I appreciate and connect with Ms. Bass' fluidity with words: He needed to paint as much as he needed to breathe.

Check out this book; I think you'll be intrigued, maybe even enchanted.

For today's other PPBF book reviews, visit Susanna Leonard Hill's blog. 

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#Reach Higher

Today I'm delighted to share the #reachhigher project that I am proud to have joined. How fun to collaborate with over a hundred school counselors 

as we set SMART goals to reach higher with our students. 

A huge thank you goes to Dr. Erin Mason for her 

initiative, leadership and drive. 

This fits so beautifully with our next chapter,

R is for Responsibility.

Come back here Tuesday to see what Angela, a WI-blogger and teacher, has to say about this critical virtue and how she motivates and influences her second graders to be res-pon-sible.

In the meantime, how will you reach higher on this super Sunday?

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On A Beam Of Light Review

So on our way to Camp on Sunday, I hear Joshua ask this question:

If I were to open the window and drop this thing out, 

would it fall straight to the ground or move along with the car?

{Keep in mind that the speed limit on that stretch of  TX highway is 75 mph.}

That's a good question! I thought to myself, though I couldn't

stop wondering why anyone would throw anything out of a car window in the first place. Then John answered by saying "A little bit of both" before going on to explain that it would also depend upon whether we were in this car on earth or on the moon.

Gotta love my space boys! 

John took this picture when he and Joshua

took science to the streets and headed to Florida

for the final Shuttle launch.

Joshua took this picture of John and his new best friend,
who was there crossing Shuttle Launch off his bucket list.

Anyway, that conversation got me to thinking about

science,

and space,

and motion,

and Einstein.

Well, that and the fact that I got this little gem in the mail.

Turns out I won it at Susanna Leonard Hill's blog.

{Thank you, Susanna!}

On A Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein

Written by Jennifer Berne

Illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky

Anyway, it's a story about little Albert

and how he didn't talk very early,

and how his parents worried about him

and how he went on to 

wonder and think,

question and imagine.

How he began to read and study,

study and read.

About magnetism,

gravity,

light,

sound,

motion,

and numbers.

{He loved numbers!}

And about how he wanted to be a teacher,

but ended up in

a government office.

I love the dedication:

To the next Einstein, who is probably a child now.

And I adore the page about socks.

As an aside, my feet are happier without socks, too.

In his keynote address last week, Stuart Grauer of the Grauer School encouraged character educators to 

ask students questions without fixed answers.

I can't help but believe that that's key to helping them take flight on a beam of light and get them well on their way to becoming the next Einstein.

Check out this book;

I predict it will send your budding scientists soaring.

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Today, Some Rockin' Resources

Today, some rockin' resources to help make your job easier.

Click the picture for a heartwarming Thai Life Insurance commercial.

1. Visit the "V" Channel for a video clip and lesson idea for teaching the concept of Flexibility. Then buy two straws, one of each type, and extend the clip with your students.

2. Need to help shape a behavior? Find oodles and oodles of printable behavior charts for free {here}.

3. Learn more about Foster Care with the powerful short film  ReMoved and prepare to be moved to tears and to want to take action. We regularly had foster children in our home during my formative years, so this really gave me a new appreciate for their plight and my parents' part in their healing, health, and hope.

4. Loads of career and college-readiness stuff at Shmoop Careers!

5. Click {here} for a Response to Intervention site that's an interventionist's dream.

6. Check out what my friend Jordon has to say about how she used Today'sMeet with her class {here}.

7. Bookmark Letters of Gratitude and sign up for their newsletter to get new ideas about how to live a life of gratitude and find happiness in the present.

8. Take a virtual tour of college campuses {here}. Your students will love visiting their future home away from home!

That ought to keep you busy for awhile.

Expect a Super Sunday!

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How Time Flies

I got such a sweet FB post from my daughter yesterday, with a warm wish for Counselors' Week, a thank-you for being a good mom, and a link to this post about 16 Things We Forget To Thank Our Moms For. Total Day Maker!

It's been such a fun week, though I feel like my intern and I hardly stopped today. We sat for a spell with third-grade teachers and did some networking once our lunch from Which Wich? was delivered - thanks Rachel! 

We are incredibly blessed.

We met the fifth graders at Friendswood Junior High to deliver some Nice! water to our counseling colleagues and participate for a little bit in sixth-grade orientation. When we got back, we worked on these little teacher treats for tomorrow ...

Starburst candies wrapped with bubble wrap. Tomorrow we'll be popping pop corn for the teachers' lounge next to a sign that read: 

We're bursting with gratitude for you. 

I got so many beautiful cards from students, 

including these two pop-up cards from Mrs. Hoskins' Heroes:

I got some character candy and a kindness award;

turns out they think I'm fun and nice.

As you can imagine, my bucket overflows!

Has this week flown by or what?

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A Good Ag

Howdy! 

I had the good fortune of spending a few days with our middle child at his Texas A & M Orientation earlier this month.

Neither of us was sure what to expect 

{or that we'd be greeted with "Howdy!" everywhere we went because this school prides itself on being the friendliest campus ever}

but I knew we were in the right place when I saw this 

in the parking garage on our way to the auditorium.

It was a sign that made me smile!

And without knowing much else, 

we quickly figured out that opportunities to walk the talk abound, 

and we immediately felt good about 

the essence of A & M.

Enough said.

Here are some interesting facts that we were not aware of; 

turns out that their enrollment increased significantly this year,

 thanks, in part, to Johnny Football.

More impressive than whom they've got is what they give. Their annual 

Big Event day of service found 17,000 Aggies out in their community last spring volunteering their time and talents,

giving thanks and giving back.

And, since one of the Aggie Core Values is service, 

after three days of 

auditions (he made the band!), 

meetings (we took in SO much info),

 and registration (he's in the chemical engineering dept.),

Jacob talked me into going to a friend's farm

to help them with a cement project.

It didn't hurt that this side trip would also give us

some therapeutic time with this little friend.

Yep, we think our kid will make a good Ag!

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When I Grow Up

Our last lesson together at school this year for all grades, preK-3, found us talking about their future. Using Tanya's box template, 

I wrote student answers to the question - 

What do you want to be when you grow up?

- as they told me all about their dreams and aspirations. 

It made for a cute class collection on display.

It was interesting to hear them talk about careers. Some kids want to do exactly what their parents do. Others want to become teachers because they love their teachers, many want to do jobs that match what they're connected to, like a vet cause they like animals, a paleontologist cause they like dinosaurs, an artist because they like to draw, a musician because they like to play piano, drums or recorder. 

One third-grade girl said she wanted to be me {sniff, sniff}. 

It also intrigued me to see the trends between age groups. 

Here now, some of the answers that tickled my funny bone:

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

PreK student: A princess.

Me: Do you have another choice in case that doesn't work out?

PreK student: Another princess.

*****

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

K student: A vegetarian.

Me: And what will you do in that job?

K student: Help animals.

*****

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

First grade student: Can I ask a question first?

Me: Sure.

First grader: Do teachers make money?

Me: Uh, yeah.

First grader: Okay, then I want to be a teacher.

*****

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Second grader: A football player.

Me: And do you have a backup plan?

Second grader: A baseball player.

Me: And what if you don't make the team?

His friends: Oh, he will, Mrs. Gruener. He's really good!

*****

Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Third grader: Did someone really say Princess, Mrs. Gruener?

Me: Don't you think that's a realistic dream?

Third grade boy #1: No way.

Third grade boy #2: Probably not.

Third grade girl: Well, she could always marry a Prince.

Do I have a great job or what?

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