Pictures of Hollis Woods- meeting #14

Our eighth meeting of the 2014-15 school year was on Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff.  This book received a Newbery award in 2003 and was adapted for TV in 2007.  It is a touching story about a 12 year old girl who escapes from countless foster families before ending up with a retired art teacher that she really connects with.  She wants to stay with Josie, but a series of events leads to an adventure.  Her story unfolds from the pictures she draws and its a great book examining the meaning of family, self expression, and relationships.

 The host mama put out a spread of chicken salad, egg salad, croissants, and other delicious food to nosh on.

 We used our general discussion questions to help guide the discussion. They gave a mixture of thumbs up, thumbs down, and side even though most of the girls did not finish the book :)  March and April are busy school months, but we did have a talk about being sure to read the book.  Those who had read it seemed to like it, but were sad about portions that address Alzheimers.

The host mama bought colored pencils for the girls and paper so they could do artwork like Hollis.  I was able to get a copy of the movie and the girls watched the movie version while coloring.  

The movie version was cheap on Amazon from a seller selling a used copy.  Sissy Spacek stars in it.  

We had a great time!  Next month, we are reading Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry.

Rules- Meeting #13

Our seventh meeting of the 2014-15 school year was on Rules by Cynthia Lord.  This book is one of my all time favorites as a speech pathologist.  The main character is a 12 year old girl who has a brother with autism (who needs "rules" explicitly explained regarding social skills).  One day she befriends a teenage boy at the speech clinic who is non-verbal and communicates using picture symbols.  The book is simply fantastic and explores what it must be like to have someone else choose what words you can say, how your words are on display for others to see, etc.

The host girls with opinions made a cute sign for the RULES of book club tonight.

The host mama served the girls chicken nuggets, fries, and fruit while we discussed the book.  We used our general discussion questions to help guide the discussion. They gave it all thumbs up, with one to the side.

All thumbs up except for one to the side.  For us- success!

Lots of things to share

The girls were mainly not happy with the bully in the book who is mean to David.  They liked that Catherine did the right thing in the end.  They were also curious to learn more about autism and communication disorders.

All the girls were asked ahead of time to send a list of their 20 most important words for a communication board prior to the meeting.  I used my Boardmaker software to create the boards for them.  Their boards were so cute.  It was interesting to see what words they chose.  The words were color coded by type (adjectives, nouns, etc).  Some chose mostly nouns, others adjectives, etc.  Their boards are pictured below.

NOTE:  For those of y'all wanting to do this activity who do not have BOARDMAKER, this could be accomplished using clip art and Google image search.  Also, there is a website with may premade boards that could be explored to learn more about augmentative communication.  They are all free to download as both a Boardmaker file and a PDF.  A great resource:  Setbc.org PictureSet

For our activity, the girls tried to communicate only using their communication boards for 3 minutes.

At the end of the activity, I gave the girls a sample of a "core vocabulary" communication board that I actually use with some of my students.  They could see how these vocabulary words might be more useful across contexts.  However, I think they did a great job choosing their words!

We all had a great time!  Next month, we are reading Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff.

How to Steal A Dog- Meeting #12

Our sixth meeting of the 2014-15 school year was on How To Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor.  This book was the most controversial choice we've had so far and I was a little nervous how it would be received by the girls.  Heavy topics such as homelessness, stealing a dog, and also the grief of the owner of the missing dog brings a lot of emotion to this book.  The girls really seemed to love this book however, and it was a good choice.  As the girls get older, the books inevitably get more emotional and deal with some heavy topics.  The Mamas with Opinions are all in agreement that the girls are under no pressure to continue reading a book if they find it disturbing and the mamas show trust in me when I choose the books.  Spring semester of 3rd grade seemed an appropriate time to try this book.

The host mama had an adorable dog themed spread with corndogs, snacks, and cute doggie statues to make the table festive.

Our book club meets the second Tuesday of every month, and it happened to fall on the birthday of one of the Girls With Opinions.  She wanted to come to book club anyhow because WE LOVE BOOK CLUB!  :)  We were happy she wanted to spend her real actual birthday with book club :)  So of course, we had some special stuff to celebrate.

Birthday girl

We used our general discussion questions to help guide the discussion. No thumbs down on this book, but a few to the side.

 The girls love any book about dogs so their favorite character was unanimously Willie the dog.  In the story, Georgina is dealing with extraordinarily difficult circumstances.  Her dad has left, they were evicted from their apartment, and she is living in a car with her mother and brother.  She is desperate for them to have enough money for a real home.  Her mother makes a lot of promises and is clearly stressed and working hard, but they appear to be in a hopeless situation.  Georgina sees a reward sign for a dog, and figures if they steal the right dog and return it for reward money, their problem will be solved.  The girls felt the characters were very realistic.  And that people who do bad things sometimes do so out of desperation or because they are in a very difficult position.  One girl said she felt frustrated that Georgina wasn't more patient with her mother who was trying very hard.  They also weren't happy with the way Georgina lied to her teachers.

One of the most fun parts of the discussion is when they girls are asked how the story could have been told differently.  They always have such interesting ideas on a story rewrite or the parts of the story they would have liked to hear more about.

For the craft, the girls made dog treats for their dogs at home.  The host mama premade the dough and gave portions of the girls to form into bones/treats.

Our recipe came from the Three Dog Bakery Cookbook.

One of our members brought this cute picture to book club to share.  We have lots of Book Club pride!....and we all love Pokemon.  Or at least most of us :)  It is awesome that they are so into our little club.

We all had a great time!  Next month, we are reading Rules by Cynthia Lord.

Piper Reed, Clubhouse Queen- Meeting #11

Our fifth meeting of the 2014-15 school year was on Piper Reed, Clubhouse Queen by Kimberly Willis Holt.  This was a fun light read for the girls.  No heavy topics or too much drama.

The host mama made a delicious dinner.  We could smell the burgers on the grill as we came inside!  The girls ate "Neptune Burgers" (hamburgers), "Pluto Potatoes" (fries), tator tots, and veggies while we had our discussion.  We used our general discussion questions to help guide the discussion. No thumbs down on this book, but a few to the side.

voting

 The girls love any books with pets, especially dogs.  So the pet show at the end was a hit.  Another favorite part was when Peaches the fish died and was replaced by Peaches the second.  Someone asked what a "milky eyeball" meant in regards to the dead fish.  EUW.  Not our favorite conversation over dinner.

The girls also learned about dyslexia in the discussion (which is something the main character has).

One of the morals of the story (for a Navy family always moving to new places) was "home is where your family is."

After the dinner discussion, prior to the craft, a spontaneous ring around the rosy happened.  These girls love each other ;)

For the craft, the girls got a lump of terra cotta clay to sculpt with.  In the book, Piper Reed sculpts a nose with a pimple on it out of clay to tease her older sister ;)  

One our our close friends' little girl was in the hospital and this sweetie pie wrote a get well message to text to her mama.

This was a great independent project for the girls.  Nice for the mamas to be able to catch up while the girls enjoyed working with the clay.  Host mama says the clay was quite a mess in her sink though.  Beware ;)

We all had a great time!  Next month, we are reading How To Steal a Dog by Barbara O'Connor.