And OUR Caldecott Winner Is ...

The American Library Association awards the Caldecott Medal to the artist of "the most distinguished American picture book for children." This year, kindergartners and first-graders chose a title for the Oak Lawn Mock Caldecott by an illustrator who has ALA honor in the past: Jon Klassen. Our book? The Rock from the Sky.

Here are some reasons the kids voted for it:

NOTE: I asked for clarification on this comment ... the student appreciated that Klassen did so much with so little ... it's the same basic landscape with the same characters, but he made it fun.

Three of These Things with Grade 1

A big part of information literacy is being able to recognize patterns and to categorize facts, sources, etc. We're starting to work on these skills in first grade. 

Our latest lesson is one of my favorites; it involves the original Three of These Things from Sesame Street. Original as in from the 1970s. I showed several sample videos to the kids, and they raised their hands as soon as they figured out what didn't belong. Here's one that we didn't get to:

Then it was the students' turn to pretend they were segment producers and come up with their own "Three of These Things" example. Can you tell what doesn't belong?

We Have a Winner!

The American Library Association awards the Caldecott Medal to the artist of "the most distinguished American picture book for children." This year, I read 13 picture books to first and second graders for our Oak Lawn Mock Caldecott. 

93 students chose from among

5 finalists, and

1 came out on top with 

41 votes (44%):

Snail Crossing, written and illustrated by Corey R. Tabor

Here are some reasons why: 

• It was cute.
• The snail thought he was at the cabbage but he wasn't there. 
• It is silly.
• The ants went in the snail shell and had a tea party. 
• Because the snail helps the ants.
• It was sweet and funny.
• He thinks he's going to the food, but he went in a circle.
• I like when the snail thought he scared the bird away, but the car did. 
• The ants were nice enough to bring the lettuce that the snail was trying to get.
  
  
  

Mock Caldecott Results

The American Library Association awards the Caldecott Medal to the artist of "the most distinguished American picture book for children." In the spring, first- and second-graders listened to about a dozen picture books that were published in 2019. Our voting process was interrupted by COVID, but we finally had a chance to select a winner from the list of four finalists this fall.

The winner: Who Wet My Pants?, illustrated by Zachariah O'Hora and written by Bob Shea.  

Here are some reasons why the kids chose it:

• It made me laugh and it was funny
• Because I liked how he talked
• He wanted to find out who wet his pants ... and it was him
• It was like a comic with not that many words on each page.
• He kept asking WHO WET MY PANTS!!!
• It's funny when he says "These pants are broken."
• Because it is hilarious
• He was kind and he was curious and even if one of his friends did it, he would still forgive them.

Full voting results: