Monday, January 27, 2014

Radishes to encourage reading

Recently my school bought us all a copy of this book:
 

This is a must-read for teachers, parents, and librarians. Really. Seriously. It's good. Read it.

Anyway, one thing that resonated with me was trying to make books 3-D, so today I brought radishes for my kids to eat. Sounds lame, maybe, especially for a second grader, but I was nerdishly excited about this. 

I've been reading aloud this to my class:



The chapter we read today was called The Radish Cure. It was about a girl who wouldn't take baths so her parents stopped making her bathe, then when she got dirty enough, they sprinkled radish seeds on her and let them grow, which was terrible enough to convince the girl to bathe. 

So I brought a bunch of radishes (88 cents):


I am pretty sure some of my students had never seen radishes before. Several hadn't eaten them. So I made a bag of radishes for each table (plus I threw in carrots) along with a small bowl of dip for each table, discussed food sharing etiquette, and let them eat while I read. 

Not sure why, but I felt like a pretty cool teacher. Because every student wishes their teacher would give them veggies, right?

But seriously, I'm looking forward to trying to make books 3-D for kids again and again. 

P.S. Read that book by Jim Trelease.