Dadey and Jones take us on a mysterious adventure with the Bailey School Kids as they work to figure out who this new substitute art teacher is, and why she is so strange. They begin to notice some odd things happening throughout the school. First, the lights go out and their art teacher is MIA, then the pictures in the hallway are losing their color, and so are their clothes and hair. They begin to think that the new substitute teacher is the one behind this strange phenomenon. The children eventually work up the courage to follow her home, only to discover a strange spaceship looking object that is holding all of the colors that are missing from the school. Well after they are discovered by the substitute teacher, one thing leads to another, and a wrong button is pushed. Needless to say, the next day everything is back to normal. The color has returned and so has the art teacher, but the substitute teacher has vanished.
One thing that I love about The Bailey School Kids books is that the authors always to appeal to the adventurous side in their reader. They come up with clever characters and story plots that will catch the attention of young readers, and keep it. They incorporate friendship, school, and mysteries all into one book.
As I thought of ways to correlate this story into a classroom, I realized that through the exaggeration and adventurous fiction aspects of the story, it would be a great way to teach students to write their very own fictional pieces. I believe that having students write stories of their own is a great way to not only build writing skills but also get to know your students. You can find out things that interest them, through topics they choose to write about, and this can help you build better relationships with your students. By giving students the ability to come up with their own crazy stories to write about, it helps engage students in writing. Just like anything, writing takes practice, and I think that having students create stories similar to The Bailey School Kids books, could be a great way to make them want to write. You could create a unit in class reading these books, and then have students brainstorm possible story ideas that they have. This could even be incorporated into a Writer's Workshop!
As I work to add to my future classroom library, I hope to be able to find more Bailey School Kids books to add to my collection. I cannot wait to start recommending them to my students!
Until next week,
Ashley
Hey, Ashley!
ReplyDeleteI love that you were thinking like a teacher with your post this week too. While it seems like forever away, we will soon be in our own classrooms and reading these stories to our students. I had never heard of this book before, but it sounds very interesting. I think this would be a great book for students, because it will catch their interests and draw them in. I'm going to keep a look out for these books, because they sound like a great addition to our classroom libraries.
Great post,
Tara