A Year of the Snake Read Aloud

So it all started Friday just after noon... the snow that is!  And with snowfall totaling just under a foot... it made for a weekend of sledding and skating fun. Although Monday's rain cleared most of the snow in my neck of Long Island away... school still needed to be cancelled in the district where I work. 

 I must admit that I have a love/hate relationship with snow days.  As fun as it is to wake up to school being closed... as a teacher I know that what they giveth, they also taketh away. But we shall focus on the positive... an unexpected day off for me and school for my girls.

As the laundry list of things I might do unfolds in my head (much needed pedicure, trip to the mall)  I realized that my unexpected day off also gives me an opportunity to visit my daughters' school. A school where teachers are in need of mystery guest readers for PARP week. So I shoot a quick email to my daughter's awesome first grade teacher... who, of course, writes back at 7:30 am to tell me I have scored a spot as a reader at 3:00.  Perfect!

But what to read to the class? As a teacher, I take this very seriously!  My students know that I wholeheartedly believe that not every book is meant to be read aloud and that if I don't love it, I have very hard time reading it to others. 

So theme first... 

the PARP theme is s'mores/camping... can't think of any good camping books

Valentine's Day is this week.... eh!

hmmmmmm... Chinese New Year was Sunday.....

it is the year of the snake...

A classic I loved as a kid, Crictor, about a French woman who receives a boa constrictor as a gift, came to mind.

So after the pedicure and before some shopping, I squeezed in a trip to one of my favorite places... the library!  But low and behold, Crictor was unavailable.  Defeated!  So I quickly googled fiction books about snakes and found My Snake Blake, by Randy Siegel, which was available.

My Snake Blake was perfect in so many ways.  It is a smart and funny story about a boy who receives an exceptional pet snake for an early birthday present. Blake can spell, does math and is even a trivia buff. Best of all, he is also a great friend.

Well, Miss Rosolino's class and Kirsten LOVED Blake and the fortune cookies (which I found in these cute little take out containers at Dollar Tree) we gave out after our read!