Apparently Cats Rule.

Yesterday the CPG children read Circle Dogs written by Kevin Henkes and illustrated by Dan Yaccarino. Today they read Caldecott Honor book Green Eyes written and illustrated by A. Birnbaum, and then voted for their favorite animal. The election results were as follows: 4 votes for dogs and 6 votes for cats.

Brady and Ryan discussed the books together.

Brady: Circle Dogs was my favorite because them were circley. I love the black one.

Ryan:  I like the black one, too. And I do like that one, too. [Green Eyes]

Brady: Cat one for me, too, because it has green eyes.

Ryan: Mine's because I like that one, too. [Green Eyes] I like green.

Brady: I do to. Green's my favorite.

Ryan: Hey! I thought you like purple.

Ryan: I do. And green, too.

The rest of the children discussed the book individually with me.

Aria:  I liked Green Eyes. He was a little cat. I like the chickens. I like the end pages -- grass, sun, winter, fall.

J.J.: I liked it because the Circle Dogs were sleeping in a circley way. [Flips to another illustration.]  Digging! I liked that part, too. I liked the story.

Maeve:  I liked Green Eyes because he jumped out of the box. He's trying to get the mouse, but it wasn't a mouse. It was a leaf. He jumped and tried to get it, but he was thinking about it. He was sleeping near the radiator because the snow was going to fall on him and he'd get cold.

Olivia: [Olivia liked Circle Dogs best.] They smell bones. They wake up the people.

Aiden R.: [Aiden liked Circle Dogs best, too.] It turned into a circle. They digged in the yard. They were licking people.

Lindsey: [Lindsey picked Circle Dogs as her favorite book, and the orange dog as her favorite character.]

Aidan C.:  [Aidan liked Green Eyes best.] She climbed in the box. She run around the tree. She was watching the man walk the cows. [Milk the cows.]

[Teagan didn't feel like talking about books today, and the rest of the children were absent from school.]

More CPG Thoughts

Today we read Caldecott Honor Book The Stray Dog by Marc Simont. I asked the children to pick their favorite book we read this week to discuss.

Olivia: I like that doggy.  He is Willy.  I like Willy every time. He's my favorite pet dog. [I asked her how she felt when the dog catcher caught Willy.] That was bad! He has to go to the dog patch. So he got his leash. [The girl gave the dog catcher her hair ribbon, telling him it was Willy's leash.][Olivia points to the boy, who is removing his belt and telling the dog catcher it was Willy's collar.] He could save him!

Teagan: I liked this [Kitten's First Full Moon] best because the kitty jumped in the pond. I like this one. The kitty's climbing up the tree. She's a poor kitten because she fell down to get the moon. She's trying to get that moon. She thinks it's a bowl of milk. She's trying to drink the milk. She jumped in the pond. First she went on the grass. Then she jumped in the pond. [Flips to another illustration.] The bug got in her tongue. It was funny! The firefly.

Lindsey looked very carefully at the covers of Kitten's First Full Moon and The Stray Dog. I asked if she liked the dog book best, and she just wasn't quite sure. I asked if maybe she liked the cat book best. She smiled and said, "Yes!"

Aidan C.: I liked it because I liked the bathtub one. They have a dog in it with people. The girl was scrubbing the dog. The boy was turning up the water. [Turns to Willy-in-the-dog-catcher's-net illustration.] Hey! He didn't get his tail!

Maeve: I liked this [Kitten's First Full Moon] best because he licked the bowl of milk. I liked it because he jumped in the water because he wanted to get that milk. He thought it was milk.

Aria: [Ryan is looking over Aria's shoulder at the illustration.] I like the catcher one. I like it. I like Winnie. Winnie wags her tail a lot. [I ask who Winnie is.] Winnie lives at Aria's house. I like the sun setting. [In one of the illustrations.] I like this one. [Illustration shows the dog catcher chasing the dog.] He is dead.

Ryan: No! He's just hiding.

Aria: He got caught. The girl give her ribbon. [For a leash.] The boy is just like this. [Illustration shows the boys holding up his pants because he took his belt off to use as a collar. Aria pretends to hold up her pants and laughs.]

Ryan: [Looking at the bathtub illustration in which the kids are in the tub bathing the dog.] So the kid's hair is funny! [Flips to another illustration.] Look! "Here's his leash!" [Said in a sing-song voice, as if he -- Ryan -- is the boy in the story.] He's holding up his pants so they don't fall down and bring a policeman. I like the boy the best. He chased the dog.

Julianna: My favorite part was the dog catcher trying to catch the dog. It was funny! I was trying not to laugh.

Brady D. and Bob were not in school today, so they'll contribute to next week's CPG entry.

Random CPG Literacy Note: Teagan announced that he was making end papers while tracing circles on paper in a Mickey Mouse pattern in the writing corner. These are the moments that I live for in my teaching life!