Taylor Swift, writing, and tears

Say what you will about Taylor Swift, but I am a huge fan! I have talked about her in my classroom for years. The kids love her, and I love her because she writes so many of her own songs! I always talk about and share her songs when I talk about how and where writers get ideas. 

Here is a commercial clip I share with my kiddos every year. She says "it all began in fourth grade...little did he know, I was writing songs about..."

Well, after shedding plenty of tears this morning, I am an even bigger fan now!  I just saw her performance of "Ronan." Oh my! How moving and sad. My heart simply aches for Ronan's mother. 

I am sharing this because I have always talked about how writers are moved by other writers. We get our ideas from the world around us and other writers can inspire us. Taylor followed Maya Thompson's blog about her son's battle with cancer. Here is a link to the story: A Child's Cancer Story Inspires Taylor Swift. 

Maya's blog is raw and emotional, so I will not share it here for my kiddos to see. I will share how her writing through her grief and writing from their experiences moved Taylor. Many of the very words from Maya's blog were used in Taylor's song, Ronan. Because of this, Maya is credited as a co-writer. 

I also want to share this because this song is written as a narrative, and we have spent a lot of time studying what makes a narrative. We have discussed how even though we usually focus on one moment in time, not all of our moments are happy. Sometimes we even need to share the sad moments. 

I will be excited for us to participate in Scholastic Book Clubs: Read Every Day with Taylor Swift. Click on the picture below to learn more.

Alright, enough tears for now. Here are some of the great books that we are reading or will be reading very soon!

Just look at a few of my great picks from our book fair. Yes, the very book fair that makes me crazy because I love and hate it at the same time. I love it because I mean who doesn't love a book fair? I hate it because it means less book orders and points for us, LOL. As long as it is putting books in kiddos' hands, well I guess I won't complain. (too much ;)

Just look at what two of my sweet girls picked out at book fair.
You don't think I went on and on about it do you? haha

After our 5K Saturday, Katie Byrd and I made a quick trip to the book store. Katie had been reading through some of my kiddos Reader's Notebooks. She is such an avid reader and has read such an extensive number of titles; she was making quite a few book recommendations, and she even found one I did not actually own. Hard to believe, but yes, we had to add it to our library. These are some of our other purchases. I just LOVE books listed for $1 but only cost $.80 after discount!

One of my favorite picture book purchases from the book fair was Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell. You already know how much I love Molly Lou! This is a great character education book and wonderful for looking at theme ~ believe in yourself and never lose your imagination!

Substitute Creacher by Chris Gall is another fun story that I cannot wait to share with my kiddos. We ordered this picture book with our first book order, but we have been so engrossed in our study of narratives, we have not had a chance to read it. This is just such a fun little read aloud with a bit of a graphic novel feel to it. My students are really loving graphic novels at the moment, so this will be right up their alley. 

You know I am all about Chris Van Allsburg! One of my seasonal favorites of his is The Widow's Broom! Great story - with even better illustrations. One of my favorite things about this author is how he leaves so many things unsaid. It is up to you to read between the lines, to infer!    

Well, I must say good night my friends. Happy reading!