• The Case of the April Fool's Frogs,  By: Nancy Star

    book

    Nancy Star, a good friend of Mrs. Tallman’s mom, is the author of a children’s mystery series called The Calendar Club Series.  Each book is about 3 friends (Casey, Dottie, and Leon) who solve mysteries! They live in the fictional town of Fruitvale, which is actually based on the town that Mrs. Tallman and Nancy Star are from - Montclair, NJ! This book has a lot of connections to Mrs. Tallman and her childhood.  She loves reading it to her students!  This is also a nice reminder of how authors get their ideas - from their own lives! Nancy Star gets so many amazing ideas from her own life, where she lives, and the people she knows.

    In this book, Fruitvale is getting ready for its first ever April Fool's Day Festival, but there's a lot more than pranks going on this April Fool's Day though. Townsfolk discover frogs in the strangest places: shoes, hats, even the Calendar Club Help Box! And a gowk goes missing, too! But what is a gowk? 

    You will be revisiting all you learned about characters for the next few weeks.  Casey, Dottie, and Leon are very special characters.  They have specific traits.  As I read this chapter book out loud to you, see if you can figure out what those traits are, and how those traits help them to solve this mystery!  You'll also be revisiting retelling.  After listening to a chapter, you can practice retelling what happened first, next, then, after that, last, and so on in that chapter. As you retell, please be sure to include details about who (characters!), what (the things that happened to them!), and where (the setting!) 

     

    Week of May 11th:

    Monday- Ch 1: Gowks!

    Tuesday- Ch 2: Frogs!

    Wednesday- Ch 3: More Frogs!

    Thursday- Ch 4: More Clues!

    Friday- Ch 5: Turning into Toads

     

    Week of May 18th:

    Monday- Ch 6: Wrong Door!

    Tuesday- Ch 7: Special Delivery

    Wednesday- Ch 8: In the Book Bin

    Thursday- Ch 9: April Fool's!

    Friday- Ch 10: The Festival Begins 


    Week of May 25:

    Monday- No School!

    Tuesday- Ch 11: Finding the Gowk

    Wednesday- Nancy Star has a special video message for students at AWR! Please click here: Message from Nancy Star!

    Thursday & Friday: For the rest of the week, please take this time to write Nancy Star a letter.  Please keep in mind that this is an optional activity.  If you'd like to send her a letter, please email it to me (atallman@npsdnj.org) and I'll make sure she gets it! :) As you write, you might want to include: a little bit about yourself, parts of the book you liked, questions you have for her, and a picture.