Oh the places we will go! - Today NYC. Tomorrow?

We have been reading a WONDERFUL book aloud in my classroom.  It is titled Walls Within Walls.  I picked it up to read along with a few others to my class.  In my room kids always vote for what we read aloud.  I want them to decide so that they are more attentive.  This doesn't mean they pick from anything - this means, I pick 3 good books and no matter what - they have made a great choice.  I had not read Walls Within Walls before now.  It is one that is on a list of Blue Bonnet Books for Texas.  These books are ones that are nominated for the Blue Bonnet Award.  Kids read the books on the list and all over Texas 3rd - 6th graders vote.  The kid vote decides which book gets the award.

Blue Bonnet Reading List 2013-2014

Now, the children in my classroom LOVE this mystery.  It is about a family that moves to 5th Avenue from Brooklyn because their dad has made it BIG with his Game Designing Company called LeCube.  The children have new things like a homework nanny, a regular nanny, playdates that are scheduled, and other strange things they have to get used to on 5th Avenue.  The kids have moved into an apartment that has strange rules.  For example, there are walls built in front of the original walls so that the house could be made into 4 apartments.  The original walls cannot be taken down or altered in anyway.  When the kids return a library book that was due back in the 1930's - they begin a journey to find a treasure that was buried long ago.

The story talks about MANY places in New York City.  The children go along with their "weekend" nanny to find the treasure.  The author used real poems to aide with the clues.  NOW - my kids LOVE poetry, too!  To make the book a bit more real to them I have been showing them pictures of the sites each day.  I use "Google Images" to help.

Chirp App

Then TODAY I ran across a site that was a virtual tour of New York City.  IT was GREAT!  I used the app Chirp (which is a phone app, but can be used with the iPad).  I used CHIRP to send out the link to all of my class.  It is fast and easy.  The kids will then push the button that says, "open in Safari" and off MY KIDS go down the streets of New York.

New York City Tour
The site is run through Google Maps.  The site isn't live.  BUT - the Google people have taken lots of pictures and put them together to
form the streets of New York.

My kids really liked the field trip we went on!  They said that they felt like they were IN New York City.  They liked seeing the people on the sides of the street and passing them quickly.  They liked looking at the tall buildings and reading on the right side of the screen the history about the building. They looked for about 20 minutes and then I had to make them "come back" to Texas.  Most said they wanted to continue to explore and I will let them do that if they finish their work or if they have a minute or two between things throughout the day.  I was so proud of the kids!  They were excited, engaged, and eager to read more in the book that we have almost finished.

When we were done today we emailed the author.  We hope that she will Face Time us or Skype with our classroom.  It would be SO awesome to talk to a REAL author and ask her questions!  IF we get to, we will let you know!