Gobble, Gobble, Gobble....

Is it going to be a Happy Thanksgiving on this fantasy farm? Join us in reading today as we hear about the exciting lives of three turkeys who don't know what they are getting into.

In this cute Thanksgiving read-aloud, Ollie the turkey hears farmer Joe talking about the Thanksgiving turkey. Ollie, Wing, and Cassie decide to have a field day to prove to their farmer who should be chosen as the "special" turkey for Thanksgiving. They are all wanting to win until they figure out that the special turkey means you will get eaten. The turkeys decide to tie the race and run away.
This a great book to use when teaching students the strategy of summarizing. First the teacher should read the book aloud. After the story has been read, explain to the students that when you summarize you only pick the main ideas and put them in your own words. The teacher should model how to summarize by discussing the key points of the beginning, middle, and end of story and putting them into her own words. After the students are shown how to summarize instruct them to return to the seats and practice summarizing on their own by doing the following handout:

 

 

What on earth could the Gruffalo look like??

Have you ever heard of a Gruffalo? Join us in a walk through the forest today in reading as we find out just exactly what this creature is and see what excitement awaits along the way.

   

    The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson is an entertaining story of an imaginative mouse that is traveling through the woods. On his travels the clever mouse devises a plan in an attempt to protect himself from a mouse, fox, and a snake. These are all predators that want to eat him. He tells each of the animals that he is going to meet a Gruffalo and each time he gives a detailed description of this creature that he has made up in his mind. He succeeds in frightening away the animals, but then he meets the animal of his imagination- A GRUFFALO! The mouse must now deal with the Gruffalo that also wants to eat him. The mouse tells the Gruffalo to walk behind him through the woods and see how all the other animals fear him. The Gruffalo is skeptical that other animals would be frightened of a mouse. He walks behind the mouse, and when the animals see the Gruffalo behind the mouse they run away with fright. The Gruffalo then believes that the mouse was telling the truth and ends up running away with fear himself.

    The author of this book uses rhyme and repetition. There is a large amount of description used throughout the book. The humor is this book is age appropriate and very entertaining. The introduction of the made up creature the Gruffalo really appeals to the imagination.

    This book would be great to use when teaching kids the strategy of visualizing. This could be done by showing the kids the cover of the book that has a sticky note over the illustration of the Gruffalo. Inform students that you have the Gruffalo covered up because you want them to visualize what they think he looks like after hearing all the descriptions of him that are made throughout the book. After talking about the cover and the book read it aloud to the students. Once the story has been read to the students have them go back to their desk. Give them a worksheet that instructs them to draw and color what they think the Gruffalo looks like. Once everyone is done, then show the students what the Gruffalo on the cover looks like. If there is appropriate time it would be a good idea to read the book again to students and point out all of the descriptions the author made and also show the illustrations. Once the students have seen the cover and pictures in the book ask anyone if they would like to share the illustration they made of the Gruffalo. This is a great way to have students visualize and is also fun for them. (Book cover with sticky note and worksheet examples below)

                       

   

Would you be friends with the giant next door?

   Everyone has felt left out and lonely at some point in their life. Today in reading we are going to hear a story about a boy named Jake that befriends a new kid at school when nobody else would be his friend. After hearing this story,you may  think about a time in your life when you became friends with someone when nobody else would.

   This book How to Make Friends with a Giant is a story about two friends, Jake and Jacomo. Jake is much smaller than all the other kids in his class. One day, Jacomo moves next door to Jake. Jacomo is much bigger than all of the other kids in his class. No one wants to be Jacomo's friend because he is so different. Jake tries to be his friend and at first it is very difficult. By the end of the book, Jake and Jacomo have figured out how to be best friends. The illustrations in this book are very simple yet interesting.
   I am going to use this book by teaching the strategy making connections. To practice making connections I would first read How to Make Friends with a Giant to the class. Then I would model to the students what it would look like to make a connection between the text and my own experience. I would tell the students about a time when I was the new kid at school and struggled to make friends.  For example: 'My family and I moved to a new town when I was in 2nd grade. I had a broke arm at the time and was very embarrassed because of the big ugly cast I had to wear on the first day of school. I felt like nobody wanted to be my friend because of my broken arm. When I arrived at school on the first day the girl that sat next to me had a broke leg. We began talking about our injuries and she took me in as a friend that day."  I would also show the students a drawing of my experience.

   After showing the students how I made a connection with the text , I would instruct the students draw a picture of a time when they had to make a new friend and write a few sentences about their experience. When everyone is done I would have a few students show their drawing to the class and tell about their experience.
   I think this is a great activity for teaching students to make connections with the text they are reading. I think presenting my connection with the book will get students \to thinking even more about how they can connect with their own experience of making a new friend.

America the Beautiful

 

Wouldn't you like to learn about heroic Americans that impacted our country? If so, we have the perfect book for you to read!

 

Join us today in Social Studies as we focus on a few people who are American Heroes. Each of these heroes have made an impact on the United States of America. So, lets take a journey back in time and learn all about these men and women. American Heroes By Jo Albee is a children's book that gives detail about the stories and lives of several very important heroes. The heroes in this book include:
 

George Washington

Sacagawea

Mary Mcleod Bethune

Martin Luther King

Roberto Celemente 

Sally Ride

This book starts off by explaining what these heroes have done and states different ways that we honor and acknowledge them. It lists things such as monuments, stamps, coins, and holidays. The book then moves on to talk about each American hero's story and their mark on American history. The illustrations are simple but give great images of the heroes. The author uses easy to read text that gives off phonics instruction. This book is somewhat dry and boring but is very informative for students learning about the heroes of America.

The book goes along great with this Georgia Standard...

SS1H1 The student will read about and describe the life of historical figures in American history.

a. Identify the contributions made by these figures: Benjamin Franklin (inventor/author/ statesman), Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence), Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with Sacagawea (exploration), Harriet Tubman (Underground Railroad), Theodore Roosevelt (National Parks and the environment), George Washington Carver (science).  

This book can definitely be used to teach Social Studies for many grades. This first grade standard fit really well because a few of the figures listed in the standard are included in this book. This book can be read as a class and then  students can research the heroes that are spoken about in this book! After reading and researching the heroes students could do a handout requiring them to identify the contributions of each hero.  You could also have  students  come up with their own way to honor and acknowledge these heroes, by creating a monument or stamp.  There is a tic tac toe game at the back of the book that would be fun for students to do after reading the book.

Roots, Stems, Leaves, & Flowers Make Me!

 

Do you want to know all about the parts of a plant?

 

 

 

 

 

Kids love science and discovering new things about the world we live in. Join us in our science class today as we read a book that is going to teach us all about plants and their parts. Each part of every plant has a very special job to do. So, let us take a look at the plants and job each part plays. Parts of a Plant written by Wiley Blevins is a nonfiction book that points out all of the different parts of a plant and their function. The illustrations show the parts of a plant including the roots, stem, and leaves. The author uses easy-to-read text that incorporates phonics instruction. The book goes through all of the stages of how a plant grows and how the stem, flowers, leaves and roots are essential to the growth. It begins with a seed being planted and forming roots. The word 'roots' is bolded and it then defines and explains what roots are and why plants need them. Each page has a similar explanation for each part of a plant. The book is somewhat dry and boring, but very informational and has pictures for the students to look at. This is a great science book to share among students. However, I think this book should only be used to inform since it is strictly content. I feel like there are other books with the same concept that are a lot more interesting and fun for kids.

Parts of a Plant correlates with the Georgia Performance Standard S1L1.c. Identify the parts of a plant-root, stem, leaf, and flower.

This book can be used to teach students about the four main attributes of a plant. To begin the lesson about plants, reading this book would make a great way to introduce the main concepts. After the book is read this allows the teacher time to discuss the different parts of a plant such as root, stem, leaf, and flower. After each part of the plant has been discussed, the students the students along with the teacher can focus on the illustrations as they depict each part of a plan. When the teacher has finished showing the illustrations, the students could then be given a handout which requires them to label each part of a plant properly. Students are then given the option to illustrate their own plants and then advised to talk with their classmates about the proper labeling and job of each part. At the end of the lesson and activities, the book could be read again as closure for the students to remind them of what they have just learned about plants.

 

Quack and Count is a book that introduces counting and addition. This book is about a family of seven ducks that slip, slide, leap and dive in groups of zero to seven. Each activity that the ducks get into separates them in groups. The book shows all of the number combinations for the number seven. The pictures are a great visual representation of the math. The ducks find themselves in situations such as two ducklings jumping into a pond where there are already five. The page shows the addition of two plus five equals seven. Other addition problems include a group of six and one showing six plus one equals seven or one group of three and one groups of four showing the addition of three plus four equals seven.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This book correlates with several Kindergarten Common Core Math Standards for Unit 4:

 

 

 MCCK.OA.1  Represent addition and subtraction with objects, fingers, mental images, drawings5, sounds (e.g., claps), acting out situations, verbal explanations, expressions, or equations.

MCCK.OA.2  Solve addition and subtraction word problems, and add and subtract within 10, e.g., by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.

 MCCK.OA.3  Decompose numbers less than or equal to 10 into pairs in more than one way, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each decomposition by a drawing or equation (e.g., 5 = 2 + 3 and 5 = 4 + 1).

MCCK.OA.4  For any number from 1 to 9, find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record the answer with a drawing or equation.

MCCK.OA.5  Fluently add and subtract within 5.

The book Quack and Count can be used in the classroom to teach counting strategies, number combinations and story problems. In the book the ducks are split into two sets. The two sets can always be added together to equal seven. This also shows the number combinations for seven and is in story problem form. This could be used as a fun review for these three concepts. The teacher could read the story to the students and ask the students to point out all of the combined sets they find. The students can even be asked to write their own number sentence for each number combination. I think this is a really cute book that I would definitely use in my classroom.

Charlie Hits It Big

So far we have spent 2 weeks blogging and have covered Traditional Literature and Poetry. This week we are going to add to the list by adding fiction.

The name of our book this week is Charlie Hits It Big, which is a funny little story about a Guinea Pig named Charlie who is making his way to Hollywood on a quest to be a SUPERSTAR!!

In this story Charlie, the guinea pig, left his owner, Sophie, a note telling her he was gone on a trip be back later. Charlie was actually going to Hollywood. When he made to Hollywood he joined a tour group and managed to sneak away on one of the movie sets. While on the set he was handed and script and Charlie read the lines so great he got the part in the movie. Everyone in Hollywood fell in love with him but even with fame, and all the food he wanted, he still felt lonely. In his loneliness he remembered the times him and Sophie would play and she would pet him till he fell asleep. This realization made Charlie pack up his things and take a taxi home. When he got to his house and knocked on the door no one answered. Just when he was discouraged a light came on and a he heard a voice say "Who's there?"  Sophie opened and was so excited for his homecoming, and when they went in the house Charlie saw his cage with a bag of his FAVORITE fruity nuts with a red bow tied on it. This was just another reminder why he came home.

This book was classified as fiction for a number of reasons. The type of fiction this book falls under is fantasy. There are several reasons that this is a non-fiction fantasy book. Not only can guinea pigs not talk but they also can’t ride in airplanes or take taxis like Charlie did in this story. Also, they can’t become Hollywood actors that go to fancy clothes stores for an outfit. The conflict in this fantasy was Charlie against himself, because he thought he wanted some fancy superstar lifestyle in Hollywood and was quickly reminded that he loved being home more. The theme of the book also taught the reader to be thankful for what you have instead of wishing for things or lifestyle that might not bring you can happiness. The setting of the book was also VERY OBVIOUS. It tells the reader numerous times that Charlie is in Hollywood and when he goes home it tells of where he is headed. The point of view for this story is in the perspective form as if someone else is telling the story about Charlie and his journey away from home.

This was a very fun big and would be a great book to use when teaching what fantasy books are because I think it includes a lot of obvious elements that the students would be able to point out in discussion.