Book Genre: Fable, Fantasy, Folk Tales and Myths
Publishing: Random House Children's Books, Sept. 1974 (32 pp.)
Awards/Honors: Caldecott Honor, ALA Notable Book, and New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year
Summary:
Alexander the mouse always got screamed at or chased by a broom every time he went looking for crumbs to eat. One day when no one was at home, Alexander found another mouse in the house. It wasn't an ordinary mouse, but a wind-up mouse named Willy. Alexander and Willy became good friends even though Willy couldn't move and play with Alexander. Alexander came to wish he was like Willy because he wanted to be cuddled and loved. One day Willy told Alexander about a magic lizard who lives in the garden and who could change one animal into another. Alexander went to see the lizard who told him to bring him a purple pebble. Alexander looked but couldn't find one.When he return home, Alexander found Willy in a box with old toys. Annie his owner was throwing him away. While talking to Willy, Alexander found a purple peddle and ran to the garden to give it to the lizard. When the lizard asked for his wish, Alexander wished that Willy would be a mouse like him instead of him becoming a wind-up mouse like Willy. Alexander return home to find that the box was empty. He believed he was too late until he saw Willy in the hold in the wall.
Personal rating and Why?
This is a good book. I enjoy the story and the pictures. The reading has an easy flow to it.
Reading Level: 4.7
Interest Level: K-2
Integrated units of study:
Science: Talk about animals and their habitat
Reading: Make connection and predictions
Writing: Write about a special friend and the things they like doing together
Potential Problems or Difficulties: The font too small
Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantasy. Show all posts
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Officer Buckle and Gloria byPeggy Rathmann
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile; Unknown edition
Awards/Honors: Caldecott Medal Book
Summary: Oficer Buckle goes around the community giving safety speeches. He takes along his partner and friend, Gloria the K-9 dog. At first officer Buckle thinks his speeches are so successful because of him, but soon realizes it is Gloria who is stealing the show. It isn't until an accident happens that Officer Buckle realizes that he is successfully because of his teamwork with Gloria. That seperate they are not successfully but as a team they are able to make a difference.
Personal Rating: ****Good. This book had great pictures and was entertaining. The kids love it!
Curriculum: A great way to introduce this lesson is by asking the children to brainstorm safety rules for school, home, and the community. The students generate a class list of safety tips. You can also have the children brainstorm ideas on the importance of teamwork, times they have been part of a team, and how team work is important.
Character conflict is another skill that can be taught with this lesson. Two characters are in conflict with each other even though they are friends. How do they resolve the conflict and was it handle in the best way.This is a great story to do Reader's Theater with!
Art: Children design their own safety rule poster.
Social Studies: Discuss community helpers (poilice offers especially). Their role in the community. As part of this acitvity I had a police officer and his K-9 dog come to visit.
Social skills: Students act out ways to solve problems such as 2 friend are playing a game. Both want to go first. How would be the best way to solve the problem?
Writing: Write letters to our poilce officers thanking them for the work they do.
Reading level: 3.0
Interest level: K - 3rd
Problems/Difficulties: None
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile; Unknown edition
Awards/Honors: Caldecott Medal Book
Summary: Oficer Buckle goes around the community giving safety speeches. He takes along his partner and friend, Gloria the K-9 dog. At first officer Buckle thinks his speeches are so successful because of him, but soon realizes it is Gloria who is stealing the show. It isn't until an accident happens that Officer Buckle realizes that he is successfully because of his teamwork with Gloria. That seperate they are not successfully but as a team they are able to make a difference.
Personal Rating: ****Good. This book had great pictures and was entertaining. The kids love it!
Curriculum: A great way to introduce this lesson is by asking the children to brainstorm safety rules for school, home, and the community. The students generate a class list of safety tips. You can also have the children brainstorm ideas on the importance of teamwork, times they have been part of a team, and how team work is important.
Character conflict is another skill that can be taught with this lesson. Two characters are in conflict with each other even though they are friends. How do they resolve the conflict and was it handle in the best way.This is a great story to do Reader's Theater with!
Art: Children design their own safety rule poster.
Social Studies: Discuss community helpers (poilice offers especially). Their role in the community. As part of this acitvity I had a police officer and his K-9 dog come to visit.
Social skills: Students act out ways to solve problems such as 2 friend are playing a game. Both want to go first. How would be the best way to solve the problem?
Writing: Write letters to our poilce officers thanking them for the work they do.
Reading level: 3.0
Interest level: K - 3rd
Problems/Difficulties: None
Thursday, May 28, 2009
The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling
Title: The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling
Genre: fantasy
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for young readers a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Croup, Inc.
Pages: 87
Awards: NA
Summary: John Midas loved chocolate more than anything. His parents are very worried about him because he spends all his money on chocolate and that seems to be all he thinks about. One day as John is going down the street, he finds a shiny coin that just happens to have his intials J.M. on it. John sees a new candy store and goes inside. When the store owner offers John chocoate for his special coin he accepts it.
When John eats the piece of chocolate from the box he discovers later that everything he touches becomes chocolate. At first John is thrilled at his new gift, but it isn't long before he realizes that this new gift isn't as great as he thought. When his mom turns into chocolate that John rushes back to the store for help. The store owner helps John to realize that his greed with chocolate is what is causing everything to turn to chocolate.
Personal Rating: *****Great! Very funny and entertaining!
Reading level: 3.o
Interest level: ages 9 - 12
Reading/writing ideas: I started the lesson with a predicting activity. The student predicted the genre, narrative story elements, etc. After completing the lesson we reviewed our predictions and made changes if necessary. I used a vocabular activity and quiz for every two chapters. This allowed me to measure comprehension as we read the story. The student completed various other activities as we explored the book.
Science: We learned about the history of chocolate. I used this website as part of this unit. http://www.mce.k12tn.net/chocolate/history/name.htm
this website has various activites concerning chocolate that will allow you to incorporate math(graphing your favorite choclate bar), making a choclate dessert, compare similar books, mini lesson on describing a Hershey Kiss, etc.
Problem/Difficulities: The book is a little difficult to comprehend for lower level readers
Genre: fantasy
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for young readers a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Croup, Inc.
Pages: 87
Awards: NA
Summary: John Midas loved chocolate more than anything. His parents are very worried about him because he spends all his money on chocolate and that seems to be all he thinks about. One day as John is going down the street, he finds a shiny coin that just happens to have his intials J.M. on it. John sees a new candy store and goes inside. When the store owner offers John chocoate for his special coin he accepts it.
When John eats the piece of chocolate from the box he discovers later that everything he touches becomes chocolate. At first John is thrilled at his new gift, but it isn't long before he realizes that this new gift isn't as great as he thought. When his mom turns into chocolate that John rushes back to the store for help. The store owner helps John to realize that his greed with chocolate is what is causing everything to turn to chocolate.
Personal Rating: *****Great! Very funny and entertaining!
Reading level: 3.o
Interest level: ages 9 - 12
Reading/writing ideas: I started the lesson with a predicting activity. The student predicted the genre, narrative story elements, etc. After completing the lesson we reviewed our predictions and made changes if necessary. I used a vocabular activity and quiz for every two chapters. This allowed me to measure comprehension as we read the story. The student completed various other activities as we explored the book.
Science: We learned about the history of chocolate. I used this website as part of this unit. http://www.mce.k12tn.net/chocolate/history/name.htm
this website has various activites concerning chocolate that will allow you to incorporate math(graphing your favorite choclate bar), making a choclate dessert, compare similar books, mini lesson on describing a Hershey Kiss, etc.
Problem/Difficulities: The book is a little difficult to comprehend for lower level readers
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The BFG by Roald Dahl
Genre: Fantasy
Publishing Information: Puffin Books (206 pgs)
Awards: none
Summary: The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant) is written about the many adventures of the giant with a little girl that he captured when she woke up one night while the BFG was trying to steal her dreams. The BFG and Sophie go on many different adventures to ultimately try and stop all the bone-crunching giants once and for all. This is an account of all the exciting things that these two friends run into.
Personal Rating: ***Good-this book is a little hard to read aloud due to the made-up words and language.
Possible integration: This book reinforces and gives the teacher ample opportunity to use their context clues. Because of all the nonsense words, it is imperative for the students to use their context clues to figure out what the word is they are discussing.
The use of figurative language in this is very dramatic. This gives teachers the opportunity to discuss the different types of figurative language and how they are used in writing.
Reading Level: 5.8
Interest Level: 3-5
Potential Problems: The amount of nonsense words make it extremely difficult to read and to understand. It is important to use those context clues to figure out what is being discussied.
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