Animals Black and White

Phyllis Limbacher Tildes wrote and illustrated this non-fiction piece titled Animals Black and White. The book is sort of in a riddle-like, question and answer format which makes you want to continue to turn the pages. You get a small clue from the illustrations, but more importantly the text gives lots of great factual details about the animal; so as you read the book like a game, it makes learning about the traits of the animal much more fun. As you can imagine, all of the animals that are mentioned in the book are black and white, including penguins, panda bears, zebras, orca whales, skunks and butterflies. I enjoyed the art work, and the question and answer theme of the book, and I could see it being used to introduce a Science lesson, or as a fun read at the end of the day or after lunch or a special area class.

The book is suitable for Kindergarten to 3rd grade readers, and I could see kids reading this book with a buddy in a way that one student is teaching another about the animals as the questions are all answered. For a pre-activity, you could have the students think about as many animals that are black and white to see if they can predict what animals will be in the book. Make a list at the front of the board and check them of as you read the book. Later, have students break off in groups and do a little more research on each of the animals from the book, and any others that they come up with that are black and white. The kids could make posters with all of the facts, and create a classroom quilt filled with animals and their traits. This is a book that gives lots of teaching opportunities.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See?

I had to put at least one Eric Carl  (and Bill Martin!) book in here, and I chose Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you See? because I have so frequently used it in the last few years where I have had the opportunity to work closely with students who  have special needs. The story is easy, and it is about a brown bear who looks to another animal asks what they see. The book goes on in this pattern for about 10 or different animals, and I like this book because you can teach sequencing, colors, animals, etc. and kids love all of the bright colors and the simplicity of the text that ends up becoming very memorable.

Since this book can be used for early pre-school to about Kindergarten leveled students, this might be a chance to create a fun group activity for the little ones. First they could complete a puzzle that goes along with the story as a pre-activity, and then after reading the story for practice, they could each draw a picture of the different animals, reciting the lines of each page until they get to the end with the children and the teacher. It may even be fun to have them make a little costume out of construction paper and have them each stand up in sequential order when it is their turn in the story to recite their lines.

Boomer Goes to School

This is a wicked cute book about a dog who gets to school with his kid owner as the show-and tell presentation. Boomer is a crazy dog who gets into everything and anything at school, and bringing him into school to represent the boy's show and tell was probably a lot more difficult than he had anticipated.

Eventually down the road I would like to write children's books, but one thing I have started recently was a series of more comedic tales of my dog Lucy's crazy, almost human-priveledged life. I grew up with a yellow laboradoar, who was just a part of our family as any one of us, and people sometimes overlook the relationships that can be developed with animals and their owners. They need us just as much as we need them, and I wish more animals could feel the love that our pets do when they are welcomed into a home--granted that it be a good and loving home.

For teachable moments, this story provides a great conflict-solution theme, where as a pre-activity, students could talk about what might occur if they brought their pets to school. After reading the book, the students could come up with a new plan to bring Boomer to school, with a better and more organized plan that could keep him out of most of the trouble he had gotten into. :) This was an adorable book, another library keeper :)

The Runaway Bunny

The Runaway Bunny is a little story about a son bunny who continues to challenge his mother, saying he wants to run away from her. Why he wanted to run away is beyond me, and the Mother seemed as thought she would always be there for him from the retort that she always had prepared when he explains what he'll do or become when he does run. I felt a more human connection as the animals sort of became personified as the bunny child became more creative as the story progressed. It made me think of how children grow, and how each time we think they are ready for more independence, their mothers still remind them of the direction that they had before, and the direction that they will still get from the love of a family. Another theme I saw was one of family, and how you can run away from anything in this world, but you really can't divorce yourself from family, or the ones who care about you the most. 

I would use this story for sequencing, and teaching on the theme of companionship. I would as a pre-activity collect a few different stories based on companionship, and then add this one to the mix. Later the students could see the different ways people show love, and they could come up with a creative story or poetry to emulate how they would show companionship to friends family or any other loved ones.

Margaret Wise Brown also wrote Goodnight Moon, another classic that winds up in almost every child's night stand at one point or another. She has a simple yet effective way of writing, and her stories have a really classic feel to them. 

Dear Mrs. LaRue

This is another book I absolutely adore...Mark Teague, author and illustrator of the endearing little story of Ike the dog, wrote the story about Ike and his owner Mrs. LaRue, who has shipped him off to obedience school to improve upon his somewhat naughty dog behavior. Dear Mrs. LaRue is composed of mostly letters written from Ike to his beloved owner whom he misses dearly. I love this book for the multitude of literary elements, including persuasive writing, mood and tone, character development, plot and sequencing. The illustrations are really neat, and on each page you see the darker side, of what Ike is portraying in his persuasive letters and how he tries to go home with exaggerations of how bad it is at the obedience school. Those pictures are in gray scale, while the reality of the situation at the obedience school is in color, and not nearly as bad as Ike makes it out to be. Awesome book, really.

I used this story to teach persuasive writing, and there are elements and language readily available within the story for students to pull out while learning about the unit of persuasion. The kids loved this book! As a pre-activity we read this story, and then afterwards we worked together to find persuasive and figurative language that Ike used to get himself home and back into the arms of his owner. Then we had a discussion on why we persuade, especially when writing letters and trying to get our view points across. Finally we had a post-activity of discovering other methods of persuasion through lyrical music, commercials and advertisements, pod casts, etc. to explore the many reasons why we persuade, and how to be effective persuasive writers. This story is one I found most fit for 4th graders, but in range probably as early as 2nd grade for a read aloud, and up to 5th grade for the underlying elements.

If you Give a Pig a Pancake

Laura  Numeroff and Felicia Bond have created the wonderful series of books that are framed by personification and sequencing. Other titles including If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, If you Give a Cat a Cupcake, and If you Give a Moose a Muffin, as well as several other enjoyable stories in the line. I really love If you Give a Pig a Pancake because of the friendship that this young girl has with the pig, and most of the stories in this line have a young child who complies with the animal and all of their associated requests. Simply I love it because these characters carry on as though building a tree fort with a pig is completely normal, and I think children usually very often make wonderful friends of pets and animals.

The frame work also includes aspects of cause and effect, alongside personification and sequential ordering. With all of these stories, re-telling for a comprehension would be effective, but more importantly I think as you correlate the cause and effect that comes from the plot line, students could rebuild the story with sequencing. I am thinking in terms of puzzle pieces, and for a pre-activity they could share with a friend what their predictions of the story's outcome...what will happen if you give a pig a pancake? As the book is a simple read, I would allow students to continue to work in pairs to read the book together, and as a post activity they could create a time table, ordering the events of the story from 1-10 or 15, and piecing the cause-and effect elements together. These books are all very accessible for younger readers, I would say Kindergarten or 1st grade through 3rd grade.

A House is a House for Me

One thing that I am seeing, and that I had noticed before but it probably isn't brought up enough, is that children's books can fall under many categories of learning, especially as the students begin to enter different subject areas in school that are individualized. A House is a House for Me is a little tale about items and living things that simply go together. A glove is a house for a hand, and a house is a house for me...the story has perfect little rhyming schemes to keep it catchy and memorable and this is another story that is so loaded with teachable activities. The author, Mary Ann Hoberman , and seemed to find a home for almost everything and anything.

I used this book when I was student teaching in an inclusive Kindergarten classroom. For the pre-activity, I asked the kids about where they live, and they all agreed that they lived in a home or an apartment. Yes that topic can get sticky, but that's another time. Later we had the students each take an item or a living thing, and then it's corresponding home. We played a game where the object or thing had to "go home" to practice making the associations. For the post-activity, the students simply had to draw a line to match pictures with their individual homes. Here I saw a combination of Science, Social Studies and ELA components, it's impressive! I would say the reading levels are appropriate for a younger audience, Kindergarten to 2nd grade. All in all, I  enjoyed the story was so carefully put together, and it was perfect for my unit. :)

One Tiny Turtle

One Tiny Turtle describes the life cycle of a loggerhead turtle and the complexities she endures in her lifetime, starting from hatching at the sandy shore to obstacles of the ocean, and then carrying a motherly role. This story definitely focuses on non-fiction material, though in the form of a story, and with side information that is more factual. On just about each page, the author wrote the factual information about the loggerhead turtles as though it were weaved into the waves, and it was a neat way to catch the reader's eye and make them want to look at the extra text. Nicola Davies wanted to write this story because she is passionate about animals ( especially sea turtles) and she wanted to portray how we are prohibiting their natural lifestyle when turtle eggs are hunted for food, pollution destroys the water they swim in and the beaches they lay eggs in, and of course the people who build on the beaches, which takes away from the natural environment of the sea turtles. Jane Chapman, who illustrated a beloved story in the classroom I work in (One Duck Stuck), also loves turtles and was waiting for her chance to illustrate a book involving Sea turtles, and you sure can tell--the art work is gorgeous.

I would use this book to teach a sequencing activity, or teach a lesson about the natural predators of sea turtles and human predators for that matter. As a pre-activity, I would allow the students to have a discussion with what they already know about sea turtles. Later as a post-activity, I would have them sequence the story, and reflect on anything that they didn't know that they now have learned from  reading the story. I would say the reading level is at a First grade place, but it is a great book to use when teaching about different animals and reptiles.

Old Bear

Kevin Henkes is a Newbury Honor writer as well as  Caldecott Book Award winner, and he writes for primary ages through young adult novel. I'm not quite sure of the illustrator of this book as it went unlisted, but if it were him I would be even more impressed with him! This is a very simple tale fit for a younger, primary aged audience about a bear who dreams of all of the seasons that he experienced when he was young, and how especially long the winter is, which leads into a science theme of hibernation. As Old Bear travels through his seasons, emotions and colors are painted in the story, and for that I think the book also touches on the different seasons and how we can sort them by not only physical changes but the emotions that you feel within those seasons.

I would read this book to Kindergarten students, and then by First grade allow most readers to take this upon their own as it is a very simple read with rich beautiful pictures. For a pre-activity, students could guess what the word hibernation means, and how it relates to seasons of the year. After we read the book, I would ask the students to define hibernation, explain how it works with seasons with a visual aide, and then maybe research other animals who hibernate, and discuss what they may do before they go in for their long sleep.
I really loved this book, my mother bought it for me for my birthday last year when I had requested strictly children's books to build up my library, and I could definitely see how I could use this particularly for younger students.

A Lucky Dog: Owney Rail Mail Mascot April 10th 2011

So I ventured up to Old Forge this weekend, and had a near perfectly relaxing weekend. We went into the town general store, which ended up having almost everything including two back rooms full of books. Of course I wandered over to the children's section as it is usually where I feel most fit ( :) ), and I found this book about Owney the mail dog. I sat down right in my place and began reading as it combined two of my passions: dogs and geography!

Dirk Wales wrote and retold the famous story, set in the late 1800's, is about this mutt that loves to sniff mail bags, and feels a connection for the local postal office in Albany. At night he would wander in and sleep on the mail bags, and by day he was traveling all over the county in the mail trains. People eventually got to know this dog and became very fond of him. A postal carrier in the office one day asked who the dog was, and since a postal man named Owen often played with the dog and fed him every once in a while, they decided to name the dog Owney after his friend. The story goes on to some of the adventures that Owney goes on and as well as the bumps on the track, and eventually we learn that Owney had traveled more than mostly anyone had in the given time period, and he becomes an international traveler nonetheless. The best part of the story is that it is based on a real life story, and I believe in one of the books they show an old photograph of Owney with a few of the Postal Service men!

I would use this as a perfect rainy day story, as it is heart-warming and endearing, and you definitely can obtain a sense of joy from Owney. Also it doest incorporate national and world geography with map tracking points so the readers can view the paths which he traveled upon. The art work is absolutely beautiful, and you can't help but feel the antiquity of the time period when flipping through the pages ( props to Dianne Kenna!). I would definitely recommend this book as a classroom library must. The comprehension could be clear enough for a 4 year old to understand, and I think the older students could place a greater value of the time period and the special character traits of Owney. For that, I would gear a lesson on this story based on comprehension and story components with plot, setting, characters, conflict and solution. As a pre-activity we could have students predict what the story of a mail dog may entail, and then after reading the story they could see how accurate their predictions were in creating a story map.

Have a great week everyone.
Andie