Title: The Cat in the Hat Author: Dr. Seuss
Awards: N/A
Reading Level: 1.2
Summary: Poor Dick and Sally. It's cold and wet and they're stuck in the house with nothing to do . . . until a giant cat in a hat shows up, transforming the dull day into a madcap adventure and almost wrecking the place in the process!
Teaching Idea: Cat in the Hat is a great mentor text for phonemic awareness. Students love the silly situations the kids in the book find themselves in because of the clever Cat. One fun teaching lesson could be that the students get to draw their own crazy cat in the hat screen. After completing their drawing, each student would share their picture with their classmates.
Evaluation: 10 – I think every elementary teacher should own this book
Extra: Youtube video of Justin Bieber reading The Cat in the Hat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj_xwgLW_4I
-------------------------------------------------------------------------Awards: N/A
Reading Level: 1.2
Summary: Poor Dick and Sally. It's cold and wet and they're stuck in the house with nothing to do . . . until a giant cat in a hat shows up, transforming the dull day into a madcap adventure and almost wrecking the place in the process!
Teaching Idea: Cat in the Hat is a great mentor text for phonemic awareness. Students love the silly situations the kids in the book find themselves in because of the clever Cat. One fun teaching lesson could be that the students get to draw their own crazy cat in the hat screen. After completing their drawing, each student would share their picture with their classmates.
Evaluation: 10 – I think every elementary teacher should own this book
Extra: Youtube video of Justin Bieber reading The Cat in the Hat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj_xwgLW_4I
Title: The Mixed-Up ChameleonAuthor: Eric Carle
Awards: N/A
Reading Level: 2.5
Summary: Except for catching flie and changing colors occasionally, this chameleon doesn't find life every exciting. When a surprise visit to the zoo makes this wistful lizard realize it can change its shape and size as easily as its color, it ends up wanting to be like all the animals in the zoo at once - with hilarious results.
Teaching Ideas: Check out http://www.thevirtualvine.com/themixedupchameleon.html for some great teaching ideas that could be modified to fit a wide range of grade levels. Also please take a moment to check out Eric Carle’s own website http://www.eric-carle.com/bb-chameleon.html and see what other teachers have said how they have used the book. Great lessons on both websites!
Evaluation: 10 - The illustrations are amazing, very colorful and bright.
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Title: Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground RailroadAuthor: Ellen Levine
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Awards: Caldecott Honor (2008); IRA Notable Book for a Global Society
Grade Level: 1.9
Grade Level: 1.9
Summary:
Based on Henry Brown’s life as a child and being in slavery. In a leap of faith of doing what he knows is right, Henry makes a harrowing journey in a wooden crate – and mails himself to freedom.
Teacher Ideas:
This book can be used in correlation with Ellington Was Not a Street by Ntozake Shange, not only because it is the same illustrator but because of its context. Students can begin to make connections of all the surrounding influential people and African-Americans that were influenced by them as they are exposed to various forms of authentic literature during Black History Month. Students can discuss what it would be like to be owned by someone else, never celebrating a birthday, and what it would be like to have to “mail yourself to freedom.”
*Visit SchoolTube to see how Literacy students collaborated to create a PhotoStory of Henry's Freedom Box
*I also found a Glog (Glogster.com) that someone had created as possibly part of a Book Review project about Henry's Freedom Box
*Genre - Autobiography and Biography/Multicultural
*Touches on the Topics of: African American History, African Americans, Determination and Perseverance, Slavery
Evaluation: 10 - Powerful, intriguing portrait of history through a child’s perspective.
Evaluation: 10 - Powerful, intriguing portrait of history through a child’s perspective.
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Title: SubwayAuthor: Christoph Niemann
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 1.8
Summary:
A father and his two sons spend the day riding the subway. The boys become fascinated and immersed in the colors, numbers, and letters showing all the lines and connections. The author based this book on his own sons’ passion for learning about the subway and their attention span for sitting hours on a train but lasting minutes in front of a television.
Teaching Ideas: This would be a powerful piece of literature to use, especially working with inner-city youth. Students who are familiar with the subway can relate to what numbers, letters, and colors they are used to taking. Students who live in rural areas can be introduced to a whole new world by discussing the power of the subway system. The color-on-black graphics of the subway lines in the book remind me of preschoolers using colored chalk to “write” in squiggly lines on a chalkboard. As a teacher I would express the use of the subway system and that the numbers, letters, and colors in this book relay information about where to go. I would then have them relate this to their own experiences and prior knowledge.
Evaluation: 10! - I will own this book someday. I also am fascinated with the chalk-like illustrations paired with the vivid colors on the pitch black background.
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Title: Tar Beach
Author: Faith Ringgold
Awards: Caldecott Honor Book
Coretta Scott King Award Winner
A New York Times Best Illustrated Book
Grade Level: 2.9
Summary: The painted scene in the center of the quilt shows a Harlem rooftop on a starry night with four adults playing cards and with Cassie Louise Lightfoot and her brother, Be Be, lying on a blanket gazing at the sky. Cassie sees herself flying over the city lights; dreams of wearing the George Washington Bridge as a necklace; imagines giving her father the union building he is not allowed to join because of his half-black, half-Indian heritage; flies over the ice cream factory; and takes her little brother with her to the sky.
Teaching Ideas: There are a few different activities that could go along with reading this book aloud. One would be to have the students compare and contrast between living in New York City and where the students live. The second would be to have the students to a similar writing piece, where they describe what it would be like flying over where they live and the area near by. What would the reader see, what would be the highlights of their adventure.
Evaluation: 10 - Beautifuly written, Cassie's imagination is endless
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Title: Russell the Sheep
Author: Rob Scotton
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 1.8
Summary: Russell can't sleep. While the other sheep are dozing off, he ponders the problem of insomnia. Is he too hot or too cold? Perhaps a better place would help. When nothing works, he tries counting things. He starts with his feet, and then moves on to the stars ("six hundred million billion and ten")–twice. Finally, the quintessential cliché comes to him, and he counts sheep. Russell nods off just as the new day dawns and the others awaken.
Teaching Idea: Great way to introduce large numbers to students and how to write out numbers such as six hundred million billion in numerical form.
Evaluation: 9 – Not only do I enjoy the story of the book but the illustrations are beautiful as well.
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Title: The Dot
Author: Peter H. Reynolds
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 2.1
Summary: A child reluctant to painting is encouraged by her teacher to, "Just make a mark and see where it takes you." This simple story with wonderful illustrations is encouraging and reminds readers that we are all capable of making something beautiful.
Teaching Idea: Students can be asked to paint whatever comes to mind, then write a description of their painting or a story to go with it.
Evaluation: 10 for creativity, encouragement, and incorporating art with literature.
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Title: Mater and the Ghost Light
Author: Andrea Posner-Sanchez
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: This is not leveled by the Scholastic book wizard, but I would say it is a second grade reading level.
Summary: The characters from Cars appear in this humorous tale. Mater likes to play pranks on his friends, so they all team up to play a trick on him. Children will enjoy seeing their favorite Cars characters and laughing at the silliness of this book.
Teaching Idea: Students could use Glogster.com to write a book review. Glogster allows students to create posters that incorporate words, pictures, music, and video with customized backgrounds. The website is a lot of fun to use and can make a book report feel more like playing a game or creating a piece of digital art. I created one as an example, which you can find by clicking here. Enjoy!
Evaluation: 8 because although I happen to love this book, I realize that it is more of a fun book, which uses characters that may not be well known in a few years from now.
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Title: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs------------------------------------------------------------
Summary: The painted scene in the center of the quilt shows a Harlem rooftop on a starry night with four adults playing cards and with Cassie Louise Lightfoot and her brother, Be Be, lying on a blanket gazing at the sky. Cassie sees herself flying over the city lights; dreams of wearing the George Washington Bridge as a necklace; imagines giving her father the union building he is not allowed to join because of his half-black, half-Indian heritage; flies over the ice cream factory; and takes her little brother with her to the sky.
Teaching Ideas: There are a few different activities that could go along with reading this book aloud. One would be to have the students compare and contrast between living in New York City and where the students live. The second would be to have the students to a similar writing piece, where they describe what it would be like flying over where they live and the area near by. What would the reader see, what would be the highlights of their adventure.
Evaluation: 10 - Beautifuly written, Cassie's imagination is endless
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Title: Russell the Sheep
Author: Rob Scotton
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 1.8
Summary: Russell can't sleep. While the other sheep are dozing off, he ponders the problem of insomnia. Is he too hot or too cold? Perhaps a better place would help. When nothing works, he tries counting things. He starts with his feet, and then moves on to the stars ("six hundred million billion and ten")–twice. Finally, the quintessential cliché comes to him, and he counts sheep. Russell nods off just as the new day dawns and the others awaken.
Teaching Idea: Great way to introduce large numbers to students and how to write out numbers such as six hundred million billion in numerical form.
Evaluation: 9 – Not only do I enjoy the story of the book but the illustrations are beautiful as well.
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Title: The Dot
Author: Peter H. Reynolds
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 2.1
Summary: A child reluctant to painting is encouraged by her teacher to, "Just make a mark and see where it takes you." This simple story with wonderful illustrations is encouraging and reminds readers that we are all capable of making something beautiful.
Teaching Idea: Students can be asked to paint whatever comes to mind, then write a description of their painting or a story to go with it.
Evaluation: 10 for creativity, encouragement, and incorporating art with literature.
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Title: Mater and the Ghost Light
Author: Andrea Posner-SanchezAwards: N/A
Grade Level: This is not leveled by the Scholastic book wizard, but I would say it is a second grade reading level.
Summary: The characters from Cars appear in this humorous tale. Mater likes to play pranks on his friends, so they all team up to play a trick on him. Children will enjoy seeing their favorite Cars characters and laughing at the silliness of this book.
Teaching Idea: Students could use Glogster.com to write a book review. Glogster allows students to create posters that incorporate words, pictures, music, and video with customized backgrounds. The website is a lot of fun to use and can make a book report feel more like playing a game or creating a piece of digital art. I created one as an example, which you can find by clicking here. Enjoy!
Evaluation: 8 because although I happen to love this book, I realize that it is more of a fun book, which uses characters that may not be well known in a few years from now.
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Title: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs------------------------------------------------------------
Author: Jon Scieszka, Illustrated by Lane Smith Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 2.5
Summary: This story has a twist on the classic story of the Three Little Pigs. This book is written from the big bad wolf's point of view and he shares his own personal accounts in which he encounters with the three little pigs. This book include colorful and humorous illustrations that put an interesting spin to the comical text.
Teaching Ideas: A great way to use this book in the classroom would be during a unit of learn about fairy tales. The students would be able to compare and contrast various classic fairy tales and twisted fairy tales. Another great way to use this book would be to have the students read a classic fairy tale and rewrite the tale with their own twist on the story.
Evaluation: 9 out of 10-This book brings humor and comical twist on a classic story in which students love to read over and over again!
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Title: My Five Senses
Title: My Five Senses
Author: Aliki
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 1.7
Summary: In this book it shares with the reader how to learn what the world is like by using your five senses. Each sound, taste, smell, sight, and touch helps us to discover and learn something new about the world around us! The book allows the reader to learn more about the senses-what they are and what you can learn from them.
Teaching Ideas:My Five Senses is a great book to introduce the topic of learning about the five senses. The book could be used at a beginning of the unit to have an overview of each of the five senses. A great teaching idea would be to allow the students to explore their five senses by creating centers or activities in which the students are able to see, touch/feel, smell, taste, and hear. Children love to have hands on experiences and this is a great topic to demonstrate just that!
Evaluation: 10 - This book is very simple but yet shares all the important information when it comes to learning about the five senses.
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Title: Emily’s First 100 Days of School
Teaching Ideas: Review with your class their own first 100 days of school. Great Counting, Number Review and Writing activity for students.
Evaluation: 8 – Images are bright and colorful, numbers are large and easy for students to find. However, it is a longer book (58 pages). You may want to split book into two separate read aloud (days 1-50 then days 51-100).
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Title: The Giving Tree
Title: Emily’s First 100 Days of School Author: Rosemary Wells
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 2.7
Summary: Emily is ready for her first day of school. There's so much to do: learning the alphabet, singing, reading, and counting. On the 100th day the students get to have a party.
One hundred days feels far away, but day by day, Emily and her classmates see they're getting closer. Teaching Ideas: Review with your class their own first 100 days of school. Great Counting, Number Review and Writing activity for students.
Evaluation: 8 – Images are bright and colorful, numbers are large and easy for students to find. However, it is a longer book (58 pages). You may want to split book into two separate read aloud (days 1-50 then days 51-100).
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Title: The Giving Tree Author: Shel Silverstein
Awards: N/A
Grade Level: 2.9
Summary: A tree starts out as a leafy playground, shade provider, and apple bearer for a rambunctious little boy. Making the boy happy makes the tree happy, but with time it becomes more challenging for the generous tree to meet his needs. When he asks for money, she suggests that he sell her apples. When he asks for a house, she offers her branches for lumber. When the boy is old, too old and sad to play in the tree, he asks the tree for a boat. She suggests that he cut her down to a stump so he can craft a boat out of her trunk. He unthinkingly does it. At this point in the story, the double-page spread shows a pathetic solitary stump, poignantly cut down to the heart the boy once carved into the tree as a child that said "M.E. + T." "And then the tree was happy... but not really." When there's nothing left of her, the boy returns again as an old man, needing a quiet place to sit and rest. The stump offers up her services, and he sits on it. "And the tree was happy."
Evaluation: 8 - Children's literature classic
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Title: This Jazz Man Author: Karen Ehrhardt
Awards: NAGrade Level: 1st or 2nd grade reading level
Summary: This story, set to the tune of "This Old Man", pays tribute to nine of the
greatest jazz musicians. Each musician is illustrated in this fun text. There is also a jazz mouse that can be found throughout the books, which might be fun for emergent readers to look for if they are not yet reading the words. Following the song are short paragraph biographies of each of the nine musicians. This book actually has it’s own.
Teaching Idea: You could play this video on YouTube so that students could hear the musical version of the book while seeing the words and pictures on the screen as well as having the book in your hands and flipping the pages along with the song. You could play the video again so that students could dance to the music. Then read about one of the musicians from the back of the book each day for nine days and play a sample of their music so that students could hear the different jazz sounds without being overwhelmed. Once you have read about all of the musicians from the book and sampled their music you could have a jazz dance party and play a mix of their music to celebrate!
Also take a look website with teaching ideas and helpful links as well.
Evaluation: 10 because this is such a unique book that builds in diversity and by including the video, dancing, and music students get the information in visual, auditory, and kinesthetic ways.
Title: Lon Po Po
Title: The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Author: Translated by Ed Young
Awards: Caldecott Medal
Grade Level: 2.6Summary: This is a beautifully illustrated Red Riding Hood story from China. Instead of the American version where the little girl goes to Grandma’s to find a wolf, there are three little girls who are left home alone while their mother goes to their grandma’s. The wolf then goes to the girls’ house pretending to be their grandma, and the girls trick the wolf into falling to his death while trying to get a gingko nut.
Teaching Idea: This would be a great book to read after reading the American version of Little Red Riding Hood, and then getting students to compare and contrast the stories. You could either use a T chart or Venn diagram to write down what similarities and differences the students came up with. Then you could ask the students to individually draw something that was different and write a description of their drawing.
Evaluation: 10 because it brings diversity into the classroom, the illustrations are brilliant, and it is great for compare and contrast.
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Teaching Idea: This would be a great book to read after reading the American version of Little Red Riding Hood, and then getting students to compare and contrast the stories. You could either use a T chart or Venn diagram to write down what similarities and differences the students came up with. Then you could ask the students to individually draw something that was different and write a description of their drawing.
Evaluation: 10 because it brings diversity into the classroom, the illustrations are brilliant, and it is great for compare and contrast.
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Title: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Author: Eric Carle
Awards: None
Grade Level: 2.6
Summary: This story follows the very hungry caterpillar as it grows from egg to cocoon to beautiful butterfly, but also teaches the days of the week, counting, good nutrition and more. Beautiful illustrations and die-cut pages offer interactive fun.
Teaching Ideas: This could be used to teach the life cycle of a butterfly, days of the week, nutrition, counting and sequencing. One lesson idea is to have students create a book of what they eat on each day of the week. Model an example, such as The Very Hungry Miss Widzinski by creating a book of eating one food on Monday, two of a food on Tuesday, and so on. Have students illustrate their books and share them.
Evaluation: 10 Because it can be used in so many ways and has withstood the test of time.
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Author:Jan Brett
Summary: A Ukrainian story of a young boy named Nicki, who wants his grandmother to knit him a pair of white mittens. As she makes the mittens for him, she warns him that if he loses these mittens they would be hard to find. No sooner than later, Nicki drops a mitten into the snow and one by one different animals find their way into making the mitten a warm place to stay.
Teaching Ideas: This book could be used to teach the concepts of sequencing events that happen throughout the story, the season of winter, and fables or folk tales. One lesson idea would be to have the students create a puppet for each animal in the story and have the students practice sequencing the story by having each animal move into a paper bag mitten as they re-read or retell the story.
Visit Jan Brett's Website for more teaching ideas and projects
Evaluation: 10 because of the beautiful illustrations and the variety of ways in which the book can be incorporated into the classroom.
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Title: The Mitten
Author:Jan BrettAwards:None
Grade Level: K-2Summary: A Ukrainian story of a young boy named Nicki, who wants his grandmother to knit him a pair of white mittens. As she makes the mittens for him, she warns him that if he loses these mittens they would be hard to find. No sooner than later, Nicki drops a mitten into the snow and one by one different animals find their way into making the mitten a warm place to stay.
Teaching Ideas: This book could be used to teach the concepts of sequencing events that happen throughout the story, the season of winter, and fables or folk tales. One lesson idea would be to have the students create a puppet for each animal in the story and have the students practice sequencing the story by having each animal move into a paper bag mitten as they re-read or retell the story.
Visit Jan Brett's Website for more teaching ideas and projects
Evaluation: 10 because of the beautiful illustrations and the variety of ways in which the book can be incorporated into the classroom.
I think all of these books are great choices for these grade levels. Both books The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and The Mitten are two of my personal favorites and I think they could inspire many different lessons. I really liked the Teaching Idea given for The Mitten that involved sequencing and props. I think the children would really enjoy this book and the lesson that you provided with it. I loved all the Summaries and Teaching Idea's that were provided on this site. They would be very helpful as a future teacher when trying to find great books that can be incorporated into classroom activities. Great site!
ReplyDeleteEmily Tabolt
EDLS 207: Lab Monday/Wednesday
These are all great book choices for first and second grade. These are all books with great illustrations which is a great opportunity for children to predict was is going to happen next in the book.
ReplyDeleteI believe that these books are also easy for teacher to make up a lesson plan to go with the book, as you can see there are so many different ways you can connect and practice the literacy skills with the students.
I was very excited to see the "Very Hungry Caterpillar." This was the first book I choose to read to my first grade mentee. He absolutely loved it. He was very involved and took his time and read the whole book. He was able to connect with the illustrations and made predictions on what was coming up next.
This site was very neat and helpful!
Erika Olsowske
EDLS 207 Monday/ Wednesday Lab
Having a first grade mentee, I found this source to be extremely useful. I am not completely comfortable picking out books that I feel like are reading level appropriate for her yet and this at least gives me a baseline. These books all provide great illustrations along with messages. All these books also are very relatable for first and second graders and are easy for teachers to make lesson plans to go along with each book. One of my own personal favorites is, "The Mitten." This was one of the first books that I read with my mentee and she really enjoyed it. She was able to make on going predictions throughout the book and especially loved this illustrations that went along with them. I think this site is extremely well organized and helpful!
ReplyDeleteI found this source to be extremely helpful. Since I want to be a first grade teacher and my mentee is in first grade I feel as this inspired so many possible lesson plans. I actually did the "Hungry Caterpillar" lesson with my sister who is going into first grade next year and she thought it was the best thing ever. I think that I am going to do this with my mentee too after re-reading it. All of the other books look very interesting too and some of them I had never heard of before. I think that it would be very interesting to read the book "Lon Po Po" and "Little Red Riding Hood" together and have the students compare them. "Little Red Riding Hood" was one of my favorite books as a child so having another book similar to it would be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for all of your kind comments! We are glad that our blog can be helpful to other pre-service and current teachers. Be sure to click "Follow" in the upper left corner of your screen if you wish to follow our blog. We will be updating the shelves and lists weekly, so check back to see what is new. The lists do not give lesson ideas, but are also wonderful books that are enjoyed by the grade level they are posted under. Let us know if you have any book suggestions or questions while working with your mentees or students. Happy blogging!
ReplyDeleteI like how this site is set up by grade level. That is a very helpful resource for people to get an idea of whether or not they should be using a certian book or not. Also a lot of these books are very popular and good books for children. I remember reading a lot of theses stories as a child and these books are what I looked forward to everyday when i went to school.
ReplyDeleteDevin Widrick EDLS 207