Julia Bonacasa-Fruit Salad

Fruit Salad is a children’s picture book. This illustrated storybook is about 4 different fruit friends. One is an apple, a banana, a grape, and  an orange. Each friend talks about what they plan on doing after they leave the fruit bowl that they are in. Banana wants to become a banana split, Orange wants to become orange juice and Grape wants to make sick people feel better. Everyone has a plan except for Apple. The story continues by telling the adventures Apple takes to try and figure out what he wants to become. In the end, all the fruit meet up and discover none of their plans had worked out the way they planned. I think this book would be appropriate to use in either a first or second grade classroom. 

If I were to use this book in my classroom, I would start out by asking my students if they can name their favorite fruit. After that, I would tell them the four fruits that are used in the story and see who picked those fruits. I would then show the cover to the students and ask what they think is going to happen in the book. I could then assign the four students who chose the fruits in the book to help act out the story as I read out loud to the class. Acting out the book is a good way to help students develop reading fluency. This is an easy and fun way to help make sure the students are engaged throughout the story. 

“Readers theater is a dramatic presentation of a story by a group of readers; students develop reading fluency through this dramatic activity” (Tompkins, 2013, p. 265). I feel like readers theater is a great way to help students truly comprehend a story. It forces them to participate and get involved in the lesson and that will encourage the students learning. Overall, a simple picture book, like Fruit Salad, could really be beneficial in engaging, encouraging, and developing students literacy skills. 

 

Swan, R. (2010). Fruit Salad. Unknown: MagicKeys.

Tompkins, G.E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Old Bear by Kevin Henkes

Old Bear by Kevin Henkes is the story of a bear preparing to hibernate for the winter months. It is a children’s picture book that I would recommend to be used in a 1st grade classroom. In the book, old bear falls asleep as it is snowing and begins to dream of spring. He dreams in detail; he dreamed that he was a cub again and that the flowers that bloomed in spring were gigantic. After he dreams of spring, he dreams of summer. He dreamed that the sun was a flower and that the leaves were actually butterflies! Old bears dreams are fun and imaginative. He also dreamed that it rained blueberries, a bear’s favorite snack. After his summer dreams came autumn dreams. He dreamed of the colorful foliage in autumn that we are all accustomed to here in New York.  ”Everything was yellow and orange and brown…” (Henkes, 2008, p.10). After his dreams of fall, naturally he dreamed it was winter. Everything was cold and icy and the stars were a collection of beautiful colors. Finally, after months of hibernating and dreaming of the seasons, old bear finally awakens. He yawns, stretches, and blinks, and then makes his way outside to see what season it is. He discovers that it is spring; All of the flowers have bloomed and it was a beautiful day. Lucky for old bear that he wasn’t dreaming anymore!

I would use this book in the classroom during months where the seasons are changing (end of September, December, or April/may). This book has beautiful pictures and uses a lot of descriptive words. I would read this book to first graders and have them identify the descriptive words in the book. I would ask them questions like, “What colors are described when old bear dreams of autumn?” You could also have students write about their favorite season and why; or have them create posters in different groups about the different seasons. There are an endless amount of activities that can be done with this book. A good literacy skill that can be highlighted with this book is listening. According to Tompkins, “most teachers agree that students need to learn more about listening because it’s essential for learning” (Tompkins, 2013, p.118). As I read the story, I would ask my students questions to ensure that they were listening and comprehending. Reading aloud to children is an excellent strategy to increase their listening skills, because they are listening aesthetically. Moreover, three strategies that are important for aesthetic listening are predicting, visualizing, and connecting (Tompkins, 2013). To help students predict, the teacher should prompt students by asking them questions such as: What season do you think he will dream of next? A way to help students visualize is by having them draw their favorite scene from the book. Students should always try to make connections to books and a good way to help students do this is by modeling this strategy. As I read the book, I will perform a think-aloud and say things like, “Spring is my favorite season, what do you guys like about spring?” This will help students think of the story in the context of their own lives, which is an important aspect of reading. I really enjoyed this book because it was short and concise, yet was full of imagery and descriptive words. The pictures were beautiful and I included some pages from it below. I hope to use this book in the future with my students!

 

Works Cited

Henkes, K. (2008). Old bear. New York, NY. HarperCollin’s Children’s Books.

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.

 

-Alyssa Phillips

“The Giving Tree” Maura Gruber

Genre: Fiction/ Picture Book

Age Level: Grades: First-Third

Title: “The Giving Tree”

Author: Shel Silverstein

Summary:

“The Giving Tree” is a fictional book written by Shel Silverstein. There are to main characters in the book: A tree and a boy. Throughout the book both the tree and the boy grow, and as time passes the tree continues to give the boy/man everything he can, and loves him unconditionally. When the boy was young his request from the tree were simpler: an apple, or branches to climb on. As he ages his request become much more difficult, such as: cutting off branches and digging in initials in the trees bark. Though this was painful for the tree she allowed the boy to do it because she just wanted him to be happy. Near the end of the book the young boy is all grown and cuts down the tree in order to make a boat, leaving only a stump left. The book ends with the man very old and requesting a quite place to sit. The tree allowed the old man to rest on her stump, and was very happy she was able to fill his last request.

Silverstein, S. (1964) The giving tree. New York, NY: Harper & Row.

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds – Nicole Bosi

Cam Jansen is a series of mystery books for young readers. The two main characters in Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds are Cam and Eric, who are trying to help the police solve a case at the Parker’s Jewelry Store. They put their detective caps on and started to think of who could have stolen diamonds at the jewelry store. The police had a man in custody; however, Cam and Eric believed the man was innocent and found out who really robbed Parker’s Jewelry Store themselves. 

I would read this book to students in third, fourth and fifth grade. It is important for children to realize they can solve problems themselves, just like Cam and Eric solved a mystery together. This is a great book for students to learn how to use a story map, graphic organizer, or KWL chart. Students comprehend literature in many different ways. However, a story is broken down, it may be easier for them to follow along, but students may also use their prior knowledge to make predictions about what Cam or Eric may do next in the book. I would use this book in the classroom to demonstrate that students must follow clues and directions throughout life because, if they do not, they could be like the police and catch an innocent man. Comprehension strategies are beneficial to students; therefore, by learning how to complete a story map, graphic organizer, or KWL chart with a mystery book, students will be learning and solving a mystery with Cam and Eric.

Comprehension is a significant factor in childhood education since it is the act of understanding the information that they just read. However, one of the biggest problems when it comes to reading is that students do not know how to think while they read, which makes it more difficult for those students to comprehend what they just read. By introducing various comprehension strategies while reading Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, the students will be able to follow the storyline and make their own predictions on what may happen next in the book. Learning these strategies, students should use their prior knowledge, predict and question, and wonder what they will be learning and what will happen throughout the book. Students will be reinforcing their comprehension skills by other strategies they learn throughout the reading. Cunningham and Allington (2011) state, “Asking your students questions after reading may provide you with quick assessment of student understanding, but traditional question and answer sessions do not offer much in the way of comprehension strategy instruction. When your students engage in conversations about what they read, their understanding improves” (p.121). This allows the teacher to see which students understand what is going on and who may be lost. When teachers review what is going on in the book, it is beneficial for every student. Enforcement is a great review for the whole class. These comprehension strategies, such as KWL charts, graphic organizers, and story maps, are good organization tools for when students are learning, reading, remembering, and keeping track of the order of events. The letters in a KWL chart stand for “what we know, what we want to find out, and what we have learned” (Cunningham and Allington, 2011, p.137). This will help students reflect on what they have read and learned. There are various types of graphic organizers. For example, they can be in a web form, matrix skeleton, Venn diagram, or a data chart; these are all ways that will help students see information clearly, summarize, predict, and compare and contrast. A story map allows students to have a layout of the story, to develop a sense of structure, and to understand how the story is developed through characters and problems or goals. Story maps help students understand the events in order and the main elements of what the story was about. Tools like these can truly help children have a better understanding of what they read and will help them develop their comprehension skills. By reading the book Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds, students will be able to predict and organize information in various charts to help them comprehend what happened and understand the theme of the story.

 

Reference

Adler, D.A., & Natti, S. (1980). Cam Jansen and the mystery of the stolen diamonds. New York: Viking Press.  

Cunningham, P. M., & Allington, R. L. (2011). Classrooms that work: They can all read and write. Boston: Pearson.

 

 

 

Published by: Nicole Bosi

Little Toot

Little toot is a cute, tiny, tugboat who loves to do figure 8s in the water. Little Toot does not like being a tugboat. He is made fun of by other tugboats for being lazy and playing in the water. When a ocean liner is stuck in a storm, Little Toot finds the strength to save the ocean liner from the storm because he is the  only one who can get to the ocean liner.

Little Toot is an adventure book for children in kindergarten through third grade. In Ed 2120, I saw a video of a teacher who would reads a book and ask the children what words they did not know and wrote them down. As a teaching strategy, I would have the students sit all on the carpet. I would have a big piece of line paper on a easel. On the lined paper there would be three columns. The first column would say “Words We do not know” followed by “What we think the word means” and “What the word actually means” I would read the picture book Little Toot to the children. As I read a page if the students did not know a word they would raise their hand. We would write the word down on the first column and the children would examine the picture and think of what the word possible means. We would continue to do this for the while book. At the end of the book, we would go to each of the words the children do not know and tell them what that word truly means.

 

Samantha Rymer

The Day the Crayons Quit—Nick Marano

The Day the Crayons Quit is a fantasy children’s book ideal for late kindergarten to first grade. It does have a lot of words which is why it might be too much for early children. This book is about how each crayon quits. They are upset and angry with their owner for different reasons and decides to write a letter protesting why they quit. For example, red is used too much for fire engines. This is a clever book to bring in colors, letters, and  creativity. 

A wonderful theme brought up in this book is letters. The teacher can use this book as an introduction to all types of letters. They can look into the format and teach why and how people use them. An activity that can be used is either write a response to the crayons or write an addiction letter complaining to the owner, one that is not already done. This provides so much creativity in this book. With the ideas that do pictures really have to be a specific color, or can the artist do as they choose. 

According to Tompkins, students “liked having ownership of the learning activities” (p.18). The activity of them choosing their own color, writing a letter complaining (after the letter lesson) and having it displayed after finished, flourishes in creativity and ownership. While it is a class activity, the students get to choose their individualized part, make it their own and learn along with it. I a ma firm believer that students should let their creativity soar and flourish. This book allows this to happen. 

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Daywalt, D. (2013). The Day the Crayons Quit. New York, NY: Philomel Books. 

–Nick Marano

Jean D’Aurio-Once Upon a Banana

Once Upon a Banana is a children’s wordless picture book. In the story, a monkey eats a banana and throws the peel on the ground. This causes a whole chain of events to follow, including cars crashing and people falling. In the end, the townspeople are depicted happily laughing and eating bananas that have spilt after a truck crashes into a fruit stand. I think this book would be great to use in first-third grade classrooms.

The teacher can first present the book to the students, silently flipping through each page. After, the teacher can have a discussion with the students on what they think happened in the story. Then, the teacher can ask the students to create their own stories based off the pictures in Once Upon a Banana. Finally, the students can present their stories to their classmates. Using a wordless picture book can help students who are struggling with reading. It gives them the opportunity to create their own words that they understand. It also gives the students a chance to be engaged and creative while reading and writing.

According to Tompkins writings in chapter two of Language Arts Patterns of Practice (2013), “students participate more actively at the interactive level”(p.38). When students are presented with a book like this, it requires them to become involved and hands-on with the activity. Because it is their own story, the student are also given the opportunity to share what they have written with their classmates. This provides the students with peer feedback, which they would not get if the work was not shared. Wordless picture books, like Once Upon a Banana, are beneficial tools to get the students to interact that are often overlooked.

Armstrong, J., & Small, D. (2013). Once upon a banana. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts: Patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.

-Jean D’Aurio

The Matzo Ball Boy – Samantha Popel

In the story, The Matzo Ball Boy, an old and lonely grandmother, or bubbe was making matzo ball soup in preparation for Passover. Being that she was so lonely, she made a little matzo ball boy. The boy was made of a soft, doughy, body; a little dough head; a carrot slice nose; a celery mouth; and peppercorn eyes. She put her new friend into the pot to cook when he suddenly jumped out and came to life. The matzo ball boy ran out of the house and bubbe chased after him! She begged him to stop but he just kept running. The matzo ball boy ran all through the town yelling, “Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me. I’m the matzo ball man!” He eventually reached a river that he swam across to escape the townspeople. Once he escaped, he found a poor, old man. The man invited him inside, believing that the matzo ball boy shouldn’t have been alone on Passover.  Once inside, the matzo ball boy met the poor man’s hungry wife. She asked the boy to taste her soup and before you knew it the couple was enjoying a nice bowl of matzo ball soup with the matzo ball boy nowhere to be found.

I would read this fairytale to a third grade class to teach them how to make connection between text and their own personal experiences or other worldly events they may have heard of. Students of the Jewish ethnicity may be able to make connections to having celebrated Passover or attending a seder. These students may also be able to teach their fellow classmates about what it means to be Jewish, especially since we hear so much talk abut how Santa leaves gifts under Christmas trees for children and not so much about the events that take place during Hanukkah. I believe this fairytale is great for third graders because they are old enough to understand that others may have traditions that differ from their own and because they have the ability to recount on past experiences of their own.

To teach students about making connections I would have the class as a whole make a KWL chart. In the “know” section we would have items relating to Jewish traditions, such as common dishes and holidays. In the “want to know” section we would have items such as Jewish vocabulary related to Passover and how they celebrate certain holidays. In the “what we learned” section we would have items such as the new vocabulary we learned as we read, what sorts of foods are eaten and the traditions celebrated during Passover. Depending on how culturally diverse the class is, Jewish students may be able to teach some of the lesson and aide their classmates in filling out the chart.

Reference

Shulman, L. (2005). The matzo ball boy. New York, NY:  Dutton Children’s Books.

Tompkins, G. E. (2013). Language arts patterns of practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

Education.

Samantha Popel