Grade Level: Preschool to 2nd grade Published Year: 2007
Theme: Math, Geometric Shapes
Summary: This adorable picture book follows three mice as they are trying to escape a cat. The mice end up finding shapes while hiding from the cat. The mice then decide that they should trick the cat by making mice out of shapes.
Pre-Reading Activity: Talk about different shapes and have pre-cut shapes of all different colors and sizes available for the children to play with. Have them work in a group of three or four children to create different things using their shapes.
Post-Reading Activity: Have the children trace shapes on construction paper and glue these shapes onto another piece of paper and have them label all of the shapes they used.
Reflection: Very cute book with endless possibilities for post-reading activities. This book could be used for younger children or for a refresher for older children. I love that the author is from Rochester, New York and you could use this for a geography lesson and show your children how close Rochester is to us (assuming you are in Syracuse like me).
About the Author
ELLEN STOLL WALSH is the author and illustrator of many award-winning early concept books for young children, including Mouse Paint, Mouse Count, and the Dot and Jabber trilogy. She lives near Rochester, New York. (amazon.com)
Genre: Fiction, Board Book, Picture Book Published Year: 1967
Grade Level: Preschool to 2nd grade
Theme: Colors, Animals, Prediction, Repetition
Summary: This beloved book involves colored animals that see other colored animals. It's unique repetition makes it easy for children to follow along and read along. All of the illustrations are made out of colored tissue paper.
Pre-Reading Activity: Talk about animals and the different colors they are.
Post-Reading Activity: Have the animals of the book precut and use it as a memory game to see if the children can put the animals in the order they were in in the book. Then have them recite the book using only the cutouts as props. Or you can have the children sit in a circle and go around the circle saying the words of the book. An example, just substitute the colored words:
Devon, Devon, what do you see?
I see Veronica, looking at me.
Veronica, Veronica, what do you see?
I see Carlos looking at me.
For older children have them write their own story about things they see at home.
Reflection: I love this story and have read this book to my son since he was a newborn. It was so great that he can now read it to me. I often used this story in my PreKindergarten classroom as a read-aloud and would have the children read along with me. I also used the song version for a nap-time song.
About the Author
Bill Martin Jr.
Bill Martin Jr truly was "America's favorite children's author." He wrote for almost 60 years (Yes, his first book, The Little Squeegy Bug--The Story of the Firefly, was published in 1945). He was the author of the classic text Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do you See?, which was illustrated by his dear friend Eric Carle, as well as more than 300 other books for children. Through the years he gave children some of their favorite books, including Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear? (also illustrated by Eric Carle) The Ghost-Eye Tree, Barn Dance, Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom and many more. His classic work, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, now in board book form, is at the top of the Publisher's Weekly Bestseller list. His basketball thriller, SWISH, co-authored with Michael Sampson, is an exciting basketball tale, written in classic Martin Rhyme\Rhythm style, that features girls' basketball. Six new Martin/Sampson book are now available: (Rock It, Sock It, Number Line; The Little Squeegy Bug, Trick or Treat?, Caddie the Golf Dog, I Pledge Allegiance, Chicka, Chicka 1,2.4! and Little Granny Quarterback. Read them today! A new vesion of Chicken Chuck came out in 2005, and I Love our Earth was published in 2006. Other Martin books that he completed before his death will continue to be released in the years to come. (www.billmartinjr.com)
About the Illustrator
Eric Carle
Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of literally millions of children all over the world and has been translated into more than 50 languages and sold over 33 million copies. Since the Caterpillar was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 110 million copies of his books have sold around the world.
Interesting Things I Found:
This is the video version of the song that I would use for my PreK children at nap time.
Just to point out it does say mother instead of teacher at the end because of copyright issues
Grade Level: Preschool and up Published Date: 1981
Theme: Sequential, Days of the Week
Summary: The very hungry caterpillar is munching through the pages in this adorable tissue paper illustrated book. As the caterpillar goes through the days of the week, each day has a numbered treat for him. At the end we find out exactly why the caterpillar was so hungry. He turns into a beautiful butterfly and the butterfly consists of all of the colors of the food he ate.
Pre-Reading Activity: Study the lifecycle of a butterfly.
Post-Reading Activity: Talk about the different numbers and foods in the book. You can have groups of 2 draw a food that they enjoy and make a classroom book. For example, The Very Hungry Second Graders. I would also have my students write a story about a butterfly and use this outline for a draft.
Reflection: I love this story and I love the other books by Eric Carle. This story is so cute and even after I have red this story hundreds of times I just recently noticed that the butterfly at the end of the book is the color of all of the foods that the caterpillar ate throughout the book.
About the Author
Eric Carle
Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of literally millions of children all over the world and has been translated into more than 50 languages and sold over 33 million copies. Since the Caterpillar was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 110 million copies of his books have sold around the world.
Interesting Things I Found:
My cousin did this for her son's first birthday and she handed out these invitations...
Summary: This beautifully written and illustrated story is a retelling of the tale The Gingerbread Man. In this version a boy, Matti, and his mother are home baking gingerbread cookies. Matti is impatient and opens the oven early not to see a gingerbread man, but out jumps a gingerbread baby. Gingerbread baby goes along his way singing:
"I am the Gingerbread Baby,
Fresh from the pan.
If you want me,
Catch me if you can."
The gingerbread baby outsmarts everyone including the mother, father, cat, dog, goats, pigs and others. The only one able to outsmart this gingerbread baby is Matti as he makes a gingerbread house and traps the gingerbread baby.
Pre-Reading Activity: Talk about different animals that children have or that children see outside, i.e. dog, cat, chipmunk, squirrel. Ask the children if, "if you animal got loose outside, how would you catch it?" Make a chart of all of the different answers that your students come up with.
Post-Reading Activity: If the children have read The Gingerbread Man, ask them the differences between that story and this story. Have talk to their elbow partner about a different way that they could have caught the gingerbread baby and then they can write about it. And of course, if you read this story around the holidays to your students as I do, I always like to finish with baking or decorating gingerbread babies and/or houses.
Reflection: I absolutely love this story and all Jan Brett books. She always keeps us entertained and her spin on books is neat. I love how she always puts a sneak peak of the next page on the right side of the page before. This story is truly unique and I like that the gingerbread baby does not get eaten at the end, a more kid friendly version than the gingerbread man.
About the Author Jan Brett
With over thirty seven million books in print, Jan Brett is one of the nation's foremost author illustrators of children's books. Jan lives in a seacoast town in Massachusetts, close to where she grew up. During the summer her family moves to a home in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. As a child, Jan Brett decided to be an illustrator and spent many hours reading and drawing. She says, "I remember the special quiet of rainy days when I felt that I could enter the pages of my beautiful picture books. Now I try to recreate that feeling of believing that the imaginary place I'm drawing really exists. The detail in my work helps to convince me, and I hope others as well, that such places might be real."
Interesting Things I Found:
My son Bryan and I recently had the privilege of meeting Jan Brett at one of her book signings. She signed my son's book and talked to him for a bit about cooking and baking, one of my sons interests. It made his whole day. Although we had to wait in line for what seemed to be an eternity, It was great that she took the time to have a conversation with everyone that came.
Jan Brett has amazing activities on her webpage for all of her books:
Summary: In this hilarious book, we follow Mr. A Wolf in his voyage to find a cup of sugar. Along the way he sneezes his way through pigs houses. This is the viewpoint of the wolf from the famous book, The Three Little Pigs. Although everyone knows the pigs story, it is time to find out the wolf's story.
Pre-Reading Activity: Read or do a flannel board of the The Three Little Pigs. If you have a smart board in your classroom there is an excellent visual of this as well. After talking about the book or visual a bit, ask what about the wolf? What do you think the wolf was thinking when he went to these pigs houses?
Post-Reading Activity: Compare and contrast the two stories, that of the wolf and that of the pigs. Which one do you think really happened? Talk to the students about how there are different perspectives to a story. How everything you hear is not always true. Talk about how there are were two different retellings of the same event. Is there really three sides to a story: one persons version, the other persons version, and what really happened. If you have enough time you could even have the students write a the story of what they think really happened and entitle it: What Actually Happened When Three Little Rude Pigs Met One Big Bad Wolf.
Reflection: I really enjoyed this book and even laughed to myself reading it. This book can be used in so many ways in early elementary years. But I was also thinking that it could be used in older classrooms as well if you are having trouble in the classroom with the children getting along or always making up things about one another. You can discuss with them how there can be two different sides to a story. You cannot always believe what you hear unless you were actually there.
About the Author
From the author: "I write books because I love to make kids laugh. I knew Lane Smith (illustrator of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs!, The Stinky Cheese Man and Squids Will Be Squids) would do a great job because we like a lot of the same cartoons and books and ideas. And we laugh at each other's bad jokes all of the time. Our audience is hardcore silly kids, and there are a lot of 'em out there! My motto in writing is: “Never underestimate the intelligence of your audience.” Kids can be silly and smart!" (www.scholastic.com)
Things I Found That Were Interesting...
Here is the video I would use in my classroom for The Three Little Pigs
Here is a fun narrative of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs
Summary: The children in Room 207 have always had it easy when it comes to Miss Nelson. She is a wonderful, soft spoken teacher of good nature. The children are faced with easy assignments and never get in any trouble. But their lack of appreciation and gratitude will result in them getting the most evil substitute of all time...Miss Viola Swamp.
Pre-Reading Activity: Ask the children, "what would be your dream teacher?" "Would there be homework?" "What would be the worst teacher?" (hopefully they share your name in the dream teacher role and not the worst teacher)
Post-Reading Activity: Make a venn diagram with Miss Viola Swamp and Miss Nelson. Ask the children where they think Miss Nelson went. Ask the children why Miss Nelson didn't see Miss Viola Swamp in the hall.
Reflection: This book was one of my favorite books as a child. I have read this book to my son, who is 8 now, at night before bed many times. I never gave away that Miss Nelson was actually Miss Viola Swamp. I would secretly giggle to myself every time he would flip through the pages to try and figure it out. But I knew that time would come to an end at some point. Two years ago while reading this book, he finally had that "AHA" moment and figured it out. Then he impressed me even more when he told me that is why you should always follow the golden rule. I love this book and so does my son. He even took it to his grandparents house to read to them to see if they could "figure it out." Of course they played along and pretended they did not and he had that chuckle inside too.
About the Authors
Harry Allard was born in Evanston, Illinois on January 27th. He grew up in California, Long Island, and Chicago. He graduated from Northwestern College in 1943 and then performed active duty in Korea. He then lived in Paris for several years and became so fluent in the language that he got a master's degree and then a Ph.D. in French from Yale in 1973. He taught French at the college level for many years.
Upon his arrival in Boston, he met James Marshall, whose art and friendship inspired Allard's first book, The Stupids Step Out. This successful collaboration paved the way for the publication of other Stupids books and the Miss Nelson series. Miss Nelson is Missing was voted one of the most memorable books of the century.
Some Interesting Things I Found...
This is an example of a web chart that a classroom did for this book that I thought was exceptional.
Great idea for Halloween for two teachers Kindergarten, First, or Second Grade. One dress as Miss Nelson and one dress as Miss Viola Swamp.
Summary: A young boy must decide what his destiny is. Is it to be a gastroenterologist like his father has always wanted him to be or will he be a video gamer, his life long dream? Follow Dennis through various levels of his life starting from third grade to his graduate years. Will there be a continue at the end just like his video game? Following his destiny is a lot harder than it seems, but Dennis will soon find out what he is meant to be is not what he thought it would be at all. Maybe his parents expectations are not too high and he can find a way to make everyone happy.
Pre-Reading Activity: Ask children to talk to their elbow partner about what they want to be when they grow up. Also, ask them if this is something they always dreamed of doing or has it changed over the years. Also, ask if anyone in their family also has this profession.
Post-Reading Activity: Make a venn diagram using doctor and video gamer. Discuss the similarities and differences. Also, talk about those who helped him reach his destiny.
Reflection: I really enjoyed this book and this was actually the first graphic novel that I have read. It is a very easy read with a very important message. This book is excellent for teen readers in that it shows the main character Dennis's struggle with being who his parents want him to be and being who he wants to be. The only thing I would be prepared for if reading as a large group or even in small groups is being comfortable enough to talk to the class about colonoscopies.
Author and Illustrator Information
Illustrator Gene Luen Yang on right, Author Thien Pam on right at book signing
About the Author
Thien Pham first came to America on a tiny boat of dreams and rubber tires in 1980 from his home in Vietnam. Channeling this adventurous spirit, Thien graduated from the prestigious Academy of Art in San Francisco in 2000. After, Thien used his tremendous skills to create one masterful comic book after another, enriching the American literary world beyond measure. He recently finished his graphic novel Sumo, which will be published by First Second Books in the near future. He also founded his own handmade comic distribution company called Global Hobo, publishing the art of local artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not content to confine his copious talents to just the comic book industry, Thien began teaching at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland in 2004. Over the years, Thien has accrued rampant levels of popularity and now boasts 458 Facebook friends and his own fan page. His secret as to how he is capable of authoring comics, managing his company, teaching high school, and keeping in touch with all his friends? A strict diet of Coca-Cola, the only beverage to grace his lips since 1998.(amazon.com)
About the Illustrator
Gene Luen Yang began drawing comic books in the fifth grade. In 1997, he received the Xeric Grant for Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks, his first comics work as an adult. He has since written and drawn a number of titles. His 2006 book American Born Chinese was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association's Michael L. Printz Award. It also won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album - New. A short story from The Eternal Smile, his 2009 collaboration with Derek Kirk Kim, won an Eisner Award as well. His books Prime Baby and Level Up (with illustrator Thien Pham) were also nominated for Eisner Awards. Gene currently writes the graphic novel continuation of the popular Nickelodeon cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender.(www.amazon.com)
found on firstgradealacarte.blogspot.com
Found on pinterest.com 
Found on pinterest.com Brown Bear I Spy
