Jill Lane's EDU 625 Literature Blog: Prediction

Showing posts with label Prediction. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

Author & Illustrator: Dav Pilkey

Publisher: Orchard Books, 1990

Reading Level: Ages 4 and up

Genre: Lyrical, Prediction, Sympathy

Summary: Many are already familiar with The Twelve Days of Christmas, this is a story of that nature with a spin. It is about children going on a field trip to a turkey farm right before Thanksgiving. You see, the children distract the teacher and turkey farmer, and all that are 10 pounds heavier board the bus to go home. As the children get home, the farmer is surprised to see all of his turkeys gone, while the children all have a special guest at their family meal where they eat veggies, jelly, and toast. So the question remains, what happened to the turkey's?

Pre-Reading Activity: Give each child a paper plate and have them draw on it what they will eat for Thanksgiving Dinner. Make a chart of what they all say. **hopefully turkey is one of them so that they can connect to the story**

Post-Reading Activity: Have children write 5 paragraphs and entitle it 'Twas the Night Before My Birthday. Because all children are familiar with their birthday it will be an easy connection.

Reflection: I enjoyed this story as it showed just how much caring and compassion the children had. The children really cared about those turkey's and what would happen to them if they left them there. This is such a cute story to read before Thanksgiving, but kind of makes you feel guilty for eating turkey on Thanksgiving.

Author Dav Pilkey

In the business of illustration, design and creative development, Shane W. Evans is a multi-talented artist and visionary who combines his world travels with his art to influence creative expression in others. Evans studied at Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts and graduated in 1993 and began traveling the world. In addition to contract work in illustration, graphic design and web design for major companies, Evans has conceptualized and illustrated numerous children’s books. Many of the books have been featured in the media such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Today Show, NBA Inside Stuff, Reading Rainbow and Late Night with David Letterman. Shane has received much acclaim within the children’s literary field for his work on children’s books such as "Osceola," "The Way The Door Closes," "Shaq and the Beanstalk" and "Take It To The Hoop Magic Johnson." His accolades range from being honored by First Lady Laura Bush at the 2002 National Book Festival, The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and The Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Non-Fiction for Children. (www.shaneevans.com)

From Publisher's Weekly:

"Patterned as a parody of the celebrated Clement Moore poem, this story of eight baby turkeys unfolds with joyous abandon and crackling vitality, as eight children embark on a Thanksgiving field trip that will change their lives forever. They are breathless as they catch sight of Farmer Mack Nuggett for the first time: "He was dressed all in denim, / From his head to his toe, / With a pinch of polyester / And a dash of Velcro." The exuberant turkeys--Ollie, Stanley, Larry, Moe, Wally, Beaver and Groucho--catch the children up in raucous barnyard antics until the merriment is quelled by the sight of the ax. Deeply touched by the turkeys' plight, the children--who have grown mysteriously fatter and have feathers sticking out from under their clothes--board the bus to go back to the city. The next night, family silhouettes can be seen--each with a grateful turkey guest--as "They feasted on veggies / With jelly and toast." This humorous, lighthearted story is adorned with bold, bright illustrations that convey a sense of wacky high-spiritedness sometimes lacking in traditional holiday fare."

The Lorax

The Lorax

Author & Illustrator: Dr Seuss

Published

Grade Level: any

Reading Level: 2nd grade and up

Genre: Environmental Conservation

Summary: This is such a cute story of a tale of rhythm and rhyme along with a story that will make everyone think about their role in nature. The Once-ler, the narrator, was always carless, had a disregard for nature and was extremely selfish. When he learns he can make "sneed's," the hottest selling thing since Tickle Me Elmo, out of truffula trees he depletes the whole forest. Now, the natural beauty of the truffula tree's are no more. Then comes a child who has a seed and wants to save all of the truffula trees.

Pre-Reading Activity: This would be a great story to introduce when talking about seeds, trees, or preservation of forests. I would make a sneed out of footed pajamas and wear it to class. I would have the children guess what I was wearing and what it was made of.

Post-Reading Activity: Have students write about something that they could invent that would change everyone's lives. I would make this project so that students would have plenty of time to do research and see just what they could do and what has not already been invented. I mean, 20 years ago, who would have thought bottled water would sell, everyone has water coming out of their faucets already? This book has endless activities. They could even think of quirky names for their products, after all, everyone needs a sneed. Also, I think the movie is really good and you can use this as a follow-up to the book. It really defines the characters.

Reflection: I used this book for a PAL, partnerships about literacy, program years ago for my day care center. The whole day care read and did projects on the book. The younger children loved the made up words and the older children loved the idea of inventing something no one else had thought of. It could be used across grade levels and the art projects along with it are endless.

Author Dr. Seuss

Who hasn't heard of Dr. Seuss? Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss, was born in 1904. His mother, Henrietta Seuss Geisel, often soothed him to sleep by chanting rhymes remembered form her youth. Dr. Seuss credits his mother for his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Author: Eric Carle

Genre: Picture Book, Fiction

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...

Friday, October 19, 2012

Gingerbread Baby

Gingerbread Baby

Author: Jan Brett

Genre: Children's Fiction

Grade Level: Preschool and Up

Theme: Rhyming

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.