Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

Title: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus 

Author: Mo Willems is a three time Caldecott winner. He has written a number of children's books since he started writing in 2000. Before writing children's book Mo was an animator and writer for the children's show Sesame Street. While a writer for the beloved children's show he won six Emmys. 

Genre: Picture Book 

Grades: K-2

Subject Area:  ELA

Summary: Throughout this story all the pigeon wants is to drive the bus. However, the bus driver has left the readers with one task DON'T let the pigeon drive the bus! The pigeon tries everything to get to drive the bus. This story will have children of all ages laughing. 

Pre Reading Activity: Have students close their eyes and picture they are on the bus. Have students describe what being on the bus sounds like, feels like, what they see while they are on the bus. This will allow them to make a connection with the book before reading. This will make the story more enjoyable for all students. 

Post Reading Activity:  Have students do a short writing piece. Students will write about if they would allow the pigeon to drive the bus. Talk to the students about using details why the would or wouldn't let the pigeon drive the bus. Then have students draw a picture to go along with their writing piece. 

Yo! Yes?

Title: Yo! Yes? 

Author: Chris Raschka has had many books with honors. One of his most well known book is his 2012 Caldecott winning A Ball for Daisy. Through his books he tell stories using few words so children can understand the concept through the picture. This is very enjoyable for children of all ages. Chris is also a very talented violist. 

Genre: Character Education 

Grades: K-3

Subject Area: ELA

Summary: This is a cute story about how two boys become friends. They are an unlikely pair but it shows children how two people that may not have a lot of things in common become friends. 

Pre Reading Activity: Talk to students about what makes a good friend. Create a list on the board on things that make people friends. See what children have to say about friendship. Ask students things like what makes someone your friend?

Post Reading Activity: Have children close their eyes and try to remember the way each boy looked in the story. Encourage them to describe the two boys in detail. After children explore the boys’ clothing and physical appearance in general, have them consider the things that were similar about the two boys. Ask: In what ways do you think the two boys might be alike? What kinds of things do you think the boys might enjoy together? As children talk, help them to see that when we look beyond superficial differences we become capable of seeing the many ways in which we have things in common with others. (http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/westonwoods/study_guides/yo_yes.pdf)

Give Me Half

Title: Give Me Half 

Author: Stuart J. Murphy was born in Rhode Island. He went to school design and art direction. This has allowed him to have a strong background to write children books for MathSmart. He now lives in Boston with his wife.  

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Grades: K-3

Subject Area: Math 

Summary: Throughout this story a brother and a sister have to learn how to share. They learn to share through fractions. They have to share there pizza, juice, and cookies. Then end up making a mess because they can’t share well with each other. 

Pre Reading Activity: As a class talk about what factions are. Explain that factions are making whole things such as pizza into parts. A slice of pizza is a part of the whole pizza. Have students talk with one another and try and get a better understanding of factions. Then give them a warm up worksheet on factions and see if they are understanding. Children can work with a partner on this worksheet to make sure they have the basics of factions. 

Post Reading Activity: Make a list of all the foods that the two children in the story shared with each other. Have students draw pictures of the foods that are seen in the story. Then tell students to cut the pictures in equal half like they were going to share the food with someone. This is a great way to talk about sharing and how important it is to share with other people. Have them do another worksheet on factions by themselves to see if they have a better understanding. 

Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Title: Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?

Author: Bill Martin Jr. was born in 1916. One of the most famous books that he wrote was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See. Bill was a writer for 30 years. During his life he wrote over 300 children's books. In 2004 Bill passed away. 

Genre: Picture Book/Fiction 

Grades: K-2

Subject Area: ELA

Summary: This book follows a class when they go to the zoo on a class trip. Students talk about what type of animals sounds they hear well at the zoo. Students learn how to make animal sound throughout the story. It is a great way to learn about animals and the sounds they make. 

Pre Reading Activity: Create a graph that documents the different types of sounds children hear both in and out of the classroom over the course of a week. Create categories for each column, such as transportation, human sounds, machines, animals, and weather. Invite children to list the types of sounds they hear. Compare the different categories. Which column on the graph had the most sounds? Which had the least? (http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3746658)

Post Reading Activity: Have students make a puppet of their favorite animal in the book. Put the kids in order of the animals in the story and act out the story and noise there animals make. Students will say Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you see? Polar Bear puppets will say I hear a lion roaring in my eye...this will continue for the whole story. 

Fables

Title: Fables 

Author: Arnold Lobel is most well known for his series Frog and Toad. His book entitled Fables won the Caldecott Award in 1981. Lobel has been an illustrator for many books that he has not written. 

Genre: Fables 

Grades: K-3

Subject Area: ELA

Summary: This book has many different fables in it. These are a great way to teach students about this genre of story. Through reading students these fables they can learn all about stories that teach a lesson. 

Pre Reading Activity: Talk with the students about what a fable is. Then give students a writing prompt from a fable. Have the students sit in groups of four. Each student will start writing their own story. Then after a few minutes I will say pass the papers. Then the next student will write on the story. This will continue everyone in the group has written on each story. Then each student will have a similar yet different fable. 

Post Reading Activity: Now we are going to read the story the Ginger Bread Man. We are going to make a venn digram about the similarities and differences between the two stories as a class. Then the students will write an essay comparing and consternating the two stories in two or three paragraphs. This will depend on the age of the students. They should talk about the morals of the two stories.  

M is for Music

Title: M is for Music 

Author: Kathleen Krull has written over sixty books. However, writing was not always her dream. In college she got her degree in Music. From her love of music she decided to start writing children's books about music. Once she started writing she found a new passion, so she started writing about all different things. 

Genre: Fiction 

Grades: K-3

Subject Area: Music 

Summary: This book gives children words that have to do with music from a to z. Some of these words are new vocabulary that has to do with music. It gives children a way to learn music terms in a book. This way the child can see pictures to go with the terms and introduce new terms. 

Pre Reading Activity: On the white board think of words that might be in the book? Have students try and come up with one word for al least every letter on of the alphabet. If the students are struggle with a letter skip it an move on. This gets the children think about words that have to do with music. 

Post Reading Activity:  Have print out of pictures of some of the most popular vocabulary in the book. Have students write on the lines of the worksheet about the vocabulary word and define the picture in there own words. Have students color the picture. Then come up to the the front of the class and explain what they learned about the word they picked.  

Which Way to Witch School

Title: Which Way to Witch School 

Author: Scott Santoro started writing in his school for the schools new paper. Not only did he write articles for the school paper but he also had a cartoon stripe too. Besides writing Scott has work for Disney and Dreamworks as a storyboard writer. In 1999 his first book was published. 

Genre: Poetry/ Fiction 

Grades: 1-3

Subject Area: Holiday 

Summary: This story is about a school where witches go. Throughout this story there are many lessons to be learned for young witches, sometimes witches have to learn their lessons the hard way. Some lesson the witches learn included how to make a potion and how to fly on a broom. 

Pre Reading Activity: Explain what on homophone is. This is a word that has different meanings. An example is which and witch. Explain that these are the same words but the mean different things. Have students make there own list of different homophones. Then have the students count how many they came up with after five minutes. Create a class list of all the different homophones the students came up with.  

Post Reading Activity: Have students write their own story about Halloween using homophones.  They should try and use as many homophones as possible while the story still makes sense. They should at least include ten different homophones. They will complete a graphic organizer , a rough draft, and a finial copy. The final copies will be hung around the room. The final copies should also included a picture that relates to their story. 

The Snowy Day

Title: The Snowy Day 

Author: Ezra Jack Keats loved art from a young age. Keats spent much time learning about art at the local library. The first book written by Ezra Jack Keats was The Snowy Day. Keats introduced multiculturalism into children's literature. This was the start of something new in children's literature. 

Genre: Fiction

Grades: K-2

Subject Area: ELA 

Summary: One little boy named Peter wakes up on a winter morning and realizes that there is snow everywhere. He decides he wants to go outside and explore. After he is outside he notices that things are different when the snow has fallen. He does different things in the snow like making a snow angel and building a snowman. When he decides to go inside he brings in some snow but over night the snow melts because the house is too warm. 

Pre Reading Activity: As a class make a list on chart paper of the kids favorite things to do in the snow. Then discuss why they are their favorite things. After that pick four of the classes favorite things to do in the snow. Tell the students to vote for one things they like doing in the snow the best. Get chart paper graph their favorite things. Then talk about which thing to do in the snow is the class favorite Have the students draw a picture of the activity they voted for. 

Post Reading Activity: Explain what order of event are, and how events happen in the story. This is the order things happen in the story. Give an example when Peter woke up he saw snow, then he ate breakfast, and got dressed so he could play in the snow. Have the students talk about the order of events in the story we just read. Draw picture of the things the boy Peter did in the snow. Make sure you have a picture is in the order that they happened. This way it reinforces what we just talked about. But in a way little kids can understand. 

Amazing Grace

Title: Amazing Grace

Author: Marry Hoffman from a young age loved to read. Due to the influence of her two older sisters she taught herself to read before entering school. After high school Mary got her degree in English Literature for Cambridge. Throughout her career as a writer she has written over ninety books for children and teens.    

Genre: Fiction

Grades: 1-4

Subject Area: Character Education  

Summary: This story is about a little girl who loved stories. Grace always acted stories that her nana would tell her. She loved adventure the best.  She wanted to play the part of Peter Pan in her school play. When she raised her hand to play the part of Peter Pan even though she didn’t “fit” the part. The teacher gave the kids line to learn for an audition. Grace’s grandmother tells Grace she can do anything she wants if she puts her mind to it. 

Pre Reading Activity: Have the students do a pre-reading journal sentence/ paragraph starter in their journal. Have five different sentence starters up on the board and have the students write about one they like. Once students have finished writing their journal response and have drawn a picture about what they wrote about. Have them read aloud what they wrote to the class. 

Post Reading Activity: Have the class view the video film of Peter Pan starring Mary Martin as Peter Pan. Point out to the class that the role of Peter Pan is being played by a woman. Point out also that the part of Tiger Lily is not being played by a Native American. Encourage children to discuss whether they think that these parts should always be be played by a boy and a Native American? Why or why not? (Students might be interested to learn that hundreds of years ago, all the roles in Shakespeare's plays, for example, were played by men—even the roles of women—because women weren't allowed to be actors.) Why does the class think that Grace wanted the role of Peter? Have the students imagine which parts they would each like to play and tell why. (http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collateral.jsp?id=397_type=Book_typeId=77.

You Are What You Eat

Title: You Are What You Eat

Author: Sharon Gordon lives in New Jersey with her husband and three school aged children. Sharon mainly writes books for elementary and middle school aged children. Her main focus is on teaching children about science. She feels it is extremely important for students to learn about science and that is why that is her focus. 

Genre: Nonfiction

Grades: K-5

Subject Area: Health 

Summary: This book talks about the basics of eating right and keeping your body healthy. It talks about eating every meal, and trying to to make it a healthy meal. It gives students idea of what a healthy meal looks like. It talks about making good choices on what foods to eat and what foods you should try and not eat a lot of. In the story it talks about not only eating right but treating your body the right way. 

Pre Reading Activity: Do the worksheet found, on (http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/resources/mpk1_lesson2.pdf) this worksheet talks about what foods fit into food groups. We would talk about the food groups and see if everyone understands. Then I would give the kids a picture of a food and they would have to find what food group they are in. This would be a way for kids to get up and move around. 

Post Reading Activity: Have students do the food math sheet. The student will have to figure out what Jason needs to eat today to get his daily amount of each food group. This worksheets works on the math skills and understanding the amount of food their bodies need. After the student complete the worksheet we will talk as a class about eating the amount of food their bodies need! It is important to understand the foods your body needs to stay healthy. Have the students draw a picture of what a healthy meal looks like. ( http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/resources/mpk2_lesson2.pdf)

You Are Special

Title: You Are Special 

Author: Max Lucado has written over fifty books since he began writing. Besides writing books Max also works as a preacher in Texas. Max has sold more than eighty million copies of his print throughout his career. He believes that it is important for children to feel good about themselves and tries to make them see that they are perfect just the way they are through his writing. 

Genre: Fiction 

Grades: K-6

Subject Area: Character Education 

Summary: This is a story about not caring what other people think about you. It is important to be yourself and not care if other people don’t like you. As long as your true to yourself that is all that matters. This is a lesson the Punchinello learns after he talks to the person who made him. Punchinello meets a girl who has no stars or dots and wants to learn why dots and stars can not stick to her. He doesn’t want dots to stick to him. He goes and talks to Eli and learns that he is special.

Pre Reading Activity: I want you to use a graphic organizer provided to organize your ideas on what you think makes someone special. Students should come up with six to eight different things that make someone special.  If the kids are too young to make the graphic organizer by themselves we will make it as a class. They will give me the words and I will write it on chart paper. 

Post Reading Activity: Talk as a class about how it is important to be yourself and not change for other people.  We are the way we are for a reason. People are all different and it is important to understand that our differences make us special. Life would be boring if we were all the same because there would be no differences to us. We would not be individuals. As a class come up with ideas how to make each other feel special if someone is having a bad day. Discuss how important it is for everyone to feel special and not put each other down. Like the Wemmicks did when they handed out the dots. We want everyone to feel like a star!  

Once I Was...

Title: Once I Was...

Author: Niki Clark Leopold is both an author and an editor. She is most well known for her book K is for Kitten and Once I Was. Both books she wrote and was the editor for. She lives in Maryland were she works on her poetry and writing. 

Genre: Poetry 

Grades: K-3

Subject Area: ELA

Summary: This book expresses the changes a child makes as they grow up. The girl in this story realizes when she was little there were things she could not do but not that she has grown up she can do things. The author tells the story through a poem. It is a way child can understand the effects growing up has a you. This book is a fun way to learn about growing up. 

Pre Reading Activity: We will talk about rhyming words. As a class we will talk about what it means if two words rhyme. Then we will talk about words that rhyme with each other. We will talk about how cat, hat, bat, mat, and sat rhyme. Then I will have a worksheet for the class to do about rhyming words. (http://www.kidslearningstation.com/phonics/rhyming-worksheets.asp) 

Post Reading Activity: Now you are going to be writing your own Once I Was poem or depending on the age draw a picture of something that you could not do or were scarred to do. Draw a picture of something they do now. If the students are writing the poem they should try and get the words to rhyme. The poem should be six to ten line long depending on the age and ability of the students. The first line should read Once I was (then say what they were)... Then the second would say now I am (then say what they are)...  

The Polar Express

Title: The Polar Express

Author: Chris Van Allsburg is a winner of the Caldecott Medal twice. Once for The Polar Express and once for his book Jumanji. For both of these stories he was the author and the illustrator. Both Caldecott winning books were made into movies which was a great honor. He has also written many other books throughout his career.   

Genre: Fiction 

Grades: K-4

Subject Area: Holiday 

Summary:  On the night before Christmas a little boy is unsure if Santa is real or not. When he tries to go to sleep he hears a noise out in front of his house. The hops on the train and is in for a wild ride. They go through a magical experience. When they arrive at the north pole Santa chooses the little boy to get the first gift of Christmas. After that night the little boy always believes in the magic of Christmas.   

Pre Reading Activity: We are going to talk about bells. I will first ring a bell and ask the kids if everyone one can hear it. I will have different sized bells and ring them or have the children ring them. I will ask the kids to explain how the different bells sound different. Then we will talk about why different bells can sound so different. 

Post Reading Activity: Put the the main events of the story on sentence strips and ask the students to put the story in order. Allow the students to work in groups or with a partner. After they put the story in the right order give them a ticket. Which will have to be turned in, in order to watch the movie The Polar Express the next day. 

Martin Luther King Jr.

Title: Martin Luther King Jr.

Author: Wil Mara started writing books in 1988. Throughout his career as a writer he has written over eighty books. Most of Wil's books are written for children however, as his career goes on he is starting to write adult books as well. 

Genre: Biography 

Grades: 1-5

Subject Area: History 

Summary: In the story Martin Luther King Jr. life is written about from birth to death. It talks about racism and the way the black people were treated because there skin was a different color. Martin Luther King Jr. stood up for what he believed in which that everyone should be treat the same. He fought for equal rights for everyone. 

Pre Reading Activity: Put words in about Martian Luther King Jr. in alphabetical word. Then talk about how the words relate to Martin Luther King Jr. Have kids define the word in there own words verbally to the class.

Post Reading Activity: The kids will draw a picture and write an I have a dream speech. This is a speech about what they think needs to change about American, and why they think it needs to change. The length of their writing sample will depend on their age. The kids should talk about some of the things Martin Luther King talked about. The students should also draw a picture to go with their writing sample. (http://www.education.com/activity/article/Write_Dream_Speech/)

Owl Moon

Title: Owl Moon 

Author: Jane Yolen has written many children stories. Before she became a writer she was a teacher of literacy and writing. Jane has written many other stories including How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight, and The Devils Arithmetic. 

Genre: Fiction 

Grades: K-2

Subject Area: Science  

Summary: The story is about a father who takes his daughter owling for the first time on a cold winter night. They walk from there house to the edge of the woods then they continue through the woods. The little girls father tries to call the owl. Finally the owl call works and they see an owl face to face. 

Pre Reading Activity: I will ask the class if anyone knows what cause and effect is? From there I will explain what cause and effect is. I will give examples of cause and effect. Then the class will do a cause and effect work sheet. It will give them a cause and they will have to say the effect and then say the effect and they will have to give me the cause. 

Post Reading Activity: I will ask the class if anyone knows what cause and effect is? From there I will explain what cause and effect is. I will give examples of cause and effect. Then the class will do a cause and effect work sheet. It will give them a cause and they will have to say the effect and then say the effect and they will have to give me the cause.

Apple Pie 4th of July

Title: Apple Pie 4th of July

Author: Janet S. Wong was born in Los Angeles. She then went on to go to college UCLA. After finishing school she took an interest in helping children who were refugees express themselves through art. Later in her life she began writing children's literature and poetry. 

Genre: Multicultural 

Grades: K-3

Subject Area: History  

Summary: On the 4th of July this little girl does not understand why her parents are cooking Chinese food to sell in their store. She tries to tell her parents about this American holiday and how people are not going to be coming in to by their food on this holiday. However, the main character is in for a surprise lesson.  

Pre Reading Activity: Have different stations set up around the room about different cultures. At the stations there will be things from the culture. For example there will be the food the culture eats, the type of clothing the people wear, and anything else interesting about there culture. Students will have to write or draw a picture about what the learned at each station. One station will be American cultural, another will be Mexican. There will be an Asian culture station, and there will be an Indian cultural station. This will allow the students to learn about different cultures.  

Post Reading Activity: I will give the students a list of words about Chinese cultural. Children will work with a partner to find out about these words. Students will then use the words in a sentence. 

The Eyes of Gray Wolf

Title: The Eyes of Gray Wolf

Author: Jonathan London was born in New York in 1947. This once poet became a children's writer. In 1989 he started writing children's books. Throughout his career he was written over fifty children's books. He is most commonly known for his Froggy books.  

Genre: Nonfiction/ Poetry 

Grades: K-4

Subject Area: Nature/ Science 

Summary: Throughout this story you follow the endangered gray wolf. The author writes in a poetic style which allows the read to live a day in the life of this animal. Throughout the story the reader learns more about these amazing animals and what they can do to help these animals from becoming extinct.    

Pre Reading Activity: Introduce what the word endangered mean. Endangered animals are a population of animals that are at risk of becoming extinct because there are not a lot of them. Then discuss as a class what animals are on the endangered species list. Ex. Jaguar, Red Wolf, Giant Panda, Tiger, Snow Leopard, Blue Whale, and Sand Cat. 

Post Reading Activity: Have the kids look up on the computer an endangered specie and color a picture of it accurately. If children are too young to draw it print out a few different pictures of the animal. Then have them color it. For older children they will have to look up background information on the animals. They should include where the animal lives, what they eat, and why they are endangered. Plus any other important fact about the animal.