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.  

The Real Princess: A Mathemagical Tale

Title: The Real Princess: A Mathemagical Tale 

Author: Brenda Williams started off as a primary school teacher. As time went on her persuade her career in children literature. She works with the publisher Barefoot Books. With there help she has published many books and poems for children ranging in age from 3-12. 

Genre: Fantasy 

Grades:  K-3

Subject Area: Math 

Summary: This story is a twist on the story The Princess and the Pea. The queen is trying to find her three sons wives, but of course they have to be real princess. This version of The Princess and the Pea has many number twist and helps students will their basic addition and subtraction.  

Pre Reading Activity:  Kids will be given nine peas and they will practice counting them. Then they will be give a worksheet on counting. They will count the number or objects they see then they will write the number in the space provided.

Post Reading Activity: As a class we will read the story of the princess and the pea. Depending on the age of the students we will either make a venn diagram as a class or independently. Students will write a paragraph (if old enough) on the similarities and differences on the books (students should included a picture). If students can not write they will draw a picture of the two stories.   

So You Want to Be President

Title: So You Want to Be President 

Author: Judith St. George was born and raised in New Jersey. Then she attended college at Smith College. After graduation she got married and moved to Cambridge Massachusetts. There she started to take an interest in history. This lead her in writing her book So You Want to Be President? She has written a total of twenty books throughout her career.   

Genre: Historical Nonfiction 

Grades: 3-6

Subject Area: History  

Summary: In this book the author talks about the different presidents of the United States. They go through things that the different presidents did for the United States. The presidents covered in the book are George Washington to Bill Clinton. The author discuses the many pros and cons of being the president of the United States. 

Pre Reading Activity: Ask kids who the presidents and what they know about being president. What does the president do/ what is their job. Discuss as a class and write the list of what the class comes up with on a big sheet of paper. 

Post Reading Activity: As a class make a pro/con list about being president. Have the kids copy the list that we make as a class. Then have students write weather or not they would want to be the president of the United States. Make sure the students explain in detail why or why not you would want to be a president. 

What Will the Weather Be?

Title: What Will the Wether Be?

Author: Lynda DeWitt lives in Washington DC. There she works as an editor for the Educational Media Division of the National Geographic Society. Throughout her career she has published many articles about wildlife. She enjoys educating children about science.

Genre: Nonfiction 

Grades: K-4

Subject Area: Science

Summary: This story explains the basics characteristics of weather in a way that a child can understand through text and pictures. The book explains temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and air pressure. The book also teaches kids about how meteorologist gather data for their forecasts. In the book the it explains what scientists know about weather and what they can’t know in some cases about our changing weather. 

Pre Reading Activity: Make a list of all the types of weather the students know about on the white board. Then discuss as a class what the types of weather are like. For example: if you are talking about snow it is cold, wet, white, fluffy etc.

Post Reading Activity: After we are done reading the book, we will chart the weather for the next week. Each child will be polled on what they think the weather is that day. We will chart what the weather is really like outside. I will then make a bar graph on the data. Then as a class each day we will discuss what the weather is and what it was suppose to be according to the meteorologist.