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)

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.  

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.