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.