What’s New in Children's Literature? PLCT Menu 2009-2010

What’s New in Children's Literature?PLCT Menu 2009-2010 Literature Ideas Created by PLCT Participants

Table of Contents Math Reading Grammar Writing Social Studies/Science Counseling

Math • The Napping House, Audrey Wood • Problem Solving, How many people/animals are in bed? How many legs are in the bed? • How Many Snails?, Paul Giganti • Graphing to compare how many more.

Math • Counting on Frank, Rod Clemet • This could be used to incorporate writing into math by using the idea of this book to write their own. • Cloze passage for practicing adjectives. • 20 Hungry Piggies, Trudy Harris • Ordinal numbers • Subtraction

Math • Pigs in the Pantry, Amy Axelrod • Measurements • Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar, Mitsumasa Anno • Multiplication and factorials • Spaghetti and Meatballs for All, Marilyn Burns • Area and perimeter

Math • Milo the Really Big Bunny, Stephen Krensky • Kindergarten lesson to teach small, medium, and large. • Eating Fractions, Bruce McMillan • Introduce fractions • Great mental images in math • Student create own meal-draw/cut into fractions, glue to “placemat”, label with fraction

Math • Spaghetti and Meatballs for All, Marilyn Burns • Area and perimeter • The Quilt,Ann Jonas • Make a quilt for a child/grandchild out of special things, like a favorite T-shirt, and give as a gift with the book. • Leo the Late Bloomer, Robert Kraus • Use to explain that you’ll eventually understand the math.

Math • Alexander Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday, Judith Viorst • Students have whiteboards out while listening and subtracting the money as the story is read • My Little Sister Ate One Hare, Bill Grossman • Counting 1-10 • One is a Snail 10 is a Crab, Amy Pulley Sayre • Adding numbers to find a sum

Math • Hottest Coldest Highest Deepest, Steve Jenkins • Estimation • Measurement • Comparisons • Riddle-iculous Math, Joan Holub • Critical thinking “play” with words and the mind • Enhance drawing conclusions • Mental math • Problems solving strategies

Math • Pieces: A Year in Poems & Quilts, Anna Grossnickle Hines • Geometry Table of Contents

Grammar • First Show, Bernette Ford • Use with adjectives and imagery lessons. • The Napping House, Audrey Wood • Cloze passage for practicing adjectives. • Punctuation Takes a Vacation, Robin Pulver • Read through the book. Then reread and make specific posters using examples from the story of how to use punctuation.

Grammar • A Visitor for Bear, Bunny Becker • Synonyms, antonyms, and prefixes • Go Away Big Green Monster, Ed Emberley • Great book to teach/introduce adjectives. • Giraffes Can’t Dance, Giles Andreae • Verb search

Grammar • Counting on Frank, Rod Clemet • Cloze passage for practicing adjectives. Table of Contents

Writing • Dear Mr. Blueberry, Simon James • Writing letters. • Learning facts about whales • Pieces: A Year in Poems & Quilts, Anna Grossnickle Hines • Poetry, rhyming, geometry, creative writing, inference • Wolf’s Coming, Joe Kulka • Example to show rewriting well known stories

Writing • Detective LaRue Letters from the Investigation, Mark Teague • Introduce letter writing • Write letters to… • Teach persuasive writing • Voice • Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary • Teach letter writing • Use to edit his mistakes in his letters.

Writing • Being This Way With You, W. Nikola Lisa • Have student write about each other. • Snowmen at Night, Caralyn Buehner • Writing prompt: My snowman__at night when I was asleep. • Today I Feel Silly, Jamie Lee Curtis • Make up a story to fit a feeling.

Writing • Half Magic, Edward Eager • In fourth-grade, use with Red Writing Hood • Rewriting history • A Star in My Orange, Edward Eager • Use it for a comparison lesson between apples and oranges, alike, and different. • Venn diagram

Writing • Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest, Steve Jenkins • Comparative adjectives • A Dog Who Cried Wolf, Use it for a • Compare and contrast wolves with dogs. • In fourth-grade, use with Wolf Pup’s Diary • How genes work • All are dogs, but look different.

Writing • Mars Needs Moms, Berly Breathed • Use for Mother’s Day • Children write My Mom book • Snoring Beauty, Bruce Hale • Great to discuss voice or word choice. • Sector 7, David Wiesner • Write a story to go with pictures.

Writing • Counting on Frank, Rod Clemet • This could be used to incorporate writing into math by using the idea of this book to write their own.

Writing Resource • The Book Reader’s Notebook, Inc. Product Concept Mfg. • Students keep a notebook of all the books they’ve read with the genre and comments. Table of Contents

Counseling • Leo the Late Bloomer, Robert Kraus • Self-esteem lesson • Getting to know each other • Building relationships • We all learn at different rates and that is ok. • Today I Feel Silly, Jamie Lee Curtis • Have the kids choose their “emotion” for that day and journal why they are feeling that way.

Counseling • A Good Day, Kevin Henkes • Being positive • Moving forward • Good feelings • Puff the Magic Dragon, Peter Yarrow • Sing Table of Contents

Social Studies/Science The Brooklyn Bridge, Elizabeth Moon 5th grade science: Levers & Pulleys 5th grade social studies: American History Mapping Penny’s World, Lorene Leedy Teaching maps/uses

Social Studies/Science Diary of a Worm, Doreen Cronin Practice journal/diary Writing social studies journals of Columbus, etc. Out of the Deep - National Parks Mysteries 4th grade regions To guide students away from Goosebumps

Social Studies/Science Indian Shoes, Cynthia Letich Smith Native American week Listen to the Wind, Greg Mortenson Use as a preview to Three Cups of Tea Less than Half, More than Whole, Kathleen Lacapa Introduce cultural diversity – intermediate Social Studies

Social Studies/Science Flute’s Journey, Lynne Cherry Use maps, globes and Google earth to track bird from North to Central America How I Learned Geography, Uri Shulevitz Read before geography at beginning of year Duck at the Door, Jackie Urbanovic Seasons, animals, months of the year

Social Studies/Science Solid, Liquid, or Gas?, Sally Hewitt Science kits to do at home. 2 page spread with materials. Little Bighorn, Brendan January 4th grade Montana History unit Not much in our text. Great pictures and maps.

Social Studies/Science Chick’s Life Cycle, Elizabeth Bennett Include in discussion on chick life cycle development A Pill Bug’s Life, John Himmelman Great with Kindergarten FOSS science investigation in spring Table of Contents

Reading My Little Sister Ate One Hare, Bill Grossman Rhyming, vocabulary, repeating words The Alphabet Tree, Leo Lionni Use when starting Kindergarten Read Well; letter recognition

Reading Watchdog and the Coyotes, Bill Wallace Good to introduce perspective and how others think. Wolf’s Coming, Joe Kulha Predict what’s going to happen – draw. Use when 6th grade reads The Number of the Stars when Annemarie tells herself the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

Reading Go Away, Big Green Monster, Ed Emberley Cover up the book and have students be the “illustrator” as you read. Have students share pics to see how illustrators could have different visions of a story. Dirt on my Shirt, Jeff Foxworthy Poems, Poetry Month, rhyming words

Reading Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen Good quality literature Quiet as a Cricket, Audrey Wood Teach figurative language, similes Dog Song, Gary Paulsen Autobiography, Iditarod, Read aloud choice

Reading Good Boy, Fergus, David Shannon Illustrates point of view, voice in writing. Journal writing. A Visitor for Bear, Bonny Becker Good vocabulary expansions

Reading A Pill Bug’s Life, John Himmelman Use to introduce non-fiction to younger readers, emphasizing vocabulary they may not know. Jim & the Beanstalk, Raymond Briggs Compare and contrast with original story

Reading You Read to Me, I’ll Read to You, Mary Ann Hoberman Great interactive reading – getting the kids involved without having to choral read with me. Pieces, A Year in Poems and Quilts, Anna Hines Introducing poetry

Reading Class Three at Sea, Julia Jarman Great fun to read aloud! The Napping House, Audrey Wood Teach sequence Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly, Jane O’Conner Vocabulary

Reading The Report Card, Andrew Clements Use for leveled novel groups Running Out of Time, Margaret Haddix Teach point of view Sector 7, David Wiesner Summarize the story-an interesting take on a wordless picture book

Reading Wangari’s Trees of Peace, Jeannette Curtis Read during November Week of Peace. Discuss standing up for what is right. Detective LaRue-Letters from an Investigation, Mark Teague Making inferences, revising conclusions as more information is added

Reading Books that Don’t Bore ‘Em, James Blasingame Teacher resource book with good suggestions for students who don’t enjoy reading. Table of Contents

What’s New in Children's Literature? PLCT Menu 2009-2010