Vote for Books The FRA Children’s Book Award

1. Vote for BooksThe FRA Children’s Book Award Shannon Ayrish http://www.desoto-trail.leon.k12.fl.us/ayrishs

2. The Book Selection • FRA committee selects eight titles from the nominated books. • Books selected must have been published within the last five years • Both fiction and nonfiction have been chosen • Nominations for books to be considered for the 2009-2010 school year are due by December 15, 2009.

3. Registration • Schools submit a form indicating their intent to participate between September 1 and December 15, 2009. • Packets are sent to registered schools beginning in September. • Those schools registering after December 15th will be welcome to vote, but are not guaranteed a complete packet.

4. Award Procedures • Students must hear at least five of the eight Children's Book Award titles to be eligible to vote. • Votes can be submitted on-line • Ballots must be received no later than April 15, 2010. • Winning books posted on the FRA website (www.flreads.org) by May 1st. 

5. 2009 Winning Book Martina the Beautiful CockroachRetold by Carmen Agra Deedy Illustrated by Michael Austin

6. 2009 Honor Books WoolburWritten by Leslie Helakoski Gooey JellyfishWritten by Natalie Lunis

7. Help Me, Mr. Mutt! • Written and Illustrated by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel • http://www.janetstevens.com • http://www.susanstevenscrummel.com

8. Help Me, Mr. Mutt!Activites • Have students learn about the various types of graphs in the story. Then let them brainstorm other problems pets have with people. Come up with a graph to represent the problem. • Owners want dog to get obedience training. Graph the ratings or pros and cons for The Dog Whisperer vs. It’s Me or the Dog. • Can you think of others?

9. One • Written by Kathryn Otoshi • http://kokidsbooks.com

10. One Activities • Before reading have students complete these sentence stems in their reader response journals as a group or individually. Discuss the responses and read the story. • If I met a bully, I would… • Being a friend is… • Standing up for yourself means… • When I am angry I ….

11. The Happiness Tree • Written by Andrea Alban Gosline • Illustrated by Lisa Burnett Bossi • http://www.ambledance.com "Everything good begins with me,the acorn told its mother tree,and drifted on the dancing breeze,to find a cloak of golden leaves…"

12. The Happiness TreeActivities • Make leaf patterns that match the types of trees in the story. When students display the matching characteristic, put their name on the leaf and add it to either a class tree or individual trees. • Use small lunch bags to cut and twist a tree. Glue leaves with vocabulary words from the story. Call the creation a Happiness Tree

13. The Happiness TreeActivities • http://www.domtar.com/arbre/english/start.htm - this is an interactive website about the year in the life of trees • Use small lunch bags to cut and twist a tree. Glue leaves with vocabulary words from the story. Call the creation a Happiness Tree • Give students a list with each of the letters of the alphabet and a line beside it. Have them brainstorm all the things that trees can give us or the uses for a tree that start with each letter. For example H could be “house for animals,” S could be “shade,” or P could be “paper.”

14. The Happiness TreeActivities • http://www.talkabouttrees.org/lessons/plan2.html - this site has is a comprehensive lesson plan on the many gifts that trees provide. • http://www.arborday.org/explore/classroom/modelclassroom.cfm - this site is part of the National Arbor Day Foundation. It has many activities for teachers to share with students about trees and conservation. • http://atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Trees - this site has many lesson plans on trees and how to incorporate them into your reading and science curriculum.

15. The Happiness TreeActivities Make a tree with brown construction paper following the Kirigami paper cutting style. start with an 8-1/2x 11-inch sheet of black construction paper. • Fold the paper in half -- the long way. • Cut the folded paper (see Illustration 1) so they have a basic tree shape when the paper is opened up. • Cut roots from the tree trunk area. (Note: Students, especially young students, might want to use a pencil or chalk to sketch branches and roots on one side of the unfolded tree outline/silhouette. Older students might be more daring; they might simply cut swipes of “negative” image area our of the tree silhouette.) • Cut swipes of branches out of the treetop and arrange them to create a unique tree silhouette. • Mount the tree silhouette on colored background paper.

16. A Seed is Sleepy • Written by Dianna Hutts Aston • Illustrated by Sylvia Long • http://www.chroniclebooks.com/pdfs/EggSeedTeachersGuide.pdf • http://www.chroniclebooks.com/eggseed

17. A Seed is SleepyActivities • Grow a Story – A Seed Awakens handout • Vocabulary Categorizing – before reading the book give students three categories of words from the story: travel, seed parts, and shapes. Then give students the following list of words and ask them to put them in the correct categories: float, parachute, cling, tumble, cone, pod, coat root, leaf, shoot, leap, dash, freckle, and silky hairs. Discuss the words and categories. Then read the book and see if the students want to adjust the words into a different category.

18. A Seed is SleepyActivities • Mystery Word – before show the book, tell students they will have to guess what the book is about. Ask them the questions below and have students guess as you go through the questions. When someone guesses seeds, then read the story. This will help students focus on the main ideas in the book. • Some of them can fly. • They have coats. • They can be sleepy. • They come in many sizes. • - Some go naked. • - They all want to germinate. • They seek sunlight above • They seek water below.

19. Thea’s Tree • Written by by Alison Jackson • Illustrated by Janet Pedersen • http://www.alison-jackson.com

20. Thea’s TreeActivities • Topics of Focus – have students decide if the non-fiction topic phrases (below) from the story are true before reading. Then read the story to verify and discuss the phrases. • A seed needs, soil, sun, and water • A botanist studies plants • A museum is a place that stores and displays artifacts • A curator studies trees • Ostrich eggs are very large

21. I Know an Old Teacher • Written by Anne Bowen • Illustrated by Stephen Gammell • http://annebowenbooks.com/annebowen.html

22. Grace for President • Written by Kelly DiPucchio • Illustrated by Leuyen Pham • http://www.kellydipucchio.com

23. Grace for PresidentActivities • Vote for Vocabulary – give students a list of words from the story. Have students predict and vote for the words they think will be in the story. Use the following words or choose your own. - rallies -parade • President - nominated - candidate • Stewed - experiments - campaign • Election - electoral votes - slogan • Democracy - representative - polls

24. Listen to the Wind • Written by Greg Mortenson • Illustrated by Susan L. Roth • http://www.threecupsoftea.com • http://www.threecupsoftea.com/wp-includes/documents/3CTQA.pdf

25. Listen to the WindActivites • This story works well with cause and effect. Create a template with teacups and teabags. Label the teacups with effects and the teabags with causes. • They had no school -Dr. Greg built a school • Dr. Greg was lost in the mountains –the village rescued him • They could not get supplies to the village – they built a bridge

26. Websites to Remember • The Leon County Reading Council - http://lcrc.pbwiki.com • The Florida Reading Association - http://www.flreads.org • Literacy Hooks - http://literacyhooks.pbwiki.com • Vote for Books - http://voteforbooks.pbwiki.com

27. Thanks for Joining Me