The book Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes is great book to read aloud to as classroom. It is about a little mouse named Chrysanthemum who absolutely adores her name. Her parents love her name as well and remind her just how beautiful it is all the time. When Chrysanthemum gets to school, her classmates tease her about her name. They say its too long and that its funny because she is names after a flower. Later on in the story, Chrysanthemum and her classmates encounter a sweet music teacher with a a flower for a name and who likes Chrysanthemum's name very much. All of her classmates soon realize that is is a pretty name after all. This will surely be a book that i will add to my collection. the book has a wonderful moral about being kind and accepting of our friends. This would Be a great book to use to my class when introducing bullying prevention and explaining how words can hurt. There are so many activities I would love to use that stem from this book but one of the activities I would do would be to have my students would be the flower pot coloring page. The students would spell out their name by writing each letter on each petal of the flower. When they are finished writing it, they will be instructed to write not he flower pot who many letters are in their names. I would give this book a five star rating out of five and it is listed as a 460L on the Lexile scale. I can't wait to use this book in my class.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Suess is one of my favorite books I've ever read. Although its very simple, It's so fun and has a great moral behind it so of course i would recommend reading it in the classrooms. The book is about the mean ole Grinch in Whoville who tries to put a stop to Christmas. Cindy Lou Who teaches the town and the Grinch that Christmas is't just about at the presents of the material things. Christmas is about being together and the things that don;t come wrapped in perfect little bows or cost a lot of money. Family and the people you are with mean the most. I would rate this book a five out of five and it is listed as a on the Lexile scale as a 510L. An activity I would get my students to do would be to complete a story map of the book. I would then want for them to illustrate the events of the story they have included in their map.
The Lion, The with and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is such a good book to read. Its a story of four siblings who discover a hidden world within a wardrobe found while playing hide and seek. The children ar part of a great prophecy to help Aslan save Narna from the white witch. I would rate this book a four and a half out of five stars and it is listed as a 940L on the Lexile scale. As an activity for my class, I would read the book aloud to my class during group reading time. During the book (between the chapters each day that we stop) i would have a different activity set up for my students with activity sheets. One side that I would love to use it describing the characters given context clues from he book. I think this would be a great way to expand their knowledge of comprehension and context clues.
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson is a wonderful book about two young children who create a magical land just for the tow of them to escape to. They are picked on in school and aren't exactly the best at fitting in with the other kids but their differences and love of imagination bring them close together. Although the story has a sad ending, I think the message of imagination and life being what you make it is very evident throughout the book. I would use this when having my students write a text about a magical land they wood escape to if they could. I would have allaying sheet present for them to plan the characters, setting, plot, etc. Once the planning page is complete, they would transfer it over to writing a text using those details. I would rte this book a three and a half out of five stars and it is listed as an 810L on the Lexile scale.
See the Yak Yak is a greta story for any classroom when teaching homophones and homonyms. The story is very simple but very helpful. It helps with depicting the difference between the meanings of two words that are spelt the same or similar with different meanings. thee are countless activities that could be done using this book but the one that comes to mind would be a center where the students would match the homophones and homonyms together with the correct match. The students will then construct a sentence using the words matched. I would rate this book a four and a half out of five stars and is listed as a 10L on the Lexile scale.
The Giving Tree is a story about the love between a tree and a young boy. As a child, the young boy would come to visit the tree and play around the tree. As the boy grew older, life began to really hit hard. He needed material things to survive or live the live he imagined for himself, so the tree gave and gave until she didn't have anything else to give. At the end it shows where the boy is now an elderly man and simply needs a place to sit. The tree was able to give him a place to sit. This book is centered round the concept of unconditional love. I would rate this book five stars out of five and is a 530L on the Lexile scale. An activity I would do with my future students would be for my kids to recall important details to an activity sheet about what the tree gave to the boy and what the boy used the items for. This will be good when working with comprehension of a text.
The book Pete the Cat: Rocking in My School Shoes by Eric Litwin is part of a series where pete the cat goes on cute little adventures. This would be a book that I would read to my class as a whole group on the first day or two of school. I think it's a great icebreaker for children to relate to something such as cool new shoes for school. I would have my students do a few different activity sheets like a crossword puzzle with words from the book and an activity sheet where the students list what happened in the first, middle, and last part of the book. I would rate this book a four and a half out of five and this book is listed as AD600L on the Lexile scale.
Click Clack Moo: Cow's That Type by Doreen Cronin is a book about cows that get a hold of an old type writer and decide to go on strike against Farmer Brown. They make continuous requests/demands (for example electric blankets) in order to give Farmer Brown their milk. I would rate this book a four out of five stars and It is listed as an AD160L on the Lexile scale. I would have my students write letter to the Farmer Brown making a request from a different animal. I would make it clear that the students could choose any other animal they would see at a farm except a cow. This is a super cute book that i will have on my bookshelf for sure.
Where the Wild things are is a classic book with only ten sentences in the entire book. A young boy by the name of max is sent to his room without supper for not doing what he is being told. He travels to a land where wild creatures roam and are free to do as they please. Later in the story max is ready to go home and so he does. There, he is finally given his supper. The illustrations definitely speak for themselves and portray the story very well. I can't wait to add this book to my classroom library in the future. I would give this book a four and a half stars out of five and it is given an AD740L on the Lexile scale.
I would have my students create their own wild thing using markers and crayons to add as much detailing as possible. This would be artwork I would hang up on my wall for everyone to see for a week or so. i would also consider doing a writing assignment for the book as well. i believe there are so many ideas that can stem from an adventure such as the one that Max embarked on.
The book Bully B.E.A.N.S. is the story of a class standing up to bullying using their bully beans. This book has really good illustrations and gives great details about real life bullying scenarios. I would rate this book a four and half stars out of five and it is listed as currently unavailable. An activity I would do with my students would be to complete an activity sheet that has number of ways to stop and prevent bullying. I will have my students list the ways and draw bully beans alongside them. This will be a cute and simple way to begin discussing bullying and ways to prevent it. Having students list them themselves is a good way to review the message from the book rather than just a verbal discussion.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl is a children book that shows wonderful illustrations. I respect this book so much because the detail of his pictures are just phenomenal and I cannot wait to add this book to my classroom bookshelf one day. This story is about a very hungry caterpillar and the many things he ate after he hatched from his egg. He turns into a beautiful butterfly at th end of the book. I would rate this book a four out of five stars and is listed as a AD460L on the Lexile scale. As an activity for my class, i would have my students color a sheet with the fruits that the caterpillar ate. I will tie this into math, having my students count and color in the amount of each fruit that the caterpillar ate.
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White is one of my favorite books to read growing up. I remember our teacher reading this to us and allowing us to watch the movie afterward. The story takes place of a farm where a piglet (and also the runt of the litter) is saved by a farmers daughter, Fern. Fern raises the piglet into a healthy full grown pig, where is is then sold off to the farm down the street. There, Wilbur the pig meet Charlotte the spider and they become instantly acquainted. Wilbur is getting ready to be slaughtered when Charlotte devises a plan to save Wilbur's life. The story has many events where Charlotte saved Wilbur's life by writing messages in her web above his stall. I would rate this book a four out of five stars and is listed as a 680L on the Lexile scale. an activity I would use for this book would be a cause and effect sheet. i would have a list of causes (events in the story) and ask my students to list the effects of each cause.
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A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon is a cute story about a young girl named Camilla
who loves lima beans. She refuses to eat them because her friends dislike them and suddenly she ends up with a bad case of stripes. The doctors run tests and studies on her but nothing seems to work. She seems to just be getting worse until she eats lima beans as the cure and is back to normal. I would have my students complete an activity sheet with visualizations from the book. The students will draw two pictures of what Camilla looked like at different times in the book and then write a paragraph describing her for each time. I would ask my students to be very descriptive with their details of Camilla. I would rate this book a four and a half stars out of five and it is listed as AD540L on the Lexile scale.
The book The Witches by Roald Dahl is about a group of witches who hide in secret and are sought to be defeated by a young boy.He devises a plan to take down the grand high witch which succeeds and the boy-turned mouse saves the day. I remember reading this story when I was in about the fourth grade and I really enjoyed it. An activity i would do with my class regarding this book would be to have my students write a "how to" text about how to recognize a witch. Once the text is written accurately, I would have them draw a picture below of a witch like the ones from the book. I would give this book a three and a half stars out of five and is listed as a 740L on the Lexile scale.
The book Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell is one of my all time favorite books and there is no doubt that this will be a book that I will read with my future students. This story is about a little girl named Molly Lou Melon who was short, had teeth she could stack pennies on and a voice that sounded like a frog being squeezed by a boa constrictor (and so on). Her grandmother gave her so many words of encouragement and she felt so confident with herself. Sadly she was made fun of in school for those charactoristics but eventually made friends after the stunning snowflake she created. I just adore this book. Something that I would do with my students would be to have them draw and color self portraits. I would then have my students write three things they like about them selves to attach to the bottom f the portrait.I would rate this book a five out of five stars and it is listed as a ad560L on the Lexile scale.
Duck for President is a book that I will definitely carry on my book shelf along with other books written by the same author such as Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type. The book Duck for President is about a barn of animals voting for the duck on a farm to be in charge. Duck ran the farm while farmer Brown was no longer the head guy in charge. Then Duck goes on the campaign trail to winning president. He realizes that it's no fun being in charge. Duck heads back the farm where he writes his autobiography and continues his life no longer in charge. For this book, I would do a simple sequencing chart. I would have my student sequence events of the story and explain the events using key details from the book. I would rate this book a four and a half out of five stars. This book would also be an ad680L on the Lexile scale.
