Visualizing

Do you look around you at all the beautiful trees and animals that run around your neighbor hood? Can't you see all the green, red and yellow leaves; what about the little grey squirrel, or the cat that ran across the yard, or that bird tweeting away in the blue sky? Can you imagine the soft fur and the colorful feathers? Can you imagine the smells and different colors of these animals? If you like to use your imagination like that, I know just the book for you!!

Brown Bear,
Brown Bear,
What do you see?

This very cute book is wonderfully written by Bill Martin, Jr. and was skillfully illustrated by Eric Carle. This book ask what do you see on each page and explains each animal that is on the next page. It goes through pages of animals like, a red bird, purple cat, blue horse, yellow duck, green frog, and a gold fish, and many more differnt animals. And in the end there are children asking what do they see?

A great activity for this book is I Spy with My Little Eye and to also make a poster that explains that good readers use their 5 senses to make pictures intheir head. There will be a list they have to fill out: I can see....I can smell....I can feel....I can hear...I can taste...and then I can imagine..... This will help them understand adjecticves and how important it is to imagine things and create them using those words and feelings. I Spy with My Little Eye is a great, fun, and easy way for children to use their senses and instead of eye, we can use like I smell with my little nose, or hear with my little ears to make it more interesting.

Making Inferences

I love using my imagination to make up what is going on in a book. Having words are great too, but when I can make up my own; I can make it even more exciting and interesting!! The things you can do with an imagination is limitless. I love looking at the pictures on the pages and just letting my imagination run free. I cna make the characters talk, I can make them do tricks, and I can even make them have different emotions! The pictures give me a storyline, but I put the added touch to it by adding in my own words; I have to infer what is going on by looking at the pictures and when I turn the page, I hae to infer what is going to happen.

A book to really help me use my imagination and make inferences is The Red Book by Barbara Lehman. This is a wordless picture book about a red book that takes you through an adventure. There is a suprise every time you turn the page. It takes you through oceans, cities, snowy towns and sandy banks. New friends are waiting to be met in the book and at the very end, you realize the journey is not over; you can keep going and going until your heart is content just by using your imagination!!

This book will be used for my students to write a storyline along with the pages of the book. THe students will infer what is happening and what is going to happen on the next page, including what will happen at the conclusion. They will will not stop on the last page, but they will keep writing to make an ending to the book, to whatever they infer will happen. This is a good way to get the students thinking critically while using their imaginations.

Making Connections

Do you have a best friend? Do you enjoy doing things with that friend, like running around with them, playing outside, and just enjoy each other's company? Friendship is a special relationship that we share with others. Friends do things together that they enjoy. friends encourage each other to do things or to boost them up when they are feeling down. A friend is someone who will be there for you and someone you can trust. Frog and Toad all Year Long by Arnold Labol is a great book to read about a unique friendship!

 Frog and Toad are best friends and Toad wanted to go outside to enjoy the winter weather, but Frog was not having it. He complained that he didn't have winter weather clothes and would not come outside. So Toad brought his friend some winter clothes, and insisted he come out to play. So, eventually Frog decided to go along with his friend. They get outside and there is snow on the ground and Toad wanted to sled down the hill. Frog, of course, said, "NO." But Toad said, "Come on, it'll be fun!" and eventually Frog said okay and they took a slide down the hill. When they got down to the bottom of the hill, Toad told Frog that he was glad that he cam out and that he was having fun and Frog replied, "Me too!!!"

The class would all be handed a handout with two columns labeled words from text and my personal connection. The children would all read the book and find words from the text and how then tell how they can connect to what they read. All the students have someone they can call a friend and has trust in someone whether it is a friend in the class or a family member. I would read the book first to the whole group, then I will get the students to read the book and then choose a friend to work on these handouts. They can use the book for a reference. This website has many other activities that can be used for this book.
http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/literacy/comprehension_strategies.html#connections

Social Studies

Wouldn't it be awesome to travel on a train through all 50 states???? And while on this train we can visit cool monuments, landmarks, and learn everything about that particular state. We can go from the East, to the North, then down South and then head on over to the West. There is so many things to learn and every state is unique in it's own way!! It would take  a very long time to travel through all 50 states, but I know something that will take us through all 50 states in 30 minutes!

The Train of States is the book to read! It's written by Peter Sis and he presents all 50 states by having their own train car from Maine to California and everything in between. So lets jump aboard and visit all 50 states! Each cart is decorated to represent its state, and gives us a whole lot of information about each state. The train cart tells a fun fact, the state capital, the state flower, state bird, motto, and why or who the state was named by. Each train is different, because each state is unique in its own way and they all started and was created very differently from each other.



SS5G1 The student will locate important places in the United States.

a. Locate important physical features; include the Grand Canyon, Salton Sea, Great Salt Lake, and Mojave Desert.

b. Locate important man-made places; include the Chisholm Trail; Pittsburgh, PA; Gettysburg, PA; Kitty Hawk, NC; Pearl Harbor, HI; and Montgomery, AL.

This standard will help the children learn new facts and find the state's physical features, as well as man-made features. This book would be a great tool to use in the classroom. It helps the children understand how the United States cam about and they can actually act like they are on the adventure as well. The students can refer back to it if they need to find an answer to a question or just enjoys reading social studies. There are so many interesting facts for the children to learn. They can also quiz each other and do mini projects, like create their own train cart for a particular state and have to add all the facts.  
The Train of States by Peter Sis is an awesome adventure book. This is a fun way to learn about states and can help with learning facts about all the 50 states. It is important to know how the US came about and what our neighbor states are like. They can also locate the states on a map and be able to tell about it! This a fun adventure that the whole class can do together!!

 

Content: Science

There is science all around us and we do not even realize it. There are things we can see and things we cannot see, but feel. Wind is a major role in out world. We may not think too much about how it affects us and how it helps make the world go round. In the book simply titled Wind by Susan Canizares and Betsy Chessen tells us just that, they go into detail about how we are need wind and why it is so important.

The wind can make things tumble, ripple and even fly!! When the wind blows we cannot see it but it makes waves roll, leave fall, seeds scatter, boats sail, kites fly, tumbleweeds tumble, and sand ripples, etc. Wind helps so many things move and can even make electricity. Wind can also be damaging, like hurricanes or gales that consists of very strong winds! Towards the back of the book there are details of why wind is important and how we cannot live without it.

 SKCS1. Students will be aware of the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works. There are so many questions about the world that are very hard to understand and to even come up this answer like, "Why is the grass green?" or "Why can't we see the wind?" Theses all strike our curiosity and for children they will have numerous questions about this and about that. The best way for them to experience it is have them experience it on their own. The children can step outside on a windy day and realize that wind cannot be seen, but be felt. They can choose different objects that are affected by wind and tell about them and why is that?

There are some truly amazing things in this world and wind is definitely one of those things. It is very amazing that we can feel wind, but not see it! And there are so many reasons why we need wind. We can learn so much by experiencing things ourselves, by seeing it or feeling it just by going outside.

  

Content: Math

Cats are pretty amazing animals! They are a very common pet to have. They can be house pets or they can live outside. They make great mouse traps, especially when you live near a field and there are huge mice that like to run around the house. But, if you have a cat around, they can take care of that little problem. There are many different breeds of cats that can be kept as a pet. Our book is based on Calico cats. In Counting on Calico by Phullis Limbachler Tildes, we learn about the cat itself and it counts from 1 to 20 with the different parts of the cat, her kittens and the events of its day.

                We can count on these calico cats to help us count to 20. Let’s start with one tail, 2 big eyes, 3 black spots, 4 legs,5 paw pads……16 front teeth, 18 toys, and 20 wet paw prints. These are some examples of what helps keep count through the story. The calico mama cat has kittens and tells of the adventures throughout their day, like catching birds and moths, taking cat naps, and chasing a mouse in the end. Every page has a number on it and something from the cat’s lives to represent that number.

                The standard: MCC.K.CC.3. Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects), greatly reflects what goes on in this book. This book can help younger children who are just starting to learn how to count, be able to actually see a number and visually see objects they can count for that number. They can look at the numbers first and try counting from 1 to 20. They can predict what number comes next before they actually turn the page. They can also flip the pages backwards to learn the numbers backwards also. They can also count by twos, threes, fours, etc to get some basic math facts down. This would be a good book to have in the classroom library, especially for girls who love cats. There can also be a toy cat so they could point to the different parts of the cat as they read along the book. This would be ideal for a kindergarten to 2^nd grade class, and would be a good introduction to a lesson; the teacher could read aloud to the whole class and they can all guess the next number and count the thing it represents on the page.

This is a very cute book a teacher could use in the classroom to teach basic numbers and math. They could also let the children read it for fun while they count what the number represents on the page. This can help with basic math facts in a fun way, especially if the child loves cats. Cats can be very helpful in many ways, and the child will remember these numbers if they see one in real life. The children can learn numbers, have objects represent the number, and learn about the cats all together.

 

Fiction

Have you ever had dreams as a child where you lived in your own world? A world where you didn't have to worry about parents and eat all the sugar you wanted to, well that's just what Peter did in his dream. In Peter's Dream by Joan Hoffman, Peter received a brand new sail boat toy and he loved it so much that he wanted it to be in his bed while he slept. He held it close to him and began dreaming of sailing to a land where there are just boys and girls, no parents, and looked for lost treasure. He became friends with the sea animals, he didn't have to share his toys with any one and he could eat what ever he wanted and whenever he wanted to. He was able to stay up a long as he wanted to and was able to pick out his own clothes. But with all this freedom there was no one there to kiss him goodnight and turn on the light when he gets scared.

Peter's Dream is considered fiction because he sails on the sea to a far away land where only children rule the land and can do whatever they please. Along the way he becomes friends with sea animals and he dreamed he was sailing on the boat he got as a gift. His dream was outrageous and fun for Peter, these are things a child only dreams about. This book really brings out the imagination of a child, Peter brings out all the things he wants to do by himself and enjoys, but then realizes in the end that he needs structure and his mother. We could use this book where the children can pick out their favorite and write about what they would do or they could write about their favorite dream they had. They could build their dreams through a project that they can choose form.

Dreaming is where our imagination can just run free. We can learn from them or we can make them come true, but that can sometimes be impossible because they are so outlandish. We can also learn from our dreams, like Peter did. We can't always do what we want and there will be things that we miss if we live in a land where we can do whatever we want.