As the sun lights the horizon, and the mist begins to clear, what shapes do you begin to see; what noises do you hear? Perhaps you'll see a swishing tail, huge footprints, or a beak. I think I heard a distant roar...and did you hear something shriek?
This book takes you on an adventure through the time of the dinosaurs. It tells children the names of the different dinosaurs and names several different chracteristics of each. It has a fun rhyme and lyrical tone. The illustrations are vivd and fun for kids.
This book could be used for a science lesson or even to tell the history of dinosaurs.
Read this book to my nephews for Halloween and they loved it! It is a great book filled with awesome Halloween chracterstics that are fun, not scary for kids.
Goodnight monsters everywhere, in this parody romp with its own special
twist!
Goodnight tomb. Goodnight goon. Goodnight Martians taking over the
moon. Its bedtime in the cold gray tomb with a black lagoon, and two slimy claws,
and a couple of jaws, and a skull and a shoe and a pot full of goo. But as a
little werewolf settles down, in comes the Goon determined at all costs to run
amok and not let any monster have his rest.
This book would be great to use in the classroom for the holidays. It can activate schema and you can have kids guessing what might appear on the next pages. The illustrations are great and this book is bound to make kids laugh.
It is perfect to add to your holiday collection.
As the leaves on the trees go from green to red and gold, two curious squirrels embrace the change of seasons. When he wakes up one morning to find that his home tree is changing, the little squirrel is scared! Why are all the leaves falling off? Quickly he corrals his sister and they gather up the leaves in colorful pawfuls. But try as they may to stick them back on the branches, it's hopeless: Yellow, orange, red, and brown, all the leaves keep falling down. It's only when their wise mama explains what happens in autumn that the two little squirrels understand the seasons are changing. Green leaves will sprout anew in spring.
This book is great for kids beacause it teaches the theme not to be afraid of change. It also teaches kids a lot about the seasons, especially fall and what happens during this time. It could be used for a science lesson to show how the leaves change colors. Fall is a great time to do activities with children because there is so much fun artwork that can be done with leaves! This is a wonderful book foe a primary grade classroom! Chekc out this great site: http://www.silkysteps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10375
When Duck discovers an ad in the paper announcing a talent
show at the county fair (first prize, a slightly used trampoline), Farmer
Brown's animals are unstoppable. The cows and sheep concentrate on their singing
while the pigs work on interpretive dance. How the suspicious farmer could ever
confuse all this noise with routine snoring is a bit of a stretch, but the
hilarious late-night practice scenes inside the barn will help readers make the
leap. At the talent show, the cows and sheep impress some of the judges, but
lack of sleep has the pigs truly snoring when it is time to perform.
Fortunately, Duck steps in to save the day with a winning version of Born to Be
Wild. After the talent show, Farmer Brown suspects nothing until he hears boings
coming from the barn. Comical watercolor illustrations provide the punch lines
to many jokes within the well-paced text. Some of the sophisticated humor will
go over the heads of most children, especially the witty footnotes that pepper
the story.
This is such a fun story that the younger kids would absolutely love along with the other books taht this author writes. She has a great collection for the classroom!
Five little monkeys and their Mama walk down to the river for a picnic supper.
While Mama takes a snooze, the five little monkeys climb a tree. Why? To tease
Mr. Crocodile! "Can't catch me!" they shout, and Mr. Crocodile opens his big
mouth: SNAP! Oh no! Now there are only four little monkeys! A second little
monkey teases Mr. Crocodile, he snaps his jaws, and that little monkey also
disappears-or seems to. The mischievous monkeys are up to their usual tricks in
this second rhythmic counting book about their disappearances-and surprise
reappearances.
This book is great for children to teach them the numbers 1-5 and also to teach them rhyme. I like it so much more than Five Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed because it is filled with awesome illustrations and it is something different for the kids to listen to.
This is a cute link that shows what you can have your students do while singing this song. It gets them to use their fine motor skills and have a great time learning! http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/crocodile/words.htm
If a big hungry moose comes to visit, you might give him a muffin to make him
feel at home. If you give him a muffin, he'll want some jam to go with it. When
he's eaten all your muffins, he'll want to go to the store to get some more
muffin mix. And so on and so foth, the Mooose begins to want more of the items you have in your home and you gain a freindship with this moose and have an enjoyable adventure with him
This book is absolutley adorable just as all the "If you give..." books are. They are a great collection for readers in the primary grades because they can teach these children the value of sharing and the importance of freindship. It is a great book for story time because the students can really get involved if you ask them questions like "what do you think the moose will want next?" or "what do you think the moose and his freind are going to do next?' Asking questions while reading a story is the best way to engage readers.
Here is an awesome activity I came up with that cone be done with the class:
You
could have a classroom stuffed moose, a journal and a disposable camera. Send
the moose with the students throughout the day to their different classes,
lunch, the playground, etc. Have a students take turns to record their
experiences in the journal through writing and a picture. When the day is over,
another day can be planned out for the class to create their own moose book
with the pictures and places the moose went.
For this book talk I found a great book that I pulled from my nephews bookshelf. I tried to think of a summary in my own words but found that nothing I thought of sounded as great as this summary that I found on the book off of Google Books:
"Story hour alert! Here's a book with a clever premise, a bouncy text, and sunny, funny pictures. . . . Supremely satisfying." -- BOOKLIST (starred review)
Mama Duck has a good hunch that the big brown creature waddling behind her babies is no duck! As the foxy impostor sneaks closer and closer to Mama Duck's trailing brood, little ones will delight in shouting out his identity. Infectious rhythms and fresh, expressive watercolors liven up the pursuit, which ends when Mama Duck confronts the villain, beak to snout, and beats him at his own game."
This describes perfectly the fun and humor that this book has to offer. I loved this book and think it awesome for the children in the primary grades. I found a cute site that has informational facts that are young learner freindly in order to create activites around for the classroom. It gives facts about ducks that can be applied to a science lesson. http://www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm/ducks.html
Or the book can just be simply read during story time! The kids would love it!
For our fourth book talk I chose to read "Just a Gum Wrapper". This book was written by Mercer Mayer. It is a Little Critter's favorite. The reason I love this book so much is because it teaches a very valuable lesson to children: protect the environment. It is a great science book for young readers.
Summary: One day in class the children learn that it is Earth Day. In honor of earth day the teacher holds a contest for the children. The goal of the contest is to see which student can do the most things in one week that help keep the earth green. The class keeps a chart up in their room and checks off what they did for that week. For example, the main character, recycles, buys cleaning products without harmful chemicals, uses less water, less light, etc. At the end of the week he wins a first place badge for the competition and the class has a party in honor of earth day.
I think this book is great for children in the lower grades because it teaches them in a simple way, how the environment can be protected and how it affects our future.
For this book talk, I chose to read another book for the primary grades i would love to teach. This book could definitley be applied to a kindergarten classroom. The book is called Ten Wriggly, Wiggly Caterpillars and it basically teaches young readers the counting numbers 1-10. It's sa cute book because it goes through and starts off showing ten caterpillars and then each page one caterpillar has left the group and it counts down until there were no more caterpillars but instead ten beautiful butterflies come out. It is a great book to read to little ones because it can help them learn their numbers 1-10 and also teach them how to count backwards. It also shows how many each number stands for. It really just is a cute fun book and I would think the little ones would really enjoy it in kindergarten.
Here is a great link for activities that help children: Model, describe, and illustrate meanings of addition and subtraction for whole numbers less than ten.
For my book talk today I read Dandelions: Stars in the Grass. This is a great educational book for children. It could be incorporated into a science lesson. The book explains how a dandelion grows and how its petals fall off to form 'fluffy tufts of white". It then tells how these buds are blown off by the wind and carried to the places where new dandelions will grow. It shows the different insects that feed on the dandelions as well.
I love this book because it is written in rhyme. Children can become very interested in this book because of the musical tone it has. For example, the books starts off by saying "In spring, dandelions bloom like gold stars in the grass growing taller and taller as the warm days pass." This really can capture the attention of the young readers in the primary grades. It also teaches them a great science lesson. The kids could even take a trip outside to pick their own dandelions to study. I would definitley reccomend this book to be used in the classroom.
Here is a great link for activities that could be used with this book!
For this first book talk, I read Rainbow Fish. This book is an Abby Award winner 1995. I absolutely loved this book mostly because of the bright, colorful, playful illustrations. I think it would be a perfect book for the primary grades, especially kindergarten. The book is about a little fish who is called Rainbow Fish because of his bright sparkly scales. He is the only fish in the ocean with these scales and everyone loved Rainbow Fish and always wanted to play with him because he was so beautiful. The only problem was that Rainbow Fish did not want to give his scales away to those who asked. In turn, he lost all his friends. One day the wise octopus told Rainbow Fish that he should share his scales in order to get his friends back and be happy. So Rainbow Fish did and in the end, all the fish in the ocean including Rainbow Fish had one sparkly scale.
I loved this book because of the moral it teaches: sharing. It is very important for students to learn how to share and also to learn how to take pride in their individuality but be aware of the negative effects that too much pride can have. I know I will look forward to reading this book in my classroom and reinforcing the lesson that this book teaches.
For this book talk, I chose to read another book for the primary grades i would love to teach. This book could definitley be applied to a kindergarten classroom. The book is called Ten Wriggly, Wiggly Caterpillars and it basically teaches young readers the counting numbers 1-10. It's sa cute book because it goes through and starts off showing ten caterpillars and then each page one caterpillar has left the group and it counts down until there were no more caterpillars but instead ten beautiful butterflies come out. It is a great book to read to little ones because it can help them learn their numbers 1-10 and also teach them how to count backwards. It also shows how many each number stands for. It really just is a cute fun book and I would think the little ones would really enjoy it in kindergarten. 
