Tacky Is an Odd Bird...

Have you ever felt out of place? Thought you did not belong just because you were different from everyone else? 

Tacky the Penguin written by Helen Lester and illustrated by Lynn Munsinger is about an outcast named Tacky. Tacky is an odd bird because he is different in his appearance and behavior from his companions: Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect. While his companions are doing everything proper, Tacky marches to the beat of his own drummer. He wears an Hawaiian shirt, does splashy cannonballs, sings his own songs, and greets his companions with a hearty slap on the back and a loud "What's happening?" Tacky knows who he is and does not change for anyone. One day three greedy hunters invade the penguins' nice icy land singing, "We're gonna catch some pretty penguins, And we'll march 'em with a switch, And we'll see 'em for a dollar, And get rich, rich, RICH!" It will take a lot more than a bunch of perfect penguins to save the day. But who will be the hero?

Tacky the Penguin is a great book to use when teaching students how to summarize what they just read. Summarizing teaches students how to pick out the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore unrelated information, and how to combine the central ideas in a meaningful way. In other words, summarizing is the restating of the main ideas of the story in your own words. Students can summarize through writing, orally, drama, art, and music. Readers identify key elements into their own words during and after reading to solidify meaning. Making a "Story Summarizer" fold-able is a great activity for students to practice summarizing. The teacher will read Lester's Tacky the Penguin aloud to the class. After reading, students will make a fold-able to summarize what they just heard. To make the fold-able: fold a piece of paper hot dog style leaving some room on the side to write the title of the book, then cut the paper into four flaps, write 'Somebody, Wanted, But, So' on each flap. The students will write the main character under the 'Somebody' flap. They will write what the main character wanted under the 'Wanted' flap. Then write what the problem was under the 'But' flap and how did the character try to solve the problem under the 'So' flap. Creating this fold-able helps students summarize and comprehend what they read. The following is an example of a "Story Summarizer" fold-able.

 

Tacky the Penguin is an awesome book to read in the classroom because it shows readers that individuality has its own advantages. Everyone is unique in their own way and we should accept people or penguins for who they are. Do you follow the beat of your own drummer or the crowd's?

I CAN'T SLEEP WITHOUT MY MONSTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

If a monster lived under your bed would it be sweet or scary? Would it have four eyes and green polka dots? Or would it have big terrible claws and crooked yellow teeth?

 

 I Need My Monster written by Amanda Noll and illustrated by Howard McWilliam is about a little boy named, Ethan, who can't fall asleep without his favorite monster, Gabe, under his bed. But one night Gabe left a note that he's gone fishing, so Ethan summons a series of substitute monsters to help him fall asleep. Ethan is very picky and rejects several monsters who would have loved to sub in for Gabe. None were quite up to his "monster" standards.

Noll's I Need My Monster is a great book to use while teaching the comprehension strategy of visualizing. Readers should be able to visualize a story by picturing in their mind what they are reading. Visualization is a proven way to improve reading comprehension. Having students draw a picture after listening to a story is a great strategy to teach visualization. Before reading aloud the teacher will offer students some suggestions, "While I read, close your eyes and listen carefully. Think about what happens in the story. Listen for describing words (adjectives) use those words to help paint a picture in your mind." The teacher will read I Need My Monster aloud once without showing the illustrations and have the front and back of the book covered up. He/She will stop reading throughout the story to model how they visualize the story. For example, "As I read, I thought about the words and I imagined what the characters look like, what they were doing, and what their surroundings were like."  After reading the book, the students will answer questions on a worksheet about their monster and draw what they visualize their monster would look like.  The teacher will emphasize that everyone's visualizations will be different. Students will then share and discuss their pictures with a partner and then as a class. Then, the teacher will read the book again, this time showing them how McWilliam pictures the night time monsters.  The physical act of drawing and discussing their picture can help students grasp the concept of visualization. These mental images help readers recall details and draw conclusions.

  

List of possible questions on the worksheet: 

What is your monster’s name?                           _______   _____
How old is your monster?                                  _______   _____
What color is your monster?                              _______   _____
How big/little is your monster?                          _______   _____
How many arms does your monster have?           _______   _____
How many eyes does your monster have?           _______   _____
How many legs does your monster have?           _______   _____
What does your monster like to eat?                 _______   _____
What does your monster like to drink?               _______   _____
Is your monster scary or sweet?                       _______   _____
Where does your monster live?                        _______   _____
What kind of hair does your monster have?       _______   _____

 Our monster is purple with green lips and yellow polka dots. What does your monster look like?

Who is coming?!

"When they finally had to leave, they were sad, but not for long. They all knew they would be together next summer." 

What happens when your relatives come to visit? Do you eat constantly, laugh a lot, and hug for days? In The Relatives Came written by Cynthia Rylant a family in Virginia packs up their station wagon to visit relatives far, far away for a few weeks during the summer. There was hugging, eating, and breathing for many weeks, after which the relatives pack up and go back home. After they leave they miss each other. The Relatives Came helps children understand the importance of family. They realize that while the family may not be together all the time; they are missed by their relatives. Rylant expresses the joy, laughter, and celebration of family, stirring up the reader's family memories of the past. The colorful illustrations in the book are eye-appealing and won a Caldecott Honor Award in 1986. We can all remember visits with our relatives and smile!

The Relatives Came is a great book to use when teaching connection-making in reading because everyone has schema or background knowledge about family. This realistic fiction book is likely to bring up thoughts that are close to the reader's own experience of their relatives. A Think-Aloud incorporated into a read-aloud is a great strategy to use when teaching how to make personal connections in reading. The teacher can read aloud The Relatives Came stopping whenever the text reminds him/her of their own lives, thoughts, or experiences; the teacher models how to make connections by how he/she relates to parts of the text, how that helps him/her understand what is happening in the story or how the characters might feel. The teacher thinks aloud how the story reminds him/her of when their relatives come to visit every Christmas. After reading the story, the teacher can invite students to join in and share their own connections. He/She can remind them to connect it to the text by saying things like, "When I read (or heard) these words...it reminds me of..." or "When I saw the picture...it made me think...", such as the time their family came to visit or they went to visit family. The teacher will write their responses on a large piece of chart paper. Using their charted responses, discuss which “connections” actually help us understand the story. This book is a great remembrance of what is most important in life-FAMILY!

Can You Find Your Way Home Again?

Have you ever thought about where you live? You live in your home...but where is your home? It's in your neighborhood...but where is your neighborhood? Where Do I Live? by Neil Chesanow uses easy to read words and colorful illustrations to explain to children exactly where they live. Chesanow takes the reader on an adventure that starts in their bed room, in their home, in their yard, in their street, in their neighborhood, in their town, in their state, in their country, in their continent, in their world-then moves out to their planet Earth, the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and the universe. Then the book traces back through the universe all the way to the house where you live! This book helps to explain the importance of where we live and where we call home. 

Chesanow's nonfiction book is great to use in the lower grades like kindergarten when they are learning their address. Where Do I Live? correlates with the GPS standard, SSKG3 The student will state the street address, city, county, state, nation, and continent in which he or she lives because it gives students a perspective about where they live starting with their bed room and expanding to North America.  Students will enjoy reading this book to learn where they live. Teachers can use Where Do I Live? to explain to their students that they live in the same country and state but some may live in different towns and neighborhoods. Everyone has a different house number and street address. Teachers can even use this book for social studies vocabulary. The book has simple words to describe and define a street, neighborhood, town, state, country, and continent. For example, "your country is: a group of fifty states." Chesanow includes a few fill-in-the-blank sentences about  "How much do you know about where you live?" on the last page of the book. The fill-in-the-blanks include "This is the number outside my home _______, This is the name of my street_________, This is the name of my state _________." Students can fill-in-the-blanks to answer where they live. This is a great book to educate children on where they live! Where do you live?!

A tadpole is a baby frog!

Where do frogs come from?

 

 Children are very curious and want to learn about the world around them. They ask questions that we don't always want to answer like the classic, "Where do babies come from?" Wendy Pfeffer answers the question of "Where do frogs come from?" in her book From Tadpole to Frog. This book describes the amazing metamorphosis of a tadpole into a frog. The setting is at a frog pond and we see how the tadpoles change into frogs throughout the year. On a spring night you hear "Ba-ra-rooooom...ba-ra-roooooom...ba-ra-rooooom...." the male frogs are calling their mates. The female frog lays thousands of soft jelly-covered eggs in the pond. In about ten days the eggs hatch and the pond comes alive with thousands of tiny tadpoles. During the summer and fall the tadpoles are swimming and eating. When winter comes, they burrow under the mud at the bottom of the pond and sleep. Spring comes and wakes up the tadpoles. Tiny hind legs begin to sprout. The legs grow longer and stronger while the tail grows shorter. Tiny front legs begin to grow. All summer the tadpoles constantly change- lungs develop, mouths and eyes grow larger- until they become frogs. Now the tadpoles are frogs that can use their hind legs to swim and hop around on land. All frogs begin their lives as tadpoles but From Tadpole to Frog focuses on bullfrogs.The back of the book describes different kinds of frogs and has a map of where bullfrogs live throughout the United States.

From Tadpole to Frog is a great book to use in your classroom to introduce the frog life cycle. It correlates with the GPS standard S2L1.a Students will investigate the life cycles of different living organisms. Determine the sequence of the life cycle of common animals in your area: a mammal such as a cat or dog or classroom pet, a bird such as a chicken, an amphibian such as a frog, and an insect such as a butterfly, because the book explains the frog life cycle. Pfeffer's book introduces the basic science concept of the frog life cycle and builds on it using a step-by-step method.  From Tadpole to Frog explains how frogs begin their life in jelly-covered eggs, tadpoles hatch, tadpoles grow legs and lose its' fishy tail, and lungs develop. The tadpole has become a frog! The colorful illustrations are great for children to see the tadpole to frog process. From Tadpole to Frog is a stage 1 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science book. We guarantee children will enjoy reading this book to learn about where frogs come from!

One for me...one for you!

Can I have a piece of pie?

How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie? by: Jane Belk Moncure is about a squirrel who bakes an acorn pie for the pie contest. Her two friends, Mouse and Frog, come by wanting to eat the delicious pie. Squirrel tells them "This pie is for the pie contest. If I win, I will share my pie with you." When the three friends go for a walk in the woods, Pig eats the whole acorn pie! When the friends come back Pig presents Squirrel with a ribbon and says "You win my pie contest, your pie was the very best." Mouse and Frog are mad because they wanted to eat some pie,  Pig gathered more acorns so Squirrel could make another acorn pie. She cut it into four pieces, so everyone had a fair share.

How Many Ways Can You Cut a Pie? is a great book to use in your classroom to introduce fractions. Squirrel promises to divide her whole pie equally among all four of them. This book could be used to teach the CCGPS MCC3.NF.1 Understand a fraction 1/b as the quantity formed by 1 part when a whole is partitioned into b equal parts; understand a fraction a/b as the quantity formed by a parts of size 1/b because it presents many different ways to equally cut a pie. At the beginning of the story, Squirrel promises to "cut the pie in two pieces....one half for her, one half for Mouse if she wins the pie contest." When Frog comes over he wants Squirrel to "cut the pie in three pieces...one piece for you...one for Mouse...and one for me?" At the end of the book, Squirrel cuts the second pie into four equal pieces; one for her, one for Mouse, one for Frog, and one for Pig. The back of the book has more ways you can cut a pie and illustrates how to write a fraction. The illustrations throughout the book show how to equally divide a pie as well. The top number (numerator) tells the whole and the bottom number (denominator) tells you how many parts a whole is broken into. 

1 pie in  (numerator)

   7 pieces (denominator)

Never Judge A Book By It's Cover!

Have you ever judged someone on their appearance before getting to know them? 

In the wide blue sea swims Big Al, a big-hearted fish who is as friendly as he is scary-looking. While other fish swim together in schools, Big Al swims alone. He  wants to swim with the other fish, but his big eyes, his huge size, and his mouthful of sharp teeth scare away all the other fish. Big Al tries different tactics to get the fish to like him but nothing seems to work. Big Al seems destined to swim alone, until a fisherman's net drops silently around all the fish. He bites a hole in the net and allows the fish to escape, but he is caught. Because of his hideous appearance the fishermen throw Big Al back into the ocean. The grateful fish welcome Big Al as their new friend and hero!

Big Al by Andrew Clements is fantasy because it tells a story about fish with human characteristics. The fish talk, laugh, and joke with each other. Big Al cries big salty tears when the other fish are too frightened to be his friend. In this short story, Big Al copes with issues and challenges in his life that offers readers a window into his human-like conditions. Big Al shows contemporary life-the joys of friendship as well as the challenges of making friends-for readers. Big Al's appearance is both his strength and his weakness. His appearance frightens all the other fish but his sharp teeth cut the net to save the little fish. His scary appearance made the fishermen throw him back into the ocean instead of killing him. Big Al has a very original plot that is believable and appropriate for the intended audience. His controversial issues are presented openly and honestly. The conflict in this story is person or fish against society. The ocean is the setting of the story and the author draws the reader in making them feel like they are swimming around in the ocean as well. The illustrations are alive with the magnificent colors of tropical fish. The limited third-person point of view in this story  focuses on the perspective of Big Al. The readers get a good sense of how he thinks and feels. The underlying meaning of the story is being accepted for who you are and the importance of friendship.  Big Al is full of expression, from his longing for friendship to the fierceness of his courage. This realistic fiction book tells us that true friendship is based not on what someone or "some fish" looks like, but on the depth of one friend's devotion to another.