Three Children Literature Book (9)

Dirt Bike Racer by Matt Christopher- This book is about a boy named Ron and he finds a dirt bike in a lake. Before that he had gone scuba diving with a friend named Tony and that is where Ron had discovered it. So Ron and Tony took it out of the lake and Ron thought to himself that he could fix it up because he had always wanted one. Ron ends up finding a job to pay doe parts. The old man that had given Ron the job had become a friendship only because the old men use to be a dirt bike racer. The old man's nephew and someone else didn't want him to be friends with Ron. Toward the end Ron gets into competitions.

Teaching ideas: I would have the students bring in a mini motoercycle and have them do competitions within the classroom and give out prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

Three Children Literature Book (8)

Blubber by Judy Blume- This book is about a girl named Wendy who is a class president in a 5th grade school, who her and her friend Jill bullied a girl named Linda. Linda was an over weight girl who they bullied and they called her blubber (which is whale fat.) They completely harassed her in the girl's bathroom where they wanted to strip down Linda. Jill then later has a friend named Tracy who did a prank to an old man on Halloween who they put rotten eggs in the neighbor's mailbox. Later they were caught and had to rake leaves. Jill later realizes that Linda had maybe told on them and that's how they got busted. Wendy also has turned the class against Jill. They both seem to picking on each other and Jill finds that she would stop bullying people around. So she realizes that she would stop bullying people around.
Teaching idea: I would have the students do a writing activity and have them write something that they have encountered. Also write down questions and have them answer the questions.

Three Children Literature (7)

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak - This book is about a boy named Max and he was a boy that dressed himself as a wolf. He roared at his mom and his mom would call him wild thing. So mom sent him to bed without eating anything but when arriving to his room Max made his room imaginary and made it into a forest. Max the boy had made it as if it took him a year to sail to a place where the wild things are. There is where he met the wild animals and apparently he wasn't afraid of them. According to Max he made himself as the king and hung out with the animals. So then later on he tells the animals that it is time for bed and sent them off to bed without eating like his mother did to him. Now Max has decided to go back home and the animals didn't want him to go but still left. When arriving home to his room he saw that he had supper waiting for him and that it was still hot.
Teaching Ideas: You can show them the front of the book, back of the book, the spine and what the spine is for. You can also have the students draw their own wild thing and present it to the class so they can share the differences on what illustrations that are on the book.

Poetry Books:
A Circle of Seasons by Myra Cohn Livingston- This book has about thirteen poems that have different seasons that are celebrated throughout the year. It describes the seasons and how the weather comes about.
Teaching ideas: I would have the students do a poem on what they think would be good for a season that they enjoy and present it to the class. I would also have them do a collage of the different seasons.

Where the sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein- The book has different poems that children can adapt to. It has meaning about how children are in their childhood days.
Teaching ideas: I would have the students do a poem and have them do one that is hilarious to them and have them present it to the class.

Three Children Literature Books (6)

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen- The story of Owl Moon was about a little boy and is Pa. It's a winter snowy day and they both go owling. They have to walk a few ways in order togo owling. The first spot they hit which is in some area where there are trees the Pa owls but no answer. They both keep going to find another spot so Pa can owl. Still no answer, so they can keep walking until they get into deeper woods. It's getting dark and Pa starts to howl again and finally they both hear the owl howling back. Within the Pa turns his flashlight on and they both see a great big owl standing on the branch. The owl, the boy, and Pa just stare at each other for quite a long time. The owl finally flies away and the boy and Pa go home.
Teaching ideas: I would have the students talk about feelings about how they would feel if they were in the book and what they think about owls.

The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen- Wow this book was a very sad story. Now I know what you mean when you said to read the book first before reading to the class. Well this book was about a little girl who was poor. Her father wanted her to go sell fake flowers and matches on a cold breezy day before New Year's Day. The little girl wasn't able to sell any of them and was scared to go home because her father would beat her. She found a place to hide out and as she was there, she was lighting up matches. She had looked up in the sky ans remembered that her grandma had told her when she sees a falling star someone will be going to heaven. So then she keeps lighting the matches and sees herself with her grandma who is deceased and feels as if she's dreaming, how she in a warm place with food and her grandma. The last match she lit she saw her grandma and wants to go with her. At the end in the morning people saw her dead but with a smile.

Teaching ideas: I would have the students make a holiday decoration of an angel and make and angel spoons during the Christmas holidays as an art activity.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams- This book is about a rabbit that is a stuffed animal that was given to a young boy for a replacement of another toy. The rabbit hears that if someone who really loves their stuffed animal can become real. The boy takes out the rabbit into the woods and the rabbit figures out that he is not real by meeting other rabbits. The boy ends up setting sick and is not allowed to take the rabbit with him and that he had to burn everything that the rabbits wish come true by turning real. Later on the boy comes back and sees that rabbit and realizes that he had a stuffed animal that looked like him.
Teaching ideas: I would have the students bring in a rabbit or some stuff animal they loved while they were young and have them give a presentation about the animal.

Presentation for November 23, 2009

LA LLORONA "THE WEEPING WOMAN" is the ghostly woman who wanders along canals and rivers crying for her missing children, called in spanish La Llorona, "the Weeping Woman," is found in many cultures and regions. Her story includes some strong similarities to that of Medea. She is perhaps the most widely known ghost in Texas.
Sometimes the story is told about a Spanish nobleman and a pleasant girl. Some years ago, the story goes, a young hidalgo fell in love with a lowly girl, usually named Maria, who over a period of time bore him two or three children. She had a casita-a little house-where the young man visited and brought his friends, and in almost every way they shared a happy life together, except that their union was not blessed by the church. His parents, of course, knew nothing of the arrangement and would not have allowed him to marry beneath his station.
They urged him to marry a suitable lady and give them grandchildren. Finally he gave in, and sadly he told Maria that he must marry another. but he would not desert her, he promised-he would still take care of her and the children and visit them as often as he could. Enraged, she drove him away, and when the wedding took place she stood veiled in her shawl at the back of the church. Once the ceremony was over she went home, and in a crazed state killed the children, threw them into a nearby body of water, and then drowned herself. But when her soul applied for admission to heaven, el Senor refused her entry. "Where are your children?" He asked her. Ashamed, she confessed she did not know. "Go and bring them here," the Lord said. "You cannot rest until they are found." And ever since, La Llorona wanders along streams at night , weeping and crying for her children-"Ay, mis hijos!" According to some, she has been known to take revenge on men she comes across in her journey. She usually dresses in black. Her face is sometimes that of a horse, but more often horribly blank, and her long fingernails gleam like polished tin in the moonlight.
The story of the Weeping Woman is told differently to youngsters as a "true" story of what might get you of you're out after dark. But the most frequent use of the story is to warn romantic teenage girls falling for boys who may have nice clothes and money but are too far above them to consider marriage.

This is a fairy tale that is told so many times differntly to youngsters. People have so many related stories to this one it that actually scares teenagers and young ones too.

Three Children Literature Books (5)

The Twelve Dancing Princessess by Ruth Sanderson. The book is about a king who had twelve daughters who he would lock up their door when going to sleep. Every morning he would go open up the door only to see that there shoes were being worn out as if they were dancing. The king had asked if anyone knew their secret about the shoes or what was going on, he would let that person marry one of them of any of their choice. The secret came about that the princesses had a secret door on the floor to get out and they would do dance the night away. A soldier was hired to find out what was going on and he finally revealed their secret and the soldier got to marry the eldest princess.
I would have a small ball in the classroom and have the student's dress up as if they were going to a ball and have the students dance together with dancing partners with the music of children's music. Here they are able to move around taking step by step dancing moves.

Shared Reading

Shared reading is an instructional approach in education, during which the teacher explicitly teaches the strategies and skills of proficient readers. The first purpose is to provide the children with an enjoyable experience. Introduce them to a variety of authors, illustrators and types of texts to entice them to become a reader. The second is equally as important purpose is to teach children the reading process and teach them how to be readers and writers themselves. When selecting texts for reading, teachers look for text that is appropriate for the reading level of the students, that is also cross-curricular and relevant in its nature. The text should be an appropriate length for study and be adequate to readers to understand what it means.
The teacher reads the text aloud, states a focus, and then re-reads the text. When asking questions specific to the focus of choice they may ask students to join them.