Bear in Sunshine written by Stella Blackstone and illustrated by Debbie Harter

The book: Bear in Sunshine discusses basic weather concepts and the things that bear likes to do in each kind of weather. Each page has one sentence, which is great for younger kids eager to turn the page. The illustrations are bright and colorful and did a great job keeping my three year old engaged.

The book itself discusses weather and the last page has four frames that are labeled by seasons. I think this is actually a little problematic because the book never discusses seasons until this page so my daughter was excited to label spring as “rain” and winter as “snow”. Of course this is a great teachable moment to introduce the types of weather that happens in each season.  

Target age(s): infants to preschool. Because this book has so little text, it is a quick read for very little kids. But also because this book discusses weather and activities related to weather, it can be expanded for more sophisticated discussions/lessons for older kids. 

Springboard for lessons: 

Having a discussion with students (ages 3+) about some of the different types of weather they have experienced as well as some of the different activities they can do in each kind of weather. Then each child can be asked draw a picture of an activity they like to do in a specific type of weather (such as “I like to make cookies when it rains”).

Common Core Standards for Pre-K addressed:

Writing Standards

Text Types and Purposes

2. With prompting and support, use a combination of drawing, dictating, or writing to compose  informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some  information about the topic.

Production and Distribution of Writing 

 5. With guidance and support, respond to questions and suggestions and add details to strengthen illustration or writing, as needed.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas 

4. Describe familiar people, places, things, and events and, with prompting and support, provide additional detail.

5. Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions as desired to provide additional detail.

6. Demonstrate an emergent ability to express thoughts, feelings and ideas.

Visual Arts 

1. Expresses oneself and represents what he/she knows, thinks, believes and feels through visual arts.

Matching game with weather (3 and up):

Supplies: cut-outs of different items related to weather such as an umbrella, snow boots, sunglasses, etc.

a poster board with three categories of weather (snowy, sunny, rainy).

Objective: students will be able to match items we use in the appropriate weather categories (such as placing the umbrella under the rainy category)

Common Core Standards addressed for Pre-K:

  Vocabulary

5. Demonstrates a growing receptive vocabulary

a)     Understands and follows spoken directions.

b)    Identifies pictures related to words (show me the white dog)

6. Demonstrates a growing expressive vocabulary.

 b) Uses more complex words in conversation.

c) Makes use of new and rare words introduced by adults or peers.

d) Correctly names picture when asked, “What is this?”

e) Begins to use appropriate volume and speed so spoken message is understood. 

Predicting and Charting weather for a month (toddler and older):

Supplies: A chalkboard to write down the predictions of students.

A monthly chart to keep track of weather.

Cutouts of “weather” (sun for sunny, snow for snowing, gust of wind for windy… etc)

Objectives: Students will make predictions about the next day’s weather (teacher will write down predictions on chalkboard)

Students will be able to observe weather at the same time each day and chart their observations

Students will discusses the relationships between actual observations and their predictions.

Students will tally how many days were sunny, rainy, snowy etc. the month and compare the data

Common Core Pre-k standards addressed: 

Science; Earth and Space 

a)     Observes and discusses changes in weather and seasons using common weather related  vocabulary (e.g., rainy, sunny, snowy, windy, cloudy, etc.).

Scientific Thinking 

1. Asks questions and makes predictions based on observations and manipulation of things and events  in the environment.

a) Uses senses to gather, explore, and interpret information.

c) Makes observations and describes changes in objects, living things, and natural events in the environment.

f) Makes predictions based on background knowledge, previous scientific experiences, and observations of objects and events in the world.

Leonardo the Terrible Monster written and illustrated by Mo Willems

I love Mo Willems!  I seriously think this man is an early childhood genius because so much of what happens in his books is developmentally appropriate for younger kids. His use of minimal text per page is perfect for shorter attention spans. His illustrations often have really dramatic facial expressions, making them ideal for discussion about emotions, for building empathy, and for making social predictions. Plus, all those dramatic illustrations make it really easy for the story reader to act out the role (try reading any of the pigeon books without becoming a frazzled pigeon—it’s impossible!).

His illustrations are also really fantastic for art lessons because they can be reproduced pretty easily by younger children and grown ups alike. (example: how to draw the pigeon in 10 steps)

The book: Leonardo the Terrible Monster is a really fun and quick read. The book centers around Leonardo who can’t seem to scare anyone, making him a terrible monster. He researches and decides to scare Sam, who is supposed to be a scaredy cat. Leonardo doesn't really successful scare Sam but instead finds out that Sam is really upset about a lot of things. In the end, Leonarado decides to be Sam’s friend.

I love the use of “space” in this book, from a visual standpoint as well as literary one.

There’s only a sentence or two on each page (with the expection of the page where Sam screams about why he's crying!) The illustrations are just the characters on muted colored backgrounds. Because of this I think expanding on the book while reading it is pretty natural, such as acting out of the motions of events (like creeping up on an unsuspecting boy). 

The use of space also allows for conversations about the book. It allows for a pause to ask your students questions about the story (such as “How do you think Leonardo feels after hearing why Sam was crying?”) 

This book easily kept the focus of all 10 of the toddlers in one of my art classes. They especially loved the one page in this book where Sam lets loose a torrent of words:

(If you are reading this book to a group of kids, look over this page beforehand! It can be a doozy if you read it cold!)

Springboard for lessons: This book can be used for lessons about emotions. Preschool students can be given materials to make monsters and encouraged to make different facial expressions for their monsters (happy, sad, angry, etc.)

This book can also be used to discuss friendship. Students can be asked "What makes a good friend?" or "Who are your friends?". Younger students can illustrate their answers with teachers helping to create a sentence describing their answers. 

From Head to Toe Written and Illustrated by Eric Carle

From head to toe is a good choice for a younger audience and addresses animals, gross motor skills, and body parts. Each page is colorfully illustrated and contains a different animal asking a child is they can move a part of their body like them.

Target age: Toddler

Springboard for lessons: This book is interactive and children will want to mimic the movements contained in it. Simply reading this book is an excellent way to link literacy with movement and to allow energetic little minds an appropriate place to exert their enthusiasm.

After having read the book, teachers can ask one student at a time to act like different animals. Students would be encouraged to use their whole body, their voices, and their facial expressions to convey clues as to what animal they are. The rest of the class would guess what animal the student was trying to be.

This book would also be great to include in an Eric Carle author study for toddlers. 

Scary, Scary Halloween Written by Eve Bunting, Illustrated by Jan Brett

Scary, Scary Halloween is told in a rhyming scheme and is about the creatures that one can see on Halloween. It is told from the perspective of cats who are hiding from these “creatures” (children dressed up from Halloween).  This book would be useful to discuss Halloween costumes as a group and to discuss the types of things people do during the holiday, such as trick or treat. This would also be a good book to discuss differences between make-believe and reality by drawing students’ attention to the fact that all the creatures in this book are really children dressed in costumes.

Target age: Preschool and Kindergarten. Though the text content is short enough for toddler-aged children, the illustrations are so life-like, I would be concerned about inadvertently scaring really young readers. Of course, every class has a different make-up of students so it really depends on the temperaments and development of the children.

Spring board for ideas: The illustrations are wonderful in this book and only allude to that the voice of the story are a bunch of cats. Students can be asked to make predictions about whose eyes are hiding under the stairs.

Additionally, the cats leave the hiding place under the house and start to roam the streets. As a writing or drawing prompt, students could be asked what they think the cats might have done next.

The word choices in this book are also vocabulary building for younger students (words like sunken, drifting, glimmer, etc.). The rhyming patterns within the text could also be utilized for a rhyming extension. 

Today I feel Silly and Other Moods that Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis and Illusrated by Laura Cornell

Today I feel Silly and Other Moods that Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis and Illusrated by Laura Cornell

Lesson Title: Moods/Emotions that Make My Day Lesson Plan

Grade Level and Subject: English-Language Arts – Kindergarten

Time allotted: 45 minutes

Materials and Supplies: Curtis, J. L. (1998). Today I feel silly & other moods that make my day. HarperCollins Publishing, large Emotions KWL Chart, large poster board for writing activity walk-through, student worksheets, markers, pencils, crayons, tape, various props for “engagement” phase (days of the week cards, silly clothes, music, etc.)

Objectives:

1.      Students will be able to make predictions about the story by applying what they previously know about feelings/emotions.

2.      Students will be able to individually connect emotional experiences from their personal lives by writing sentences about emotions as well as illustrating emotions and acting them out.

3.      Students will be able to use more sophisticated vocabulary when referring to specific emotions and be able to fully comprehend each new words definition (for example, students will know that word “cranky” could be potentially used in place of the word “upset”).

4.      Students will be able to articulate what behavioral and environmental clues help us understand and express emotions, such as body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, etc.

Rationale:

The focus of this lesson is to make certain that students will be able to identify emotions and feelings that they encounter on a day-to-day basis. This lesson gives children an opportunity to respond to literature through an interactive read aloud. As they listen to a story, students build comprehension skills and make personal connections from their own experiences. Students respond orally to the story by making predictions applying what they previously know about feelings/emotions, act out the emotions and sharing their personal reactions to the story as a group with different emotions. In all, students will enhance their vocabulary when referring to emotions.

Engagement Phase:

Teacher will begin by telling the students that they will be playing a short game that will require them to pay close attention. The teacher will explain that he/she will act out short scenes. Teacher will emphasize that the students must closely observe her behavior, her facial expressions, and other clues, such as props, to figure out what is going on in each scene.

Teacher will act out various emotions throughout the course of a “week”; these are the same emotions that will later be emphasized as new vocabulary words throughout the lesson.  At the beginning of each scene, teacher will hold up a day of the week on an index card followed by a short scene portraying that emotion. On Monday, the emotion will be “cranky”. On Tuesday, the emotion is “silly”. On Wednesday, it is “discouraged”. On Thursday, it is “joyful”. On Friday, it is “excited”.

Students will be asked to explain what they saw in each scene. Teachers will ask prompting questions such as “What did you see happening on Wednesday? How did that differ from what happened on Monday?” “What kind of emotions did you think you saw in these scenes? What clues helped you figured out those emotions?”

After a student discussion about what happened in each scene and what types of emotions were present, teacher will reiterate that emotions change throughout time and that how we feel is sometimes connected to a specific situation (example: I am happy when I am at my friend’s birthday party).

Lesson:

1. Teacher introduces the storybook (Today I feel silly & other moods that make my day) by sharing the illustration on the cover (or title page), and draws students' attention to the title of the book. Students are asked to make predictions based on the title and connect it to their own past experiences with “moods” or “feeling silly”. Teacher will ask: “What do you think this story will be about?” Teacher may continue questioning: “Do you ever feel silly? What other feelings do you have today?”

2. The class will work together to fill out the K and W of the collective KWL chart about feelings. The “K” represents what they know about emotions/feelings. The “W” stands for when or where they feel these feelings. The “L” stands for what new emotions they encountered from this activity/book. In the “K” and “W” section the teacher will write all the emotions the students know and where/when they feel these emotions. The teacher highlights that everyone experiences many emotions and different events can encourage these specific emotions.

3. Teacher turns to the first page of book, pointing to where the text begins ("I'll begin right here"), and starts to read aloud. The teacher stops and explains unfamiliar vocabulary words throughout the story such as “rouge” on page 2, “grumpy” and “fern” on page 3. At the sixth page, after “anger” the teacher stops and asks: “Were our ideas about this book correct so far?” Before continuing to read aloud, ask: “Which of our emotions on our KWL chart were mentioned so far?”

4. The teachers reads continues to read until  page 16, where he/she will pause to identify the unfamiliar words, “shaved” and crooked.” After reading 5 more pages, teacher will stop at the word “pizzazz”, explaining that it means a combination of strong energy and glamour. The teacher then completes the story and asks: “Can any of you remember feeling some of these emotions before?”

5. The teacher guides her students into a brief discussion reviewing the emotions stated in the story. Teacher will ask the students which new emotions they learned from the book. These new emotions will be written under the “L” on KWL chart; students can volunteer to write these new words on the chart. If not already included in the discussion and chart, teacher will make sure to add the words “silly”, “excited”, “discouraged”, “joyful” and “cranky”. These five words will be an integral part of the writing activity.

6. Before beginning writing assignment, teacher will model the sentence structure by doing a walk-through sample on large poster board (Ex. People can tell I am happy when I smiling and laughing.). Teacher will also do a quick drawing to show students how they can illustrate their original sentences.

The class will be split up into 5-6 groups. Each group will be given an unfamiliar emotion that they just recently learned (“silly”, “excited”, “discouraged”, “joyful” or “cranky”). Each student will work individually and write 1-2 sentence(s) describing when he or she remembers feeling that specific emotion.

Each student worksheet will have the new vocabulary word (such as discouraged) in dotted letters so students can trace these new words. Students must fill in the sight words “can”, “I”, and “am”, as well as describing the situations that cause their feelings. Additionally, each student will illustrate the situation and its corresponding emotion on their worksheets.

7. The class will reconvene at the end of the writing activity. Groups will volunteer to act out the emotions and situations that they described and illustrated on their worksheets. The students in the “audience” will give feedback by explaining how they knew what emotions were being acted out (ex: because of body language, the use of props, facial expressions, etc.)

Differentiated Instruction:

For students who are kinesthetic learners, the “acting out” sequence will allow them the opportunity for a more “hands on” approach to grasping the new emotions. Students, who are less kinesthetic or less interested “acting” in front of the class, will be allowed the opportunity to participate as an “audience” member.

ESL students will be encouraged to draw the illustration to their writing activity first. This may help them better formulate their ideas and corresponding vocabulary.

Assessment:

1. Teacher will pay close attention to student predictions being made about the story before the read-aloud. Additionally, teacher will listen to students’ responses to questions he/she poses throughout the read aloud. Emphasis will be placed on students’ ability to link their past emotional experiences to the story.

2. Teacher observes what the students illustrated on the handout and evaluates if it relates to that specific emotion. The teacher also observes how the students act out the emotion given to their group.

3. Teacher listens to student explanations of different emotions, making sure that students are using the newly learned terminology appropriately.

4. Teacher will listen to the explanations of the “audience” during the acting scenes. Students in the audience should be able to explain clues that lead them to their conclusions about the portrayed emotions—such as looking at facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, etc.

Common Core Standards Addressed:

Students, with prompting and support, will ask and answer questions about emotions and about the situations that influence them. Common Core Reading Standards for Kindergarten, Key Ideas and Details (#1)

Students will ask and answer questions about unknown words in “Today I feel silly & other moods that make my day”, such as the word “rogue” on page 3. Common Core Reading Standards, Craft and Structure (#4)

Miss Nelson is Missing Written by Harry Allard and James Marshall

Miss Nelson is Missing Written by Harry Allard and James Marshall

Guided Reading Lesson for a Second Grade Level Students

Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard and James Marshall is a good book for advanced second grade readers. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company in 1977, Miss Nelson is Missing! is a story about the rowdy and rude kids from class 207 who take advantage of their teacher’s, Miss Nelson, sweet demeanor. One day Miss Nelson is replaced by the mean-spirited substitute, Viola Swamp. As Miss Swamp piles on the homework, the kids of room 207 begin wonder if Miss Nelson will ever come back.

Miss Nelson is Missing! is 30 pages of illustrated text with about 3-5 sentences per page. There are high frequency words throughout the text (such as the, a, always, something, kid) but these words require readers to have a broad base of sight-word recognition. Although the story is illustrated, many of the pictures are not directly text supportive. For these reasons, this is an appropriate choice for more advanced second grade level readers.

The text within Miss Nelson is Missing! is heavily content based. Most of the words can be phonetically sounded out or deciphered through the context of the sentence; in some instances students will have to use both sets of skills. In lesser instances, illustrative clues also aid in students figuring out more difficult words. For example, on page 8, the word terrible appears:

The next morning Miss Nelson did not come to school. “Wow!” yelled the kids. “Now we can really act up!” They began to make more spitballs and paper planes. “Today let’s be just terrible!” they said.

There is a somewhat weak link between illustrative hints and the word terrible to help students figure out the word. However, through the use of contextual clues and phonetic sounding-out, students should be able to decipher the word terrible. This book gives students ample and level-appropriate practice utilizing both sets of skills in tandem.

The content of this book makes for a very fun guided reading lesson. Having a substitute teacher (and the subsequent desire of wanting to act when the regular teacher is missing) is something that all students will be able to identify with. The story’s use of colorful verbs in the dialogue makes for an interesting read. For example, we are introduced to Miss Swamp by the unpleasantness of her voice as she hisses into the classroom. This use of descriptive verb choice helps students anticipate key characteristics of each character and sets the stage for the mean-ness that is Miss Swamp. Additionally, the main premise (that Miss Nelson is missing) encourages students to make predictions. What might have happened to Miss Nelson? Do you think she will ever return to school? Do you think Miss Swamp will stay tormenting the class forever? Do you think Detective McSmogg will help the kids out? This is an obvious place to stop the text walk and allow students to reread the material to find out what happened to Miss Nelson. This question provides adequate motivation for the rereading.

Procedure:

Pre-Reading:

©       The teacher should show the cover of the book and have students read the title.

            She should ask students to make a prediction about who Miss Nelson is. She will also tell           students to pay special attention to the words she uses during the text walk; these          words might appear in the story later when they reread to themselves.

©       The teacher should preview the book using a text walk. She should help students

            understand the basic setting and characters. Certain key words, such as

            Misbehaving (pg 3), Whispered (pg 5), and Arithmetic (pg 10) should be pointed out, as well as the names of the three characters.

©       The teacher should set the purpose for reading: “Why hasn’t Miss Nelson come back yet? Why is she missing? What might have happened to her?” Have the students make predictions before letting them reread the story.

©       Teacher will remind students about sounding out unfamiliar words as well as using the context and illustrations to aid in decoding.

Objectives

©       Students will make predictions about why Miss Nelson is missing.

©       Students will name all three character names: Miss Nelson, Miss Viola Swamp, and Detective McSmogg.

During Reading:

©       Students will read the story silently to themselves. In response to any student who asks for help in decoding, she should provide appropriate cues so that he/she can then figure out the unknown word.

©       The teacher may also want to listen to each student read a page orally to check his/her use of decoding strategies.

Objectives

©       Students will read the story silently.

©       Students will each read a page out loud with at least 95% decoding

            accuracy.

Post-Reading:

Discussing the story:

©       The teacher should restate the purpose for reading and ask what happened. She should ask students to support their answers by rereading passages from the text. As they do, she should comment on the correct use of decoding strategies and offer appropriate clues when inaccurate reading occurs.

©       The teacher should ask comprehension questions to ensure that the students understood the key plot points of the story and characters. Whenever possible, students should support their answers by returning to the text.

©       Finally, the teacher should pose the following question: how do we know Miss Swamp was mean substitute teacher? Students should be able to back their answers up by rereading parts of the story.

Re-reading the Story:

©       The teacher should discuss quotation marks and their use within the story. She should have students point out and read text examples of each and discuss why we need them in reading.

©       The teacher should point out how the way a character says their dialogue can gives us clues about the speaker. She should have students pick out text that utilizes descriptive verbs (for example hissed on page 8) or adverbs.

©       Teacher should ask volunteers to act out sentences that use descriptive verbs to illustrate how the way a character speaks gives us clues about their personality.

Extension activity:

©       Teacher should ask students if they think Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp have a lot in common. Students should provide examples about why they think they are different (or possibly similar).

©       Next the teacher should tell students to think about words that describe Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp. She should tell students to reread the story to support what they think. Students may also use the visual clues in the story as their support (for example, students can say “I think Miss Swamp is mean because she is always frowning”).

©       Finally, teacher will hand out two character maps. One will be for Miss Nelson and one will be for Miss Swamp. These will aid students in comparing and contrasting both characters. Students will complete this activity on their own, using inventive spelling as necessary.

Objectives

©       Students will answer comprehension questions and reread part of the

            story to support their answers.

©       Students will act out parts of the story to illustrate how we can find clues about the character by the way they speak their dialogue.

©       Students will fill out a character map for both Miss Nelson and Miss Swamp, using invented spelling as necessary.

I Can Be Anything Written by Jerry Spinelli and Illustrated by Jimmy Liao

I Can Be Anything Written by Jerry Spinelli and Illustrated by Jimmy Liao

I Can Be Anything is a whimisical tale of a little boy who ponders what he wants to be when he grows up. His ideas are at once creative and amusing. The illustrations are rich and compliment the short, rhyming skeme of this book.

Target ages: Preschool and Kindergarten

Spring Boards for Lessons: this book would be great to utilize during times of transitions (ie. Graduation from preschool/kindergarten). Because the theme is so future orientated, students can be asked to visualize what they want to be when they grow up. The creative open-endedness of this book makes it so that the questions of “What do I want to be?” is not so heavily focused on grown occupation or jobs. Nonetheless, this book can be used to discuss with young readers different types of occupations one can have as a grown up.