Syar's blog

  Title: Some Smug Slug Genre: Fantasy Author: Pamela Dunean Edwards Major Awards:  Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Award Grade Level: PK-4 Age: 4-8 Summary:  This hilarious read-aloud picture book tells a cautionary tells about a slug who must climb a slippery slope, in spite of the animals who are trying to stop him.  Smirking and self-important, the slug keeps slithering his way up a highly suspect slope. Will the slug stop? Are the sparrow, the spider, and the swallowtail simply trying to sabotage the slug's progress? Why is everyone screaming at the slug? Evaluation: This is a great book for students to know about animals and what they do to survive. For example, it talks about how the snail uses its antennas as sensors and how squirrels store nuts for food. For my 2nd graders, at the back of the book, it says that somewhere in the story there is a skunk, snake, a salamander, and two snails spying on the slug, but it isn'r mentioned in the book. I ...

  Title: The Frog Prince, Continued Genre: Fantasy  Author: Jon Scieszka Age Group: 2-5 years old Major Awards: Cooperative Children's Book Center Award Grade Levels:  K-2nd grade Summary: In this book, unlike the usual ending where the princess and frog live happily ever after, they actually have marriage issues. The Princess complains to her husband how he's lazy and should be being a hero instead of laying around not doing anything. On his side, the Frog Prince complains about the princess never wanting to visit the pond, something the he enjoys. Upon his journey of fleeing away to search for help, he runs upon 3 witches for help, who's intentions are evil, so he runs away again and finally finds a fairy godmother who helps him turn back into a prince. At the end, both the prince and princess kiss and both turn into frogs and THEN they live happily ever after. Evaluation: I think this is a great story to read to students because it introduces them to alternative versio...

  Title: The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig Genre: Fantasy Author: Eugene Trivizas Age Group: 7-10 years old Major Awards: 'Parents' Choice Gold Award Grade Levels: 2nd-5th grade Summary: This rendition of The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf starts off with the three wolves venturing together to build houses on their own. They are met by a big bad pig who destroys their home every time they build one and deny his entrance.They tried everything from bricks, to concrete, and barbed wire with iron bars, armor plates, and heavy metal padlocks included and still got destroyed. But when they made their last home out of delicate flowers, the pig was unable to knock it down and ended up becoming friends and living with the wolves happily. Evaluation: This book is appropriate and great for students to learn about renditions of different books. Because kids can get used to repetitive fantasy books and sometimes memorize the plot every time, remixed books like this one can...

  Title:  The Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive Genre:  Science Fiction and Fantasy Author: Joanna Cole Age Group: 4-8 years old Major Awards: Young Readers Choice Awards Grade Levels: pre-k -- 3rd grade Summary: In this book, although Ms. Frizzle and her class were supposed to take a normal trip to the beehive, Ms. Frizzles simple spill of honey inside the bus changes everything as they change into an actual beehive. The class is turned into actual bees and their journey of the bee life begins. As they travel through flowers, then into a hive, they explore the ways bees make honey and how they survive and how they impact human lives. They even get to interact and do the stuff that bees do. From learning how to collect nectar and pollen, to making combs and making honey and greeting the queen bee, the class learns more about the timeline life and functions of these insects. Evaluation: This book would definitely be on my list of books to use and read to my students in a s...

  Title :The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses Genre : Science Fiction and Fantasy Author : Joanna Cole   Age Group : 4-8 years old Awards : Cooperative Children's Book Center Awards Grade Levels : Prekindergarten-3rd grade Summary : In this adventurous book, Ms. Frizzle's class and Mr. Wilde, their assistant principal, accidentally take a bus trip to the human senses and travel through an eye, ear, the nose and skin. As Mr. Wilde accidentally shrinks the bus, they travel through a police officer's eye, and. this is where the books starts to explain the parts and functions of the eye. They then explore another sense, this time through a child's ear,  then a dog's nose, on the tongue of Ms. Frizzle, and through a cat's ear. On the sides of each page, additional. and important information about the senses are explained in brief details.  Evaluation : As a teacher, I think it's very appropriate to use and read this book in your elementary classroom.  This gi...

 The Itsy Bitsy Spider, with pictures by Meredith Johnson,  is age appropriate for 3-4 year olds.  This one  collection tells of a spider who goes  up a water spout just to get washed out by rain and then goes up the spout after the sun comes out. In this version, there are ac dual fill-in-the-blanks. In the first couple of pages, the illustrator finishes the whole rhyme. Then after that, she finishes only part of the rhyme and lets the readers figure out the rest. Each time the poem is repeated throughout the book, there are different illustrations of the spider helping out other people. At the end of the book, the illustrator then wants the reader to say the rhyme by themselves. Although age appropriate for kids in pre-k and kinder, it's not something that would require an additional activity. I think this book could be useful to build listening and memory skills from repetition /

  Whiskers and Rhymes, written by Arnold Lobel, is written for kids 4-9 years old. This collection of nursery rhymes is filled with 35 original poems. These poems are brief and funny and tell of  cats doing most of anything. In one poem, a cat named Pickle Paste is brushing its teeth with (you guessed it) pickle paste). The cat’s teeth turn out green, but still clean. Books to Ceiling, another nursery book, explains of a cat’s strong love for books and how he has a stack of them.  This book is grade appropriate for grades 2-3. I would definitely use this book in my classroom to let my students build memory skills and listening skills as well. One of the rhymes in the collection, Books to Ceiling, would be used for my class. During a library day, I would have my students pick out 5 books to read and add on to that each week to add to their “Books to Ceiling” collection. 

  This traditional nursery rhyme book written by Siobhan Dodds is age appropriate for 3-5 year olds. Old MacDonald Had a Farm is a colorful picture book that is also interactive. There is a flap on each page with a animal hidden under it. Next to the flap is the word sound the animal makes, so that the child can guess what the next animal will be.  Since this book is mostly for pre-k and kindergartners, this is a perfect book to use to have kids be familiar with animals and the noises that they make. In an activity, after reading the book, I would have a interactive worksheet where they match the animal with the noise they make, and then color in the animal. 

  The Ice Cream Store, written by Dennis Lee and illustrated by David McPhail is a collection of poems that can be read to children ages 4-8. This book has earned the "Mr. Christie's Book Award".  This collection of poems includes many themes such as nature, self-awareness, and diversity. A lot of the poems in this collection focus on someone's potential to be aware of his/her place in the world in connection to themselves and other people. This collection also consists of nature and the animals in it. With diversity, this describes other kids in the collection.  This book is appropriate for students in pre-k through 3rd grade. As mentioned in other blog posts,  this collection is a great read about other different cultures and allowing the students to be culturally aware and helps them how to be self-aware and how they fit into their community.

  Written by Shelley Gill and illustrated by Shannon Cartwright, The Alaska Mother Goose  is a collection of nursery rhymes that are illustrated and age appropriate for kids aged 3-7. This book contains the usual Mother Goose rhymes that we usually hear, but the author adds a cultural twist to it that is more of a northern and Alaskan style. From Hey Diddle Diddle to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Gill adds her own alternate variations in these nursery rhymes. The singsong collection includes animals and plants that inhabit Alaska and also includes a glossary at the back that includes the types of species there and describes how they live. I would use this book in the classroom because it adds a little bit of diversity and my students can learn educational things about the Alaskan life through this collection. The appropriate grades to use this book would be pre k- 2nd grade. For my 2nd graders, I would first read to them the original version of Mother Goose and have my students...