*Picture book, realistic fiction for preschoolers through second graders
*Young girl as main character
*Rating: I absolutely love this sweet book In Grandma’s Arms. You can use it for so many lessons, too.
Short, short summary:
In this story, a young girl is sitting on her grandma’s lap in the Storybook Chair, and she says, “We can do anything–, We can go anywhere.” Then she and her grandma have several magical adventures through the pages of a book, including flying on clouds of pink cotton, leaping on a comet, and visiting with a dragon. In the end, she grows drowsy and has sweet dreams.
So, what do I do with this book?
1. This is a wonderful book to read to students before teaching or talking about the six plus one traits of writing, IDEAS. Where do authors get their ideas? What kind of ideas do they have? Where is the little girl getting all of these wonderful adventures she is having? Why are these potato ideas (ideas you have to dig for)? This is a perfect book to use with young writers in kindergarten and first grade when teaching a six plus one traits of writing lesson on IDEAS.
2. Children will want to share their favorite stories–books and grandparent stories. Allow children to draw pictures of their grandparents and share stories about them. Take a poll of students’ favorite fairy tales or books.
3. This is also a terrific book to talk about verbs or action words with students or your children if you homeschool. In Grandma’s Arms has several strong verbs such as: fly, float, leap, and zoom.
I would also like to draw your attention to another WONDERFUL blog that I hope you will all check out and subscribe to. It is about using picture books in the classroom; and recently, he did a huge post on Civil War picture books and using picture books in high school classrooms. You don’ t want to miss this site if you love picture books. Here’s the link: http://teachwithpicturebooks.blogspot.com/
*Picture book for preschoolers through first graders
*Families of all sorts are the main characters
*Rating: All Kinds of Families! is a sweet picture book full of interesting ideas about families. No matter what a child’s family looks like, they should feel like they belong with this book by Mary Ann Hoberman.
Short, short summary: All Kinds of Families! is a rhyming picture book with a repeating chorus that pops up throughout the book. Its main goal is to show children that there are all kinds of families–people belong to families but so do letters and numbers and even spoons and forks. It is also a great book for talking about family roles such as parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The concept of family tree is introduced briefly. Marc Boutavant’s illustrations are detailed and cute, and children could spend hours looking at them.
So, what do I do with this book?
1. This is the perfect book for a preschool, kindergarten, or homeschool class. Read the entire book through one time and just let children enjoy it. Then read a section at a time because there is so much information on each page about families–in the text and in the illustrations. Allow students to ask questions about the family groups that Mary Ann Hoberman mentions. Discuss the characteristics of a family throughout the reading of the book. This is a great book to use with a young primary grade social studies curriculum.
2. An obvious activity is to have students draw or write about their own families. You can also start a family wall or family bulletin board. Instead of “Star of the Week,” you can have “Family of the Week.” Allow students to bring in pictures of anyone in the family–grandma, grandpa, dogs, cats, sisters, cousins, etc. You can work with students to label pictures. With parents’ help, you could also ask students to make a simple family tree at home and display these in the classroom.
3. Using the examples in the book as models, what are some things in your classroom you could lump together to create families? What about pattern blocks (math manipulatives of any kind), reading books, art supplies, recess equipment, and so on? Create tags on sentence strips for these families with your students and hang them around the room. You can be creative with your tags such as: “Mr. and Mrs. Playground Balls and their five children” or “The Eraser Family” or “The Pencils Clan” and so on.
