by David.Orban www.flickr.com
*Picture book for preschoolers through third graders
*Third-grade girl as main character
*Rating: Homegrown House is worth checking out just to see E.B. Lewis’s illustrations. Then add the clever and heartfelt text by Janet S. Wong, and you have a special picture book here!
Short, short summary: A young girl loves her grandma’s house and wishes that she and her parents could live in a house as long as Grandma has lived in hers. But her family moves around a lot. She lived in a preschool-kindergarten house and a first-second grade house, and now a third-grade house because of her parents’ careers. Each house had something wrong with it that was just about to get fixed or that the family was just about to get used to until they had to move again. Throughout all the moves, the young girl discusses houses with her grandma and wishes that she could find and settle in a house as special as hers. So, she uses her imagination to create her own homegrown house.
1. A social studies activity you can do with this book is discuss different types of homes people live in. People may live in apartments, condos, houses, trailers, mobile homes, huts, and so on. Once students list different kinds of homes, discuss what makes these homes special to the people that live in them. Once you and your students or children finish making the list and discussing each place, they can draw a picture or write a journal entry about your discussion or their favorite place from the list.
2. This is the perfect book to talk about moving with students and how hard moving can be. In your classroom, you will most likely have a child who has moved. You will have other children who are experiencing loss due to someone else moving because of divorce, death, careers, and so on. Talk to students about the advantages and disadvantages of moving. Allow students who have first-hand knowledge of moving or dealing with others moving talk to students about their feelings.
3. Another social studies objective may be to discuss reasons why people move. This book lists career as a reason why people move, but there are many other reasons such as overcrowding, finding better schools, upsizing or downsizing, and getting closer to family. With students, make a list of reasons why people move.
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