Archive for the 'reading' Category

Teaching Civics with Children’s Literature: James Towne: Struggle for Survival

Published by Kelly on November 16, 2009 in history, civics, nonfiction, resource links, reading, book review and teaching. 0 Comments

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James Towne: Struggle for Survival, written and illustrated by Marcia Sewall, is a valuable resource that discusses the trials and tribulations experienced by the first settlers of Jamestown.  The book is told through the journal entries of an early settler, and is enhanced with the quotations of historically known explorers.  Used as an anticipatory activity, this book serves as a great introduction to how the United States came into development and how the Constitution was established.  Also, the book provides a list of important historical figures and glossary for both teachers and students.

Curriculum Connections

James Towne: Struggle for Survival serves as an excellent and useful resource to help teach, reinforce, and emphasize the civics learning objectives in accordance with the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL’s).  Students will begin to develop knowledge of the foundations of the American constitutional government by explanining the fundamental principles of consent to be governed (CE.2a) and explanining the significance of the charters of the Virginia Company of London (CE2.b).

Additional Resources

  • Historic Jamestowne has a page dedicated to lesson plans and activities for all grade levels, from kindergarten - high school, that looks at the ways in which our current government mirrors its roots with the establishment of Jamestown as well as activities that can be used to integrate civics with other curriculum fields.

  • Jamestown 400th Commemoration Commission devotes an amazing page towards educators, offering resources and lesson plans for all grades - they provide useful ideas and activities on focusing how the Constitution and principles of democracy evolved from the founding of Jamestown.

  • Super Smart Games offers an online game for students to access either at home or school in which they are the Captain of Jamestown Colony and need to make decisions on food, health, wealth, and morale after getting advice from other leaders and settlers -its fun for students to play, and helps them think how best resources can be used to keep people safe and healthy!

Book: James Towne: Struggle for Survival
Author & Illustrator: Marcia Sewall
Publisher: Antheneum
Publication Date: April 2001
Pages: 40pp
Grade Range: 3rd - 5th Grade
ISBN-13: 978-0689818141

Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: Maps

Published by Kelly on November 2, 2009 in resource links, nonfiction, geography, book review, teaching, reading and social studies. 0 Comments

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Maps, by David L. Stienecker and illustrated by Richard MacCabe, is a book designed to help introduce children to geography with a focus on maps and globes.

This book highlists the many purposes and differences between maps and globes, how to read them, and the many ways in which they can be drawn.  The author and illustrator provide child-friendly text and illustrations to show how maps can be used to visualize and locate specific regions, water features, forests, and landmarks of the world, as well as dicussing that maps can also be created for make believe.  The book offers children a view of North America on both a map and globe, and then slowly zooms out to show the Earth as a whole from the perspective of the sky.  This book also provides children with question prompts they can respond to during or after reading, while providing teachers with hands-on activitiy ideas for further study, a glossary of essential terms, and an index.  Lines of latitude/longitude, projections, compass, hemisphere, equator, and thematic maps are the main topics discussed throughout the book which allows the teacher discretion for how much content to share depending on varying student levels. 

Curriculum Connections

Maps serves as an excellent and useful resource to help teach, reinforce, and emphasize several kindergarten - first grade geography learning objectives in accordance with the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL’s).  Students can enhance their understanding in that a map is a drawing of a place to show where things are located while a globe is a round model of the Earth (SOL K.4a), facilitate identification of land and water features (SOL K.4c), encourage understanding that maps and globes show a view from above the Earth and that features are smaller in size (SOL K.5a/b), develop map skills by identifying map symbols (SOL 1.4a), and facilitate accurate identification of North America and Virginia on maps and globes (SOL 1.4d). 

Additional Resources

  • Discovery Education provides a wide range of geography lesson plans from grades kindergarten - 5th grade - lesson plans are organized by topic, and when clicked on,  provides you with a wealth of resource links, extention activity ideas, suggested readings, and evaluation assessments specific to the lesson

  • Kids Geography offers a wide range of fun, interactive games for students to play either at school or home - games are organized into continents, American capitals, latitude/longitude, and the collective Earth so teachers, students, and parents have the ability to select games that are specific to what the student is learning

  • Enchanted Learning is the place for teachers to go for an endless supply of various geography maps, printables, quizzes, and activities - if teachers want to focus on their state geography, there are links to supply you with tons of state maps for students to label, quizzes, and symbol and emblem worksheets specific to your state 

Book: Maps
Author: David L. Stienecker
Illustrator: Richard MacCabe
Publisher: Benchmark Books (New York)
Publication Date: January 1998
Pages: 32pp
Grade Range: Kindergarten - 1st Grade
ISBN-13: 978-0761405382

Teaching Geography with Children’s Literature: From Here to There

Published by Ann R on October 31, 2009 in process skills, geography, book review, reading and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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From Here to There , written by Margery Cuyler, is a simple, yet beautifully illustrated, book that shows where a little girl, Maria, lives with her family.  It illuminates the concept that we are all part of a world that is bigger than our own home, town, and state.

Curriculum Connections:  From Here to There is a good book for teaching the concept that we are all part of the solar system we live in, as seen in the beautiful pictures of the progression of where her home fits into this world.  It starts at her home, then moves to her town, her county, her state, then country, hemisphere, planet, solar system, galaxy, and beyond.  Geography SOL 1.4

Additional Resources:
This is another book that can be read and used to reinforce the concepts of how to follow a map.  It the story of a boy and his father going on a 100-mile road trip to visit his grandmother.

This website offers instructions on how to teach children about maps.  It starts with making a map of the classroom, then a map of the school, then the community, and so forth.  You can make this activity reach as far as you want it to, based on the level of your students…just like the book!

This website is an interactive website that could be done independently, or collectively as a class, projected onto the board or screen.  It is a simple map with questions that help teach basic map symbols, how to follow a map, and use of the compass rose.

General Information:
Book: From Here to There
Author: Margery Cuyler
Illustrator: Yu Cha Pak
Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd.
Pages:  32
Grade Range: K-2
ISBN:  0-8050-3191

Teaching Economics with Children’s Literature: Start Saving, Henry!

Published by Ann R on October 28, 2009 in economics, reading and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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Start Saving, Henry! is a fun book about a seven-year old mouse who learns the lesson about saving his allowance money to buy a toy he wants, and, he learns how hard it can be to not buy everything you want.

Curriculum Connections:  Start Saving, Henry! is a good book for teaching the concepts that people make choices because they cannot have everything they want, and that people save money for the future purchase of  goods and services. SOLs 1.8 and 1.9

Additional Resources:
This website has another book that can be read and used in a classroom activity to reinforce the concepts of making choices about purchases, and not being able to buy everything you want.

This website is very kid friendly.  It offers some online games and information about coins, including how they are made, and U.S. Mints.

This website has pictures of what money looks like in different countries around the world.  It would be a great way to tie the lesson to whatever other countries you may be studying.

General Information:
Book: Start Saving, Henry!
Author: Nancy Carlson
Illustrator: Nancy Carlson
Publisher: Penguin Group
Pages:  32
Grade Range: K-2
ISBN:  9780670011476

Teaching Economics with Children’s Literature: Let’s Trade: A Book About Bartering

Published by Sarah on October 26, 2009 in economics, book review, reading and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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The book Let’s Trade: A Book About Bartering , written by Nancy Loewen and illustrated by Brian Jensen, is part of the Money Matters series, meant to help children better understand economics. This specific story is about how Mr. Wallace’s third grade class discover that money isn’t always used to get the supplies that people need.  Mr. Wallace devises a game that shows the class how different things can be exchanged among people, explaining that cash and coins aren’t always necessary to obtain the things they want.

“‘A long time ago,’ Mr Wallace said, ‘people didn’t have money. They had to trade for the things they needed. Someone might trade a basket of wheat for an ax, and that was fine as long as both people wanted those things. But what if the person with the ax already had plenty of wheat? The person with the wheat might trade for something else first– a pearl necklace, maybe. Then, he would trade the necklace for the ax.’”

The illustrations used in this story are big and bright, and really help to show the “bartering” that is discussed in Mr. Wallace’s class.  Other nice features in this book include “Fun Facts” (offered by a mini piggy-bank on each page), a glossary, additional resources to help kids with economic ideas, and an activity page.  The activity gives students different scenarios where they get to decide what a “fair trade” is:

 ”You and your friend both buy a pack of baseball cards. Your friend got your favorite player’s card. You trade him three of your cards for one of his. Did you make a fair trade?”

Curriculum Connections 

“Let’s Trade” is a great resource for children just learning about economics.  The story explains how bartering works in a very simple manner, and also gives some background information about the history of money.  In addition to the students learning the difference between using bartering and using money in exchange for goods (VA SOL 2.8), this book teaches that students have to make choices between goods because they cannot have everything they want (VA SOL 1.8).

Additional Resources

This lesson, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, is a great plan to use along with ”Let’s Trade” as the students learn about goods and bartering.

DFI KidsPage provides a great introduction to the history of money. Kids could easily use this as a supplemental computer activity, and it even includes a self-check quiz at the end.

This page, posted in association with the University of Delaware, offers a variety of books (K - 6) to use when teaching ecomomics through children’s literature.

Boomerang Box is a website that introduces students to international trade.  Here, educators can download lessons and activities that teach kids why and where trade happens.

Book: Let’s Trade: A Book About Bartering
Author: Nancy Loewen
Illustrator: Brian Jensen
Publisher: Picture Window Books
Publication Date: August 2005
Pages: 24
Grade Range: k-3
ISBN: 1404811575

Teaching Economics with Children’s Literature: Goods and Services

Published by Kelly on October 26, 2009 in economics, resource links, nonfiction, book review, reading, social studies, teaching and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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Goods and Services, written by Janeen R. Adil, is a book designed to help introduce children to the basic world of money and economics, how money and economics affects them on a daily basis, and why money and economics are important to their world.

This book is explains and illustrates main monetary and economic principles that make up our world, including: goods and services, consumers and producers, how taxes are related to government services and goods, and how income is made, saved, and used to buy goods and services.  All of these premises are explained through a variety of examples connected to real-world situations most children can easily relate to through their past or current experiences.  Because economics is such an important and real part of everyone’s life, the book contains real-life photos versus illustrations in order to help children connect economic meanings to the world around them.  In trying to connet these concepts to the current world, the author has inserted ”fun facts” into the book which offers both vital and current statistics on the specific principle being discussed.

As a bonus, the book provides a glossary, links to internet sites, an activity idea, and other literature resources as tools to help reiterate understanding of the econimic principles explored within the book, and can be used by teachers, students, and parents.  Also near the end of the book, the author dedicates a page connecting past history with today in order to illustrate how taxes have been around for almost 5,000 years by the Anciet Egyptians.

While this book is filled with all of the essential information students need to learn about economics, it does an excellent job in providing examples and pictures to illustrate the relevancy of economic concepts in an easy to understand, meaningful way.

Curriculum Connections

Goods and Services serves as an excellent and useful resource to help teach, reinforce, and emphasize the first grade learning objectives of economics in accordance with the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL’s).   Explaining the difference between goods and services, and how people are consumers and producers of goods and services, (SOL 1.7) is the focus throughout the entire book, as well as illustrating the importance of having to save money for the future purchase of goods and services (SOL 1.9) through a litany of real-world examples.

Additional Resources

  • ProTeacher is an amazing website solely dedicated to teachers of all elementary grades that provides a wide collection of lesson plans, printable worksheets, project themes, and ideas for setting up a classroom economy on an array of economic premises, including how financial markets and the stock market work.  This site also provides a blog and chat room for teachers to share their experiences on teaching economics within the classroom. 

  • EconEd Link is a comprehensive website that provides teachers with incredibly detailed lesson plans that include all the resources needed to effectively teach students about goods/services and consumers/producers.  The lesson that is linked has been contributed by Nancy Sedivy and is adaptable for students in kindergarten - second grade   The lesson provides links to several interactive games students can utilize, resource links to worksheets and activities, assessment tools to measure student understanding, and several ideas for extension activities.

  • MoneyInstructor.com is a website designed for teachers, students, and parents alike and is devoted to help students ranging from kindergarten - sixth grade learn about all aspects of economics.  This site includes a variety of resources that teachers can use within the classroom, students can access at home, and parents can use as a resource to help their children’s growing knowledge of economics.  There is a wide range of economic principles provided on this site, including the basic premise of money and what it is, how to differenciate between needs and wants, the importance of saving, spending, and sharing, and why taxes are put on goods and certain services.  All of these economic principles provide a variety of worksheets, games, and acitivity ideas to enforce children’s understanding.  Also, because this site is designed for grades kindergarten - sixth grade, teachers, students, and parents have the ability to move at their own pace in relation to their individual learning abilities.

Book: Goods and Services
Author: Janeen R. Adil
Publisher: Capstone Press
Publication Date: January 1, 2006
Pages: 24pp
Grade Range: First Grade
ISBN-13: 978-0736853958

Teaching Earth Science with Children’s Literature: What Makes Day and Night

Published by Kelly on September 21, 2009 in nonfiction, earth science, resource links, book review, teaching, reading and science. 0 Comments

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What Makes Day and Night, written by Franklyn M. Branley and illustrated by Arthur Dorros, is a book answering children’s questions as to what causes ‘day to be day,’ ‘night to be night,’ and how the sun appears and disappears during these times.

This book follows a group of inquisitive children on their journey into finding out exactly what causes these events to happen, starting off with the basics of how our planet, Earth, is constantly spinning and rotating on its axis and the daily evoluations it makes around the sun.  The illustrations provide children with a clear sense of the Earth’s full rotation around the sun and shows the different stages of sunrise, day, sunset, and night, as well as providing insight into the moon’s lunar phases.  In addition to providing solid, factual information on these concepts, the children in the book conduct their own experiements at home with a flashlight in order to have a hands on understanding of how days and nights are created and the effects of light and darkness on Earth.

This book can surely serve as an anticipatory resource prior to a unit on Earth’s movement and motions within the solar system, and can be read aloud to the class or read independently by students because of the simplicity and student-friendliness of the text.  The author and illustrator do an excellent job of allowing students to grasp and process these abstract concepts through facts, home experiments, and detailed illustrations, leaving them with a sense of pride and curiousity to learn more about our plant and solar system.

Curriculum Connections

What Makes Day and Night serves as an excellent and useful resource to help teach, reinforce, and emphasize the third grade learning objectives in accordance with the Virgiia Standards of Learning (SOL’s).  Investigating and understanding the basic patterns and cycles of the Earth in relation to the sun and moon (SOL 3.8) is supported throughout the entire book through its discussion and illustrations of the stages and time of Earth’s rotation, its effects of the sun on the planet, and the phases of the moon (SOL 3.8a).

Additional Resources

  • Eye On The Sky offers an excellent lesson plan, demonstration, and printables for teaching students the Earth’s rotation and how it causes day and night - plus, this lesson can be adapted for grades 1 - 3.

  • Jefferson County Schools‘, located in Tennessee, website dedicates a page full of classroom lesson plans, activities, and numerous resources aimed at teaching students all about the Earth’s rotation and its effects on people, plus interactive websites for students to work with at school or at home!  Additionally, this site provides a range of lesson plans and activities on other units covering Earth Science.

  • SkyTellers provides a multitude of resources for activity ideas, books, and websites links for students and teachers solely devoted to how Earth rotates and it’s implications on day and night, seasons, lunar phases, and the sun.  Also, this website offers insights on other Earth Science concepts, such as the origin of starts, constellations, meteors, and the solar system.  This is definately a website to have on hand for many Earth Science lessons, no matter the grade level!

Book: What Makes Day and Night
Author: Franklyn M. Branley
Illustrator: Arthur Dorros
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: March 1986
Pages: 32pp
Grade Range: 3rd Grade
ISBN-13: 9780064450508

Teaching Life Science with Children’s Literature: Leaving Home

Published by Kelly on September 12, 2009 in nonfiction, life science, resource links, book review, reading and teaching. 0 Comments

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Leaving Home, written by Sneed B. Collard III and illustrated by Joan Dunning, is an endearing book that takes students on a journey around the world to visit a variety of habitats and learn about some of the animals found in them. 

From the sea to the jungle, from the forest to the desert, students will begin to build insight on why the physical and behavioral adaptations animals have are necessary for survival in their given environment.  A page is dedicated for each animal discussed and provides information on the animals general life cycle from birth through adulthood.  Each page begins with how the animal simply moves about, providing a simplisitic yet effective way to show the many means in which animals travel; for example, on the shark page, it says, “some of us swim,” while on the jaguar page it says, “some of us walk.”    

The author also presents the behavioral and physical adaptations specific to each animal, such as if babies resemble their parents upon birth, how they gather or store found, where they make their shelter, how they rear their young (laying eggs versus giving birth, providing milk or not), and if hibernation, migration, camouflage, instinct, and learned behaviors are aspects to their species.  The illustrations are superb and enticing to view by offering great detail that clearly allow students to see how the animal’s physical adaptations coincide with their surroundings. 

The writing flows easily and offers students a concise yet vast amount of information needed in order to further explore these adaptations in more detail.  This book can surely serve as an effective anticipatory resource prior to a unit on animal life cycles and adaptations or as a tool for review prior to testing.  The author will leave students knowing so much more about these animals and instill a desire to want to learn even more about them.

Curriculum Connections

Leaving Home serves as an appropriate and useful resource to help teach, reinforce, and emphasize specific second and third grade science life processes objectives in accordance with the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL’s).  Investigating and understanding that animals undergo a series of orderly changes in their life cycle (SOL 2.4) is supported throughout the entire book due to the wide spectrum of animals discussed, including invertebrates, vertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, and insects.  Also, the author discusses the distinct stages during each animal’s life and how they can vary from one animal to another (SOL 2.4a).   The behavioral and physical adaptations necessary for an animal’s survival (SOL 3.4), such as methods of gathering and storing food, finding shelter, rearing young (SOL 3.4a), migration, instinct, and learned behavior (SOL 3.4b) are explained in explicit detail for each animal discussed. 

Additional Resources

  • Mrs. Becky Wick , a current second grade teacher from Missouri, has designed an absolutely amazing website that offers almost everything you and your students will need in order to thoroughly investigate and explore animal life cycles, including activity and project ideas,  interactive online games, and lesson plans!  This site is a must to visit!

  • The Teacher’s Guide website has dedicated an outstanding page full of lesson plans, printables, and project suggestions dedicated to the frog.  If your looking for any resources to supplement your teaching on this amphibian’s life cycle, including metamorphosis as part of their of physical development, and/or behavioral adaptations, you will not need to look any further than here!

  • TeacherVision offers a wide proposal of lesson plans, activities, and projects on animal adaptations, covering the aspects of migratation, hibernation, mimicry, and learned behaviors specific to each animal.  This site also offers all of these resources for different grade levels, so you are certain to find something that fit’s each of your student’s needs!

Book: Leaving Home
Author: Sneed B. Collard III
Illustrator: Joan Dunning
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: March 2002
Pages: 32pp
Grade Range: 2nd and 3rd Grade
ISBN-13: 9780618114542

Teaching Physical Science with Children’s Literature: I Fall Down

Published by Kelly on September 7, 2009 in nonfiction, physical science, resource links, book review, teaching, reading and science. 0 Comments

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I Fall Down, written by Vicki Cobb and illustrated by Julia Gorton, introduces students to discover how and why objects always fall down when they are thrown up in the air, and why some of these objects fall faster than others.  Students follow a young boy through a series of experiments that lead to the explanation and understanding of how gravity works.  Concepts, such as the weight of objects, are introduced as well.   Teachers can also integrate manipulatives into the reading of the book to show first hand out different objects all at different rates of speed and in different types of motion.  The reading of this book serves as an excellent lesson introduction to force, motion, and energy.

Curriculum Connections

I Fall Down serves as an appropriate and useful resource to help teach, reinforce, and emphasize the following First Grade Force, Motion, and Energy Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL’s):

1.2 The student will investigate and understand that moving objects exhibit different kinds of motion.  Key concepts include:

b. objects may vibrate and produce sound

c. pushes or pulls can change the movement of an object

d. the motion of objects may be observed in toys and in
playground activities

Additional Resources

  • PPST offers a variety of motion resources for both kids and teachers, including a range of powerpoint presentations, games, and activity ideas.
  • This educational website offers worksheets and games specific to first graders learning and understanding of gravity, force, and motion.
  • Rockingham County’s website provides specific lesson plans catering to SOL 1.2, including a 10 day unit lesson plan!

Book: I Fall Down
Author: Vicki Cobb
Illustrator: Julia Gorton
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: October 2004
Pages: 30pp
Grade Range: 1st - 2nd Grade
ISBN-13: 978-0688178420