Author Archives: openwidearchive

Teaching Ancient Egypt Through Literature: You Wouldn’t Want to be a Pyramid Builder

You Wouldn't Want to be a Pyramid Builder by Jacqueline Morley with illustrations by David Antram is a one-of-a-kind book in the series You Wouldn't Want To Be.  This book takes children into the world of Ancient Egypt by putting … Continue reading

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Teaching Process Skills Through Children’s Literature: What’s That Sound?

What's that Sound by Mary Lawrence with illustrations by Lynn Adams combines science with literature to engage children's problem solving and reasoning skills.  Tim and his older sister, Amy, are on vacation in a spooky, old house that Tim believes … Continue reading

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Teaching Economics Through Children’s Literature: Pennies for Elephants

  Pennies for Elephants written and illustrated by Lita Judge is a wonderful tale based on a true story of how the children of Boston came together to save three very special circus elephants.  A brother and sister duo unite … Continue reading

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Teaching Earth Science Through Children’s Literature: The Cloud Book

The Cloud Book written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola introduces children to the ten most common types of clouds, what weather will likely occur based on the formation of the clouds, and myths inspired by different cloud shapes.  This book … Continue reading

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Teaching Life Science with Children’s Literature: Look Out for the Big Bad Fish

Watch Out for the Big Bad Fish! by Sheridan Cain and illustrated by Tanya Linch is a fun story about a young tadpole who wants to jump so badly.  As he grows he meets many different animals who are able … Continue reading

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Teaching 3rd grade Math: Fractions

The following resources can help in teaching fractions to elementary students. The books and the other resources are a good way to help make learning math fun. Give Me Half written by Stuart Murphy illustrated by G. Brian Karas Splitting … Continue reading

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Teaching Economics with Children’s Literature: Max’s Bunny Business

  Introduction Max’s Bunny Business is a very cute and fun way to help teach kids about buying things and earning money to pay for those things. This story follows Max the bunny and his friends as they scheme up … Continue reading

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Teaching Money with Children’s Literature

Introduction: The resources that are listed below are great examples of materials that can be used in a second grade classroom for a unit on money.  The topics range from counting coin values,  to addition and subtraction of monetary values, … Continue reading

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Learning First Grade Geometry!

INTRODUCTION The topic is plane geometric shapes and the selected resources listed and briefly summarized below are directly related to accomplishing the learning objectives provided by the VA SOL.  Grade one is the level and the associated SOL are 1.12 … Continue reading

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Teaching First Grade Math: Shapes

Introduction These the following resources can be used to teach first grade math, specifically geometry and shapes.  The resources could be used to teach children about constructing and modeling plane shapes found in the environment (circles, squares, triangles and rectangles) … Continue reading

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