Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Title: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Author: Bill Martin Jr, John Archambault
Illustrator: Lois Ehlert
Publisher and date of Publication: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1989
Genre: Alphabet Book, Picture Book
Age Range: K-1st grade

Summary: This is a cute story of the letters of the alphabet personafied. There's a coconut tree and the letters are trying to all get to the top. When the end of the alphabet gets up there, the tree falls over and they all fall out. Their parents, the capital letters, come to comfort them and bangage their boo-boos. All the letters have somekind of boo-boo and at the end "a" wakes up first and dares someone to catch him at the top of the coconut tree.

Response: I think this is such a wonderful book for kindergarteners and maybe first-graders. It's a older book (1989) compared to others but still such a good book for children. The age range on the book is 2-6 so you could even read this book to younger children. Children learning their alphabet would enjoy this book, in trying to figure out which letter comes next. The pages are so bright and colorful. It looks plain and bright but it's still so good. The letters are so bold. I really like the page with their parents. The parents are capital letters and the children are lower-case. I also think the bangages on the letters when they fall out of the tree is
really cute. I think that the title of the book fits well with the coconut tree.
It just wouldn't be the same if it was an oak tree or something.

Teaching Ideas: I think this book would be good to read in a kindergarten
classroom.Children may even be different letters of the alphabet and act out
the book. Children may use paint and alphabet sponge letters to put the letters
all over the page. Older children may decide to make their name or something
else. You may make a laminated coconut tree and alphabet letters and have
children take turns moving the letters as you read. Scholastic.com has a neat lesson plan for this book.
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3747842&FullBreadCrumb=%3Ca+href%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.scholastic.com%2Fbrowse%2Fsearch%2F%3FNtt%3Dchicka%2Bchicka%2Bboom%2Bboom%26query%3Dchicka%2Bchicka%2Bboom%2Bboom%26Ntk%3DSCHL30_SI%26Nr%3DOR%2528Resource_Type%253ALesson%2BPlan%252CResource_Type%253AInformal%2BLesson%2BArticle%252CResource_Type%253AUnit%2BPlan%2529%26Ntx%3Dmode%2Bmatchallpartial%26N%3D0%26Nty%3D1%22+class%3D%22endecaAll%22%3EAll+Results%3C%2Fa%3E

Just the Two of Us

Title: Just the Two of Us
Author: Will Smith
Illustrator: Kadir Nelson
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Press, 2001
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Picture Book
Age Range: K-2

Summary: This is a story written by Will Smith about becoming a father.
He talks about how much he loved his son when he was born and how he promised himself that he would be the best dad ever. With each page, the son gets
older and Smith stills talks about how he is trying to be the best dad and
how he would always be there for him.

Response: This book about made me cry. I didn't realize that the author was the famous Will
Smith. I loved seeing how scared he was when his son was born and how he
just loved him so much and how he would always be there for him. There's a
picture of Will Smith and his family on the back of the book but it was quite
a few years ago when it was taken. I didn't really know what this book was about when I checked it out but I loved it. I'm sure that his son loves reading
this book, knowing it was written to him. The illustrations are by Kadir Nelson and they're wonderful. Some words are bigger and emphasized to show how important
they are.

Teaching Ideas: This book does really have a lot of teaching ideas but I think children would love to hear it. Children could write what their parents say to
them or things that them and their parents do together. This book is sort of
a long poem so maybe the children could write their own poem about them and their parents. They may also pretend to be a parent to
their pet and write a poem to them. This would be a good discussion book for class. This may also be good for children in which their parents spilt up to understand that they still love them.

The Talking Eggs

Title: The Talking Eggs
Author: Robert D. San Souci
Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney
Publisher and date of Publication: Dial Books for Young Readers, 1989
Genre: Folktale, Traditional Literature, Picture Book
Age Range: K-4th grade
Awards: Caldecott Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Award

Summary: This is a Cinderella version in which Blanche is the sister treated badly and Rose is the spoiled sister. Blanche has to do everything but one day she meets an old lady. She promises the lady that she'll do what she asked and won't make fun of her. Because Blanche followed through, the lady tells her to go out back and pick the eggs that say "take me." She through them over her shoudler like she was asked and they turned into jewels and wonderful dresses. Her jealous sister tries the same thing but doesn't follow orders and ends up with snakes and flying insects.

Response: I didn'r recognize this story when I checked it out from the library but when I started reading it, I realized that I had heard this story before. I think it's wonderful that Blanche got the good stuff and Rose didn't. This would be good to read to children with the moral that if you do that right thing and do what you are asked, you will be rewarded. This story makes you happy that it ended up the way it should because at the beginning, you feel sorry for poor Blanche.

Teaching Ideas: This story has so many ideas to teach with. This could be incoporated in for older children studying the different versions of folktales, mainly Cinderella. At Easter, you may even read this and put "good" and "bad" things in the eggs and give children directions what which eggs to pick to see what they would do. Dress up the "bad" eggs and make the ugly eggs have the "good" things. I would do this before you read the story, so they don't know what you are doing. Children could write what they would have done or a time when they didn't make a good decision.

Rosa

Title: Rosa
Author: Nikki Giovanni
Illustrator: Bryan Collier
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Inc., 2005
Genre: Biography, Picture Book
Age Range: 1st-5th grade
Awards: Caldecott Honor Book, Coretta Scott King Award

Summary: This is a different take on the Rosa Parks story. It starts with Rosa, working as a seamstress, sewing everyone's Christmas outfits. She leaves work and thinks about making her husband, Raymond, a meatloaf for supper, which is his favorite. She sits in the neutral section of the bus but the bus driver tries to make her get up for a white person to sit down and when she refuses, he calls the police. She gets arrested and the last part of the book talks about how that one statement made by Rosa Parks started a movement to stop segregation. Blacks start walking instead of riding the bus and the book ends by saying that it had been a year and blacks were still walking, to prove a point.

Response: I like this book, although I think it would be better for mid to upper elementary students because of the story. Younger elementary might not follow that this is Rosa Parks. I think that illustrations are wonderful. They look so life-like and dark to show the distress and frustration in Rosa's heart. I like the different point of view that this book shows, that most students have never heard before. I've heard the Rosa Parks story but never from her point of view. This lets you see how frustrating it was to be a black person and what they went through. This book would be good for children to hear to understand the story from something besides a history book.

Teaching Ideas: Scholastic.com has all kinds of lesson plans to use with the Rosa Parks story. Older children could pretend they are newspaper reporters and they have to report this story. How would they present the information? Younger students may just talk about what it must have been like to be Rosa Parks and what the world might be like if she didn't do what she did. Children could learn that you must stand up for what you believe. Children could talk about a time when they stood up for what they believed in.

What Do You Do When Something Wants To Eat You?

Title: What Do You Do When Something Wants To Eat You?
Author and Illustrator: Steve Jenkins
Publisher and date of Publication: Houghton Mifflin, 1997
Genre: Informative Text, Picture Book
Age Range: K-3rd Grade

Summary: This book shows unusual animals and how they defend themselves. The illustrations are wonderful and you feel like you are there, with the animal shown. The right side of the page shows the animal and names it and when you turn the page, it shows and tells you how they defend themselves. At the end, it asks the reader, "what would you do if something wanted to eat you?"

Response: This book was interesting. I think young children would love to see
the unusual animals because I'm sure most children have never even heard of some
of those animals in the book, because I haven't. Children will be entertained while learning a lof of interesting facts. Most children are used to the common animals and the common ways to defend themselves but the animals in here run across water, blows up like a prickly ball, and a snake's tail breaks off if something in biting it. This would be a good book to incorporate into science class or a science fair. The pictures are wonderful and because they use the whole page, it makes you feel as if you are right there with it. Young children would enjoy the illustrations and older children would learn interesting facts.

Teaching Ideas: As I said before, this book would be good to use during science class. Children could pick an animal and draw/tell how the defend themselves. Also, they could pretend they are being eaten, and how they would defend themselves. Children could play the book out and pretend they are the animals in the book and pretend to eat each other.

If A Bus Could Talk

Title: If A Bus Could Talk
Author and Illustrator: Faith Ringgold
Publisher and date of Publication: Scholastic Inc., 1999
Genre: Biography, Picture Book
Age Range: K-4th grade

Summary: This story starts with a young girl waiting on the bus for school. When it gets there, she notices it doesn't look like her usual bus. Then it starts talking. It tells her the whole story of Rosa Parks and the girl finds out that the bus is the actual bus that Rosa rode on. By the time the girl gets to school, she knows everything about Rosa Parks.

Response: I think this book is wonderful to read to young children that don't know anything about Rosa Park or anyone in the civil rights movement. I learned so much from reading this book and because it is a picture book, young children will be able to hold their attention more. Children will also like that the bus talks. They will learn alot and not even realize it because they are amazed that the bus is telling them all of the information. It also starts with a little girl getting on the bus. Most children have rode the bus to or from school so they would be able to identify with it. The illustrations are also so bright and colorful children will love them. I would love to read this book to my class one day to introduce people that have changed the world. You could also read this to older children because it has so much good and useful information.

Teaching Ideas: The ideas are endless with this book. It would be wonderful to read at the beginning of the civil rights unit. Since Scholastic published this book, their website, scholastic.com, has lesson plans for it. You could have older children write a biography of themselves from the point-of-view of the bus or another form of transportaion. You could also make
the classroom into a "bus" and pretend someone is the bus driver and tell
everyone about Rosa Parks or anyone you are studying in class.

Bio-Poem: If A Bus Could Talk

 
http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9433715&page=1
http://www.rosaparks.org/bio.html

Rosa
Fearless, Determined, Passionate, and Bold
Wife of Raymond Parks, Sister of Sylvester McCauley, Daughter of James and Leona McCauley, Friend of MLK Jr.
Lover of sewing, youth activities, and non-violent protests!
Who feels angry, motivated, and determined
Who finds happiness in changing the segrated world forever
Who needs nothing but determination to complete this task
Who gives her own freedom to accomplish her goal
Who fears a segregated world, and not completing school
Who would like to see her children grow up with freedom to do anything
Who enjoys family, friends, and SITTING on the bus
Who like to wear _handcuffs in jail___ when _it is to prove her point_
Resident of heaven...she died on October 24, 2005
Parks