Featured Books
Big
Red Barn
Big Book Edition
Also available in a hardcover
edition, as a book-and-cassette
set, as an easy-to-handle board
book, and in Spanish as
El
Gran Granero Rojo.
By
the big red barn
In
the great green field,
There
was a pink pig
Who
was learning to squeal.
Come visit the barn on
a night and day when the children are away, and let Brown's gentle rhythms
transport you to the barn and meadow seen through the eyes of the animals
who live there.
A peaceful and evocative
story written by Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight
Moon, and newly illustrated by Felicia Bond, illustrator of If
You Give A Pig A Pancake.
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Big
Red Barn
I share this book right
after reading Mrs. Wishy-washy, as it sets
a quiet tone that contributes to discussions about the farm and farm animals.
This soothing story is perfect for after-lunch storytime and is a nice
contrast to many of the noisier farm stories we'll read later.
Follow
Up Activities
K-W-L
Chart
Build on prior knowledge
by making a chart that shows what your students know about life on the
farm. Be sure to add a column of things they want to find out.
Graphing
Have You Been to the
Farm?
I made a versatile Farm
Graph Chart that can be used throughout my Down on
the Farm unit. It's a sheet of laminated manila tagboard,
decorated with a Red Barn notepad sheet at the top and columns below.
There's room at the top
to write a daily question (use dry erase or overhead markers). I
often use cute thematic post-it notes or die-cuts for the children to chart
their answers.
Sample
Daily Graphing Questions:
*
Have you ever milked a cow?
*
Which color horse do you like best?
*
Have
you ever seen a piglet?
*
Did
you see the rabbits at the County Fair?
*
Can
you crow like a rooster?
*
Which
milk product do you like best, cheese or ice cream?
*
What is your favorite farm animal?
Language
Experience Chart
Use this writing frame:
"A _____ lives on the
farm," said _____.
Pocket
Chart
Who Lives On a Farm?
~~~
Who
Lives on a Farm?
An original story by
Victoria Smith
This is the perfect follow
up to the Language Experience Chart. We build it in the Pocket Chart a
day or two after reading the Big
Red Barn Big Book. Use clip art or Ellison die-cut
animals and barns to make it a rebus story, for easy tracking and reading.
Read
Aloud Book
And
Individual Student Books
Who Lives On a Farm?
By
Victoria Smith
"OLD" Cover used
in my classroom
see *note*
below
Use clip art or Ellison
die-cut animals to illustrate this easy-to-read book to share with your
class. You can also make individual books for student book boxes
or to send home to show off their reading skills. First and second
graders enjoy drawing the animals or making them from construction paper.
 Emergent
Reader
Blackline
Masters
By Victoria Smith
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A
3 book set that includes:
*
Color Bears *
*
Who Lives On A Farm? *
*
Shape, Shape, What Do You See? *
Emergent Readers designed
to teach CAP (Concepts About Print), Colors and Color Words, Shapes, and
High Frequency Words. Includes suggestions for extending each
book.
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11 Pages
Illustrate with Ellison die cut shapes
or cut-and-paste clip art (bear clip art included).
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10 Pages
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12 Pages
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Pig
Stories
If
You Give A Pig A Pancake
Big Book Edition
Also available in
hardcover.
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If
You Give A Pig A Pancake
I
read this book after Big
Red Barn, because both books have the same illustrator, Felicia Bond.
The
class is already familiar with other books that feature Bond's illustrations,
including our favorite -- If
You Give A Mouse A Cookie -- which we also re-visit during our
Down on the Farm unit ... after all, mice are farm animals, too.
Follow
Up Activities
K-W-L
Charts
Make
three large pigs from bulletin board paper ... one pink, one white, one
light brown, because pigs come in many different colors.
Use
one pig to list things the kids already know about pigs, another to list
the things they want to know, and the last one to list new things they
learn.
Illustrator
Study
Compare
Bond's illustrations in Big
Red Barn, If
You Give a Pig a Pancake, If
You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and any other books you already own by this
illustrator.
Story
Maps
Make a Story Map for If
You Give A Pig A Pancake, showing that the story is a "Circle
Story" that ends up where it began. Do the same for any of the other
"If You Give A ..." stories you read.
Lift
The Flap Book
Make a Lift-the-Flap book
for each student to illustrate their favorite parts of the story, or to
show what happened at the beginning, middle, and the end of the story.
Make the individual books
by folding a sheet of 12x18 construction paper in half lengthwise, then
folding it in thirds or quarters. Open until it has only the original
fold (and is now 6x18) and cut on the fold lines up to the crease (cut
the top layer only). Writing can go on top or below the flap, with
corresponding student illustrations.
Word
Families / Working With Words
Brainstorm a list of words
that rhyme with /pig/. For more advanced
students, make a list of words that contain /ig/.
I
do the rest of these making words activities in the pocket chart or with
magnetic letters:
Change the onset letter
to make new words, i.e., big, wig, etc. Change the final letter to
make new words, i.e., pit, pin.
Experiment with the new
words you've made, and see how they change if you change the vowel.
Once I've modeled these
activities with a particular book or word family, my students love to do
them independently using their own alphabet cards in our big pocket charts,
or at the ABC Magnets Literacy Center (on the side of a filing cabinet,
or on a pie pan or cookie sheet).
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Favorite
Pig Stories
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Pig
Out!
The KinderKids LOVED this silly Rebus
story!
I read it on Wednesday, to get us in
the mood for making our TLC Pigs for our Mrs. Wishy-washy Big Book.
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Five
Little Piggies
This is a roll-on-the-floor and giggle
book that my class adores. I save it to read at special times, like
the end of the day or right before recess, because the kids literally roll
around laughing at these short-and-silly stories based on the familiar
"This Little Piggy Went to Market" rhyme. Highly recommended.
Also available in a hardcover
edition.
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Mini
Author Study Companion Book
Piggies
By Audrey Wood
In this new twist on the
This
Little Piggy Went to Market rhyme, there are ten little piggies
playing on a child's fingers and doing all sorts of silly tricks.
Don Wood's illustrations are wonderful, and each Piggy has it's own unique
personality. This oversized book is an outstanding edition to your
collection of piggy prose!
Pair Piggies
with the Woods' classic naptime tale, The
Napping House, for a mini-author study on bedtime books -- don't forget
to compare the illustrations and the use of light in the two stories!
Piggies is also available as an easy-to-handle board
book, and in collectible hardcover
edition.
Mini
Author Study Companion Book
The
Napping House
By Audrey Wood
There is a house,
a napping house,
where everyone is sleeping.
"Everyone" includes a
snoring granny, a dreaming child, a dozing dog, a snoozing cat, a slumbering
mouse, and a wakeful flea that gets everyone up and moving!
This classic Audrey Wood
tale about a houseful of nimble nappers on a rainy afternoon is an all-time
favorite with children of all ages. The KinderKids love looking for
the little mouse in each picture, and watching the room brighten as the
sun comes out after the storm. The illustrations are superb, slowly
shifting from slumbering blues to shimmering yellows and golds.
This inexpensive board
book edition is a great companion to your other bedtime board books.
Also available in a handsome hardcover
edition, in a Big
Book edition for Shared Reading, and on an audio
cassette narrated by Lynn Redgrave.
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More Farm Stories
Plus
Info on How I Build A Unit
This
section is either going to be kind of fun or kind of confusing :o)
When
I was working on this part of the page the other night -- and thinking
about the changes I'm planning to the "old" online version of my Down
On The Farm unit -- things started coming together very quickly, and
in less than an hour I had mentally put together some new "mini themes"
for the unit.
And
while I was doing all that work -- on the computer and in my head -- I
was also trying to write down the process I was going through as I selected
stories and books and began making connections between them that I hadn't
deliberately set out to make. That's one of the best parts about
creating lessons and units, the part where you take a look at what you
already have and think about new ways you can put the materials together.
I'm
going to add the books more-or-less in the order I chose them a few nights
ago, along with the notes I typed at that time. Hopefully it will
make as much sense to you now as it did to me then.
Farm Animal Board Books
By Sandra Boynton
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Moo,
Baa, LaLaLa!
Delightful silliness the KinderKids
love! Publisher Simon Schuster says: "Artist Sandra Boynton
is back and better than ever with completely redrawn versions of her multi-million
selling board books. These whimsical and hilarious books, featuring nontraditional
texts and her famous animal characters ... are sure to educate and
entertain children of all ages."
Under $4
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Barnyard
Dance
Another farm favorite board book from
Sandra Boynton! Publisher's Weekly says: "Farm animals dance
a boisterous, breathless, knee-slapping reel called, with great panache,
by a fiddle-playing cow: ``Bow to the horse. / Bow to the cow. / Twirl
with the pig if you know how.'' These are billed as "baby books"
but my KinderKids have practicaly worn the print off the pages. Highly
recommeded!
Under $6
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Going
To Bed Books
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Baby's
First Library, A Three Book Set
By Margaret Wise Brown
Sturdy board book copies
of my three favorite stories by this fabulous children's author:
Big
Red Barn
Goodnight
Moon
The
Runaway Bunny
All three of these were
favorites with my own sons before they learned to walk, and when they visit
my classroom (they're 12 and almost-15 now) they love to read these to
the KinderKids!
The patterns, rhythms,
and rhymes are captivating, and the stories themselves are just right for
young children.
20% off the publisher's
price, perfect for your classroom or as a special gift for any child ~
this is my current favorite baby shower present.
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The
Going to Bed Book
By Sandra Boynton
The moon is high.
The sea is deep.
They rock
and rock
and rock
to sleep.
A big boatful of animals
watches the sun go down and then prepares for bed.
They take a bath ("in
one big tub"), find pajamas, brush their teeth, do exercises up on deck
(imagine an elephant jumping rope, a moose lifting weights, and a pig doing
handstands), and finally say good night.
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Reflections
On How I Build A
New
Thematic Unit
When I'm putting together
new materials for a thematic unit, my mind is literally all over the place,
making the kinds of connections we hope our students will make, weaving
seemingly different materials together in new ways,and looking at the world
-- I hope -- through children's eyes.
What I "saw" just now was
a mini-unit-within-a-unit -- a Going
To Bed Theme inside the Down on the Farm
Theme -- that gives you time and space to do some author study work on
Margaret Wise Brown and Sandra Boynton.
Why not extend Big
Red Barn's nighttime ending to encompass Goodnight
Moon and The
Runaway Bunny (which ends with bunny asleep and contented), and follow
them with Boynton's The
Going to Bed Book? All four stories deal with bedtime rituals,
something our students know a LOT about.
Numerous follow
up activities come to mind, including individual student Bedtime
Books, a class Big Book, building a bedtime word bank for Writer's Workshop
time, bringing favorite stuffed animals to school to share and graph (by
type, color, size, etc.), and even a pajama party to celebrate reading,
like I did with the KinderKids before Winter Break. Our party had
a G is for Gingerbread theme ... your
party could be about animals or take place inside a make-believe barn decorated
with life-size animal figures on the walls to help set the mood.
Let your imagination take
you and your students somewhere new and have fun with it, enjoying the
rich language experiences and combination of fun, fact, and fantasy you'll
share.
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More
"Going To Bed" Books
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A
Child's Good Night Book
By Margaret Wise Brown
1944
Caldecott Honor Book
Called "the first of the
true goodnight books," this soothing and rhythmic board book explores a
world of things getting ready for bed ... sleepy bunnies, sleepy birds,
sleepy lambs, and sleepy children, plus kangaroos and pussycats, sailboats
and steam engines.
Another ideal story for
your Margaret Wise Brown Author Study and Mini Unit
on Going to Bed.
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Little
Donkey Close Your Eyes
By Margaret Wise Brown
. Wild young birds
that sweetly sing
Curve your heads
beneath your wing
Dark night covers
all the skies
Wild young birds
now close your eyes.
Another must-have board
book from Margaret Wise Brown. Originally copyrighted in 1959, this
new edition features illustrations by Ashley Wolff (illustrator of the
wonderful Miss
Bindergarten Books and Raffi's Baby
Beluga).
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Snoozers
7
Short Bedtime Stories for Lively Little Kids
Another terrific board
book of funny animal stories from Sandra Boynton. These stories are
great for filling those short teachable moments at the end of the day.
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Time
For Bed
By Mem Fox
It's time for bed, little
mouse, little mouse,
Darkness is falling all
over the house.
A charming board book
with a bedtime rhyme and lovely double page illustrations of mother and
baby animals snuggling down for the night.
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Featured
Professional Book
Mosaic
of Thought:
Teaching
Comprehension In A Reader's Workshop
By Ellin Keene & Susan Zimmermann
I've said it dozens -- if not hundreds
-- of times in the past two years ... this book has changed the way I teach
as well as the way I think about teaching and planning lessons and units.
Mosaic
of Thought reads like a good novel, and you're always waiting to see
what happens next. Keene and Zimmermann present well-rounded ideas
and actual classroom scripts and scenarios that teach you to model the
"think aloud" process that will help your students grow as readers, writers,
and thinkers.
Their explanations of current research
are easy to understand and show how to build background knowledge in your
students and create the bridges and learning environment necessary for
all students to succeed. Mosaic
of Thought is always on my Top 10 Must-Have Books for Teachers
list. Highly recommended.
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