Cows in The Kitchen, By: June Crebbin. Illustrated by Katharine McEwen (1998)

Cows in the Kitchen, by June Crebbin is an adorable story about Tom Farmer and his farm animals where preschool and kindergarten students can practice phonemic awareness, and learn about parts of a story such as characters, setting and problem. The way this book is set up, students should be able to retell the story in a sequential manner using visual cues. In this cute children's story, the rhythmic verses follow the pattern of skip to my lou. The story uses repetition of beginning sounds and uses animal noises to help the children learn to read and to keep them engaged. For example, "cows in the kitchen, moo, moo, moo", "pigs in the pantry", "ducks in the dishes", etc. I really enjoyed reading this book at home with my son. He had a lot of fun listening to it, and then reading it back to me. I made animal masks for a lesson plan I used, and had him use them while he was reading the story and he had a blast with them. I would not recommend this book above first grade because it is so simple, but it is great for children under 6!

http://www.amazon.com/Cows-Kitchen-June-Crebbin/dp/0763606456



About the Author: June Crebbin was born in Leicestershire, England in 1938 and still lives there today. At a very young age June loved to write. She began writing stories and poems in a red notebook she bought at the post office as a child. One of the stories she wrote was about a chesnut pony, and her school art teacher illustrated the book for her. As an adult she worked as a teacher, but she retired early to concentrate on writing. She has written over forty children's books, and has also written poetry. She loves horses and rides regularly.

http://www.walkerbooks.com.au/Authors_and_Illustrators/June-Crebbin

http://junecrebbin.ponymadbooklovers.co.uk/

Genre: Fiction, barnyard animals, onomonepeia, learning phonemic awareness

Theme/Skill: Students will identify story characters, setting and problems in a story. Students will retell the story in a sequential manner using visual cues. Students identify letters and phonemes in the beginning and ends of words.

Pre-reading Activity: Class discussion on animals and the sounds they make. Then students will talk specifically about farm animals, and they will try to predict which of these farm animals will be characters in the story.

Post-reading Activity: Students will perform Cows in the Kitchen, using animal masks. They will be able to retell the story in a sequential order with the help of visual cues.

Living Wild- Bats. By: Melissa Gish

Living Wild: Bats by Melissa Gish is a great information book on bats. It is full of engaging photographs and passages teaching readers so much about bats. I did a Unit Plan on bats during my student teaching experience. Our goal was to teach students about Bats, and show them that they are not scary vampires, but rather that they are very important part of our world. I would have loved to use this book during the unit. I was always looking for good books on bats so that children could do some of their own research on bats. 

Genre: Non Fiction, informational, Animals

Theme/Skill: Students will learn how to get information about animals from a nonfiction book.

Grade Level: 2-6

Pre-reading Activity: Teacher will take a poll of who in the class likes bats. Then there will be a class discussion about what students think they know about bats.

Post-reading Activity: Students should record three things that they learned from the book. They should share these three things with a partner.

Living Wild- Gorillas. By Melissa Gish

Living Wild: Gorillas by Melissa Gish is a wonderful information book filled with facts and photographs of gorillas. I enjoyed going through this book, because I do not know a lot about gorillas. For example, I did not know that gorillas may live for 30 to 50 years, and that they reach maturity between the ages of 10 to 13 years. Female will begin mating around the age of 10, and will generally give birth once every 3 to 4 years. The Females are allowed to breed with only the silverback gorillas of their troop. When the blackbacks reach full maturity, and grow silver hair, they leave their family troops and gather their own troops of unrelated females. The gorillas will not mate with siblings or with unrelated gorillas they have grown up with. This is fascinating to me, because I had not known any of that. The gorillas seem like a very sophisticated animal. I really enjoyed going through this book.

Genre: Nonfiction, Informational, Animals

Theme/Skill: Students will learn to research gorillas using informational text and photographs.

Grade Level: 2-6

Pre-reading Activity: Students should pick an animal they want to research. Students will get into groups of 4. This group will have picked gorillas. Students will write a list of things they think they know about gorillas and things that they want to find out. Then students will read together.

Post-reading Activity: In the same groups, students will record things they learned about gorillas. They will decide what they think was important and interesting and will share with the other groups in the class who researched other animals.

Night Boat to Freedom. By: Margot Theis Raven. Illustrated by: E.B. Lewis (2008)

I read  Night Boat to Freedom by Margot Theis Raven for the first time in my children's literature class. I asked the professor if I could borrow the book, because I just had to add this to my blog! What a great book! Christmas John is the main character. He was born into slavery and raised by his Granny Judith. Granny Judith had been taken from Africa and brought into slavery in the United States. She had been tricked by a red cloth, and for her the pretty color of red, now had turned the sad color of slavery. Granny has Christmas John help people escape out of slavery. When he returns she asks him what color freedom was tonight. She is asking what color they were wearing when they became free. She adds that color to a quilt. She tells Christmas John that when there are only two spots left on the quilt, that's when they are going to escape to freedom. Eventually, Christmas John helps more and more people become free until there are only two spots left on the quilt. Now it is time for Granny Judith and Christmas John to become free. Finally they escape and become free. Its a beautiful story. I loved it. It was so inspirational.

Genre:  historical non fiction

Theme/Skills: Students will learn about freeing the slaves and the underground railroad. Understanding characters.

Grade Level: 3-6

Pre-reading activity:  Teacher should show the map of the free states and the slave states. Students should have a map of  the United States at this time period, and color in the slave states red and the free states blue.

Post-reading activity: Small group discussion: How did you feel about Christmas John? About Granny Judith? Teacher should direct conversation and see where students take it. How do you think Christmas John felt when he was finally free? How do you think Granny Judith felt when she was finally free? What else do you think about the book?

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. By: Kadir Nelson (2008)

I am not a huge baseball fan, but my husband is, my father is and my brother is. Therefore I have grown up around baseball. I have been to the Hall of Fame many times, and I have been to and watched on TV countless numbers of baseball games. I have learned quite a bit along the way. I really enjoyed reading this book. I learned so much about history. It was fascinating to me, and I kept wanting to keep reading and keep reading even though it is much longer than you would expect a children's book to be. I think you don't even notice its long; it's like a really good movie. When its over and see what time it is, you cannot believe the movie was so long, because it just seemed to fly by while you were watching it.

I found some great information on the book on Kadir Nelson's website and at the website for We Are the Ship and I have added it below:

It took Kadir Nelson almost eight years to prepare and get this book together! He spent seven years researching, writing an oral narrative and creating handsome paintings with the intention of including them in the brilliantly illustrated tribute, “WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” which is dedicated to the preservation of the history of the Negro Baseball Leagues. With a helping hand from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas city, Nelson was able track down former Negro League players, interview them and piece together original stories to help color some of Negro League baseball's forgotten past. Nelson traveled to museums, and found old photographs to prepare. Using an "Everyman" player as his narrator, Kadir Nelson tells the story of Negro League baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947.

**Traveling exhibit of the original paintings of We Are the Ship.  Thirty-three paintings, thirteen sketches and educational materials from the book, We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, by Kadir Nelson. June 01, 2009 - January 27, 2013

http://www.kadirnelson.com/

http://wearetheship.com/

 Genre: Historical non fiction
Theme/Skills: Students will learn about the history of Negro Baseball Leagues.
Grade Level: 2-6


Pre-reading Activity: Small group discussion: How many of you like baseball? Play baseball? Have seen a baseball game? Know something about baseball? Have you ever heard of the Negro League Baseball? What do you think this is?

Post-reading Activity:  Students should write in their journal about what they got from the book. How did it make them feel? What did they learn?