Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. By: Peggy Parish. Illustrated by Lynn Sweat. (2004)

Amelia Bedelia is one of my all time favorite characters. She is such a sweet person, she always has the best intentions, but she will take everything that you say literally, and she doesn't seem to understand that words or phrases can have more than one meaning (colloquial). The situations she gets herself into will make anyone laugh. These books are also a great way to teach children about colloquial words. Many times children will not know what calling the roll is, or being a hand at singing, so this can open them up to more of our language that they may not hear everyday. Readers should use the illustrations to figure out what Amelia should be doing, and what Amelia actually ended up doing. In Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia, Amelia is mistaken as the new substitute teacher, and the laughs never end as she attempts to follow the days lesson plans. I have read this book so many times, and I still keep laughing. I read this with reading groups during my student teaching, and had a lot of fun with it, because I was having my own new teacher experience, so I could really relate to Amelia! It was a lot of fun!

About the Author: Peggy Parish

Genre: Humor, Fiction
Theme/Skill: Understanding synonyms and colloquialisms. Amelia Bedelia takes everything literally; read along to find out what Amelia Bedelia will do next and use the pictures to see what she is up to.
Grade Level: Kindergarten-3rd grade
Pre-reading activity: Have a reading group discussion on synonyms and  colloquialisms. Give students examples of words that have multiple means. Teach children to use context clues, and clues from the illustrations to understand which meaning of the word in intended. Give examples.

Post-reading activity: Students will work in a small group to review the book and to make a list of examples in which Amelia Bedelia misunderstood the meaning of something. Then give students a t-chart and on each side it should say "Amelia Bedelia calls the roll". Students should draw a picture on one side of what Amelia Bedelia was supposed to do, and on the other side draw a picture of what Amelia Bedelia thought she was supposed to do

Crocodaddy. By: Kim Norman. Illustrated by: David Walker. (2009)

Crocodaddy, by Kim Norman is a cute story about a little boy that is swimming with a crocodile, and he is the crocodile hunter. Only its not really a crocodile, its the crocodaddy. Its a really sweet story about a boy that is having a fun afternoon with his daddy. I love this story. I think of all the fun my son has with his daddy. Its a lot of fun to watch as Daddy becomes a child again while he plays with his little boy. While I am reading I can picture my husband as the Crocodady, and my son as the little boy. I love reading this book with my son, Jonathan, and he loves it too. He has such a special bond with my husband, and whenever there are stories or songs about a daddy and his little boy, my son gets really into it. It is so adorable!

Genre: fiction, humor

Theme/Skill: Family is important. Having fun with family

Grade Level: PreK-2

Pre-reading activity: Students should discuss in small groups activities they like to do in the summer. Do they like to go to the beach? On a hike? On vacation some place in particular? Students should then draw a picture of themselves doing their favorite summer time activity.

Post-reading activity: During rug time students will add to a family word web. They should talk about the best memory they have with someone in their family and it should be added to the word web. After students will go back to their seats and write about their special memory.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. By: Laura Numeroff. Illustrated by: Felicia Bond (1985)

I love the Mouse a Cookie series. We have every book in my home. We even have the  Mouse, Cookies and More Treasury,  which includes "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", "If You Give a Pig a Pancake", "If You Give a Moose a Muffin", "If You Take A Mouse to School", and also games, recipes and songs that go along with the stories. The Treasury also comes with a CD so that children can listen and read along at the same time, and listen to the songs. It is so cute!

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, is definitely my favorite of the series. I've read it so many times in my life that I think I can recite the book, without even looking at it. The book starts with "If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask you for a glass of milk..." and the book ends with "And chances are, if he asks for a glass of milk, he's going to want a cookie to go along with it".

Genre: Fiction

Theme/Skill: Students will practice cause and effect relationships. Students will also practice putting things in sequential order.

Grade Level:PreK-2

Pre-reading activity: Students will be working on sequential order. They will read scrambled directions on how to make cookies, and they will put them in order. (The directions will be simple like start the oven, cook the cookies in the oven, turn off the oven, etc).

Post-reading activity:  Students will cut out different lines from the book on a worksheet. They will have to decide what causes what. For example, 'If you give a mouse a cookie' will go before 'he'll ask you for a cup of milk'. Students will decide the order based on what they just read. Students will also be able to go back and read the book again to check their work!

The Kissing Hand. By: Audrey Penn. Illustrated by: Ruth E. Harper and Nancy M. Leak. (1993)

At my son's kindergarten orientation, his new kindergarten teacher gave each child, The Kissing Hand  by Audrey Penn. I had never read that book before. We took it home and read it, and it became totally clear why this was handed out to children going into kindergarten. In the story, Chester Raccoon does not want to go to school. He wants to stay home with his mommy and play with his friends, and play with his toys and play with his friends, and read his own books and swing on his swing. His mother explained to him that sometimes we do things we don't want to do, even if they seem scary at first. And she assured him that he would love school, once he started.She told him he would make new friends, and play with new toys and read new book, and swing on new swings. Then she taught Chester about the Kissing Hand. She kissed the palm of his hand, and told him that whenever he feels lonely and needs a little loving from home, he could press his hand that she had kissed to his cheek and think 'mommy loves you. mommy loves you'. And she said that kiss would jump up to his face and hill him with toasty warm thoughts. Before Chester went to school his mother kissed his hand, and then Chester surprised his mother and kissed her hand too, so she would also have a kissing hand. Then Chester happily ran off to school.

I loved this book! I actually read this again to Jonathan the night before his first night of kindergarten, and before he left we did the kissing hand together. It was adorable, and he got right on that bus, and was a big boy and went to school. I don't know if the kissing hand actually helped Jonathan, but it was definitely a special moment on his first day of kindergarten! So cute!!



Genre: Fiction, character education, first day of school.

Theme/Skill: Students will learn that it is okay to leave home and go to school. Its okay to try new things, even if your scared, because you may learn that you like it!

Grade Level: PreK-2

Pre-reading activity: How did you feel on your first day of school? Have a class discussion about students' feelings on the first day of school.

Post-reading activity: Write a letter to Chester telling him what he will like about school.

The Snow Bear. By Miriam Moss. Illustrated by: Maggie Kneen.

The Snow Bear is a special book in my house. We always read it during the Christmas holidays. Jonathan loves it, and it's something I love to read. This year, at Jonathan's first grade classroom Christmas Party, I read The Snow Bear to his class. All the kids loved it, and many of them told me they also had this book at home, and liked to read it in the winter time.

The Snow Bear by Miriam Moss is a beautiful story about a little polar bear cub who is looking for his mother. He gets help from other animals as he looks. The animals help him build a snow bear. In the evening, all the other animals' mothers call them to come home, but not the little white bear cubs. He goes to sleep with the snow bear, and when he wakes up, his mother has found him. Its a beautiful story, and the picture by Maggie Kneen really help bring this story to life.

Genre: Fiction, character education

Theme/Skill: Be a good friend. Help others

Grade Level: PreK-2

Pre-reading activity: Small group discussion: Have you ever lost something very important to you? How did this make you feel? Did you ever find it? How did you find it?

Post-reading activity: The little bear lost his mother,and his friends helped him build a snow mother. He must have some great friends. What are some things you think would make a great friend? Students should have a copy of a word web. They should work with a partner to fill in what are characteristics of good friends.

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.