Goodnight Moon

 Goodnight Moon

Written by Margaret Wise Brown

Illustrated by Clement Hurd

Published in 1947

Grade Level: 1st grade

Synopsis: Goodnight Moon is a well liked and well known children's book.  It is a wonderful example of a bedtime story.  "Author Susan Cooper writes that the book is possibly the only "realistic story" to gain the universal affection of a fairy-tale, although she also noted that it is actually a "deceptively simple ritual" rather than a story" (Wikipedia, 2011).  So many households experience similar nights.  That is why the story has gained popularity throughout the years.  The book focuses on a rabbit who says goodnight to everything around him; "Goodnight room. Goodnight moon.  Goodnight cow jumping over the moon.  Goodnight light, and the red balloon..." 

Theme/Skill: The story of Goodnight Moon opens up many pathways of teaching that teachers could follow.  For instance, teachers could use the book to activate students' prior knowledge (relate the activity of going to bed to their own lives), and teach them the similarities and differences between them and the bunny in the story.  A teacher could also choose to teach students about rhyming words, setting, or fairytales. 

Pre-reading activity: Introduce the title.  Have the students predict what they think the story might be about.  Ask them why they say that/what makes them think that.  This will get students thinking about their thought process.  Introduce the author and the illustrator to the students.  Make sure that they are clear about the roles of each.  Show the cover of the book and talk about the setting; where is this story going to take place? What time of day might it be?  Explain the basic plot of the story, which is that a bunny takes a long time to go to sleep because he spends so much time saying good night.  Take a picture walk and allow the students to point out objects in each picture that the bunny may say goodnight to. 

Post-reading activity: The author of Hubbard's Cupboard has many wonderful suggestions for teachers about a plethora of children's books.  The website suggests an entire unit based on Brown's Goodnight Moon.  Ask students if they recognized part of a nursery rhyme in the story.  Introduce the companion nursery rhyme 'Hey, Diddle, Diddle.'  Read the poem aloud and have students share the things in this poem that could never really happen (cat playing a fiddle, cow jumping over the moon, dog laughing, dish and spoon running).  Of course, these things are all personification, yet first graders do not yet need to know such a term.  The teacher should then reread 'Hey, Diddle, Diddle' and let students enjoy the rhyme.

Assessment: This lesson would be appropriate for first graders who are at the age when it is important for them to build the skill of sentence building and vocabulary.  That is why students will be informally assessed on their ability to form complete sentences when sharing answers. 

Reflection: In a book review about Goodnight Moon, writer Josh Hanagarne says better than I could why this is such an amazing book.  He says, "the book sounds like going to sleep.  I’m not sure how else to say it.  By the time I read it, my voice gets quieter and quieter, without me realizing it.  I have no idea if Brown had this intention, but my belief is that Goodnight Moon was written as much for wiggly toddlers as for adults who are winding down for the night" (Book Review, July, 13, 2010).  Clearly Margaret Wise Brown has succeeded in writing a book that will be loved and read at bedtime for generations to come.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Written by Judi Barrett

Illustrated by Ron Barrett

Published in 1978

Grade Level: 3rd grade

Synopsis: The book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs begins in the morning around the breakfast table.  Some chaos occurs when pancakes accidentally go flying across the room.  Inspired by the events at the breakfast table, Grandpa tells his grandchildren the "best tall-tale bedtime story he'd ever told."  He tells them a story about a town called Chewandswallow.  In this town, food and beverages come from the sky.  Sometimes a pea soup fog covered the town and other times it rained tomato soup while toast fell from the sky.  The people had all they could ever want until one day the weather took a turn for the worse.  The sky began dropping too much food.  There was no where to put the extra food and homes were being destroyed by the large falling foods.  The people of Chewandswallow could not stay there any longer, so they built rafts out of stale bread and peanut butter and set sail for a new land.  After hearing the bedtime story the children go to sleep and wake in the morning to find that the sun looks like a pat of butter atop a mountain of mashed potatoes, which is actually a snow-covered hill. 

Theme/Skill: The contents of this story could be used as a supplementary text for a weather unit in which the teacher could introduce students to the various forms of precipitation.  Connecting literature to science is a useful teaching strategy. 

Pre-reading activity: Introduce the term precipitation.  It may seem obvious that students will be able to speak about common weather patterns, yet they may not know that the rain and snow that they see fall from the sky is called precipitation.  Show the students images of various types of precipitation and then have them work with the child next to them to come up with what they think precipitation is.  The teacher will ask students to share their definitions and together, with guidance from the teacher, the students will form a refined definition for the new word, which generally means any form of water that falls to the earth from the atmosphere.

Post-reading activity: Allow students the chance to identify what they thought about the story.  Have them identify what items fell from the sky in Chewandswallow.  This should lead into instruction precipitation.  Introduce the terms freezing rain, sleet, and hail to students.  Have stations set up in which students will travel in groups from station to station and learn about precipitation by reading age appropriate articles (perhaps from Time for Kids or children's books about weather).  Other stations will include tools for measuring precipitation, while other stations will give information about the amount of precipitation that falls in different parts of the country and the world.  Students will work together to find the information they need and find the answers to the questions in their weather packets. 

Assessment: Students will be graded on their ability to work with their classmates in small groups.  Students will assess their own behavior and participation in the group as well as complete a group assessment at the end of the activity. 

Reflection: Judi and Ron Barrett have created an imaginative story about a unique land where food falls from the sky.  The story could stand alone as could the illustrations, but together they create a world of imagination and creativity.  The story is entertaining and the illustrations bring the words to life.  I don't think that children will be the only readers to fall in love with the story.  Children will be engaged by its silliness and unique page setup, while adults are sure to enjoy the subtle humor. 

The Year You Were Born

A Day-by-Day Record of 1987: The Year You Were Born

Compiled by Jeanne Martinet

Illustrated by Judy Lanfredi

Published in 1993

Grade Level: 6th-8th grade

Synopsis: The Year You Were Born is exactly what it says it is; a day-by-day record of the year you were born.  This particular book is about 1987, but Tambourine Books also published books for 1981-1989 as well.  The front of the book includes some brief facts from the 1987 U.S Almanac such as the number of births and deaths in the United States, households with television sets, the top crop, and number of children's books sold.  The book also includes interesting or important facts from each day of the year.  It includes birth dates and facts about well known people throughout history.  For example, "Who else was born in May?  John F. Kennedy.  U.S. President, 1961-63.  The youngest man to be elected president, he was also the 4th president to be assassinated."  Nearly every fact has an accompanying illustration that represents that fact. 

Theme/Skill: Although the information in the book is older than students in school today, there are still relevant and important skills to be learned from The Year You Were Born.  Students could learn about timelines and chronological order; understanding progression as well as cause and effect; wonderful for Social Studies class.  With this book, students could also be instructed in the purpose of research and where to look to find information; relevant to research in all subject areas. 

Pre-reading activity: The teacher could introduce the book to the class; what's in it and how it was compiled.  To expand upon that, the teacher should ask the students why someone would create a book like The Year You Were Born, how it could be used, why it is important to organize information in this way.  It would also be important to define the terms 'fact' and 'opinion.'  Students should be able to identify the difference between the two as well as what each type of data tells you, and where they are commonly found (i.e-encyclopedia vs. a letter to the editor). 

Post-reading activity:  This is not a book that would be read cover to cover to students.  Have students write their birthdays on a slip of paper, drop those papers in a hat, and draw five to ten birthdays at random.  Read the students the facts from that day.  Some may need clarification while others lead to discussion.  If you are teaching an event in history, this book would be a great secondary text to show students a timeline and discuss its purpose.  Use events from the school year to create a timeline with students.  Have events from the year written on index cards and jumble the cards up.  Have a student read each event on the card to the rest of the class and then tape that even on the board.  With the help of students, put those events in chronological order.  The next step will be for students to organize ten to fifteen important events from what they have been learning about (i.e- the Industrial Revolution) onto a timeline.  They must include details; dates, names, places, outcome (cause and effect).

Assessment: The timelines will be graded on correctness and neatness.  Each event on the timeline will be worth four points (one point for date, one for location, one for correctness, and one for the effect it had on other events/people).  Students will be given a quiz that will test their ability to determine fact from fiction.  This quiz is not meant to trick the students, but rather to act as a precursor to the unit exam in which students will be tested, in large part, on specific facts.  Students will identify whether a statement is true or false and correct the false statements. 

Reflection: I remember getting this book for my birthday one year and turning the pages immediately to the day I was born.  It sparked my curiosity and I wanted to know what happened the day I was born.  Unfortunately, Tambourine Books did not continue to write books about each year.  I am sure that something could be found that is very similar.  As a reader, I see the restrictions of the book, but as an educator I see the possibilities.  It could undoubtedly be used in Social Studies, but in English Language Arts as well.  Perhaps the book could be used to give students context and background knowledge of a book that takes place during 1981-1989, one of the years that The Year You Were Born covers. 

Roxaboxen

Roxaboxen

Written by Alice McLerran

Illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Published in 1991

Grade Level: 3rd-4th grade

Synopsis: "On a hill on the southeast corner of Second Avenue and Eighth Street, in Yuma, Arizona, there is a place once known as Roxaboxen.  The events in this book really happened-to Alice McLerran's mother," Marian (Roxaboxen, 1992).  The story is told by a third person narrator who tells the story of Roxaboxen; how it came to be, the children who built it, and what they did there.  Roxaboxen is a place in the desert where a group of children build an imaginary village.  They build houses, set up roads, start businesses, and develop their own form of currency and government/rules.  The children use their imaginations to pretend they are driving cars or riding horses.  They built forts and fought wars; bandits versus girl scouts.  Eventually, the children grow up and leave Roxaboxen, but they never forget it.  They tell the stories of their adventures in Roxaboxen to their own children and their children's children.  

Theme/Skill: This book is a story about childhood and community.  The children in the story work well with one another.  There is no arguing or fighting.  All the children love Roxaboxen because they are able to be express themselves as individuals, while also working together to form their own special community.  Roxaboxen could be used as a way to teach students about community efforts, projects, and organization.  Students can be taught that each member of the community is important.

Pre-reading activity: Give the students a history of the word 'community.'  It is likely that all the students have hear the word before, but not in this way.  Break down the word to show the students the history and meaning of the word.  Roxaboxen is a community created by children.  Community comes from the French word for "to eat together."  Show students other words that have similar roots, such as company and companion.  (Idea borrowed from A lesson based on Roxaboxen).  Based on the level of the students, the teacher may include other vocabulary terms from the book such as ocotillo, amethyst, and whirling.  The following worksheet may be used: 

Post-reading activity: Before reading Roxaboxen aloud to students, be sure to make them aware of what similes and metaphors are.  The book is full of them and it is important for students to be able to identify and gather meaning from this type of figurative language.  Students can also work in groups after reading the book and develop index cards that cover the who, what, when, where, why of the characters and events.  Extra copies of the book will be needed. 

Assessment: McLerran's book lends itself nicely to lessons on history, science, and humanities.  Assessment will vary based on the focus of the teacher and the lessons. 

Reflection: Roxaboxen is, to this day, one of the best children's books that I have ever read.  Its story is enduring, creative, unique, yet relatable, and unforgettable.  It is a "celebration of the active imagination, of the ability of children to create, even with the most unpromising materials, a world of fantasy so real an dmultidimensional that it earns a lasting place in memory" (Roxaboxen, 1992).  As a child, I wanted to go to Roxaboxen.  I wanted to play like the kids in Roxaboxen did.  I wanted to build something like the kids in Roxaboxen.  I was not the only person who loved the story and images created by McLerran and Cooney.  This was also my parents' favorite book to read me.  Perhaps it brought them back to a simpler time, a time of joyous friendship, a time with no worries or responsibilities; childhood.  In fact, my father and I sat on the couch the night before I left for college and he read Roxaboxen to me.  As you can see, if you bought Roxaboxen it would not be a book that sat on the shelf collecting dust.  It would be a book that would be revisited again and again. 

Polar the Titanic Bear

 Polar the Titanic Bear

Written by Daisy Corning Stone Spedden

Illustrated by Laure McGaw

Published in 1994

Gravel Level: 3rd-5th grade

 

Synopsis: Margaretta "Daisy" Spedden had booked passage on the Titanic in April of 1912.  She was to travel with her husband, Frederic, and her son Douglas.  Douglas brought with him his most treasured belonging; that was Polar, his stuffed animal.  Years later, Daisy wrote Polar the Titanic Bear, a fictionalized version of her family's experiences on the Titanic.  She tells the story from the point of view of the bear.  It begins as Polar is being sewn together in a shop and then put on a shelf in F.A.O Schwartz, a famous toy store in New York City.  Polar is left on the shelves for weeks until a woman purchases him and gives him to her nephew as departing gift.  Polar, his master, and master's family set sail on the Caronia for Madeira, an island near Portugal.  This is their home for many months until the family returns to New York for the winter months and up to Bar Harbor, Maine for the summer.  For years Polar travel with Master and his family to many different interesting places around the world.  In the spring of 1912, they board the Titanic, the most luxurious ship of all time.  Together, Polar and Master explore the huge ship until one cold night the ship struck an iceberg and people had to be loaded onto the life boats.  Polar is lifted safely onto a life boat with Master and Master's mother and nurse.  The Carpathia comes and rescues the people from the life boats, but Polar is left behind.  Eventually, a sailor finds him and reunites him with his owner.  Polar is eternally grateful to be back in the arms of Douglas, his master and friend. 

Theme/Skill: The theme of the book is friendship and love, yet the book could be used to demonstrate to students the element of personification.  The book also lends itself effortlessly to the study of history and the Titanic.  The teacher should help students to see that complicated events or ideas, such as the sinking of the Titanic, can be easier to understand if they are fictionalized into a children's story. 

Pre-reading activity: Introduce the term 'personification' to students.  Ask them what the root word is.  They will notice that 'person' is at the root of the term.  Have them tell you what they think the word means until they form the correct definition.  Give them a worksheet that has ten sentences on it, several that use personification.  Give students time to read the sentences, but do not let them write anything yet.  Call on students individually to read the sentence and tell you if that sentence uses personification and why.  Tell them that a good way to remember personification is to think of animated Disney movies because they all use personification.  This activity will not take long.  The next topic to introduce should be the Titanic.  Show students images, video clips, and facts about the Titanic to help them understand and see the significance of this ship's place in history. 

Post-reading activity: Because the teacher has guided students' discussion throughout the reading of the story, students should be able to choose something from their own life that they have a similar connection to (like Polar and Douglas).  Students will be given a significant amount of time to write in their journals about a toy or inanimate object that they care for.  Within the next few days, students will conference with the teacher to refine their journal writing into a final copy.  Students will then choose a part from their writing that they want to share with the class and bring in the object/thing that they wrote about to share as well. 

Assessment: Students will be assessed on their ability to use personification in their own writing.  This may be a challenge to some students because this writing assignment requires students to write from perspective other than their own.  Students will be assessed on spelling, grammar, and punctuation as well their organization of plot.   

Reflection: Polar the Titanic Bear is told from the perspective of a stuffed animal.  As a child, this always fascinated me because I believed that when I was not looking my toys came to life.  I believed that they had thoughts and feelings of their own (I am sure that I was not alone in thinking these things).  This book is intriguing because it tells about the sinking of the Titanic from a perspective that has never been seen before.  As readers, we were not alive when the Titanic sank, but we have learned about it from other people's accounts and points of view.  We hear facts and hear stories from people who survived the crash and historians who have devoted their time to learning about Titanic.  How fascinating it is to read Spedden's account of the Titanic from the perspective of her son's treasured stuffed animal. 

Miss Rumphius

Miss Rumphius

Written and Illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Published in 1982

Grade Level: 2nd-3rd grade

Synopsis: Winner of the American Book Award, Miss Rumphius is a story about Alice Rumphius, otherwise known as the Lupine Lady.  Alice used to sit on her grandfather's knee and listen to stories of far off places.  As a result, Alice wanted to travel the world.  She wanted to live by the sea, just as her grandfather had done.  One night her grandfather tells her that there is a third thing that she must do.  He tells her that she must make the world a more beautiful place.  Alice nods her head, but she did not know yet what that could be.  Alice grew up and moved to a city far from the sea.  She worked as a librarian and people called her Miss Rumphius.  She visits a tropical island and meets the Bapa Raja and his wife.  She climbed tall mountains, traveled across deserts, rode on a camel in Egypt, and then went to make her home near the sea.  Every morning she watched the sun rise and thought how beautiful it was.  How can I make the world a more beautiful place she kept thinking.  One day, an idea hit her, she would plant lupines all over the countryside.  Some people called her That Crazy Old Lady.  At the end of the story when Alice is a very old woman she tells her great niece that she too must make the world a more beautiful place. 

Theme/Skill: The obvious theme of Miss Rumphius is to do good deeds and leave the world a better place than it was when you came into it.  The character of Alice has such good intentions to make the world a better place that she should be used as an example of of generosity and philanthropy. 

Pre-reading activity: The teacher could create a poster or Power Point presentation with the faces of people living in our modern world who are known for their good deeds.  Faces that students may recognize are Oprah, Mother Teresa, Bill Gates, John Wood, Bill and Hilary Clinton, and Brad Pitt.  (The 25 Best Givers is an article that the teacher could pull information from.  It may have to be reworded or condensed in order for students to understand it.)  Students will see what these people have in common, which will then lead to the introduction of the term philanthropy.  Based on the discussion about The 25 Best Givers, the students will come up with synonyms for the new vocabulary term.  After students seem to have a grasp on the term, ask them to predict how they think philanthropy will play a part in Miss Rumphius. 

Post-reading activity: While reading the book pause and discuss with students how Miss Rumphius was working alone, but as a member of a community.  What community job did she hold? How did she help people? When she traveled, did she become part of other communities?  These types of questions will increase understanding.  Talk about what a community is and what kinds of communities are in their own lives.  For instance, students may be a part of several communities such as a school community, a neighborhood community, a church community, a national community, etc.  Now have students brainstorm ideas for making their own community a better place.  This will eventually be something that the teacher and students do together. 

Assessment: Students will be informally assessed on their ideas for making the world a better place.  Each student will write their idea on a piece of paper and submit it to the teacher before the discussion.  This is to ensure that students are thinking about the problem and working on developing a solution. 

Reflection: Yet again Barbara Cooney has written a wonderful story about nature and the goodness of people.  This was one of my favorite books as a child and it still is to this day.  My parents must have seen the positive qualities in Cooney's books because their are about a dozen books on our shelves with her name attached to it as either an author, an illustrator, or both.  The story is one that a parent can enjoy reading with their child or a teacher with their students.  The book lends itself nicely to a variety of teaching ideas, but more importantly its message may inspire young readers to somehow make the world a better place.

Lupines like the ones planted by Miss Rumphius

The Little Match Girl

The Little Match Girl

Written by Hans Christian Andersen

Illustrated by Rachel Isadora

Published in 1987

Grade Level: 2nd-4th

Synopsis: This version of The Little Match Girl is an interpretation Hans Christian Andersen's classic tale published in 1845.  It is about a young girl who wonders the streets alone trying to sell matches.  Most days, the little girl sells no matches and is left tired and starving.  One day, she loses her shoes that had once been worn by her mother so she is left to walk barefoot in the cold snow.  She decides that it is best not to go home, for if she does her father will most certainly beat her for selling no matches.  Instead of going home she curls up in outside corner of a house and decides to light a match to warm her hands.  When she does this she has a vision that she is sitting in front of a big stove.  Before she can warm her feet by the fire the match goes out and the stove disappears.  The girl lights a second match and while it is burning the vision of a wonderful New Year's Eve dinner appears to her.  The roast goose and the entire table of food disappears when the match burns out.  When the little girl lights a third match a beautiful lighted Christmas tree appears before her with the most beautiful decorations that she has ever seen.  As she reaches out to touch one of the ornaments, the match goes out and the tree disappears.  Just then, the girl looks up in the sky and sees a shooting star, which meant that someone is dying.  "When a star falls, a soul is going up to God," is what her grandmother used to tell her.  The girl lights a forth match and in the light of the match appears her grandmother.  The little girl begs her grandmother to take her with her because she knows that as soon as the match goes out that her grandmother will disappear.  Her grandmother scoops her up in her arms and together they soar into the sky where there is no more pain, hunger, or pain, just light and joy. 

Theme/Skill: With young students it may not be appropriate or necessary to talk about death or God as they are mentioned in the story.  Perhaps it would be more relevant and age appropriate to talk to students about weather, feelings, time period, and chronological order instead.

Pre-reading activities: Show the students the picture in the book.  Allow them to predict what they think will happen next and infer meaning from the images.  Write down their predictions so that they can refer to them during the reading of the story.  Talk to students about weather; seasons, rain, snow, hot, cold, and what people typically wear depending on the weather.  Bring this up again as you are reading to point out to students what the little match girl is wearing and how it might effect her physically and emotionally.  For younger students you may have a laminated cut out doll of the little match girl character along with clothing.  Have the students dress the girl so that she is warm. 

Post-reading activities: The teacher should ask students comprehension questions that will spark students' thinking.  Not only will this help students to better understanding the various elements that make up the story, but also build their ability to ask these questions on their own when reading.  Why does the little girl have matches?  Why are matches important?  What do they represent?  Students need to recognize the importance of the matches and their representation/symbolism of light, warmth, goodness, and peace.  This may lead into a lesson on fire safety.  At the end, show Disney's version of The Little Match Girl. 

Assessment: Students will be informally assessed on the character webs that they make about the main character.  After previewing the book, discussing, listening to the story, and watching the short film version, the students will write whether or not they believe that the visions that the little girl saw were real or only her imagination.  Students will have to provide rationale and reasoning to support their opinion. 

Reflection: Like all versions of The Little Match Girl, this one, illustrated by Rachel Isadora, is heart-wrenching.  As a I read the book again for the first time in years I became angry and sad; angry at the girl's father for abusing her, angry at the villagers who ignored her, and sad that she was alone, cold, and hungry.  Nevertheless, with this story comes the feeling of hope.  At the end, the little girl finds peace and serenity; no longer does she have to suffer unnecessarily.  In the end, the reader is left feeling relief for the main character.  The attachment you will feel to this character is enduring and reason enough to read this story.