Unplugged

Technology is a gift to us. We learn, connect, and play. The internet provides opportunities to meet authors and explore ideas.

Steve Antony shares the goodness of technology in his book, Unplugged. It also supports balance of exploring the outdoors and the importance of friendship.

Enjoy meeting Steve Antony on this one minute video clip.

Enjoy the reading of Unplugged (4 min. video).

Savorings for reading and in writing for Unplugged:

• Technology
• Power of 3
• Friendship
• Learning
• Setting
• Pros/ Cons

Over and Under the Pond

View my blog post at The Lead Learners Blog of Over and Under the Pond by Kate Messner; illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal.

Savorings for reading and writing for Over and Under the Pond:

• metaphors – “water’s a mirror, reflecting the sky!”
• Sensory Description
• Compare/ Contrast structure
• Environmental – ecosystem, wetlands
• Author’s Note – a glimpse into how a writer gathers ideas and then creates a book

Kate’s paired text is called Over and Under the Snow.

 

Coral Reefs

Jason Chin is interweaves the reader into his narrative nonfiction, Coral Reefs. As the characters move into the setting of the coral reefs, so do you.

• Building Background Knowledge – Science: Food chains, vocabulary
  • Builds curiosity to research and learn more
• Setting – the young girl is whisked away from the library into a magical place
  • Even the ending leads you into another story
• Illustrations – captures the mind of the reader
  • Teaches visualization
  • Connecting to the science text of facts through a narrative-like feel
• Close Reading – web
  • Read and reread to understand how nature works together, predator and prey, environment and adaptations, partnerships
• Author’s Note – where he gathered his ideas
  • Importance of research
  • Persuading the reader to take action to help coral reefs

Big Bug/ Super Bugs/ Some Bugs

Children often have a favorite topic to write about. They return to the topic and use the same genre in sharing their information. For example, if a child loves his dog, he often will write a story, a narrative. This writing practice is a great start.

One way to broaden children’s understanding of genres is to present books on the same topic with different formats. You can compare and contrast different books on the same topic. Dinosaurs. Trucks. Bears. Show them how this information can be shared out through a narrative, informational text, poetic nonfiction, poetry, all about, etc.

Three books I found recently lend themselves to this kind of study.

• Big Bug by Henry Cole primarily focuses on putting size into perspective.
• Super Bugs by Michelle Meadows, illustrated by Bill Mayer, features a rhyming text, personifying the insects as heroes working together.
• Some Bugs by Angela Diterlizzi, illustrated by Brendan Wenzel, features the actions and camouflages of the insects in a narrative nonfiction text.
• National Geographic Everything Insects by Carrie Gleason features real photographs and a basic informational guide.

Savorings for Big Bug:

• Opposites – big versus little
• Perspetive
• Comparison of size
• Circular/ Bookends – begins with a bug that looks small on a big leaf  but is a small leaf to a big tree, and continues (begins with the topic of bugs but is only one part of the book versus the other books are all about bugs)

Savorings for Super Bugs:

• Rhyming
• Setting – each two page spread illustrates a scene (you could write about each scene)
• Teamwork
• Repeating Lines
• Heroes
• Author’s Note – writes about what fascinates her

Savorings for Some Bugs:

• Illustrations are a fascinating collage
• Repeating structure
• Vivid Verbs
• Personifies the bugs – communicating, playing
• Last 2 pages is a culmination of all the illustrated pages
• Invites the reader to action – explore their ordinary backyard

Savorings for National Geographic Everything Insects:

• Nonfiction text features
• Photographs in natural setting
• Scientific explanations
• Link to further research

Night Animals

Skunk takes a walk at night to visit his friend, Possum. Possum seems to be hiding. He hushes his friend. He’s afraid. He’s afraid of the night animal.

The evening continues as Gianna Marino introduces other night animals – wolf, bear, bat – in Night Animals. Using speech bubbles, the animals share personified feelings of fright for the darkness. Humorously written, the reader will learn who are night animals and what their behavior is like. My favorite if Possum, especially when Skunk gets surprised. Do you know what skunks do when they are frightened? This book would be a fun way to introduce a nonfiction text on the subject of nocturnal animals.

View a fun video trailer about Night Animals.

Savorings for Night Animals:

• Speech Bubbles
• Imperative Sentences/ Commands
• Dialogue moves plot forward
• Humorous
• Personification

SOLSC: Hawk

HAWK-

Today, while driving, I noticed a red-tailed hawk.

He was perched magnificent, like a king on the telephone wire.

Watching.

The green fields and bare-leafed woods seemed peaceful

like the calm before the storm.

Small creatures, scurrying, slithering about, unaware of the keen eye

searching for its next prey.

(This reminded me of a favorite book, Arrowhawk by Lola Shaefer, based on a real story.)

SOLSC: Sunrise

Driving down the road,

I couldn’t help notice

the beauty spread before me.

The sky was brushed with pinks,

bubble gum, magenta swirled together.

White clouds pillowed above with

a silhouette of trees awakening in the light.

The beauty of the morning refreshed my soul,

lifted my spirits, and reminded me to notice.