Sometime it's Turkey - Sometimes it's Feathers

This book was a great, cute story to share with your students during Thanksgiving. Unlike other stories, it doesn't have the controversial issues about the Native American and pilgrims or historical context. Instead it's a warm fun book about the holiday itself. It has a much more deeper meaning about being thankful and kind.
Mrs. Gumm  finds a large cream-colored egg with freckles while hunting for wild mushrooms. She fills her mushroom basket with soft April grass and places her new treasure in it. Mrs. Gumm was so excited she had found her Thanksgiving dinner, a genuine turkey egg!
Mrs. Gumm tries to hatch the egg. She covers it in flannel and sets it in a warm place. She can't imagine what a fine Thanksgiving dinner she will have!
For days and days she watched it, and turned it, and warmed it, until finally in one day in May they heard a "tap...tap...tap." The freckled egg had finally cracked! Out came a sticky, we, boney little lump. It dried and became a fuzzy little lump with beady black eyes and a sharp beak. Mrs. Gumm will feed him and fatten him up. She can't imagine what a fine Thanksgiving dinner she will have!
The turkey ate everything in sight! Oatmeal, wheaties, cornmeal and bread, seeds, nuts, insects, sand, and cat food. The turkey grew fast; "He'll be plenty big for Thanksgiving dinner" said Mrs. Gumm!
In June, Mrs Gumm started planting seeds. In July, Turkey ate raspberries.  The grapes grew sweet and purple in August. The September wind blew the thorn apples off the tree, and turkey gobbled them up as fast as they fell. In October Turkey ate up all of Mrs. Gumm's corn. All of Mrs. Gumm's food was gone, but she could only imagine what a fine Thanksgiving dinner she would have.
Preparations for Thanksgiving Day began early in November. She prepared a great, big feast! From cornbread, to sweet cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and a steaming bowl of fragrant onion-and-chestnut stuffing.
Mrs. Gumm sets the table and gets ready to bring out that nice plum Turkey to the table. What a fine Thanksgiving it will be!
"I have so much to be thankful for," said Mrs. Gumm, "A Thanksgiving feast and two good friends to share it with. Imagine!" Turkey takes a seat next to Mrs. Gumm.
"He'll be bigger-and much plumper- next Thanksgiving." said little old Mrs. Gumm. IMAGINE!"
I thought this book had such a cute ending! Who would have thought that Mrs. Gumm's big, plump Turkey would become a friend! I think this is a great book to share for the holiday because it teaches you to be grateful of the friends and family you have. I love how it also uses repetition when Mrs. Gumm keeps stating, "What a fine Thanksgiving we'll have, Imagine!" The book also helps with the different months as Thanksgiving arrives.
I would love to use this book in my class followed by a Thanksgiving activity. I think that it'd be great to have the kids make a hand turkey and write something their thankful for on each feather.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

The Perfectly Horrible Halloween

The Perfectly Horrible Halloween by Nancy Poydar was a book I read to a first grade classroom on the day of Halloween. The kids absolutely loved it and were excited to see the pictures and make their own predictions! This book is about a boy named Arnold who is determined to have the the "Scariest of All" prize at the Room Thirteen Halloween Party. Arnold has his costume in his bag and talks and acts like a pirate. He is bold, mean, and scary. Mr. Jack, the bus driver, jokes "Have a horrible day" and Arnold gets off the bus.
Mr. Roche announces that it will be business as usual until the end of the day. Arnold thinks about his costume all day. "I'm going to be a pirate," boasts Arnold. He has chocolate gold coins for everybody. He thinks about his gold coins; then he thinks about his costume. Arnold heads to his cubby to look at them. He pushes aside his jacket and sees everything BUT the costume! He starts to look for it everywhere and then remembers just where is chocolate gold coins were. He knew just where his beard and eyebrows were, and his bandana, and his sword, his earring, his eyepatch, his parrot, and the tattoo. He had left them on the bus! Arnold was going to have a horrible day. Mr. Roche continues his spelling lesson, until he scolds Arnold for not listening. Arnold was feeling horrible.
Finally, Mr. Roche said it was costume time. Arnold wanted to change too. Arnold puts his jacket on backwards and his sweater too. He lets the arms dangle, and sticks pencils in his hair. He was a bug! A scary bug! The kids joke about his costume, and Arnold feels horrible. He puts his clothes back on and tries to stuff himself into his cubby. Arnold wants to get away from everybody and hide. He then spots a sheet and hides under. Arnold curls up tight and feels unnoticed.
Arnold hears the other kids having a great time at the party and thinks about how much better his Pirate costume and gold chocolate coins would have been. Arnold, the invisible, he thought to himself. "Arnold?" shouted Mr. Roche's voice. The class is puzzled and starts looking for Arnold, who has disappeared. A ghost, thought Arnold. That's what I am, a ghost! I'm eerie, spooky, and SCARY! He rose to his full height and scared the whole classroom. He howled and he whooped. It frightened everybody, and he won the "scariest of all" award.
The kids get back on the bus at the end of the day, and ask what happened to the pirate. "All aboard mates," Jack snickered. "And anyone who is too noisy will walk the plank!" Jack, the bus driver, is seen wearing Arnold's costume.
I loved this book! It was too cute. I think this would be a great read aloud to share on Halloween with your own classroom. It excites the kids, and has a hidden message as well. It teaches how to turn any bad day around!

Telling Time

Telling Time by Jules Older is an informational book that I think can be very useful when introducing the concept of time. It breaks it down to what time is and how to tell time. Although this was a picture book, it was almost set of like a chapter book for grades 1-2. It had short sections like when things happen, how long things take, why do we tell time, and how do we tell time. It describes time in big chunks. There are three kinds of little chunks: seconds, minutes, and hours.

I thought this book would be very helpful to use in the classroom because it even breaks down what a calendar is. It briefly explains the days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Then it explains how a calendar has months and every month has its own name: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December. Using both days and months, you can now tell dates from a calendar.
It also explains how big chunks of time are days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, and millenniums.
The students can learn how to tell time from both digital and analog clocks from this book.

         


Digital clocks are broken down by minutes and hours and A.M. and P.M. Analog clocks are broken down by three hands: big hand, little hand, and seconds hand.
The book also includes a poem to remember how big each chunk of time is and how long things take.

I think this was a great informational book. It included a lot of detailed information that can be used to guide the students on how to learn about time. It's a great grab for younger grades 1-2!

A Bus Called Heaven is a very cute story about a girl named Stella who brings the people of her town together in an effort to restore an old, rickety bus known as Heaven. The bus, Heaven, seems to be useless and blocks part of the street. Stella looks past all the empty bottles and cans inside, and automatically falls in love with it. She sees the sparrows nesting inside the engine, and becomes determined to save it. Stella brings her neighbors together and it becomes a gathering place for them. They clean it up and start decorating it. Each person brings something to the bus to contribute and share with the others. Neighbors bring stuffed animals, a pet fish, a foosball table with one goalie, and other personal belongings. The bus becomes a very special gathering place to them where they have the best of times and create many memories.
One day the bus gets towed away for blocking traffic. Stella is sad at the thought of the neighborhood hangout being gone. Stella and the neighbors follow the bus to the junkyard to save it. Stella places a bet with the man working at the junkyard that if she wins at a game of foosball they get to keep the bus. Stella wins using the side with the missing goalie!
The neighbors push the bus into an open area behind Stella's yard. The place becomes live with music and games again. The neighbors dance and celebrate around the bus.
I think this would be a great book to use with your students because it teaches them about collaboration and teamwork. It shows the importance of diversity as the neighbors come and share a bit of their own lives with the community.

The Teacher From The Black Lagoon

The Teacher From The Black Lagoon was a really funny tale I remember reading in elementary school! My teacher had read it to us on the first day of school because we all expect the worst on first days. The boy in this story finds out he is assigned to Mrs. Green who he believes is monstrous and mean. He falls asleep and dreams that she is a monster with a tail and smoke coming out of her nostrils. She is very mean to all her students! When he wakes up he is so excited to see the real Mrs. Green that he gives her a hug. 

I wanted to share this book because I think it is a great read to share with our own students on their first day. You never know what your own students might be thinking! It teaches students to not believe all rumors and judge people before you get to know them. 

Too Many Tamales

Too Many Tamales is a very cute book about a Hispanic family by Gary Soto. Maria is helping her mother make tamales for Christmas dinner. The two share a very special moment as they prepare the masa. Maria feels like a grown up and tries on her mother's ring when she leaves the kitchen for a few minutes. Later after her uncles, aunts, and cousins arrive, Maria realizes the ring is missing. She panics, and gets her cousins to help find the ring. They eat all the tamales and find nothing! Maria finally decides to confess to her mother who, it turns out, has been wearing the ring all along. The family comes together and cooks up another batch of tamales.

This multicultural book shares how families have different joyful activities during the holidays, to Maria's family this is making tamales.  I think this book is a great way to connect what kind of different ways the students celebrate holidays. They can list food that are served at holidays in different families, and maybe even taste tamales or other ethnic holiday foods. It also shows the importance of telling the truth. It would be a great idea to ask the children how they think Maria should've handled the situation and why telling the truth is important.  

Arthur's Jelly Beans

First and foremost, who doesn't like Arthur!? I thought this was a great book to add to my children's literature collection because many are familiar with the television show. Muffy is hosting her spring fling party and invites the crew over. Before they start their first game, they have to wait on Arthur who is always slow. Finally, the games begin!  From the egg push to the bunny hop, Arthur comes last in every single game. The crew ridicules Arthur for being so slow. For the last game, they decide to see how can collect the most jelly beans in fifteen minutes. Everyone is excited to play because the winner gets a big chocolate egg! Muffy blows her whistle, and everyone but Arthur races around the yard fast. Francine, Binky, Buster, Fern, and the Brain fill their bags with jelly beans to the top before Muffy can even blow her whistle. Everyone but Arthur starts counting their jelly beans and eating from their full, heavy bags. Five minutes left, and Arthurs is still crawling around the floor trying to find as many as he can to add to his bag. Muffly looks at her stop watch and yells "Oops! Time's up!" Everyone lines up and pours their jelly beans as Muffy walks down the line counting. Then she comes to Arthur, "One, two, three"...and she keeps counting "twelve, thirteen, fourteen." Muffy announces Arthur as the winner and hands him the prize. Arthur knows he can't finish the egg because of how slow he is and shares it with his friends.
This cute fiction book has a great lesson in it. Unfortunately bullying is something young children might have to face. Although Arthur's friends laugh at him and make comments about him being so slow in all the games at first, Muffy does not let Arthur feel left out. Feeling accepted is important to every young child, and many will be able to relate to Arthur with this aspect. I highly recommend this book for younger children.