Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan

Esperanza Rising is a novel about a Hispanic girl whose father is a landowner who farms so she is part of the upper class.  Everything starts out great until the 1930 and there is resentment towards wealthy landowners.  Her father is killed and her and her Mama flee and go to the US but her grandma has to stay behind.  Esperanza's mom gets sick so she has to work and pay for her mom to get better,  Eventually her grandma gets here but things are still bad because her money is stolen.  In the end Esperanza sets goals for herself  to learn English, be treated equally, and start a family of her own.

Since Esperanza creates goals of her own at the end of the book one activity I would have students do would be to create goals for themselves.  Ones for the day, week, month, end of the school year, and next five years.  This can teach students that no matter what they are going through there is always hope and the goals they set can be their hope in front of them.  Just like it was for Esperanza in Esperanza Rising.

Tricycle, Elisa Amado and Alfonso Ruano

Tricycle is a book about a little girl and the Hispanic culture.  For most of the book the main character is sitting above in a tree describing what she sees below.  A lot of that shows readers the different aspects of the Hispanic culture.  While she is up there she sees someone take her tricycle.  She does not want them to get punished so she makes up a story saying that men in a car ran over the bike.  Tricycle teaches readers a lot about the Hispanic culture and how they protect their property.

An activity that I would do with students after reading the book Tricycle would be one where I could learn a little bit more about them and their culture.  I would have students picture themselves sitting up in a tree in their backyard and I would have them write a paragraph about what they would see and tell me about their culture.  Based off this paragraph I would have students draw a picture.  This would be a great way for students to learn more about their culture and for me to learn more about my students.          

Coming On Home Soon, Jacqueline Woodson

Coming On Home Soon takes place in a time of war when colored women were just beginning to be able to work because of all the men fighting in the war.  The book brings a level of diversity and cultural history to students becuase it takes place in a time of war where not everyone was equal, especially not colored women.  Ada Ruth's mom goes to Chicago to work on the railroad.  Ada Ruth writes her constantly and constantly waits for her mom to write back.  She finally got a letter from her mom say that I am coming on home soon.

This is a great book to teach with a history lesson.  As a teacher you could touch one war or equality with Coming On Home Soon.  To talk about war you could read the book and talk about how as the men had to go fight for our country women had to take their position in the work place.  To talk about equality you could read the book and talk about how monumental this was in making women of color equal to other women.  Coming On Home Soon is a great book to use to teach with a history lesson.

a Hen for Izzy Pippik, Aubrey Davis

a Hen for Izzy Pippik is a great book by Aubrey Davis.  It is about a girl named Shaina who finds a chicken that belongs to Izzy Pippik.  Shaina's family are merchants and her town lives in poverty.  Everyone wants to eat the chicken and the eggs or sale them for money but Shaina will not let them.  She says they are Izzy's and waits for him to come back.  The chickens are bringing good fortune to the town, so they are sad when Izzy actually shows up.  Shaina always has hope that Izzy will show up and in the end it pays off for her.

This book has a great lesson for students.  a Hen for Izzy Pippik teaches students to do the right thing.  It also teaches them that if something does not belong to you, you need to give it to the person it belongs to.  The moral of the story is that if you do the right thing you will benefit from doing so.  This book is a great book to read to students at the beginning of the year teaching them to do the right thing, keep up with their belongings, and not take things from others. a Hen for Izzy Pippik is a book I will definitely keep in my classroom library.

We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past, Jacqueline Woodson

We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past is a diverse book written by Jacqueline Woodson.  It is about an African American family who is getting together for a picnic.  The book goes along telling about the different family members and tells a little bit about them.  It also tells what they are bringing to the picnic.  The book shows the culture of the family and provides for them a view of the African American culture and how they view the importance of family.

One thing that stood out to me in this book was the illustrations.  They are so bright and colorful.  We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past was illustrated by Diane Greenseid.  So before I read the book aloud to the class I would put up one of the pages of the book without the text.  As a class I would have students pick out different things in the picture and tell me what they think about what is going on in the picture and what they think the book will be about.  I will prompt students with questions about things like culture and family.  This will be a great lead in activity to the read aloud of We Had a Picnic This Sunday Past.

The Year of the Baby, Andrea Cheng

For this week we got to choose whatever novel we wanted to read.  I did not really know where to go with this so I decided to read The Year of the Baby by Andrea Cheng, which is the second book in my series novel that I read earlier this year.  This book continued the journey of Anna and her friends.  However, this year her parents adopted a baby girl from China named Kaylee who is not thriving.  They are constantly taking her to the doctors and trying to figure out how to get her to eat.  Anna and her friends have to do a science fair project, after much thinking they decide to do it on Kaylee.  They want to test and see if singing songs in English or Chinese will make her eat.  

The Year of the Baby is a wonderful book.  It would be great for students whose families are going through change.  I would recommend it to students who are about to become a big brother or sister, or whose family is adopting, since that is what the whole book is about.  I would also recommend it for students whose parents are separated or getting a divorce, because Anna's friend Laura is going through this in the book and it could help students with transitioning through this process.  This is a great book to integrate with science or math, I would have my students get into groups and come up with their own science fair project and come up with their own problem, hypothesis, observations, and conclusion.  It also shows bar charts and graphs to teach a math lesson.  I like this book and think it would be beneficial to students.

Construction Zone, Cheryl Willis Hudson

Construction Zone is an informational text picture book.  It is about what goes on in a construction zone.  It also tells the steps of building a building from the beginning in excavating the dirt to the finished product.  It even used real pictures from an actual construction site.

 

I chose to read this book because the little boy that I babysit is obsessed with diggers, loaders, anything that has to do with trucks, dirt, or construction.  All Summer we read books about these types of things but never this one so when I saw it in the library I got it so that I could see what it is about and read it with him.  It also had bolded words in the text.  However, in this book at the bottom of the page there was an orange question mark and it had the definition for the bolded word.  I would recommend this book to students who like construction, dirt, or different working machines.  You could even integrate it with a science lesson on simple machines.  I will have this book in my classroom library.  

It’s Probably Penny, Loreen Leedy

It’s Probably Penny is an informational text picture book.  It is about math and probability.  The beginning of the book is explaining to students about probability and what it is.  Then the teacher tells the students what their assignment is based on probability.  The rest of the book is one of the student’s homework assignment and she does the assignment based on her dog Penny.

It’s Probably Penny would be a great book to use to do a read aloud during a math lesson on probability.  The book has the key words that go with probability bolded.  So as I read this book to the class we would make an anchor chart where when we got to a bolded word we would stop, write it down on our chart, talk about the word and what we think it means, and then write down a definition on the chart.  Also, I would have my students do the homework assignment that is in the book.  They would go home and pick someone or something and make predictions about it, make a chart and see if they were right or wrong, and use the vocabulary words to talk about the probability of events.  This book is full of great activities. 

First Garden, Robbin Gourley

First Garden is an informational picture book.  It is about the White House, presidents, and first ladies.  The book talks about how the gardens at the White House and their purpose have evolved over time.   The main focus of the book is on the Obama family and how the first lady’s focus is on healthy living, and most of the food served at the White House is from that garden.  At the end of the book it gives readers directions on how to grow a garden and different healthy recipes.

After reading First Garden if it was possible I would like to take my students outside with the book and use the directions to grow a class garden.  This would show students how to use directions from informational text.  It would also help them create a healthy living lifestyle.  This is a book I would love to have in my classroom library.  It would be great to integrate into a social studies lesson about the presidents.