Megan Bucher
Trade Books
Title of book: Angel Child, Dragon Child
Author’s name: Michele Maria Surat, pictures by Vo-Dinh Mai
Copyright year: 1983
Genre: multi-cultural
Number of pages: 35
Synopsis: Ut has just moved to America from Vietnam. She has come with her father and
siblings, but not her mother. Her mother could not afford to move with her family. A boy
keeps picking on Ut at school by making fun of what she wears and how she talks. The
principle sees them fighting one day and tells the boy to write a story about Ut. He
discovers that her mother is still in Vietnam and comes up with a plan to get her to
America.
Activity: Students will draw a map as a class showing where America and Vietnam are.
Then as a class they will think of possible routes the family in the story may have taken
to get to American and draw them on the map.
Source of idea: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/angel_child_dragon_child.php
Title of Book: Chicken Sunday
Author: Patricia Polacco
Copyright Year: 1992
Genre: multi-cultural
Number of Pages: 29
Synopsis: The girl in the story has African American neighbors-two brothers and a
grandma, Miss Eula. She goes to church with them sometimes and they usually eat lunch
together afterwards. They often walk past a hat shop and there is a hat there that Miss
Eula really likes. The three children want to get it for her, but do not know how to get the
money to buy it. They go to the hat shop to ask the angry owner about doing odd jobs for
money. They end up making Pysanky eggs and selling them. Their efforts impress the
owner so much that he gives the children the hat to give to their grandmother free of
charge.
Activity: Students will write their own stories about a time when they did something nice
for someone. Whether they have helped their moms around the house, given someone a
gift, or was nice to the new kid at school, they should describe what they did and how it
made them feel.
Source of Idea: Original
Title of book: Very Last First Time
Author’s name: Jan Andrews, illustrated by Ian Wallace
Copyright year: 1985
Genre: multi-cultural
Number of Pages: 29
Synopsis of story: Eva is and Inuit who often walks on the bottom of the sea with her
mother to gather mussels. Today is her first day doing it by herself. She is anxious and
excited about collecting mussels all by herself. After her pan is full of mussels, she goes
exploring but she drops her candle and is left alone in the darkness. She makes her way
back to her mussel pan and the hole where her mother is waiting to pull her back up.
Even though she was scared for a while, she decides that she likes walking on the sea
bottom alone.
Activity: Have students compare the agriculture of Canada and the United States by
drawing a map of the two countries and labeling them. Have them research what kinds of
crops and animals live in different parts of the countries. Also have them discuss why
they think those crops and animals are raised there.
Source of idea: original
Title of book: Lon Po Po
Author’s name: Ed Young
Copyright year: 1989
Genre: multi-cultural
Number of pages: 28
Synopsis of story: Three Chinese children, Shang, Tao, and Paotze are left alone one
evening when their mother goes to see their grandmother. She tells her children to shut
and lock the door at dusk. Just before dusk, a wolf disguised as their grandmother knocks
on the door and asks to be let inside. The oldest child, Shang, realizes that the visitor is
not their grandmother and tricks the wolf into letting them go outside and climb a tree for
gingko nuts. Once outside, the children trick the wolf like the wolf tricked them.
Activity: Students will make a Venn diagram comparing this story to Little Red Riding
Hood. They will be split into groups of 2-4, depending on the class size, and make their
Venn diagrams out of construction paper and markers. Similarities include a wolf
disguised as a grandmother and a child figuring out that the grandmother is actually a
wolf. In Lon Po Po there are three children, not one, and the children climb a tree to
escape and trick the wolf. In Little Red Riding Hood, there is only one little girl and
Riding Hood does not climb a tree to escape from the wolf. Once finished, the diagrams
will be displayed on the front board to compare.
Source: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/multicultural-literature/activity/8005.html
Title: Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
Author’s name: Verna Aardema, pictures by Beatriz Vidal
Copyright year: 1996
Genre: multi-cultural
Number of pages: 36
Synopsis of story: One year in the Kapiti Plain there was a drought. The grass was
turning brown and all of the animals were hungry and dry. Ki-pat was a herdsman who
looked over his herd of cows. One day and eagle dropped a feather, which Ki-pat
attached to a stick to make an arrow. With that arrow and a bow, Ki-pat shot a raincloud
to loosen the rain. Once it rained and everything was nourished, Ki-pat got a wife and had
a son who now watches the herd and makes it rain.
Activity: Students will make a t-chart comparing the climates of Africa and America.
They should note when each continent’s wet and dry seasons are, how much rain each
continent gets every year, and which parts of each continent are the wettest and driest.
Title of book: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
Author’s name: Laura Joffe Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond
Copyright year: 1985
Genre: fantasy
Number of pages: 28
Synopsis of story: If you give a mouse a cookie, you won’t just give him a cookie. Unlike
a dog or cat when you give them a treat, a mouse will ask for much more than just that.
He will ask for a glass of milk with a straw. Then he will need a napkin. Next he will
want to take a nap, and on and on. And just when you think there is nothing more the
mouse can ask for, he’ll ask for a cookie.
Activity: Students will make a mouse puppet out of a lunch bag and construction paper.
The shapes for the mouse’s head, ears, and overalls will be outlined on construction paper
to make it easier for students to cut out. His nose, eyes, and whiskers will already be cut
out. Students will need to paste all of the “mouse parts” onto a brown lunch sack. Once
all of the students have constructed their mice, have students retell the story using their
puppets.
Source: http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/mouse_cookie_activities.html#WriteaStory
Title of book: Corduroy
Author’s name: Don Freeman
Copyright year: 1968
Genre: fantasy
Number of pages: 32
Synopsis of story: Corduroy is a bear who lives in a department store. Every day people
come and buy other toys, but not him. One day a little girl begs her mother to let her buy
Corduroy, but her mother won’t let her because he is missing a button. That night
Corduroy searches the store for his lost button. The security guard finds him and takes
him back to his shelf. The little girl comes back the next day and buys corduroy. Not only
does she give him a home, but she also gives him a new button.
Activity: Students will color pre-drawn scenes from the book and cut them out. Then they
will put them in order of the story and glue them onto a larger piece of paper. Underneath
each scene, the students will write what is happening.
Title of book: Berlioz the Bear
Author’s name: Jan Brett
Copyright year: 1991
Genre: fantasy
Number of pages: 30
Synopsis of story: Berlioz the bear and his orchestra are playing in the village for a grand
ball. They are on their way into town when their wagon gets stuck in a hole. The donkey
pulling the wagon will not budge. Several different animals come along and try to help
pull the wagon out of the hole. Each animal that comes by is bigger than the last. Finally
a bee comes out of Berlioz’s bass and stings the donkey. The orchestra makes it to the
ball just in time.
Activity: Students will make a mobile of the wagon and everything that tried to get the
wagon unstuck. The pictures will be pre-made so all the students need to do is color the
pictures, cut them out, and attach them in the following way: the top of the mobile will be
the wagon with the donkey holding the musicians, below that will be the animals in the
order they appeared (rooster, cat, schnauzer, goat, plow horse, ox), and finally on the
bottom will be the bee.
Source: original idea
Title of book: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears
Author’s name: Verna Aardema, pictures by Leo and Diane Dillon
Copyright year: 1975
Genre: fantasy
Number of pages: 27
Synopsis of story: A mosquito was buzzing in an iguana’s ear, but the iguana did not care
to hear what the mosquito was saying so he put two sticks in his ears. When the iguana
didn’t say hello to his friend the snake, the snake thought the iguana was up to something,
so he snuck down in a rabbit hole. This scared the rabbits and other animals saw them
and thought something was wrong. All of this commotion killed a mother owl’s baby.
The owl was the one who woke the sun each day, but with the death of her baby she
decided not to wake the sun anymore. This upset the animals in the jungle, so they all got
together and figured out what really happened. So when mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears
to see if they are still mad at them, they get squished!
Activity: Have students put on a skit re-enacting the story. But add a red bird character
that talks about inferences. The students who play the character of the red bird will stop
the skit to make an inference after each new animal is introduced.
Source: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/lesson-plan/readingcomprehension/48614.html
Title of book: The Foot Book
Author’s name: Dr. Seuss
Copyright year: 1968
Genre: fantasy
Number of pages: 27
Synopsis of story: This story looks at all different kinds of feet. There are fuzzy feet and
sick feet. Feet come in different colors and sizes. Some critters have two feet and some
have twenty-four feet. There are left and right feet. Feet can go up, down, and all around.
Activity: Have the class create their own foot book. Students will paint their feet and
press their foot prints onto pieces of paper. Then they will measure their feet to see how
long and wide each of their feet are. Once each student has made their foot prints and
measurements, put all of the pages together to make your own class foot book. Once the
book is together, read the book and compare everyone’s feet.
Source: http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/pages/250.shtml
Title of Book: A Little Excitement
Author’s Name: Marc Harshman
Copyright Year: 1989
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Number of Pages: 28
Synopsis of Story: It had been a long winter. Sledding and snowball fights were fun, but
it was time for something else exciting to happen. When the boy in the story tells his
grandmother his wish for something more exciting to happen, she warns him to be careful
what he wishes for. That very night the stove overheated the chimney was spitting fire!
The whole family ran outside to try and keep the house from catching fire. The little boy
asked for excitement and definitely got it!
Activity: Talk to students about proper fire safety regulations for the school. Then ask
students to go home and talk to their parents about what they would need to do in case of
a fire. Have students make a list of steps to take in case of a fire. Come back together as a
class and discuss what different families in different housing areas do if a fire happens.
Source of Activity: original
Title of Book: Miss Rumphius
Author’s Name: Barbara Cooney
Copyright Year: 1982
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Number of Pages: 28
Synopsis of Story: Alice loved listening to her grandfather tell stories. She said when she
grew up she wanted to travel to far away places and live by the sea just like he did. He
asked her to do one more thing along with those things—he told her to do something to
make the world more beautiful. When she grew up, she traveled to far away places and
lived by the sea, but she still did not know what she could do to make the world more
beautiful. Then after a long winter, her favorite flower-lupines-bloomed and she wished
she could plant more of them, but she was too old. She took a walk one day and noticed
there were lupines growing on the other side of the hill. Then she realized what she could
do to make the world more beautiful.
Activity: Discuss philanthropy with the class. Then tell students to do one random act of
kindness or something to help someone or something else as many times they can in a
week. After a week, have the students come back to class with a report about what they
did, how it made them feel, and how it made the other people feel.
Source of Activity:
http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?media=lesson&keywords=miss+rumphius&grade=
Select+Grade&rating=3
Title of Book: Night Tree
Author’s Name: Eve Bunting
Copyright Year: 1991
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Number of Pages: 28
Synopsis of Story: Every Christmas Eve, the family goes out to the woods to find their
Christmas tree. It’s dark and cold, but the family is bundled up and excited about going.
Once the family finds their tree, they decorate it with popcorn strings, balls of sunflower
seeds, bread crumbs, and apples. Then they sit down on a blanket to drink hot chocolate
and sing Christmas songs. Once they are back at home, they talk about what Christmas
dinner is like for the animals in the forest.
Activity: Students will each choose a different forest animal to learn about. They will
find out what they eat, where they live, etc. They will need to pay special attention to
what animals do to survive in winter conditions. Once they have that information, they
will make an acrostic poem about that animal and how it survives in the winter.
Source of Activity:
http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?media=lesson&keywords=night+tree&grade=Select
+Grade&rating=3 and partly original
Title of Book: Mirette on the High Wire
Author’s Name: Emily Arnold McCully
Copyright Year: 1992
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Number of Pages: 29
Synopsis of Story: Mirette lives in Paris, France and helps her mother at their
boardinghouse. One day a retired high-wire walker came to stay at the boardinghouse.
When Mirette went outside to take sheets down off the clothes line, she saw the man wire
walking. She begged him to teach her how to do it, but he would not at first because it
was too dangerous. She began teaching herself and when he saw the potential she had, he
helped coach her. She wanted to travel with him, but he did not want to take her. He first
had to make a grand return to the high-wire and when he did he almost could not do it.
But Mirette came to his rescue and helped him across the wire.
Activity: Line up sturdy boxes/crates for students to walk across. Have them record how
easy/difficult it was. Then have them walk across a balance beam in the gym. They
should record their feelings and talk about how much more difficult it was to walk on it.
Lastly, set up a rope that is low to the ground, but above ground. With supervision, have
students try to walk across the rope. Students should document why they think it was
easier for some students to walk across the rope, beam, and boxes and harder for others.
Make sure they discuss gravity and balance.
Source of Activity:
http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?media=lesson&keywords=mirette+on+the+high+wi
re&grade=Select+Grade&rating=3 and partly original
Title of Book: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
Author’s Name: Mem Fox
Copyright Year: 1984
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Number of Pages: 28
Synopsis of Story: Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge was a young boy who lived next
door to an old people’s home. He knew everyone there, but his favorite person was
Nancy Alison Delacourt Cooper because she had four names like he did. His parents
sympathized for her, though, because she had lost her memory. Wilfrid asked his parents
and some of the people at the old people’s home what a memory was. With all of the
answers they gave him, he collected objects to represent each description and gave them
to Nancy to help her remember.
Activity: The class will take a field trip to a retirement home. Each student will be paired
with a resident and ask them what a memory is to them. They should also ask the
residents to share a favorite memory with the student. They can also talk about different
kinds of memories, like funny memories and sad memories, and then share them. The
class can come back together then and share what they learned with each other and write
about their experience in their journals.
Source of Activity: original
Title of Book: When I Was Young in the Mountains
Author’s Name: Cynthia Rylant
Copyright Year: 1982
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 26
Synopsis of Story: This is the story of a child who lived in the mountains with her family.
She talks about memories of her grandparents and what she liked to do outside. She
talked about going to the swimming hole to play and watching people being baptized in
that same water. She talks about the simple memories that mean a lot to her, like sitting
with her grandparents on the porch and listening for bobwhites. She says there was never
a desire to go to the beach or the desert because the mountains were enough for her.
Activity: As a class, students will make their own “When I Was Young in _______”
book. The book will contain large pages and each student will get one page to write
something special they have done and draw a picture to go with it. The title can be
“When I Was Young in Indiana” or “Manchester” or “the city”, for example. Once each
page is complete, the book will be put together so they can read it as a class and share it
with parents.
Source of Activity:
http://web.archive.org/web/20031004150139/www.eduplace.com/tview/pages/w/When_I
_Was_Young_in_the_Mountains_Cynthia_Rylant.html
Title of Book: More Than Anything Else
Author’s Name: Marie Bradby
Copyright Year: 1995
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 29
Synopsis of Story: This is a story about a young Booker T. Washington. He was a slave
child who worked packing salt into barrels. He wanted to learn to read more than
anything else. One night he sees a man reading a newspaper aloud to a group of people
and wonders if that man will teach him how to read. He goes home to his mother that
night and she gives him a book of the alphabet. He works with the letters for a long time
and then once he finds the man again, the man teaches him the alphabet song and how to
write his name.
Activity: Students will make a timeline of Booker T. Washington’s life. They will be able
to see how he went from being a slave to being a great man who valued education and
raised a lot of money for education. This is a good way to start learning about Black
History Month.
Source of Activity: original
Title of Book: Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
Author’s Name: Deborah Hopkinson
Copyright Year: 1993
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 30
Synopsis of Story: Clara is a young girl who works in the cotton fields as a slave. She
was determined to get back to her momma, but for the time being she worked with her
Aunt Rachel. Rachel was a seamstress and she taught Clara how to sew. In time, Clara
was a good enough seamstress that she got to work with her aunt instead of in the fields.
With scraps of cloth, Clara began to sew a quilt with a map on it that would help slaves
escape to freedom. She would listen to conversations and gather information about where
fields and rivers were and then sew them on her quilt. With what she learned, she used
the information to escape to freedom, stopping along the way to get her mother, and left
the quilt with her aunt for other slaves to use.
Activity: Students will use cloth strips, markers, ribbon, yarn, buttons, etc. to make their
own quilt patch. Each student’s patch can represent a map of their house or neighborhood
or symbols with different meanings. Once each student has their patch made, the teacher
will sew them all together to make a class quilt.
Source of Activity: original
Title of Book: The Butterfly
Author’s Name: Patricia Polacco
Copyright Year: 2000
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 40
Synopsis of Story: Monique lives in Nazi France with her mother. Strange, sad things are
happening in her town: the owner of the candy store was taken by Nazi soldiers and a
strange girl has appeared in her bedroom. She discovers that the girl lives in her
basement; Monique’s mother has been hiding the girl and her family from the soldiers.
The girls keep their friendship a secret, but when a neighbor sees both of them in
Monique’s bedroom window one night, they know they are in trouble. Both families flee
for the next refuge. The girls go their separate ways and Monique wonders if she will
ever hear from her friend again. Then one day she sees dozens of butterflies and knows
that her friend is okay.
Activity: Students will reread this book and look at the picture for different symbols and
what they represent. Butterflies are and obvious symbol in this story, but there is also the
Nazi symbol, the cat, and the candy. Once students understand the symbolism in the
book, they will each create a collage using pictures of symbols that represent things in
their life. Underneath each picture should have a word describing what that means to
them. For example, a picture of a pet could represent warmth or happiness.
Source of Activity: original
Title of Book: Pink and Say
Author’s Name: Patricia Polacco
Copyright Year: 1994
Genre: Historical Fiction
Number of Pages: 43
Synopsis of Story: Pinkus and Sheldon are young soldiers in the Civil War. Sheldon (aka:
Say) is wounded in a field and Pink finds him and takes him to his house where his
mother will help care for him. Say does not want to return to the fighting, but Pink knows
that if they stay with his mother, the soldiers will find them and his mother will be in
danger. Just as they are about to go back to their units, soldiers come looking for Pink
and Say. Pink’s mother hides them and the soldiers kill her. Soldiers find the boys and
take them to a camp where they are separated. Say was released after being there for a
few months, but Pink was hanged.
Activity: Have students chart the different themes in this book: hope, friendship, and war.
Underneath each of those themes, students should write where each of those themes
appears in the story. Then they should determine which theme was the strongest in the
book and what message Patricia Polacco was trying to tell by writing this story.
Source of Activity: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/reviews/61950.aspx
Title of Book: A Girl Named Helen Keller
Author’s Name: Margo Lundell
Copyright Year: 1995
Genre: non-fiction
Number of Pages: 42
Synopsis of Story: Helen Keller became deaf and blind at a very young age. Her parents
were very worried because they could not communicate with her. They also could not
control her—Helen was so frustrated because no one could understand her that she
became violent. They contacted the Perkins School of the Blind in Boston and they sent
Anne Sullivan to help Helen. Anne would spell words into Helen’s hand, but Helen did
not understand what the motions meant. Finally one day while walking in the garden,
Anne put Helen’s hand under a water spout and spelled the word water into her hand and
she understood what it meant. After that, Annie continued to work with Helen through
college and beyond.
Activity: Students will experience what it was like to be Helen Keller by putting cotton
balls in their ears and blindfolds over their eyes. With a partner leading them, they will
walk around the school trying to figure out where they are by using their other senses.
The leading student will also try to spell things into “Helen’s” hand to see if s/he can
guess what they are spelling. Then they will switch places to experience the other role.
Source: I did this in elementary school and remember thinking it was an interesting
experience.
Title of Book: I Have a Dream, the Story of Martin Luther King
Author’s Name: Margaret Davidson
Copyright Year: 1986
Genre: non-fiction
Number of Pages: 127
Synopsis of Story: Martin Luther King experienced racial discrimination since he was a
young child. His father taught him the value of education and persistence. Anything
could be achieved if you put your mind to it. Throughout King’s life, he worked for equal
rights. This book talks about the triumphs and trials King had through his life. It also
includes people who inspired him and parts of his speeches.
Activity: Students will learn the song “We Shall Overcome”. They can also learn about
its meaning and significance during the Civil Rights Movement and what it means now.
Source of Activity: http://holidays.kaboose.com/martin-luther-king-celebrate-more.html
Title of Book: A Picture Book of Amelia Earhart
Author’s Name: David A. Adler
Copyright Year: 1998
Genre: non-fiction
Number of Pages: 26
Synopsis of Story: Amelia Earhart was not a normal little girl in the early 1900s. She
wore bloomers, played in the dirt, and enjoyed sports. She started becoming interested in
airplanes when she was in her twenties. Once she rode in a plane for the first time, she
knew she wanted to do it again, but this time she wanted to fly it herself. Learning about
planes and flying became a hobby for her and then a dream. She had dreams of becoming
the first woman pilot and becoming the first pilot to make certain destinations, such as
flying from Hawaii to California. Her greatest dream was to fly around the world, but
while she was trying to fulfill that dream she disappeared in the Pacific Ocean and was
never found.
Activity: Students will make paper airplanes to see whose will fly the farthest. Students
can pair up or work individually and they can cut, fold, paste, etc. their piece of paper any
way they think will make it work the best. Once the planes are made, students will line up
in rows of 2-4, depending on the space available, and “race” their planes. Afterwards, the
class can analyze why their planes won or lost. For further learning, students can look at
what makes real airplanes fly.
Source of Activity: original idea
Title of Book: One Giant Leap: The Story of Neil Armstrong
Author’s Name: Don Brown
Copyright Year: 1998
Genre: non-fiction
Number of Pages: 29
Synopsis of Story: As early as age two, Neil Armstrong was interested in flying. Neil
worked many odd jobs in order to pay for flying lessons. He earned his student pilot
license on his sixteenth birthday. After that he was a navy pilot in the Korean War, a test
pilot who flew rocket-powered airplanes, and then an astronaut. On July 16, 1969 Neil
Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins made the first journey to the moon. That day,
Neil became the first human to walk on the moon and 600 million people on Earth
watched it all thanks to special cameras. It is also where he famously said “That’s one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”.
Activity: Using a shoe box, foil, string, markers, Styrofoam cups, tape, etc. students will
create a space mobile that could be used to roam around the moon. The “space car”
should have a certain purpose: to take pictures, collect moon rocks, etc. and should be
built accordingly.
Source of Activity: I did this project in 5th grade and thought it was fun.
Title of Book: Honest Abe
Author’s Name: Edith Kunhardt
Copyright Year: 1993
Genre: non-fiction
Number of Pages: 27
Synopsis of Story: Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin to a poor family with little
education. Abe worked hard to help his family and was so eager to learn to read and write
that he taught himself how to. He would take hogs and corn to sell at the market and it
was there that he first witnessed slaves and how they were treated. He decided then and
there that slavery was unjust. Abe became a lawyer, then ran for U.S. Senate (which he
lost), then he ran for president and won. The Civil War started shortly after that and
during that difficult time Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation to end slavery.
Unfortunately, not everyone was happy with what Lincoln did and one person was so
unhappy that he shot and killed him.
Activity: Students will get in small groups and participate in a press conference. One
student from each group will be Abraham Lincoln and the rest of the group members will
ask Lincoln questions about slavery, the war, and who he is and what he stands for.
Students should spend some time researching what kinds of things were going on during
that time and how Lincoln may have answered those questions.
Source of Activity:
http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?grade=Select+Grade&keywords=abraham+lincoln&media
=lesson&page=3&rating=3
Title of Book: Something to Remember Me By
Author’s Name: Susan V. Bosak
Copyright Year: 1997
Genre: realistic fiction
Number of Pages: 28
Synopsis of Story: The little girl loved spending time with her grandmother. They baked,
played cards, worked in the garden, and shared stories. At the end of each visit, the
grandmother would give the granddaughter something to remember her by. She would
also tell her granddaughter that someday she would give her cedar chest to her. The
granddaughter cherished everything her grandmother gave her, even if they were things
she did not particularly like or understand. As the grandmother grew older, she started
forgetting things and feared she would forget her granddaughter. To help her remember,
the granddaughter gave her grandmother a picture of the two of them and on the back she
wrote “something to remember me by”.
Activity: Students will get a small box and fill it with things that remind them of someone
special in their life, whether it is a parent, grandparent, cousin, friend, etc. They can use
objects, pictures, drawings, etc. Each thing in the box should have a short description to
go with is as to why that thing reminds them of their special person.
Source of Activity: original
Title of Book: How Ben Franklin Stole the Lightning
Author’s Name: Rosalyn Schanzer
Copyright Year: 2003
Genre: non-fiction
Number of Pages: 28
Synopsis of Story: Benjamin Franklin was many things, including a musician, a world
traveler, a politician, and an inventor. He was always inventing new ways to do things or
new things to make people’s lives easier. In colonial days, lightning made a lot of
people’s houses catch fire. Franklin was determined to find a way to capture the lightning
and keep it from setting fires. Using a silk kite with a wire on top, a kite string, a key, and
a ribbon to hold on to, Ben and his son went to try to capture the lightning—and they
did…sort of. Afterwards, Ben invented the lightning rod, which would get struck instead
of the houses.
Activity: Students will think of a pen name and write a short story. Ben Franklin did this
when he wrote for the newspaper. After the students have written their stories, read them
aloud to the class and show the person’s handwriting and see if they can guess whose
handwriting and story it is.
Source of Activity: http://www.daniellesplace.com/HTML/benjamin%20crafts.html
Title of Book: The Graves Family
Author’s Name: Patricia Polacco
Copyright Year: 2003
Genre: fiction
Number of Pages: 44
Synopsis of Story: The Graves Family has just moved to Union City. This is not an
ordinary family, though—they have Venus fly traps as pets, spiders ruling the house, and
a laboratory in the basement. Sara and Seth are neighbor kids who come over to the
Graves’ house to play with the eldest son, Hieronymus (aka: Ronnie). Even though they
are anxious at first, they can tell that the family just wants to fit in and the kids accept
them as they are. Christopher Joel is coming to Union City to judge the best decorated
house of the year. The Graves, seemingly the least likely to win, end up winning the
award and the acceptance of the community.
Activity: Using a shoe box, students will create a themed house using pictures from
magazines, toys, drawings, etc. They can create their own version of the Graves’ house or
make one with a different theme, like all dogs, Christmas, chocolate, the old west, the
movies, etc. After the houses are made, the class will hold a judging to see whose house
was the most creative and the most consistent in terms of following the theme.
Source of Activity: original
Title of Book: The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone
Author’s Name: Stan and Jan Berenstain
Copyright Year: 1980
Genre: fiction
Number of Pages: 36
Synopsis of Story: The bear museum is showing a dinosaur skeleton at noon. The only
problem is one of its bones is missing! But the bear detectives and their pup are here to
help. They look everywhere from the mummy’s tomb to the totem pole but cannot find
the missing bone. Time is running out and they are running out of places to search when
they see a bone-shaped mound outside. They found the missing bone! And the one who
stole it was the detective’s pup.
Activity: Students will study bones by dissecting owl pellets. They will be given a chart
with shapes and sizes of different animals’ bones to see what kind of animals they think
the bones belong to.
Source of Activity: original
Title of Book: Moosestache
Author’s Name: Margie Palatini
Copyright Year: 1998
Genre: fiction
Number of Pages: 32
Synopsis of Story: Moose has a big problem: he has a huge, uncontrollable moosestache!
It gets in his way with everything from taking a shower to skiing. He has tried everything
he can think of to control his moosestache. He has braided it, curled it, made it into a
sweater, and piled it on top of his antlers, but nothing has worked. Then one day he meets
another moose—a female moose—and she has a lot of hair like he does. The difference
is, hers is not wild and out of control, but neat and pretty on the top of her head. She is
kind enough to show Moose how she gets it to stay like that, too.
Activity: Students will “tame the mane” and make their own moosestache using
construction paper, yarn, and a glue mixture (see website). Students will draw the face of
a moose on the construction paper and then use the yarn and the glue mixture to make a
hairstyle with the moosetache.
Source of Activity: http://notjustcute.com/2010/04/05/book-activity-moosetache/