Smoky Night

The book I recommend that everybody should read is Smoky Night by Eve Bunting. The book deals with many issues including racism, violence, and coming together in times of a struggle. In a poverty filled neighborhood Daniel's cat and Ms. Kim's cat never got along until one night when a group of houligans comes along and sets fire to the entire neighborhood. Daniel was upset when he couldnt find his cat and had to leave his house to go to a shelter. When the firefighters come to the shleter they are carrying two cats. One being Daniel's cat and one being Ms. Kims cat, both were found together and so scared they were holding each other paws. Ms. Kim and Daniel's mom and him couldnt believe that both were together. Then Daniel said maybe the cats just never got to know each other thats why they didn't like each other. Ms. Kim and Daniels mom both looked at each other and realized they were doing the same things to each other that their cats were doing so they decided to plan day for each of them to come over to each other's house. This book is incrediblely moving and the teaching that be done from it is almost endless.

Blog 4 THe Very Hungry Caterpillar

The book I decided to blog about this time was The Very Hungry Caterpiallr by Erik Carle. This is a personal favorite of mine and one that I use to read all the time when i was a child. The illistrations in this book are so bright and beautiful and really make the book pop.
The book itself is a fun take on the life of a caterpillar. It begins by the caterapillar being born and being very hungry so he starts to eat everything he comes across. There is a great part in the book where the book turns into a pop up part it is goes through the days of the week and how he gradually eats more each day. He then eats so much one day he gets a stomach ach and decides to build a house for himself. Also known as a cacoon and when he wakes and break out of the cacoon he is now a beautiful butterfly.
The teaching tools associated with this book are nearly endless as it teaches about science and the life cycle of a caterpillar, it does the days of the week, and it also counts. Hits on so much. A much have in every early elementary library.

And Tango Makes Three

The story that i decided to write about for my blog is And Tango Makes Three. It was written and illistrated by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and it was published in 2005. It is an inspirational multiculural story that had me very moved by the end of the book. It is a non-fiction story and it is about two male penguins that were just very different then their counterparts in the Bronx Zoo in New York City. While it is a widely known fact that penguins tend to live in families meaning normally one male and one female penguin will live together and stay together and raise children together all their lives. Well this story was based on the observation Justin and Peter did while at the Bronx zoo. They noticed that two male penguins had taken a liking for each other and were doing all the things that normally a male and female do besides have a baby penguin. One of the trainers decided to conduct an experiment and gave these male penguins and egg from one of the other penguins couples. They took care of the egg and the baby penguin actually hatched and is still alive today. That baby that they had is named Tango and they are a very happy family. This book shows that homosexuality is not only limited to human beings and that two male penguins or people can raise a happy young baby just like a heterosexual couple would do.

2/26/09 second blog

For this blog we were suppose to read a new children's book so that we could find some updated material for our classrooms and to see what has been released recently. Well I went to the sprague library and the newest quality book i could find was from 2007 but it is a caldecott honor winner and a Theodor Seuss Geisel honor winner. The book I am referring to is First the Egg it is written and illistrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger. The book answers the age old question what comes first the chicken or the egg and describes other things like how a caterpillar turns in a butterfly and seed turns into a flower then at the end it shows a bunch of unreadable words on a page and the only word u can read is the word first. The next page says the word and the page that follows say then the story. So there is a hidden message that is stating that first you need to talk your time and learn words before you can just jump in a read or write a story. It was a good little book and I would suggest having it around you first grade to second grade classroom especially for students who arent the best readers.

The Hello, Goodbye Window