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Grade: Elementary
Subject: Literature
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Class Books patterned after BooksA House Is A House For Me
1. The words went some thing like this, A house can be big. A house can be small. ... But a home is the house for a family.
I had the kids finish the sentence A house can be __________. I wrote
it on a piece of white adding machine tape in pencil. The kids finished
the sentence in pencil, then copied over all the words with their choice
of marker. I put those aside then we started on the pages.The kids painted the backgrounds for each page on a large piece of
construction paper, Blue for the sky, green for grass. They had to
paint the entire piece of paper.Next we used made houses out of different art mediums, water color,
crayon, construction paper, glyphs, etc.I sat down with each child and all their pieces of the pages and guided
them in putting the pages together. They chose which house they wanted
to be glued to the page, and where to put it. Then I glued their
sentence to the bottom of the page.The last things I did before it was bound was have a decorate the rest
of the page whole class time, and laminated the pages. I bound it all
together with chicken rings. It is the most popular book in the class
right now.2. A House Is a House For Me The children had to think of something that
can be a house for something else. A ___________ is a house for a
______________.3. We made books in the shape of a house. On the front was the title: "The home that love built." Inside the books the kids told stories, drew pictures of family
members and cut out collages of their favorite meals. Lots of parent
feedback about keeping these momento's around and the kids took great pride in
talking about their families.Alphabugs by David A. Carter
1. Have the kids think of a "bug" that would start with each letter of the alphabet. You can either chart all the "bugs" first, and assign them or simply assign a letter to each child.
A Time for Sleeping (the author info is at school,sorry!)
1. It talks about where different animals sleep. The kids will complete the
following sentence for a book: A ______ sleeps in a ______.Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
1. Brown Bear, Brown Bear (children think of another animal and draw it color it
in whatever color they like and the page now reads I see a ----------------
looking at me. Write in color and animal. Or another version of this is to use
each child in the class for each page example: I see Mary Jones Looking at
me..each child draws a self portrait and of course they all see their teacher
at the end. Great first book of the year!2. Each child makes is his own page and I add the color and name of the next animal when I compile the book. I end with "I see Mrs. Kramer's class looking at me and paste a picture of the whole class on the last page.
3. Use the kids names instead and change the phrase (Bobby, Bobby, who do you see?, etc.) Kids drew self portraits for the pages and picked who
they wanted to "see" (who the next page would be). Title it "Kindergartener, Kindergartener Who Do You See?"4. For our sea unit, we did star fish star fish what do you see? Each
child picked their own sea animal, had to write the lines, ie Starfish
starfish, what do you see? I see a dolphin looking at me. Then they
illustrated their page, and I bound them into a book.5. Each child draws a picture of an animal . you should decide of they need
to real or can they be make-believe. I xerox on to the paper before giving
it the child the following sentences
__________, _________ what do you see?I see a __________ looking at me.
Then I just fill in the blanks with the children.
6. "Baby, Baby, Who could you be?"
It is taken from the popular story "Brown Bear, Brown Bear Who do you
see?". I had the parents each bring a picture of there child now and one
of them as a baby. I photo copied the pictures and then put the baby
picture on one side of the page and wrote "Baby, baby, who could you
be?". Then I turned the page over and put the picture of them now and
wrote "I am (child's name), that's me!". The children really liked it
and I even included a picture of me. They loved to guess who the picture
was before they turned the page. I teach 4 and 5 year olds and even my
youngest 4's could "read" this book.7. I took pictures of them on the first day of
school. I also had my picture taken, my partner teachers, the principal and
vice principal, and the librarian. I put each picture on the center of a page.
On the top of each page I wrote:
I see (child's name) looking at me. Under their picture I wrote (child's
name, child's name,) who do you see? I started with the kids and ended up
with myself and the principal and staff. The kids LOVE this book and it helps
them learn the spelling of names.
8. The same idea but it is pictures of them in their Halloween
costumes. I am also in this one (lucky me!). I don't use the child's name
but the name of what/who they are.9. I do one similiar to the above. At the beginning of the year our Pre-K
classes all do a Gingerbread Man unit as an introduction to the
school...I'm sure you're familiar with it....they make a GB Man and he
runs away and they learn about the school building and staff by chasing
him around the school to different locals each day. (Nurse, VP, P,
Custodian, PE, Cafeteria workers, etc.) In the end they catch up with
him and get to eat him. Well, I don't like doing the GBMan at that time
of year because I prefer saving it to do a big GB unit at Christmas, so I
use Brown Bear instead. I have a stuffed brown bear who runs away from
the classroom and we do about the same thing as above, looking for him
around the school. We follow bear paw prints in the hallway and when we
arrive at a specific place, we take a picture of of the staff member who
tells us about BB being there but we just missed him and that staff
member gives us a clue as to where he was heading (he was really hungry,
or he stubbed his toe, etc.) Next day we see more bear prints and almost
find him again, etc. Each day we make a page in our Brown Bear book
(BB, BB Who do you see? I see the nurse looking at me.) When we finally
find him, we have a big celebration in the room and take a picture of the
whole class with BB for the last page. It's a favorite book all year.10. Shape Monster... a book
This is a take-off of Brown Bear, Brown Bear and goes like this....
p1 Shape Monster, Shape Monster,
munch, munch, munch...
How about a red circle for your lunch?
page 2 blue square
page 3 yellow triangle
page 4 green rectangle
page 5 orange oval
page 6 purple diamond
page 7 goes Shape Monster Shape Monster (top of page)
Munch, Munch, Munch (bottom of page)
For each of the shape pages the children trace that shape on the middle
of their page, color it whatever color it says and then tear pieces of
paper (again in the asked for color) and fill in the shape using torn
paper pieces and glue.
On the last page , they make their own shape monster using pre-cut
shapes. They can use crayons to add details to it.Caps For Sale
1. Have the child draw a picture of himself as the peddlar with what they
want to sell on top of their heads. On the bottom of the page I write
_________,__________, for sale. Fifty cents a _________. The children
write what they are selling in the blanks. Ie.. Cats, cats for sale.
Fifty cents a cat.Caps, Hats, and Mittens
1. I usually do a "seasons" book. I read "Caps, Hats, and Mittens".
I don't remember the author. Then each students does a page for the class
book. They copy from the board "Winter is..." Some can finish the
sentence themselves. For others I write what they say and they copy it.
they like to read these books.Chickens Aren't the Only Ones
1. "Chickens aren't
the only ones", which talks about the different animals that come from
eggs. The first day I have children decorate or paint an very large
'egg' shape cut from newsprint. Then the second day I have them think
of an animal that they would like to see come out of their egg (real or
imaginary) and then draw the animal on a matching egg shape. The
children then write at the bottom of their picture what it is, such as a
chick or a dinosaur. (they use inventive spelling) We staple the
"easter egg" over their picture to make a flip book.Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs The children had paper that said
"Chewandswallow Weather Report" Today it is cloudy with a chance
of________________. The children had to think of what types of food they
would want to rain from the sky. The need to think of what would be served
with the meal such as condiments and beverages.Color Zoo based on the book by Lois Ehlert
1. I set out a pile of rectangles and squares, reminded
them how to turn those shapes into circles and triangles, then let them use the
shapes to make animals. They were SO creative!! Check out the results on my
website: http://www.cloudnet.com/~mdickins - go to the class projects section.Cookie's Week
1. Paddy the Leprechaun's Week (based on Cookies Week)Curious George Goes to the Dentist (or any number of places)
1. Have children write or dictate sentence to describe other places George
goes and illustrate.Down By the Bay
1. Another book we do is Down By The Bay...After reading this book we brainstorm
some silly rhymes example: Have you ever seen the moon eating with a spoon?
Down by the Bay. Each child comes up with their pair of silly rhymes and they
illustrate this and teacher writes the dictation. Great rhyming lesson too!
Grampa, Grampa (A StoryBox book - Wright Group)
1. My kids made Daddy,DaddyGood Night Moon
1. Good Night Moon was rewritten as Good Night School. The children drew a
picture of something or someone in the school they would say good night to
if they slept here. The were given a piece of paper that said "Good Night
________________"The Hungry Thing
1. I have a paper with a picture of the hungry thing on it. The children
have to draw a food they would feed the hungry thing. On the bottom of
the paper it says: ___________, said the Hungry Thing sounds like
________ to me.
IE.... Frapple, said the Hungry Thing sounds like apple to me.
This is part of our rhyming theme. The children have to think of a
rhyming word for the food they have choosen.I Went Walking
1. Following a spring walk, we make a book about what we saw: I saw a ______.
I went walking. What did you see? I saw a (color) (object) looking at me. The real book has animals...2. We read the book "I Went Walking" and then take a tour of the school yard at
the beginning of the year. Each child picks one object they have seen. We
then write on a blank page with the words I went walking and I saw a
(discription word ie. big, brown, huge etc.) then the name of the item seen.If I Were in Charge of the World by Judith Viorst
1. Have children dictate or write what they would like to have happen
differently in their world. Make a front cover by copying a picture of a globe, and have
the children write and draw on round pieces of paper the same size.If You Give a Pig a Pancake
1. They each had a paper that said, "If you give a_______________ a___________. They fill in the words and illustrate.In a Dark Dark Wood (Storybox - Wright Group)
1. My kids made In a Dark, Dark Castle
It Looked Like Spilt Milk
1. We use blue paper, white paint. Fold the paper in half, put a few drops of white
tempera on one half, fold and rub. They dictate what it looks like afterward.2. The children were given a blue piece of constuction paper and a white piece of paper they had to tear the white piece to look like a cloud in the sky.
Sometimes it looked like ____________, but it wasn't ______________.The Jigaree
1. The Jigaree is another great book to use for a lesson on action words. If you
know this big book then you will understand what I mean. Each child comes up
with another action the jigaree could be doing and they complete this verse. I
can see a Jigaree it is _________ after me _______here-------------there
Jigaree's ------------everywhere!
This could read. I can see a Jigaree. It is dancing after me. Dancing here,
dancing there, Jigarees dance everywhere! Brainstorming a list of action words
is a great lesson to do in advance of this one. Each child illustrates this
Jigaree doing this action and they fill in the blanks with the action word of
their choice.The King's Pudding
1. We named ours Dad's Hamburger. We did
it in the shape of a hamburger. Dad made a hamburger. It was round,. It was
brown. It smelled delicious. Dad picked up the burger but Mother
yelled,Stop! Stop! It might be to hot. I will taste it for you. So Mother
took a bite. Munch,munch. Crunch,crunch.
Gobble,gobble. No it wasn't to hot ,said Mother. But some of the hamburger
was gone.
Dad picked up the burger. Brother yelled,Stop! Stop! It might be to cold. I
will taste it for you. **********No it wasn't to cold,said brother. But more
of the burger was gone. Then the story continues with sister
offering help because the hamburger might be to salty and then all the
hamburger was gone.So dad made another and when they all asked to help he
said no he would taste it himself.Mary Wore A Red Dress
1. Each child draws him/herself in what they are wearing that day. The children and I fill in the blanks name, wore a (color of clothes), (color of clothes), (color of clothes), name, wore a (color of clothes), all day long.2. Class book based on the story Mary Wore A Red Dress-I usually do this book
the first couple of weeks of the school year.
I give the children a sheet of paper which has room at the top for them to
draw a picture of themselves at the bottom is the following:
______________ wore a _____ _______, ________ ________,
________ ________. __________wore a _______ _________
all day long.
Example of how this would look:
Tom wore a green shirt, green shirt ,green shirt. Tom wore a green shirt
all day long.
The children love these two class books-we just reread them this week and
they were so excited to see their drawings from the fall. I used these two
activities during a theme about colors.3. Mary Wore Her Red Dress was rewritten as _______ wore his/her
_______costume, ______costume, ______ costume. ________ wore his/her
___________ costume all night long.
This was titled We Wore Our Halloween CostumesMcElligot's Pool by Dr. Seuss
1. We created our own crazy fish: I see a ________. They got to paint these!The Meanies (A StoryBox book - Wright Group)
1. The Green Grumpies!!! Goodness Gracious the Things They Do......done during
Gg week. A knock off of the book The Meanies that we had read and enjoyed a
lot.The Mitten by Jan Brett
1. "My Mitten Was So Big" based on The Mitten. Have the kids base their story on this story using other animals. The children were given a paper with a mitten drawn on it.
They had to decided what they think could now fit in the mitten.
My mitten is so big that a ___________________ could fit inside.Polar Bear Polar Bear... by Canizares and Moreton
1. I'm going to have the kids create a page about an animal sound they hear: I hear a ______ (animal) _______ (sound - roaring, etc.) at me.2. Kindergartner, Kindergartner..... Have the kids create a page about what they hear
3. This book is written with one word action phases of things that polar bears do. The children had to think of actions that kindergareners can do.Put me in the Zoo
1. The children come up with one unique thing they can do (ex. stand on my head, twirl a basketball, etc.). "They would ______(Child's name) in the zoo if they could see what___(he/she) could do. __________(child's name) can ________ (funny thing).Seven Eggs
1. We first read the book "Seven Eggs" by Meredith Hooper The book is about
what comes out of eggs each day of the week. We do a rewrite
of the story and then illustrate it.The Shape of Things by D.A. Dodds'
1. Each illustration is accompanied by text that reads: "A (shape) is just a (shape) until you add...."
After reading the book, each child received one of four cut-out shapes
(circle, square, rectangle and triangle). He/She then had to use this shape
to create a picture using the shape as the basis of an object. After the
children drew their pictures, I asked them what they made from their shape and
what they had added to the shape to make the object (ex. "A rectangle is a
rectangle until you add some fringe, then it becomes a rug."
We also made a class book from photographs I had taken as the children made
and "erupted" volcanoes from clay. I scanned the pictures, brought them to
school and asked the children to help me write the words. This was a great
project, as the children were asked to sequence our steps and to use precise
vocabulary. This book by far is one of my childrens' favorites!Ten Apples Up On Top
1. Apples up On Top!
(name) had (#) apples up on top. Childs picture with diecut apples up on
top.
2. Variation: Using computer pictures with the quicktake camera, erase everything but the head. Have the children draw their own body in a certain surrounding. For example, some this year drew themselves in school, on the playground, riding a bike, etc. Then the children used apple stickers and wrote the number of apples in the sentence, __________has _____up on top. Titled it "How Many Apples Up On Top?"Ten Black Dots by Donald Crews
1. One dot can make an elephant's eye (just an example)
Two dots can make ___________________etc.Tengo SeisAnos
1. This book talks about kids doing various activities at Kindergarten (building with blocks, brushing their teeth, etc.). We did a similar book.
Along the same lines, we used photographs and did a "This is the Way" book. Kids picked what they wanted to includeToday is Monday ( poem/song) by Eric Carle
1. I read the book to the class, and got them thinking what kind of food they like. Each child will have a page, and we will keep going through the days of the week until all the kids get a page.The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
1. Children name other food the caterpillar can eat and write sentences
about it. If the illustrations are drawn close enough to the
botton, you can punch through them with a hole punch.2. We make "A Very Hungry Kindergartener" (a spin off of the Hungry
Caterpillar book). It goes like this: In September, ______(child's name)
ate one ____(color word) __________(favorite food) but he (or she) was
still hungry. We use this pattern using all of the months until June. In
June, July, & August, ______(child's name) rested... and then he/she turned
into a wonderful first grader! The children illustrate each page using the
colors chosen.
Last year we made this book doing one page each month. By the end of the
year we had a great writing sample - there was a big difference in how they
wrote in September and how they wrote in June.3. I also do this book project but I add a picture from the quicktake camera. For example, In September, ________(child's name) collected beautiful colored leaves. In October, ____________carved a jack-o-lantern. We use this pattern using all of the months until June. In June, July, & August, ______(child's name) rested... and then he/she turned into a wonderful first grader! Take pictures and down load them on their pages. Have them decorate around the picture and finish the sentence. The parents love this and it is a treasured book that will be kept forever.
4. Based on the above book, the children make the big book, "The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar. On each page I include this poem:
Hungry Mr. Caterpillar
Was looking for a treat
Said he to the ____________.
"What's good to eat?"________said to the Caterpillar,
"If you're hungry for a treat
Try a _______.
It's good to eat!"By the poem is a caterpillar. I have several pictures of animals ready for them to use. They paste the picture by the caterpillar and draw what the animal will eat. I also put a flap of paper over their drawing of the food that they can lift up as they "read " the poem. They then can fill in the blanks with their animal and food.
We Are Monsters(Scholastic Hello Reader)
1. This class likes monsters and have drawn monsters in the past during
centertime at the art table. Someone voiced a desire to do a monster book.They decided our book will be named, Some Special Monsters
We are drawing monsters today. After they have drawn and colored their
monsters, we will go over the entire page witha 'naked crayon' to present a
finished look to their artistry. (We just rub the light colored crayon
sideways over the entire picture.) My assistant sits at the computer and
types their dictated stories as they speak them to her. We have a helper in
the room today so he will cut and paste them onto the pages, my assistant
will bind the book in the media and home it goes.sample page
My monster's name is Big Guy. He can lift a house and put it on the next
street.Some possible discussion questions.
What's your monster's name?
What can your monster do?
What is your monster's favorite food?
What do you like about your monster?
Where does your monster live?
How much does your monster weigh?
Are you afraid of your monster?
Is your monster afraid of people?Will I Have a Friend?(Cohen)
1. We start out the first day of school. We read the book, Will I Have a Friend?(Cohen). As the children pair off at
recess, we take pictures of two children at a time. During the next few days
we talk about what a friend does or is and tell one nice thing about the kid
in the snap with us. We call the book, I Found a Friend at School or
something like that. We start sending it home with one child each night.
(I write a letter inside the cover introducing the parents to our classmade
books and tell them the rules:
1-Keep the book neat and clean by placing it back in your book bag after you
have shared it.
2-Write an answer or comment to the question in the back of
the book. Something topical to the subject of the book. Do you have a best
friend? or Why are friends important. Sometimes, we just ask, How did you
like our book or Tell us how you liked our book.
3-Bring the book back tomorrow so that someone else can take it home.
Other Class Book Ideas:
1. For Presidents' Day, we did, "When I am President, I will ______________".2. "If I were a Gingerbread Boy/Girl, I would run to ________________"
3. "After the tooth fairy gets a tooth, she _____________________"
I do not fill these in for the children. They do their own invented spelling and illustrations. Put all the pages together and we read them in class, then they go on our
bookshelf. These are favorites for the children during free reading time. We
make enough so that at the end of the year, each child can take one home to
keep.4. We brainstorm words that begin with that letter, and I start the story with a crazy beginning. Then all the children help by adding on to our story. They can be as
crazy as they want, but they have to include a word that begins with
our letter, and it has to make sense, ie if we are talking about an
alligator riding in a automobile, we just can't have a an apple pop out
of nowhere. I help blend the story.
5. We do lots of them several versions of Brown Bear using the ocean
creatures, each child in class, dogs, zoo animals, planets, colors,
numerals, shapes,
The Months of the Year Birthday Book, Togethers, ABC books, My House,
This year we did two Gingerbread Man books -- each child had him meet a new
character-- he met everyone from Flat Stanley to Mickey and Clifford etc.
then we had him not eaten by the fox, instead he was rescued by everyone from
Flat Stanley to etc. etc. we did one based on a song :
Sing a song of Seasons
Summer [Winter] [Fall} [Spring] is the best
Let's put on our {bathing suits}[snowsuits][Jackets] [sweaters]
Now we are all dressed
In the { water} [snow] { puddles] [leaves] we love to play
And this is what you'll hear
Splash, Splash, Splash. Splash [Brr] [Scrunch][Splish]
That's our season cheer. each child decided what 2 pages they wanted
to do, what to wear, do, say, then illustrated the 2 parts clothing, thing
to do and each child did each of the seasons so we have 4 books
We do an ABC Dinosaur Book, Fruit and Vegetable Book, Bird Book, Insect Book,
etc. and an I Like Books Book books about dinosaurs, cats, fish, We
did The Kinds of Clouds Book. For Mother's Day we do My Mother is Special
because...6. Thanksgiving Book: First we brainstormed and then they wrote I am thankful for ________________. and illustrated.
7. During our Bear unit, we focus on real bears, but I read fictional stories about bears as well. The class book we do is called "The Bear Got Hurt".
The kids trace my (homemade) cardboard bear stencil and draw in the bear's features (face, claws, etc.) & when he's all done, they get a Band-Aid. They decide where to stick the Band-Aid and dictate how the bear got hurt...8. This past Christmas, we made an "I Want..." book. Each child dictated what he/she wanted for Christmas, I typed & printed it out, then they illustrated...
9. Use Die-cut presses to get shapes and then use your imagination to com
up with a story. One of them was called "Feathers" and each page had a
different bird and the page would say "Eagles have feathers"..."Owls have
feathers." Real basic and rote....but that's what some kids need. She
suggested making a big book then having the children help in making their
own little big book.10. Based on the idea above she put a Die-cut fish on each page and the
children would decorate around the fish with a fish bowl or the ocean...and
the sentence would be something about the picture...Fish live in the
ocean...I have a fish at home...Anything you could imagine.
11. She also had pictures cut out of magazines, old workbooks, or old
primers and then would put with it a card that would give the name of what
that object was...bike...car...bird...boy...face... and then the children
could choose pictures, take the word card and copy it to make their own
sentence to put on the page. Again...not real creative or
free-exploration...but I am sure someone creative out there could come up
with a more developmentally appropriate way of presenting the project.12. The last idea was to work with an individual child to create "their"
class book. The teacher took pictures of the children either doing
different things or showing different things. One of them was the US
States. The child would stand on the state (playground painted map),
picture taken, film developed, child and teacher sit down together and
"write the sentence", find pictures of or from the state and put on the page
with the child's picture, Laminate, bind and all the children were excited
to read the other children's books while waiting for their 'special' turn
with the teacher.13. Here is another idea for when you are working with any letter of the
alphabet. The class brainstorms things that begin with the letter your
working on for example: things that start with 'r'. We discuss this and
I have a few 'r' stories I would read. Before class I go to the trusty
school copier and enlarge enough 'r' pictures from a clip art book for
each child in the class. Each child picks out their picture and then
colors it and glues it on a large sheet of paper (12 x 18) then writes
about it. In kdg we start out with such sentences such as , a rabbit or
the rabbit or my rabbit and then work our way up to I see a rabbit or I
can see a rabbit. You get the idea!14. Butterflies
I see (#) butterflies. Draw or glue diecut butterflies
Nursrey Ryhmes Hupty Dumpty- let children illustrate15. When I grow up____________.
16. Food Yuck/ yum I like _______, but I don't like___________.
17. I will eat ______for Thanksgiving dinner.
18. Gingerbread boy-Stop, Stop said the _________. Pick new animals and
illustrate.19. My mitten is so big _________
20. My snowman ________
21. In winter______________
22. I knew it was Fall (ANy season) because on Monday I saw one_____________.
23. If I had $100
24. If I were 100 years old
25. Love is____________
26. I love _____________
27. It was so windy it blew_________ (The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins)
28. THe Hungry Giant Ate_________
29. China- My chinese brother can__________
In Mexico____________30. Aliens
31. _______ is in Outer Space.
32. The ________has wheels.(transportation)
33. The (color) bird.34. Who Can Swim? A ______ can swim.
I can___________35. We also do a book for most letters of the alphabet. A is for ________. or
________starts with ___. Using magazines, or illustrating, or clipart.
Food alphabet A is for ______. B is for _____. kids are assigned 2 letters
and bring pictures from home.
Animal alphabet same way.36. "Parents should..." It is usually hysterical.
37. "The Mystery of the Missing Sock" (a washer/drier dilemna at my house. The
kids pattern the sock)38. "I Have a Dream" (Martin Luther King)
39. Ants- the Book ---I'd like to see an ant carry a ________.
40. The Kindergarten Joke Book (This is BAD! The kids think it is hysterical
though.)
41. If I Had Wings, I Would_______.The parents can write fan mail which is shared with the class when the book
returns. We have a board to post the fan mail. Some of it is very creative!To keep organized, I have a check list for the books. When one is taken home
I put an "0" I put a check in it when it returns. It helps in assigning
books too. It really helps with so many books circulating.42. I am planning on turning this into a classbook. These are all tongue
twisters. 1 per child, each child will get to illustrate the tongue
twister, using different art mediums.Andrew and Alice asked if Annie's active animals were angry.
Bill and Betty baked brown bread for Barbara's baby.
Carol and Claire can cook carrots, corn, cabbage, and candy.
David's daddy's dog didn't dig dirt in the dark.
Everybody saw Eddie and the Eskimo enter the elevator on the elephant.
The funny furry fly flew far to the flowers.
Gary was glad to play games in grandmother's green garden.
Harry had a horrible headache and hated to hear Henry howl.
The important Indian was ill with injuries inside the igloo.
John got juice and jelly on his jacket when Judy jumped on him.
Kenny wasn't kind in kindergarten when he kicked Kate in the kitchen.
Lisa lost the large lemon for the lizard Lenny loved.
On Mondays Michael's mother Mary mostly mopped.
Nobody was nice to Nancy's neighbor Nick, but he was never nasty.
Oliver had an operation in October, and Oscar gave him an octopus.
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
"Be quiet," said the queen quickly, "or I'll quarrel with your
question!"
Ruth and Rachel ran after Richard's rabbit in the rain.
Sam said he was sorry he put salt in Sally's sandwich.
Tommy tricked Tim and took his train off the track.
Uncle was upset because he was unable to put his umbrella up.
Virginia visited Vicky and gave her violets and vegetables with
vitamins.
When the weather is warm we will walk with William in the wild woods.
The excited experts explained that the extra X-rays were excellent.
Yesterday you yelled in the yard for a yellow yo-yo.
The zebra zoomed zig-zag in the zoo.
>From Wallach, M. A., & Wallach, L. (1976). Teaching all children to
read.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.43. We use nature or topic magazines to get pictures for books....esp early in
the school year when the kids are new to bookmaking and we want to get a few
ready in a hurry so everyone will get to take one home. EX...Birds, Boats,
or Animals. We have even done one called I Like This Picture. We have
Rubbermaid Keepers filled with pictures, some sorted into categories, some
just a mish-mosh of interesting pics. We are on travel companies lists, mail
off to each state for info, use old national geographics....anything that has
good pics and I cut all summer when I am tense and need to chill out or when
I am parked in front of the tv. Anyway, kids pick a pic they like and
dictate their 'story' to my TA or a volunteer who types in and pastes in on
the page with the picture. This allows us to make books before the kids are
writing stories themselves. Our best liked one this year was titled,
Rides...we got pic of just about anything that showed people or animals
riding on something....cars, camels, hot-air balloons, the shuttle going and
also returning to FL on the back of a 747. It is a very popular book. I
think the favorite page is of a boy riding on the back of a huge tortoise.
Not PC but interesting to the kids. I will make a book on anything that will
et the kids to verbalize and learn to share what they see, think or feel
about anything.44. We also do number books with pictures.....1 would show a picture of 1 item.
These kinds of number books can be with mag pics or kid drawn pics. Later,
when we begin adding we also make addition books titled something like
18 Ways to make 7, or whatever # you are using. The kids will find pics that
show the number sentence. Our favorite page in this book is 1 Santa + 6
snakes makes 7. When the adults type up the books they use big fonts and
write the number as well as the number words on the pages.45. Having Fun....something that they think is fun to do
46. The Most Important Thing in the World....What you think it is
47. The Biggest Thing in the World....fun to see their ideas
48. The Smallest Thing in the World....ditto
49. My Family is Great..draw family....tell one or two nice things about them.
50. My Friend....drawing a friend and telling why they are special to you.
51. Doesn't have to be someone in class.
52. Best Friends......similiar to above
53. One Noisy Day.....when we were having problems using our '6 inch' voices
inside, we diecided to write about the noisiest things we could think of
like: a pig came in and squealed and grunted, a ball came crashing through
the window, balloons popped, kids stomped their feets etc.....probably one of
the most fun times we had making a class book.54. Our Favorite Riddles.....we do this one every year!
The kids love riddles and you can always tell the deepest thinkers because
they understand them toward the end of the year.55. Lots of Things Are Beautiful...after a discussion of how many beautiful
things there are in our world.......................like: An angel is
beautiful. She has wings and wears a pretty dress.56. When I Cook.....telling favorite recipes. Just a Hoot!!!! EX:Making Turkey
Put some butter in him. Sew him up. Cook for 100 hours. Use the kids words
without comment or editing.57. Make Believe Animals.................after a Dr Suess unit, kids design a
make-believe animal, name it and tell what it does.58. Magical Butterflies...........during insect unit. They do magic things like
play basketball, drive a car, you name it.
Class Books Patterned after SongsThe Farmer in the Dell
1. We changed the verses into The Zookeeper at the Zoo (charted it as a class, then assigned pages).2. One of our favorite fall books is our "Hello" book. It's a song book that
goes like this: Hello Mary, hello Mary, hello Mary, we're glad you're here
today. Hello Sean, hello Sean, hello Sean,we're glad you're here today.
After singing 3 children's names, we sing the refrain: Hope you have a
happy day, happy day, happy day, hope you have a happy day. We're glad
you're here today. Then we do 3 more names and the refrain and so on. At
the very end it goes like this: Hello everyone, hello everyone, hello
everyone! We're glad you came to school!
I put the words at the bottom of the page and have the children draw a
picture of themselves above their name page. This song is good for helping
the children recognize the names of their classmates.Class Books Patterned after Poems
The Man on the Moon
1. The children were given a paper with the poem
written on it except the last line. They needed to make another pharse for
the moon to say.
The man on the moon.
Looked out of the moon
Looked out of the moon and said
'Tis time for all children on the earth
To think about getting to bedCloud Parade
When I look up into the sky,
a cloud parade goes floating by!
I love the pictures that I see.
This one looks like a _________________to me.I have done the class book 2 ways. I have offered the children plain white copy paper. They tear the paper carefully to create paper cloud configurations. The white paper was glued to blue construction paper skies.
I also have had the children lightly draw with pencil the outline of a cloud configuration on construction paper. This paper also has the poem on it. Then, when they are satisfied, they glue a thin layer of cotton to their shapes. I then bind the pages together to make a class book.
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