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You have accessed the blog site for Choosing and Using Books for Children. Throughout the term we'll use our blog to record the books we read and the ideas we have for using them when we're teachers. By the end of March, our class will have read at least 280 books. Happy reading!

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1. Underline or italicize all book titles (choose one formatting style and stick with it--underline OR italicize for all book titles)
2. Add your name in the "label" box before you post each documentation.

One important recommendation:
Create your documentations in a separate Word document, then cut and paste in a blog post.

Basic Documentation

Book Title:

Author(s):

Illustrator/Photographer/Artist:

Publisher:

Copyright Date:

Genre:

Brief Annotation:

Your Rating (1-5) and why:

Readers who will like this book:

Teaching Strategy from Tompkins or Yopp & Yopp (you'll link a strategy to at least 10 of your 40 books) :

Question to ask about this book before a read aloud:

Optional, but noted as extra effort:

1. Interest Level (age):

2. Grade Level Equivalent (grade):
Use book wizard to help with the previous 2 areas


3. List awards

4. Does this book have a book trailer? If so, cut and paste the web address here.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

Book Title: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Author(s): Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
Illustrator/Photographer/Artist: Steve Jenkins & Robin Page
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
Copyright Date: 2003
Genre: Nonfiction Picturebook
Brief Annotation: Animals use their eyes, ears, noses, mouths, tails and feet in very different ways. The challenge in this book is to guess which parts belong to what animal. Then, learn the interesting way in which they use the part.
Your Rating (1-5) and Why: I rate this book a five. It is a fun and creative way to learn about animals and their uniqueness.
Readers who will like this book: I think children who love animals and who like to play guessing games or riddles will love this book.
Teaching Strategy from Tompkins or Yopp & Yopp : Tea party would be an excellent strategy to use for this book. Make cards of each part. Students first practice reading their parts. Then the students move about the room pairing up with each other to share their part with the other person. After each person in the pair has had time to share and ask questions. They go and find a new person to pair with. After this is done several times the teacher selects a few children to share their part with the class and share what they have learned.
Question to ask about this book before you read aloud: Have you ever thought about how special every creature is? What do we use our parts for? Is that different than animals?
List awards: Caldecott Honor Book

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1 comment:

  1. Suzy Kaback & FamilyFebruary 12, 2012 at 4:54 AM

    Steve Jenkins is a great nonfiction author to know. If you wnat to look at more of his amazing cut paper/collage style of illustrations, just ask. I have a lot of them on my cart!

    I was a little unclear about applying the Tea Party idea from Tompkins to your pairing activity. I think your idea might be better described as a word or concept sort since the kids are matching (sorting) their parts to the animals they fit. What do you think? Regardless of how the strategy is most accurately described, I like the idea because it's reusable once you've done the work of making the part pieces and the creature that matches each one. Would you color copy pages of the book then cut out the pictures? Sounds like a great job for a parent volunteer!

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