Sprucewood

Month/Year: Feburary 2008

Recommended Read-a-loud or Book-talk books:

Title: "Why the Banana Split"

Author: Rick Walton Topic: Dinosaurs, Fiction

Grades: 1-3

Comments: This story was about what happened when Rex the dinosaur visits town. All of the people and objects in town run away when he comes, until they find out that only fruit (the bananas) need to be afraid. The kids really laughed at the play on words.

Title: "The Ballad of Valentine"

Author: Alison Jackson

Topic: Valentines Day

Grades: 1-4

Comments: This was about a fellow that was hopelessly in love with a girl named Valentine. He tries many methods (smoke signals, morse code, skywriting) to get a valentine to her. It rhymes and can be sung to the tune of "Clementine". (No, I didn't sing the book – I can't carry a tune in a bucket!)

Pair and Share Topic: Black History Month

Grades: 4-6

Titles/Authors used: "More Than Anything Else"- Marie Bradbury

"Booker T. Washington" – Patricia & Frederick McKissak

Comments: We read the first story about Booker T. Washington and talked about how his biggest desire was to learn how to read. Then we used the biography to tell about his life and accomplishments.