Willow Springs

School: Willow Springs

Month/Year: February 2008

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

Title: Wind Flyers

Author: Angela Johnson

Topic: Tuskegee Airman

Grades: 3-6

Comments: We shared this book as part of recognizing Black history month. This was a book that told about the Tuskegee Airmen, an all Black squadron of men, trained to fly during WWII. We shared pictures found on the internet of some of the men that were trained to fly and the airplanes they flew.

Title: Wackiest White House Pets

Author: Katherine Gibbs

Topic: True stories of strange and unusual pets several Presidents owned

Grades: all

Comments: Students enjoyed learning a different facet of Presidents’ lives and learned some history along with enjoyable stories about animals, which most children enjoy as well.

Pair and Share Topic:

Grades: 3-6

Titles/Authors used: Theodore Roosevelt, William Henry Harrison, Martin Van Buren, James Madison, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Herbert Hoover all of these are Scholastic books by Mike Venezia.

Comments: Since February celebrates Presidents’ Day we thought we’d ask, Do You Know Your Presidents? We asked these questions: Who had a bear named after him, who served the shortest term in office, who was the smallest in statue, who was the first born a U.S. citizen, who besides Lincoln and Kennedy was assassinated, and who is blamed for the Great Depression? We had the students guess and then we read excerpts from books that answered these questions.