Text-to-Text Connections: City Mouse, Country Mouse

Life cycle of a frog

This book is a great one to show the seasons.  During the season of winter, frog does not come out to play.  He could be hibernating since frogs do hibernate.  I think the reader can read this book on many levels.  For the youngest child, the focus on the seasons, hibernation, and playing is enough.  For the older reader, a discussion about meeting new friends, coping with change, and enjoying life as it comes to us can happen.  Maybe the frog had died, but the reader is not told.  I choose to think he is just hibernating and will join dog and chipmunk later.

Personification: The wind takes on human traits and speaks in this tale.

Cause and Effect: Because the wind blows the sisters’ cornmeal away, the effect is that Willa is determined to get it back or get something in return.

Characterization: Willa is a strong woman character.  She can be described as fearless and aggressive. Use the idea wheel to describe Willa.

Drawing Conclusions: Willa draws the conclusion that the innkeeper is dishonest.

Predicting: Predict what the innkeeper will do when Willa arrives with the goat.

Seasons: With March winds, this is a good one to use for Spring.

Text-to-Text Connections: The Windy Day by G. Brian Karas

The Wind Blew by Pat Hutchins

Cause and Effect: Because it was so windy, the effect is that everything is blowing away

Predicting: Ask the students to predict what is going to blow away next.  There are clues on each preceding page of what will be next.

Sequencing: Use a sequence graphic to sequence the order of the items being blown by the wind.

Spring begins in late March so this is a good one to use for a seasonal book.

Text-to-Text Connections with The Windy Day by G. Brian Karas

Willa and the Wind by Janice M. Del Negro

Sequencing: the book goes through each season

Setting: Vermont

Characterization: Make a graphic organizer to show Darrell’s characteristics.

With Tommy he takes the time to let him play like he is driving his truck

With The Barretts he gives the firewood to them even though they can not pay him now.

He gives the Barrett children little birds that he has carved and offers to teach them how to whittle.

He offers to build a pond for the Murphys so Andy can play with the frogs.

Mental Images: Make a mental picture of “dirt roads…like chocolate pudding.

Cause and Effect: Because the roof was never repaired, the effect is that it completely blows off in a storm.

Because Darrell is so kind, the effect is that people want to help him when he is needing help with his barn.

Text-to-Text Connections: These two books make a big connection in that they both talk about how wool is used to create a garment.  Charlie shares more technical information about the process.  Red Berry shows how the words used to create fabric can have more than one meaning.

The lamb thinks wash the wool as to get in the pond.  He thinks spinning the wool means to spin around and around, and he thinks knitting the wool means to be close with the boy.

Cause and Effect: Because the lamb spins in the meadow, the effect is that he gets dizzy and falls off of the cliff.

Because the boy looks after the sheep as his responsibility, the effect is that he is always there to save the sheep when he encounters danger.

Compare and Contrast: Use a graphic organizer to compare the words used to make the wool fabric with how the lamb uses the words to make his wool into a sweater like the boy’s.

Synthesis: Students synthesize that snakes like to eat berries from Red Berry.  Many children share that they have been warned, mainly by their grandparents,  about watching out for snakes when picking berries.

Predicting: Predict what Charlie will be doing next spring based on the last scene in the book.

Sequencing: Sequence the skills used to take the wool to a garment.

Inference: Infer what the mouse in Charlie must be thinking throughout the book.

Point of View:  Retell Charlie from the point of view of the sheep  that keeps fighting for her wool.

Seasons: Charlie goes through the four seasons.  He shears the sheep in the Spring.  As the year goes by, the sheep’s wool grows.

Text-to-Self Connections: the one potato two potato rhyme crows, rodeo, roots growing out of the potato

Sequencing: counting, seasons

Reader’s Theater: The text is simple and could be written into a reader’s theater.  Each student could hold a real potato and add some features to it with a marker.

Personification: The potatoes take on human characteristics.

Text-to-Self Connections: bring fresh or canned samples of green beans, green peas, corn, squash, and carrots to show. Open them or mix them if fresh in a pot to cook.  Usually the school cafeteria has soup everyday so it might work to get some already made from there for a little sampling after reading.

Cause and Effect: Because we plant seeds and care for them, the effect is that we have fresh vegetables for soup.

Sequencing: If we wanted to grow our own soup, what order would be the way to do it?

Senses: Think about the five senses and see which ones we use when we plant, tend, wash, cook, and eat our vegetables.

Inference:  Would these vegetables grow in the snow?  There’s not any snow in the book.  What season do you infer it is when the vegetables are growing?

Synthesis: I am synthesizing that it would be fun to make soup from growing the vegetables.  I am  synthesizing that some people have places that they can grow their own food.

Text-to-text connections: Grandma Lena’s Big Ol’ Turnip by Hester

Persuasion: This book might be a good example to teach persuasion.  What are the birds trying to persuade Harry to do?  What is Harry’s mother trying to persuade him to do?  What is Harry trying to persuade his Mother to do?

Inferring: Harry infers that a car hit the bird.
I am inferring that Harry wants to keep the bird because he says that he is her friend when his mother tells him that the bird is a wild bird.
What can we infer that the flock of green birds is trying to persuade Harry to do?

Predicting: What do you predict will happen when Harry opens the window?  I was predicting that the birds would fly away with Harry’s bird.
Text-to-Self Connections: using the library

Cause and Effect: Because the birds did not leave before it turned cold, the effect is that they must stay with Harry for the winter.

Word Choice: This is a great book for verbs.  The cat has lots of actions.

Many words that represent sounds are used.

Cause and Effect: Because the cat jumps into the paint, the effect is that the mother loves art and thinks he is artistic too.

Text-to-Self Connections: Share places your pet has jumped into.

Synthesis: After reading, write you own story about what your pet did to make you love him.

Text-to-Self Connections: mail carrier bringing a package, seed coat like our coat to keep us warm and dry; Buddy has a text-to-self connection with food.  Students may have a connection with saving seeds from fruit to plant.  Some may have a connection with eating sunflower seeds or making a home made bird feeder.

Predicting: What do you predict is in the bags?  Predict what the bag will contain from the information on the card.

Reading On: to find meaning of “germinate”

New Learning: Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds on the outside

Compare and contrast the different kinds of seeds.