Balloons over Broadway

Sweet, M. (2011). Balloons over Broadway: The true story of the puppeteer of Macy's parade. New York: Houghton.

Tony Sarg is a puppeteer who creates the first Macy's Day Parade.  It tells how he uses his knowledge of marionettes to create the big balloons that float down the parade route.  Tony starts small, but by the end he has created the big balloons of today.  Illustrations in this book are eye catching colleges that give details to the story.

Lesson plan for Balloons Over Broadway:
After reading the story to the students discuss how Tony Sarg developed his balloons over the years and talk about what a parade route is.  Have students pull up Google maps on the iPads and get a map of their town or city.  Plan a 2.6 mile route (like Macy's) through their town.  Make sure to mark where the beginning and end of the route is, and where the best place to view the parade is. 
More lesson plans for this book at:  http://www.rif.org/documents/us/Balloons-Over-Broadway_RIF-Extension-Activities-for-Educators.pdf

5)  Geography. The student understands the concepts of location, distance, and direction on maps and globes. The student is expected to:

(B)  use a scale to determine the distance between places on maps and globes;

(C)  identify and use the compass rose, grid system, and symbols to locate places on maps and globes; and

(D)  create and interpret maps of places and regions that contain map elements, including a title, compass rose, legend, scale, and grid system.

The Three Pigs

Wiesner, D. (2001). The three pigs. New York: Clarion.

This story begins like any other Three Little Pigs story, but once the wolf starts blowing down the first pig's house the story takes a surprising turn of events.  The pigs run out of one story and into another and the characters from the other story joins the pigs to defeat the big bad wolf.

Lesson Plan for The Three Pigs.

After reading the book to students, discuss the different fairy tale characters that the pigs saved and brought home with them.  Talk about what other fairy tale characters the pigs could have saved.  Then have the students write a story on how the pigs would save them.
More ideas at:  http://www.vickiblackwell.com/lit/threepigs.html

(17)  Writing/Writing Process. Students use elements of the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing) to compose text. Students are expected to:

(A)  plan a first draft by generating ideas for writing (e.g., drawing, sharing ideas, listing key ideas);

(B)  develop drafts by sequencing ideas through writing sentences;

(C)  revise drafts by adding or deleting a word, phrase, or sentence;

(D)  edit drafts for grammar, punctuation, and spelling using a teacher-developed rubric; and

(E)  publish and share writing with others.

It's a Book

Smith, L. (2011). It's a book. New York: Roaring Brook.

This is a simple book about reading a book.  It doesn't do anything fancy, it doesn't talk to you or you can't listen to it, you just have to read it.



Lesson Plan for It's a Book.

This would be a good book to introduce kindergarten students on how to treat a book, the different parts of a book, how to turn the pages and to follow the text from top to bottom and left to write.  After going over the different parts of the book, then I would have the students working with partners use the iPads to take pictures of each part of the book and upload it into Duddle Buddy and then write on each picture which part it is.

(1)  Reading/Beginning Reading Skills/Print Awareness. Students understand how English is written and printed. Students are expected to:

(F)  hold a book right side up, turn its pages correctly, and know that reading moves from top to bottom and left to right; and

(G)  identify different parts of a book (e.g., front and back covers, title page).

Mirror, Mirror

Singer, M. (2010). Mirror, Mirror. New York: Dutton.

A book of poems written from top to bottom and then bottom to top makes for a interesting read.  These are fairy tales written in poem form, then written again from the bottom to create a whole different meaning.  The illustrations go along with the poem in both forms.


Lesson Plan for Mirror, Mirror:

First read the book to the students.  Then discuss which fairy tales are included in the book and how the meaning was changed from one to the other. Choose a Shel Silverstein poem book or have a copy of different poems for each group. Pass out one poem to each group and let them write the reverse for it and illustrate their poems. Have them share and discuss the ease or difficulty of doing it.

(7)  Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Poetry. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. Students are expected to respond to rhythm and rhyme in poetry through identifying a regular beat and similarities in word sounds.

Where the Wild things Are

Sendak, M. (1963). Where the wild things are. New York: HarperCollins.

Max is being wild and misbehaving, so mother sends him to bed with no supper.  Max's room slowly changes to an island where there are wild creatures and Max becomes the leader.  He gets tired and hungry so he wants to go home, but the wild creatures didn't want him to.  He returns to his room to something good and hot.


If you liked this book, then you might like these:

Brown, M.W. (1947). Goodnight moon. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publications, Inc.




Johnson, C. (1955). Harold and the purple crayon. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers




Viorst, J. (1972). Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Selznick, B. (2007). The invention of Hugo Cabret. New York: Scholastic.

This book is about 600 pages long with about half of those pages being artwork.  The artwork is very important in this story since it connects the written pages together.  The story begins with Hugo being taken in by his uncle and learns how to keep the clocks in the train station, in Paris, working. His uncle passes away and now Hugo must continue his work, but he also wants to fix the automaton his dad was working on before the fire. Will Hugo get it to work?  Why does the old man at the toy store want his notebook?


Lesson Plans for The Invention Hugo Cabret:

Since this book contains many pictures and won the Caldecott Medal, this would be a great way to introduce the award to the students.  Pull other books that have also won the Caldecott and go over why they think these books have won the award.  Have them choose a picture from one of the books to look at and draw.  Make sure they include the title of the book and the illustrator on their work.  Create a bulletin board of favorite illustrations and hang up their drawings.
More lesson plans at: http://librarysparks.com/pdf/librarysparks/2008/lsp_nov08_LL_hugo_cabret.pdf 

(4)  Response/evaluation. The student makes informed judgments about personal artworks and the artworks of others. The student is expected to:

(A)  identify general intent and expressive qualities in personal artworks; and

(B)  apply simple criteria to identify main ideas in original artworks, portfolios, and exhibitions by peers and major artists.

Good Masters, Sweet Ladies

Schlitz, L. A. (2007). Good masters, sweet ladies. Boston, MA: Candlewick Press.

This book is written in the form of a play.  It is set in a Medieval Village with children from upper to lower class.  It starts out with Hugo, who is the Lord's son, he must hunt the boar he saw in the woods or be flogged by his uncle for running from his tutor. The story continues introducing a new character and how it is connected to the last be they rich or poor.


Lesson Plan for Good Masters, Sweet Ladies:

Since this book is written in the form of a play, it would be great for the students to act it out.  Before students will be able to read this story they need to have a better understanding of the time period. First read the book to the class.  Take some words from the book, such as: tanner, miller, apprentice, falconer, crusade, and lambing or others that the teacher sees fit.  Have the students work in groups to come up with a definition, a sentence and a picture to show they understand those words.  Next talk about the time period, the dialect and the community from the medieval time.  Finally let them practice their parts and then perform it for other classes.
More ideas at:  http://www.socstrpr.org/files/Vol%204/Issue%203%20-%20Winter,%202010/Features/4.3.10.pdf

(10)  Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Culture and History. Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about the author's purpose in cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. Students are expected to explain the difference between a stated and an implied purpose for an expository text.
(12)  Reading/Comprehension of Informational Text/Culture and History. Students analyze, make inferences and draw conclusions about the author's purpose in cultural, historical, and contemporary contexts and provide evidence from the text to support their understanding. Students are expected to identify the topic and locate the author's stated purposes in writing the text.