Reading Plan and Journal: All Year 'Round

I plan to read All Year ‘Round by Stan and Jan Berenstain. The children I watch in after school daycare love The Berenstain Bears books; also, they love rhyming words, so I thought this would be a good choice. This book is also about the changing seasons, so I thought it would be relevant since this is what we are experiencing right now with the coming of spring. The age group I will read to is six to eight year olds. I wanted to see if they could guess the rhyming words that were coming up in the text by context clues and the pictures.

I first read the title and showed the two children the cover. They named all the seasons and said that spring was approaching. I then explained to them that I was going to cover up the word at the end of the sentence that rhymed with another word on the same page, and they would have to guess what the word was. At first, they had a hard time guessing the word, but then they started looking at the pictures and guessing the correct words. I really liked how this book had good rhythm to it; I felt like I was almost singing the story to them. They really liked saying the rhyming words aloud and kept getting louder and louder. I asked them prediction questions about what would happen with each upcoming season; they pretty much hit the nail on the head when answering these questions. Overall, I believe these two children really enjoyed this book. I know I enjoyed reading it to them; seeing their enthusiastic faces and hearing their enthusiastic answers was very rewarding.

Berenstain, Stan and Jan. All Year 'Round. New York NY: Golden Book/Western Publishing Company, Inc., 1993.

Craft Lesson 5: Yum! MmMm! Que rico!

Discussion: I think maps are a wonderful way to organize information and to physically see where food items and other items originate. This book would be a perfect example to introduce social studies with maps and culture.

How To Teach It: While reading this book to my class, we would write on the board where each item originates or is found. Then I will distribute maps and crayons to each student. The students will have to find the country and draw the item in the country where that particular object is found. After this is done, we could talk about how and why all these items get transported to different places around the world. Also, we could introduce directions and express which item is south or north of another.

Chapter 9: Children's Literature Briefly

I really enjoyed epics in high school. I think it was because I had good teachers that allowed us to do a lot of activities based off of the epics. I remember I really enjoyed the different language used; we even listened to it on a tape recorder so we could pronounce all the words and get the full effect of the language!

Fairy tales are a classic; I can remember reading these when I was younger.

Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.

Read Aloud Plan and Reflection

I went to Hasting's and looked around at their books. There were so many choices, so I have course bought 3 instead of just one. I planned to read "My Mouth is a Volcano" by Julia Cook. It was a really cute book about a little boy that ALWAYS interrupted everyone. However, when others begin to interrupt the little boy, Louise, he learned how to respectfully wait for his turn to talk.

I read to a small group of 3rd graders at my after school day care program. I think the interrupting problem is a universal problem for children, and I have noticed this with my experience working with children. I have never really attempted to sit down and read a book to them, because most of the children just get books and read to themselves. I was interested to see if the group would sit down and listen.

I asked prediction questions throughout the story, and all of them were very interested in it. Eventually, more children from my day care sat down and listened to me read the book. While reading the story, I asked a question and three of the children blurted out their thoughts (just like Louise in the story), and I commented that their “volcanoes were erupting”. They all laughed and actually raised their hand to speak. I guess the book served its’ purpose.

I had brought the other books I bought at Hasting’s with me and one of my fifth graders wanted to read to the 3rd graders “Salt in His Shoes”, which was a book about Michael Jordan. So that was exciting that the 5th grader wanted to read, and he even asked questions just like I did.
This experience really opened my eyes to how much I could affect children’s interest in books. In my Foundations of Reading Instructions course, my professor constantly talks about read a-louds and how important prediction questions are with a small group of children. Reading this book out loud to a group of children really did show me this. For example, I could tell as soon as I asked questions about what was going to happen or what they thought the title meant, they were so excited to answer. I could even see their eyes light up when they had an idea. I can really see now how questions capture children into the story and help them be part of it, instead of me just reading a book and showing them the pictures.

Cook, Julia. My Mouth is a Volcano. Illus. Carrie Hartman. Warrenton, VA: Courage to Change Publishing, 2005.

Yum! MmMm! Que rico!

I really like how this book is so informative. I really feel children will get a lot out of this book by reading the excerpts on the sides of the pages. Also, the pictures are beautiful and really do add a lot to the text. When I turned to the page where the character's father eats the chile, my mouth started watering; it reminded me of this one time I was eating with my parents at a Tex-Mex restaurant and I accidently ate a chile pepper...VERY HOT!! I really enjoy the imagery taking place in the text. I will definently read this book in my class, but I will be sure to read right before lunch time :).

Mora, Pat. Yum! MmMm! Que rico!. Illus. Rafael Lopez. Madison Avenue NY: LEE & LOW BOOKS Inc., 2007.

Chapter 12: Children's Literature, Briefly

I am glad other children feel the same way I did at one time when in History class. I remember thinking that it was so boring because it was a bunch of facts and dates. The things I remember that were fun about history were activities that my teacher let us do like interviews with people of history, in which we would all dress up as a character in history and would be interviewed by the "audience". The book also mentions this in its' section titled "The Historical Period Should Come to Life". Getting the students involved in history is the key, not memorizing facts and dates. Also, I believe a big part of history is letting children know that they will be part of it one day.

Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.

Chapter 11: Children's Literature, Briefly

While I was reading this chapter, I kept thinking about these group of boys that I use to watch at an after school daycare program. These boys use to talk about magic tricks and would always ask me questions about mysteries and magic. This one little boy read fiction mystery books ALL the time. He seemed like he knew about everything that was not reality (he probably knew facts about things too; he was so smart). Anyways, my point is, I really do think children at the elementary level love the kind of fiction with mysteries and characters with supernatural power. I will definently be sure to include these kind of books in my classroom library.

Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Sadle River NJ: Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.