Baby Mouse

Holm, Jennifer & Holm, Matthew. Babymouse: Our Hero. New York, NY: Random House, Inc., 2005.

I found Baby Mouse to be a cute book with a great story to teach children to keep trying and don’t quit even if you are afraid of something. I loved the illustrations that went along with the story, they made the story come alive since you were able to see all of the adventures has you were reading. The only problem that I can see with children reading Baby Mouse is that it seems to be designed for that reader that loves to read comic books, and not reading comic books in several years it was hard to get back into reading comic book style books.

Craft Lesson 7

Stuart’s Cape

by Sara Pennypacker

Resource Materials:

Pennypacker, Sara. Stuart's Cape. Illus. Martin Matje. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc., 2002.

Discussion:

Most children have some kind of adventure that they may use their imagination for. During Stuart’s Cape the little boy uses a certain object (his cape) to make these adventures come alive.

How to teach it:

I would like to have the students use found objects to create something they would imagine to give them super powers. Once they have completed their creation, they would write a short essay of all of the adventures that they could imagine while using their object.

Stuart's Cape

Pennypacker, Sara. Stuart's Cape. Illus. Martin Matje. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc., 2002.

I can see where a 7-8 year old boy would absolutely love this book since it is written towards little boys who imagine adventures when they have nothing else to do at the time. I know this because speaking as a former 7-8 year old boy who would imagine adventures when I was bored or when it was rainy outside, I really loved Stuart’s Cape. I liked that the young Stuart got his whole family involved in his adventures, like having his Aunt Bubbles shoot him down out of the sky with the tires from her car. The illustrations that go along with the story are perfect , because they make his adventures come alive

Children's Literature Briefly Chapter 14

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

The main information that I received out of Chapter 14 was that informational books are used for checking information on reports. And that informational books fall into categories of books from chapter books. One thing that I found interesting was that to make informational books exciting to children, the authors of the books need to make the cover of the books eye caching so that children will want to read the book. In formational books are books that can be read by any age person at any time to help with any project are to improve yourself at any anything you would like to improve on.

Children's Literature Briefly Chapter 13

Tunnell, Michael O. and James S. Jacobs. Children's Literature, Briefly. 4e. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall, 200

I found Chapter 13 to be very interesting since it was about Biographies. And since all children have to always write a biography about some one famous at sometime during school this chapter was very helpful in braking down the different types of biographies there are available to read. The one that really shocked me was picture book biographies, I guess since I had forgotten about them. But a picture book biography will be perfect for children in kindergarten or first , because they will be able to get a good knowledge of the person they want to learn about, without reading a huge novel about that person.

Craft Lesson 6

Craft Lesson 6

SIDEWALK CIRCUS

by Paul Fleischman

Value of Imagination

Resource Materials:

Fleischman, Paul. SIDEWALK CIRCUS. Illus. Paul Hawkes. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2004.

Discussion:

Imagination is a very valuable tool for children to have. Sidewalk Circus is a book that can help children learn to use their imagination. Without imagination it is hard for young readers to develop past picture books and onto chapter books. By developing imagination at an early age it will help children when they start reading chapter books they will be able to see the story with their imagination.

How to teach it:

One way to teach imagination to children is to have them look at Sidewalk Circus and after they are through with the book show the class how the little girl in the story used her imagination by seeing the circus without being at the circus. After the discussion have each student use their imagination and build a story while watching and observing an event, then coming up with their own story to go along with the event. Perhaps the teacher could post “suggestion” posters about the zoo or an amusement park and let students go outside and find as many things that could imagine seeing at these places.

Sidewalk Circus

Fleischman, Paul. SIDEWALK CIRCUS. Illus. Paul Hawkes. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2004.

I really liked Sidewalk Circus since it forces the reader to use their imagination while reading the story. The story is about a little girl who is setting on a bus bench who sees a marquee advertising that the circus coming to town. She starts to imagine the circus with the people around the area. I loved the illustrations in the story, and how they lead to the use of imagination. One of the illustrations that I really remember is the one with the man unloading at the butcher shop, but his shadow on the wall is of the strong man. I also liked the end of the story after the little girl leaves a little boy sits on the same bench and starts to imagine the circus in his on mind with the on going environment.