Ms.Wolfe's Classroom Books and Finds

Duck! Rabbit! is a narrative between two friends on what a cloud looks like to them. One friend is adamant that it is a rabbit and the other that it is a duck but they come to see through making their own points on why they think that it is, that it could be either one! The book ends with them trying to decide what they think another cloud looks like and what seems to be starting the cycle over again. This a great book to use with perspective and narratives. I would use this book for a writing activity and ask students to write a narrative on what they think they would identify the new cloud introduced at the end of the book as. You could also have students write why they think that it is a duck or a rabbit and give you their reasoning on why they think it is one or the other. 

Lexile Measurement: AD300L

Grace is simply Amazing! She has creativity and determination to get through anything life throws her way! Grace imagines herself as many things that she sees in her life and when her school puts on the play "Peter Pan" she wants to be Peter. Her classmates tell her she could never be Peter because she is a girl but int he end she gets her dream role of Peter. I would use this book for a writing activity and have students create a newspaper article about grace complete with headline, illustration, and article. This would be a great book to accompany a lesson on the text feature in nonfiction text (such as the newspaper article they are going to write) so they are able to take what they have learned and put it into their writing in a fun way with the context of this book. 

Lexile Measurement: 680L

Pete the cat is back again but this time he is rocking in his school shoes. Pete is starting school and is exploring all different places in the school such as his classroom, the library and the playground. This can be extremely nerve wracking but Pete takes it in stride! This is a great back to school book especially for students who are starting school for the first time. A couple activities that you could link to this is having students doing a writing exercise for something that they experienced for the first time at school and how they handled it. Another activity you could do for this book is having all your students create their own school shoes and explaining to their classmates why they decorated them the way they did. 

Lexile Measurement: AD430L

Pete the Cat is a fun book for children to explore colors, repetition, prediction, or Cause and Effect. Pete the Cat is walking along in his white shoes when he steps into piles of strawberries, blueberries, mud, and water. Each time that Pete steps into a pile of something it dyes his white shoes a different color before stepping into water and it washing his shoes clean- but then his shoes are wet! Does Pete let this bother him? "Goodness No!" A fun activity that could engage students following this story is having students color a pair of white shoes. They have to indicate what they "stepped in" to make their shoes turn the color they colored them. But it cannot be something that Pete stepped in. For example, I could color a pair of shoes purple and say that I stepped in grapes. You could also have the buckets of things Pete stepped in and then have students match them to the color that his shoes on little cards turned to introduce cause and effect. 

Lexile Measurement: AD240L