The Song of Mulan

The Song of Mulan
By: Jeanne M Lee
Multicultural/ International

The Song of Mulan, tells the classic tale of a young Chinese woman who runs away from home to fight in the war in stead of her ailing father. Buying a horse and stealing her father's armor she sets off to join the army. Mulan leads the life of a male soldier for 10 years and accomplishes many feats. When the emperor offers her a rich reward, she asks only for a camel to bring her back to her village. Once at home, she dresses in beautiful silk, and convinces her comrades that courage and fighting skills are not just limited to men. This inspiring story tells the classic ballad, and is written as the title suggests, poetic and song like.

The Talking Eggs

The Talking Eggs
Author: Robert San Souci
Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney
Traditional/ Folk

The talking eggs is an adaptation of a Creole folk tale. The story is about a young girl named Blanche who lives in a small Louisiana home with her sinister mother and older sister Rose. At home Blanche is expected to do all of the work, and is often taken advantage of and mocked by her mother and sister. One day, Blanche meets a mysterious old woman in the woods. After giving the old woman some water, Blanche is led to her home, where she is met by some strange animals. The woman tells Blanche not to laugh, and despite the funny looking animals she obeys. The woman has several other trials for her, until finally she leads her into the chicken coop and rewards her with magic eggs which lead to great fortunes for Blanche. Upon returning home, Rose and her mother become jealous of Blanche and con her into telling where she got the eggs from. The next day, Rose is sent into the woods to seek out the old lady and receive her share of the treasures. She meets the old woman, but fails to follow her directions and in the end winds up with nothing. This story is filled with wonderful illustrations, and spectacular scenes.

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace
Author: Mary Hoffman
Illustrator: Caroline Binch
Realistic Fiction

Amazing Grace is the tale of a young girl who loves to tell stories, and play the role of her favorite characters. One day, Grace finds out that her class is going to do a performance of Peter Pan. Grace wants to try out for Peter Pan, but her friends tell her she can't because she is a girl, and African American. Feeling deflated, Grace goes home to her Nana and tells her all about her horrible day. Her Nana inspires Grace by taking her to see a ballet, and tells her than she can do anything. Grace decides to try out for the play after all, giving a wonderful performance. Of course, she gets the part of Peter Pan, and all of her friends tell her how great she was at the auditions. In the end, Grace stays true to herself and shows others that she is capable of doing whatever she puts her mind to.

Classroom Application/Reflection:
I used this book with my class of 3rd grade students to teach a lesson about gender roles. After reading Amazing grace, the class discussed whether it was ok for girls to like boy things, and boys to like girl things. We also discussed some of our favorite story characters, realizing that girls sometimes liked male protagonists, and males sometimes liking females. They seemed to connect with Grace, and all agreed that people should do what they want and should not feel pressured to act a certain way because of their gender. Students then participated in a WebQuest I created specifically for this lesson, where they learned about other important people in history who broke the mold like Grace did. Afterwards, students were given paper to design a poster for school play auditions that were encouraging to people of all gender, age, race, or socio-economic status. Overall the lesson went very well. The students were really excited about not only doing a group project, but also being able to use laptops. My SBTE is more on the traditional side and does not usually have technology applications for her lessons. I was unsure of whether she would be up for the challenge of a large lesson such as this, but it worked very well. At the end of the lesson she even commented on how the students were really engaged, provided lots of feedback during discussion and produced high quality work. I would love to try this lesson again seeing how much they liked it.

Ideas for this lesson were collected from:
http://www.dcmp.org/guides/10045.pdf

See the full lesson plan that I implemented here, including a link to the WebQuest:
https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AcvxAeISuG7qZGR2cnMzMmtfMzJnZjdndnpmcg&hl=en

Extreme Animals

Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth
Author: Nicola Davies
Illustrator: Neal Layton

Compared the the animals of the desert, oceans, and the Arctic, Humans are just big wimps! Extreme Animals is a book dedicated to the animals who manage to thrive in the harshest of conditions. The book shares facts about the survival mechanisms of penguins, polar bears, camels, and roadrunners...just to name a few. Filled with comics, and interesting diagrams and pictures, this book is sure to engage readers of all ages.

For more information on this book and the facts it shares please go to:

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/extremeanimalbook

The BFG

The BFG
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake
Modern Fantasy/Fiction

The "Big Friendly Giant", is the story of a little orphan named Sophie who lives in London England. One night she is unable to sleep, and while she is lying in bed, she is stirred by a noise outside her window. Sophie witnesses a giant blowing something into the windows down the street. Suddenly, the giant spots Sophie and scoops her up and carries off to giant country. Fortunately, Sophie was kidnapped by a friendly giant who calls himself the BFG. He explains to the girl that he collects dreams in jars and blows good dreams into the bedrooms of young "childers". But, he also warns her of the evil giants who eat "human beans" and stop him from doing his job. Sophie, distraught by the thought of people being gobbled every night decides to help the BFG devise a plan to stop the evil giants once and for all. But, what can a little girl and a meek giant do to help save the world? Realizing they don't have the resources to go about capturing the giants alone, Sophie decides to recruit the help of the Queen of England. With the help of the Queen's army, Sophie's wit, and the BFG's dream mixing skills, the giants are captured and kept in a giant hole only to eat the most putrid of foods found in giant country. Snozzcumbers! Roald Dahl does not disappoint with this remarkable tale filled with interesting characters, and plenty of twists to leave the reader wanting to read more.


Classroom Application:
After reading the BFG by Roald Dahl, students can roleplay as an English journalist/news reporter. Students will work in groups to write and act out their news story. They may use FlipCams to record a 2-5 segment about the capture of the evil giants. The story must include facts from the book including the names of the perpetrators, a description of their crimes, and how they were captured. Students may choose to include artist renditions of the giants, provide a short dramatization of the event, or interview of witnesses or special persons in their report. Costumes are encouraged!

Tiki Tiki Tembo

Tiki Tiki Tembo
Author: Arlene Mosel
Illustrator: Blair Lent
Folk/Traditional

Tiki Tiki Tembo tells the story of two brothers in China. One brother was simply named Chang, but the other had a very long and unusual name because in China at that time it was tradition to give the older son a very long important name. The older brother's full name was Tiki Tiki Tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo. In the story the older brother falls into the well and Chang runs to his mother to get help. Chang is frantic, and because his brother's name is so long it takes several tries for him to finally get the message across to his mother. Finally, his mother tells him to go and fetch the old man and his ladder to get the boy out of the well. But, when he visits the old man, the same thing happens. Chang is so nervous that he jumbles his words and it takes several tries for the old man to understand what he is saying. Finally, Chang slows down enough to tell the old man what has happened and they both rush to the well to get Tiki Tiki Tembo-no sa rembo-chari bari ruchi-pip peri pembo out. The old man revives Chang's brother and he is never the same afterwards. This tale speculates why today Chinese children are now given short and often one-syllable names.

The Moon

The Moon
By: Seymour Simon
Non-Fiction/Science

Ever wonder what the Moon looks like up close? Well, now you have the chance. Seymour Simon lets the reader get up close and personal with our Moon and explains many of its unique features in his book The Moon. In this book you can find stunning NASA photos and the answers to common questions about the moon such as, why there is no weather or sound on the moon, and why astronauts bounce. Scientifically accurate and informative, this book should be on every aspiring astronomers book shelf.

Classroom Application:
This book can be used to introduce students to some features of the Moon and facts, to prepare them for a more extensive Moon study unit. One suggestion for a Moon study activity would involve the students studying the topography of the Moon and its special features in order to design a suitable space craft to travel to the moon, and to choose an appropriate lunar landing site.(see link below) The students may use the book above, or other resources provided by the teacher such as other books, maps, photographs, or websites. Students will be placed in groups of four. Each team will have a Chief Engineer, Scientist, Lunar Geologist and a Public Relations Manager. Students will research features of spacecrafts,(perhaps by studying the Apollo shuttle mentioned in Seymour Simon's book)and study the topography of the Moon in order to choose a landing spot. Together the group will create PowerPoint presentation showing the design of their spacecraft, reasons for their design, landing location, and why they chose that spot. Students may choose to include photos, video clips, and text in their presentations.

Ideas for this lesson were borrowed from NASA.gov. Additional resources and a complete lesson plan can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/180575main_ETM.Lunar.Land.Sites.pdf