New Book News
August/September/October 2006
Excerpt
Book
What a Day It Was at School! by Jack Prelutsky
Pictures by Jack Prelutsky
Greenwillow, 2005 32p. (all ages)
Poems describe all of the extraordinary events during one school day.
Idea
Readers can identify an extraordinary thing that has happened to them at school. They then write two rhyming words to summarize why the event was so memorable. Some possible rhyming summaries of extraordinary events include:
- - shirk work — forgotten assignment
- - look book — lost library book
- - lunch punch — food fight in the cafeteria
- - tech wreck — did something to shut down a computer
Use the rhyming word title as the heading for the description of each extraordinary event.
Idea
One of the poems in the book is entitled, "My Backpack Weighs a Thousand Pounds". Readers can draw pictures of what they currently have in their back pack on an outline drawing of a pack. They then estimate how much the back pack weights. Weigh the packs to determine which is the heaviest.
How much weight is comfortable to carry? Readers can write various narrative math problems to compare the contents of their back packs.
Give "dubious back pack awards" according to such criteria as:
- - heaviest
- - most items
- - most unusual item
- - smelliest or grungiest item
- - item that has been in the back pack the longest
- - worst looking back pack item
- - cleanest back pack
Readers can identify other appropriate awards for the contents and appearance of the back packs.
Strategies for the following books are also included in the August/September/Octobe issue
purchase the full version of New Book News >>
- The Amazing Life of Birds (The Twenty-Day Puberty Journal of Duane Homer Leech)
- by Gary Paulsen. Wendy Lamb (Random House), 2006 (gr. 5-8)
- An Apple for Harriet Tubman
- by Glennette Tilley Turner. Whitman, 2006 (gr.1-3)
- Baby Bear's Books
- by Jane Yolen. Harcourt, 2006 (gr. K-1)
- Bea & Mr. Jones
- by Amy Schwartz. Harcourt, 1982, 2006 (reissue) (gr. K-2)
- Bella at Midnight
- by Diane Stanley. HarperCollins, 2006 (gr. 5-8)
- The Boy Who Loved Words
- by Roni Schotter. Random, 2006 (gr. 2-6)
- Charlie Cook's Favorite Book
- by Julia Donaldson. Dial, 2006 (gr. K-4)
- Cinderella (as if you didn't already know the story)
- by Barbara Ensor. Schwartz & Wade (Random House), 2006 (gr. 3-5)
- Cookies
- by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. HarperCollins, 2006 (gr. 1-4)
- Fancy Nancy
- by Jane O'Connor. HarperCollins, 2006 (gr. K-3)
- The Fruit Bowl Project
- by Sarah Durkee. Delacorte, 2006 (gr. 5-8)
- Ghosthunters and the Gruesome Invincible Lightning Ghost!
- by Cornelia Funke. Scholastic / Chicken House, 2006 (gr. 2-5)
- Learning to Fly
- by Sebastian Meschenmoser. Kane/Miller, 2006 (all ages)
- 19 Girls and Me
- by Darcy Pattison. Philomel, 2006 (gr. K-2)
- Oh, No Not Ghosts!
- by Richard Michelson. Harcourt, 2006 (gr. K-2)
- One Smart Cookie
- by John Nez. Albert Whitman, 2006 (gr. K-2)
- One Two Three Me
- by Jeremy Fitzkee. Viking, 2006 (gr. 1-4)
- A Particular Cow
- by Mem Fox. Harcourt, 2006 (gr. K-2)
- Road Trip
- by Roger Eschbacher. Dial, 2006 (gr. K-3)
- The Sloppy Copy Slipup
- by DyAnne DiSalvo. Holiday, 2006 (gr. 2-4)
- Su Dongpo
- by Demi. Lee & Low, 2006 (gr. 3-8)
- Trollerella
- by Karen M. Stegman-Bourgeois. Holiday House, 2006 (gr. K-3)
- What a Day It Was at School!
- by Jack Prelutsky. Greenwillow, 2006 (gr. K-4)
- The Wheels on the School Bus
- by Mary-Alice Moore. HarperCollins, 2006 (K-2)
- Written Anything Good Lately?
- by Susan Allen and Jane Lindaman. Millbrook, 2006 (gr. 1-6)
To search for a specific title, see the Title Index
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