Literature Immersion Assignment 1- Picture Book Soak by Clare Crabtree

The Blue House: Phoebe Wahl

cecrabt2 — 2024-01-20 16:07:38 UTC

Reaction: I really enjoyed this story. I think the art that Wahl draws and paints herself is really what makes this book so unique. Her art style is one I don't really see a lot in children's books. This book also is a great way to show how to deal with anger and loss for children in a different way than the stereotypical way of losing a loved one. This story hits a different aspect of growing up with how difficult the move from a childhood house can be - for child and parent. My grandma is in the process of selling her huge Victorian house that she's lived in since I was born and this book made me quite emotional thinking about the loss of that house. I could use this book to help with SEL lessons my school does on Mondays and Fridays. This could be a co-teaching lesson with the guidance counselors about how to handle anger and loss. 10/10 recommend this book for anyone, but especially those who may be moving with young children soon.

Paletero Man: Micah Player

cecrabt2 — 2024-01-20 16:15:41 UTC

Reaction: Initially, I read this book because the elementary school where I currently am has a high Hispanic population. While the story is not one of my favorites, I do love how this is a bilingual book, switching back and forth between Spanish and English almost every line of the book. This would be a great book to help promote the culture of reading for my Hispanic students and their parents. There is an EL Night at my school soon and this would be a great book to have featured for them to look through. Feeling represented in the library is one of my main goals and this book is a step in the right direction.

I Am Every Good Thing: Derrick Barnes

cecrabt2 — 2024-01-20 16:23:51 UTC

Reaction: As a white woman who works in a predominantly black school, it is my goal to have books in my library that my students see themselves in. I actually have already read this book with my 3rd-5th graders the past week at school and a lot of them told me that they had received this book for Christmas and that it was one of their favorites to have read to them by their parents (mostly 3rd graders with that comment). After we listened to the story, we discussed how the boy in the story described himself and what he compared himself to. We came up with a list of positive adjectives to review what adjectives were and then I had each student go onto their ChromeBook/iPad and look up different adjectives that they thought described them. After that I had them all go to a poll everywhere that I had created and had them each type in their adjectives that they had found. After that, we turned on the feature on Poll Everywhere that turns the responses into a Word Cloud to see which words were used the most. Nice, Smart, and Black were the top three in almost every class which I thought was extremely heartwarming. This is definitely a book I'll be reading again with K-2 and simplifying the activity a bit because my 3-5 students seemed to really enjoy it.

Clovis Keeps His Cool: Katelyn Aronson

cecrabt2 — 2024-01-20 16:29:32 UTC

Reaction: While reading this book, I immediately thought about the entire 2nd grade at my school. That grade in particular this year seems to have issues with getting mad at the drop of a hat. They can go from 0 to 100 so quickly. I would love to do an SEL lesson with each 2nd grade class about how anger is an emotion that we all feel from time to time and while it's healthy to let out what you're feeling instead of bottling it up, it can be damaging to those around you if you "loose your cool" by placing your hands on others. Partnering again with the guidance counselors and maybe even the school nurse to go over techniques to help calm down, finding a person/space where the student feels comfortable to let out their emotions, and just how to handle those big feelings instead of hurting their classmates.

Sheepish (Wolf Under Cover): Helen Yoon

cecrabt2 — 2024-01-20 16:33:58 UTC

Reaction: I thought this story/concept was pretty cute. I also liked how there weren't that many words per page. I could see how this would be a great book to get hesitant readers interested in reading because of that. I could see myself integrating it into a lesson with Kindergarten teachers when they talk about fairytales at the beginning of the school year. I could also see myself integrating it with a 4th-5th grade unit when they talk about text structures and using this one to compare and contrast it with the 3 Little Pigs.

Dandelion Magic: Darren Farrell

cecrabt2 — 2024-01-20 16:45:20 UTC

Reaction: I LOVED this book! It was so incredibly cute and I felt like a child again while reading it. Interactive books are one of my favorites, because if done correctly, I think even older kids get really into them. I could totally see myself integrating this into a 3rd grade science unit to help talk about seed/wind dispersal. I also think it would be super fun to read with K-2 as well to begin talking about seed/wind dispersal at a more basic level because who doesn't love to "blow sea monsters away?" Can't wait to read this one with my kiddos.

Negative Cat: Sophie Blackall

cecrabt2 — 2024-01-20 16:56:04 UTC

Reaction: As I am not the biggest cat lover, this was not my favorite book I read, but it was one that I liked more than I thought I would with how it ended. I would very much love to organize a field trip or even an after school program of sorts to take children to local animal shelters and have them practice their reading skills to the cats just like the students do in Negative Cat. I think it would help promote the culture of reading at my school, and also give students something to look forward to. I think it would also be a great way to partner with the community and have connections with different businesses/non-profits in the area.

What Can You Do With a Rock?: Pat Zietlow Miller

cecrabt2 — 2024-01-20 17:05:12 UTC

Reaction: As a former rock obsessed child, this book unlocked deep memories of going and looking for rocks in streams when I was on summer vacation and on the playground at school when I didn't want to play kickball with everyone else. I really loved the illustrations in this book as well. Simple, but conveyed exactly what they needed to. I would really like to collaborate with the 4th grade science teachers/STEAMS teacher at my school when they talk about Earth's Landscapes and use this book to introduce the different types of rocks. Then using the back page of this book to have students classify rocks with table partners.