Picture Book Blog #2

Book Title: "Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm"
Author: Joy Cowley
Illustrator: Elizabeth Fuller
Publisher: Scholastic Inc., Copyright 2003
Number of pages: 32
Genre: Fiction, Picture Book

Mrs. Wishy-Washy lives on a farm with many farm animals, a truck, and a barn. There is nothing that the animals dislike as much as bathing in the old tin tub that sits next to the barn. After each have their baths, they decide to leave and never come back to Mrs. Wishy-Washy's farm. They go all over the big city and face obstacle after obstacle. When they are all ready to give up, and feeling quite sad, Mrs. Wishy-Washy comes back to save the day. Needless to say, the animals were full of joy and excitement to return to the farm and take nice, bubbly baths in the old tin tub that sits beside the barn.

Elizabeth Fuller, illustrator for this fun little book, did an excellent job. The pictures are simple, yet colorful. The readers are exposed to a drawing of each farm animal that is included in the story. This helps your struggling readers, students with IEPs for reading, and your ELLs. She also includes illustrations of the farm and the city, two places that certain students may never have seen before. If your students grew up in a tiny town out in the country, for example Shelby, Alabama, then they may never have seen a big city. Vice versa, if they grew up in New York City, then they may have never seen a farm. It's ideal when illustrators include drawings of sas many "things" that are included in the tory as possible. This will help the strugglers be able to enjoy and understand the story so much more.

Grade Level: K
Content Area: Reading for Literature
Standard: 2) With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details. [RL.K.2]

With my students, I would begin with a class discussion on farm animals. We would talk about some examples, some of the sounds that they make, where they live, and maybe how they eat. The discussion could follow with a read aloud of "Mrs. Wishy-Washy's Farm." We could have a follow-up discussion about how the students enjoyed the book and what they thought about the story. We could then do a retell of the story by breaking the children into small groups, maybe 4 students or so, and allowing them to use iPads if available. I would provide each group with a set of retell cards and let them take turns videoing each other retelling the story using the retell cards. I could walk around to each group as they are doing this activity, and I can also use the videos as a form of assessment to know if the child is able to retell a story correctly.

Picture Book Blog #1

Book Title: "Three Cheers for Tacky"
Author: Helen Lester
Illustrator: Lynn Munsinger
Publisher: Scholastic Inc., Copyright 1994
Number of pages: 32
Genre: Picture Book

A group of penguins that go by the names Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly, and Perfect all lived together on an iceberg. Then there was Tacky- a penguin that was not so normal compared to the other birds. Tacky was the "oddball." After school one day, the penguins found out that they were invited to compete in the Penguin Cheering Contest. Penguins from all over the iceberg would participate. Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Perfect, and Tacky all wanted the same big prize- the shiny blue bow ties. The team practiced and practiced until everyone got the cheer right; everyone except Tacky, that is.  Tacky just could not keep up with the rest of the birds until one day...he finally got it right! The day of the competition arrived and team after team performed. No one could quite seem to entertain the judges, however. Our team of penguins goes last, but they are certainly not least. Tacky puts on quite a show for everyone when he stumbled and fell flat on his belly in the middle of the cheer. The crowd loved it. He ended up leading the crowd in not one, but three cheers in the Penguin Cheering Contest. There was no question to whether or not our little group of penguins got to take home the shiny blue bow ties.

Illustrator Lynn Munsinger did an excellent job with the images presented in this book. The illustrations are all vivid, colorful, and kid-friendly. She makes sure to include pictures for each event that occurs on each page. This is a great way to represent the story for your students who are not quite reading yet, and for your ELL's that are not fluent in English. The pictures also do a great job showing how Tacky stands out and is different from the other penguins. The reader is able to visualize how he struggles to fit in and be apart of the team. Munsinger also did well at varying where the illustrations were placed throughout the story. Some images are above the words, some are below the words, and some take up the entire page. 

Grade Level: K
Content Area: Reading (Literature)
Standard: 1) Make predictions to determine main idea and anticipate an ending. [RL.K.1a]

 

I would read "Three Cheers for Tacky" as a read aloud. When I come to the part where Tacky stumbles and falls in the middle of their cheer at the competition, I would pause reading and pose a question to my students. This question might be, "Since Tacky fell and messed up the cheer, what do you think will happen? Do you think that they will win the competition and get to take home their shiny blue bow ties?" I could put them into small groups or do a 'Turn and Talk' with a partner to let them share their ideas. After letting them talk with each other, we could come back together as a whole class and let them share their ideas with everyone else.