Lit Block Blog

Hygiene..You Stink!, written by Julia Cook, is a book about a fork named Jean. Jean goes through many trials and decides that since she is a stainless steel fork that she does not have to "take a bath", or "brush her teeth", among other basic hygiene needs. She is eventually told how important it is to take care of herself and how taking a bath and brushing your teeth can help you do that. This is a great book to help incorporate health into your reading curriculum. This would be a great lesson that you can do as a shared group reading and writing lesson. You can introduce the topic of hygiene to the students and then proceed to do a picture walk and then read the book. After reading the book you can then give each child their writing journal and allow them to write what they learned about hygiene from Jean and why they think hygiene is important. I would recommended this book, for kindergarten through third grade. Again, this is a great way to incorporate health curriculum into the class. 

Red: A Crayon's Story, written by Michael Hall, is about a crayon with a bright red label who answers to the name "Red". Red is struggling to color in the color of red. Red has the teacher,  grandmother, parents, and friends try to help him to be able to color in the color of Red. Some people even try to change him and alter his appearance to see if that will help him be a better red. After Red has given up on being a good red crayon, he meets a friend who asks him to color her a great big blue sky. After trying to color a sky, Red discovers that he is in fact a blue crayon and not red. After discovering who he truly is, he gets to be himself and show off his true color. This book would be a great book to read to your class to let them know that being different is not always a bad thing. It could also help them understand that not being able to do what people think you should be able to do, does not mean that you can't do anything right; it means that you just might be able to do something completely different and unexpected. After reading this book for shared reading, I would then tell the children that they will be writing about a time that they felt pressured to do something, or felt like they were pressured into changing. I will model by telling them about a time I felt pressured to change. After writing their responses, they can then share with the class (if they feel comfortable) what they wrote. This is a great story to use for Reading, and Writing lessons. I would say that you can use this book for Kindergarten through Third Grade. 

The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg, has become a Christmas Classic in many homes, but I want it to become a Christmas Classic in my classroom. I would use this book for Kindergarten to Third Grade. To incorporate a lesson into the all day Polar Express Christmas party I would read the book to the children first and go over it with them, and then I would have them watch the movie. Later, while they are doing their many activities/crafts that go with the book/movie, I would have them compare and contrast the book and the movie. I hope to use this book for my Christmas party because of all the activities you can do from this book, and I also love the lesson it teaches and reminds you to always believe even if you can't see it. I've always wanted to be able to center my holiday party around this book and the story, so I would definitely use this book in my classroom for my holiday party. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle, is a classic children's story that is used in many classrooms. The story follows the transformation of how a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. It grasps childrens' attention with it's wonderful use of colors, art, and interesting story. This book is usually intended for Kindergarten, but I would use it up to first grade. The reading level for this book is also considered Kindergarten and first grade. This book can be used to incorporate many different lessons into your classroom. You can use it to go over different colors, counting, how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, teaching the days of the week, and you can even use it to teach a lesson about what happens if you overeat. There are also many different activities you can purchase to go with the book. Books-a-Million has a whole section just for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and it has activities, stuffed animals, puppets, and even kits that have different activities you can do. This would be a great book to bring out in the beginning of the year to go over lessons, or you can even spend a few days on it and use it for multiple lessons. Personally, I love this book, and if I get the opportunity to teach kindergarten or first grade, I will be using this book in my lessons.