Catfish Tale

Stewart, Whitney. Catfish Tale. (2014). Guerlla's, Gerald (Illus.). Park Ridge Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company

Have you every heard of a Catfish with magical powers down in they Bayou? Well Jack has and when he tells his wife everything changes. She makes bigger and bigger wishes, until she just simply wishes she could go back to the way things were. 

Connecting to the Standards 
 Grade 2 RI (4): Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area

• Students will meet this standard when they are learning vocabulary words. When you go over the vocabulary words, not all the vocabulary words will be gone over so that when you get to them in the text you can ask the students and they can use context to figure it out 

Grade 2 RI (9): Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic

• Students will meet this standard by creating their chart to see if each fair tale meets their component of a fairy tale they are looking for. 

Learning Outcomes
In groups of two or three, students will be in charge of finding one component of a fairy tale in each of the fairy tales read throughout the lesson. Students will be in charge of charting whether the component is there or not. 

Adapted to the Classroom 
This text would be used when you are studying about fairy tales. Before reading this students would know what a fair tales is and all the components of a fairy tale. In the fairy tale unit you would be working on finding all the components of a fairy tale, in text that are believed to be fairy tales. Students would be in groups of two or three and would be looking for a certain component for each fairy tale read. Students would be given a chart with their component and all the fair tales read, the the story is being read they would check the box to see if the component had been met or would leave it blank if it had not. At the end of the unit, we would create a big chart with all the components and the stories read. Students would then be invited to mark the stories that met their component.

For this text in particular before reading you would introduce new vocabulary. There are so many knew vocabulary to students because of the setting of the story, that this is a major learning opportunity for students.

Bloom's Taxonomy 
What is a Bayou and where is it located? (Knowledge)
Why do you think that Jolie made the wishes she did? (Analysis)
How would you use a wish from a magical Catfish if you found one? (Application)

Differentiation
For ELL students, directions on what the task is would be given in both English and their native language.
For gifted students, they will have to make a graph at the end showing how many books where fairy tales and how many books where not fairy tales

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Atwater, Richard and Florence. Mr. Popper's Penguins. (1993). Lawson, Robert (Illus.). New York, New York: Little, Brown and Company

Mr. Popper, was just a poor house painter who lived in Stillwater Oklahoma until one day when he suddenly own a penguin named Captain Cook from Admiral who promised him a surprise. Shortly after getting Capital Cook, they got a female penguin from the zoo who matted with Captain Cook and had 10 baby penguins. Mr. Popper and his penguins make a circus act, which may seem like a good idea but things suddenly take a turn in opposite directions and Mr. Popper winds up in the North Pole with his penguins and Admiral.

Connecting to the Standards 
Grade 2 W (5): With guidance and support of adults and peers, focus on a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including collaboration with peers.

• Students will meet this standard when they take turns to type out the cause and effect chart of the events in the story while reading the text.  

Grade 2 SL (2): Recount or describe key ideas or details from a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media.

• Students will meet this standard when we discuss what happened during the last reading time before we read another passage.

Learning Outcomes  
While reading Mr. Popper's Penguins, the class will create a cause an effect chart outline the events within the story, with 80% accuracy.

Adapted to the Classroom
This would be a book that would be read aloud by the teacher after lunch/recess to calm the students down. Throughout reading the text you can create a cause an effect chart. This chart would also be a guide for students to understand what is happening in the story. While reading this text you can also do a science lesson on penguins and animals that live in the cold climates. Each day you would review what you wrote down the day before on the cause and effect chart. The cause and effect chart could be on the computer and each day a different students gets to take turns typing into the chart.

Bloom's Taxonomy 
What is the name of Mr. Popper's first penguin? (Knowledge)
Give a summary of the chapter read aloud today (Comprehension)

Differentiation 
For students who are auditory learners, instead of you reading the text one day you can find a recorded read aloud allowing for the students to listen to the text in a different tone.
For students with hearing impairments, the teacher will wear a microphone while the student has the receiver, amplifying the sound for the student to hear the story.

Enigma - A Magical Mystery

Base, Graeme. Enigma- A Magical Mystery. (2008). Base, Graeme (Illus.). New York, New York Abrams Books for Young Readers

Bertie was expecting a typical visit to see his grandfather at his retirement home. But much to Bertie's surprise it was not a typical visit. Bertie spend his time trying to find his grandfather's rabbit Enigma, and helping the other residents of the retirement home get their magic back.

Connecting to the Standards
Grade 2 RL (2): Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

• Students will demonstrate this when we are discussing the different character and what their magic power is. 

Grade 2 RL (7): Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

• Students will meet this standard when they make predictions about what magic power each character has prior to finding out what magic power they actually have.

Learning Outcomes 
Given the question "If you could have any magic powers, what would they be and why?," students will formulate an answer with 80% accuracy.

Adapted to the Classroom
This would be a read a loud used when discussing sequence and patterns due to the code that has to be broken in the back to display. While reading students would make predictions as to what the different characters magical powers are before we read.When we are finished reading we will make a chart listing the character and their magic power. After we are done reading we will work toward trying to solve the code in the back of the book.

After discussing the code, we would go back and discuss the events that happened in the text. While discussing we would touch on Magic and discuss Magicians. While discussing Magicians and what they do we would discuss magic. After discussing I would students the chance to answer the question "If you could have any magic powers, what would they be and why?" After students had a chance to answer this question they would report back to class, so the class could hear about what magic power they would want to have.

Bloom's Taxonomy 
What is a Magician? (Knowledge)
What approach would you use to solve the mystery in the retirement home? (Application)

Differentiation
For students with Dyslexia, they would be aloud to use the dictionary to look up words they are not sure how to spell in order to answer the questions about which magic power they would want
For students who finish early, they would be given worksheets where they are trying to crack the code.

Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem

Barnett, Mack. Billy Twitters and his Blue Whale Problem (2009). Rex, Adam (Illus.). New York, New York, Disney-Hyperion

Billy never believed his parents when they would say "Billy you need to do this or we will buy you a blue whale." Until one day his parents actually bought him a whale. After this Billy is forced to take care of the whale, and begins that having a whale for a pet is not as fun as it sounds.

Connecting to the Standards
Grade 2 L (2): Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. B: Use commas in greetings and closing of letters

•  Students will meet this standard by writing a letter asking for a whale using the correct letter format.

Grade 2 L (3): Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening

• Students will meet this standard by writing a letter asking for a whale, in their letters they will have to use the English language correctly to make sure they ask for their whale correctly.

Learning Outcomes 
After discussing the components of a letter, students will write a letter requesting a whale with 80% accuracy.

Adapted to the Classroom 
During our pre-reading this text, students will be given a chance to physically look at this book. While students are looking this text will be giving the chance to find the spot where is says they can send for a whale. Prior to reading we will also do some research about whales and learn about whales.

While reading the text, we will use some during reading skills. We will make connections to information we already know about whales and new learning. While reading we will also go over new vocabulary words that come up

After reading, I will ask students if they found anything interesting in the book. Through the use of scaffolding I will lead them to get to the point about sending for a whale. After they discover this, we will discuss letters, how to write them, and what a letter is. It is at this point I will give students a chance to draft a letter asking for a whale. Once we have received our whales we will write letters to our whales each month and students will be given a chance to call their whale as well.

Bloom's Taxonomy 
Suppose you were in Billy's shoes, how would you have reacted to receiving a whale? (Synthesis)
What would have resulted if Billy would have listen to his parents in the beginning? (Application)

Differentiation
For students with Dyslexia, they will be able to use technology to help them write their letters asking for a whale.  
For students who are finished early, they will be given the chance to do a work sheet with questions about whales on it.

And Tango Makes Three

Parnell, Peter and Richardson, Justin. And Tango Makes Three. (2005). Cole, Henry (Illus.). New York, New York: Simon & Schuster

In the Central Park Zoo, there are two male penguins who only dream of having an egg to raise. They try everything they can to get an egg to raise but are no successful. After much waiting they finally got their egg, and were able to be parents. Throughout the text you see the two grow penguins grow into amazing parents.

Connecting to the Standards
Grade 2 W (5): With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.

• Students will meet this standard when they work on their paragraphs about their family and go through the writing process to get their final product. 

Grade 2 L (2): Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. A: Capitalize holidays, product names, and geographic names. E: Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings.

• Students will meet this goal when work through writing process. After creating the rough draft they will have to go through and revise, making sure they have spelled unknown workds correctly and that they use proper capitalization in their paper.

Learning Outcomes
Students will create a paper about their family by working through the writing process with 80% accuracy.

Adapted to the Classroom
This would be used in the classroom when discussing the topic of families. When talking about families we would talk about the different traditions each family has and who makes up your family.  After reading this text students would work through the writing process to write a paper on their family. For the final draft students would be allowed to either type their paper on the computer or hand write it if they would like. After they finished writing their paper they would draw a picture of their family to go along with their paper. After students have finished their paper students would be given a chance to stand up in front of the class and read their paper. While the student is reading their paper, their picture of their family would be displayed on the board so that all students could see the visual representation of what the students family look like.

Bloom's Taxonomy 
How many members do you have in your family? (Knowledge) 
Identify one tradition that your family has. (Application)
Elaborate on what your favorite memory is with your family. (Synthesis)

Differentiation 
For students who are ELL, they would be given the option to incorporate some of their native language into their paragraphs and presentation.
For students with Dyslexia they will be allowed to use a dictionary to make sure they are spelling the words correctly.
For students who visual learners they will be given the chance to draw their family members for people to see.

Henry and Mudge: In the Green Time

Rylant, Cynthia. Henry and Mudge In The Green Time. (1987). Stevenson Sucie (Illus.).
     New York, New York: Bradbury Press

This adventure of Henry and Mudge takes place in the summer and all the things they can do on green grass. They have a picnic on the grass in the park where Henry gets stung by a bee but Mudge cheers him up. They play with the water hose out on the green lawn to give Mudge a bath that he does not like, so he gets Henry back soaking him when he shakes all the water off. Finally Henry and Mudge head up a hill where they let there magic imaginations unleash and eventually get worn out and fall asleep under the tree.

Connecting to the Standards
Grade 2 RL (1): Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in text

• This story allows student to answer a questions about what Henry and Mudge
   do when they are in the 3 different chapter. 

Grade 2 W (3): Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order and provide a sense of closure

• This story allows students to meet this standard because they can write about the different events in each of the 3 different chapters.

Learning Outcomes
Students will answer the question, "Which Henry and Mudge story was your favorite and why, and who is your favorite character and why?" citing the text twice with 80% accuracy

Adapted to the Classroom 
After reading the text as a class we would discuss what happened in each story. While discussing we would write down a class summary of each text and events we think to be important. It is at this point that I would ask questions to help the children. Through this discussion I would make sure that each students have a good understanding as to what happened in each story. Once student's understanding have been checked, I would then dismiss students to answer the overall question. It is at this time that students would answer the question "Which Henry and Mudge story was your favorite and why?" and "Who is your favorite character and why?"

Once students have completed this text as a class we would then create a graph to see which story was the class favorite and which character was the class favorite.

Bloom's Taxonomy
Who are the main characters in our story? (Knowledge)
 If you were Mudge, how would you solve the problem of not wanted to take a bath? (Application)
Suppose you could have a magical place like Henry and Mudge, what would do when you are at your magical place? (Synthesis)

Differentiation 
For students who are not able to write, we would make sure that they have access to assistive technology that would allow them to type out their answer to the questions.
For students who are gifted we would take the questions one step further to make sure that they are stilling being challenged

Pet Show!

Keats, Ezra Jack. (1972). Pet Show. New York, New York: Viking Penguin. (Picturebook).

It's time for the Pet Show and Archie is eager to try to win an award. But his pet, his cat, is missing! Archie's quick-thinking still gives him the chance to win an award and he finds his cat in the process.

Connecting to the Standards
Kindergarten L (5a,b): With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances in word meanings. a. Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent. b. Demonstrate understanding of frequently occurring verbs and adjectives by relating them to their opposites (antonyms).

• The book has a variety of words that can be organized into groups including animals and adjectives.

Kindergarten RL (3): With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

• There are multiple recognizable characters in the story, from the main character, Archie, to the supporting characters, Roberto, Peter, and Susie. 

Kindergarten RL (7): With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what moment in a story an illustration depicts).

• In the illustrations, you can see clear connections to the text. The clearest connection is during the sequence, "Willie chased the mouse. Roberto chased Willie. Peter chased Roberto. Susie chased Peter." The illustration clearly shows this sequence in a linear fashion.

Learning Outcomes

Through this book, students will be able to sort words into categories including animals and adjectives. During the pet show, a diversity of pets and adjectives to describe the pets are used in the text. Students should be able to take a list of these words mixed up and organize them in small groups into their respective categories. They will create a graph that shows the different words in their categories which will be collected as data.

Adapted to the Classroom

I would start by establishing some prior schema about sorting before reading the book. Students would sort familiar categories such as fruits, numbers, letters, etc. Then I would do a full classroom read-aloud, guided by the teacher. This would help to establish the story with the classroom before they begin to work in groups/independently. 

Once students are familiar with the story, they can begin to work in small groups, sorting the words found in the books into a graph. On one side would be animals, the other side adjectives. Here is the word list:

Animals: ant, mouse, cat, parrot, frog, fish, canary, goldfish, dog, puppy, turtle

Description: noisy, handsome, friendly, yellow, busy, bright, long, fast, soft, slow

The final activity would to have students bring in their stuffed animals (or have the teacher provide them because of lice and bed bugs) or have students have their very own pet show. They could use the adjectives or new one's they've come up with to give every pet their own blue ribbon. This may be difficult because not every student may have a pet. Another idea would be to introduce one or two classroom pets and have the children decide on an award for the pets. 

Bloom's Taxonomy

Who is the main character of this story? (Knowledge)

Classify a list of words according to the category. (Analysis)

Create your own blue ribbon awards using descriptive words/adjectives for ___________. (Sythesis)

Differentiation

Most of these activities should be doable for most students. If there is any cutting for the graph students are to make, the teacher should probably do it as there are a lot of words to be cut out. Because animals are an interest among many young children, this book and the accompanying activities should hold most students interest. Activities will be limited to a short time and may even be spread over a few days to make sure interest doesn't wane and children are actively involved.