The Relatives Came

Rylant, Cynthia. The Relatives Came. (1993). Gammell, Stephen (Illus.).   Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Who does not love leaving at 4:00am to drive to spend weeks on end with your relatives. Through this text you will see how daily life changes when the relatives come to town. You will also see traditions that only happen when the relatives come to visit.

Connecting to the Standards

Grade 2 SL (4): Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

• Students will meet this standard when they are given the change to present to the class about their family tradition. 

 
Learning Outcomes  
Students will write about a tradition that they have with their family with 80% accuracy.

Adapted to the Classroom  
To start this less you can your students if they know what a relative is, and what traditions the students have when relatives come to visit. If the students do not know what a relative is, you will give them context clues to help them get to the point where they can figure it out on their own. After you have established what a relative is with the students you will read this text. While reading the text you will use reading strategies to make sure the students are still engaged into the story. After the story is over, talk with the class about family traditions that happened within the text. When this conversation has closed, you will give students the chance to write about one of their traditions. When they finish writing about their traditions, students will be given the chance to tell the class about their tradition they have with their family.

Bloom's Taxonomy
What is a relative? (Knowledge)
Identify three traditions your family has. (Application)


Differentiation 
For students with Dyslexia, they will be given the option to either type their response or they will be provided with a dictionary to help with spelling if they choose to hand write it
For students who finish their assignment early, they will be ask to draw a picture of what their tradition looks like.

Ramona Quimby, Age 8

Clearly, Beverly. Ramona Quimby, Age 8. (1981). Rogers, Jacqueline (Illus.). New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers

Ramona is in the 3rd grade and she is experiencing things that she has never had before, both good and bad. Ramona has an enthusiasm for life that no one can take from her and often rubs off on people. Throughout the text we watch Ramona do some crazy things but also some things that she believes to ruin her reputation.

Connecting to the Standards
Grade 2 L (3): Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. A: Compare formal and informal uses of English

• Students will meet this standard by writing a letter to their future self, and making the choice how to write the letter to themselves. 

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

• Students will meet this standard by making sure they have the proper letter format when writing a letter to their future self. The letter format would have already been taught to the students.

Learning Outcome
After finishing reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8, students will write a letter to there future selves about anything they want with 80% accuracy. 

Adapted to the Classroom 
Prior to reading this text we would have already read the books prior to this one in the series. Since my students would be in the second grade we would read this towards the end of the year. After we finished reading this students would then write a letter to themselves, but the letter would not be given to them until the next year when they are in the 3rd grade. This letter could be about anything the student wanted to write about. Whether it be out Ramona gets through the 3rd grade and being 8 years old, or something that is is more personal.

Bloom's Taxonomy 
 Based on the text that was read, make an inference on what you think will happen next. (Comprehension)
What age is Ramona during this book? (Knowledge)


Differentiation
For students who finish writing their letter early, they will be given another task of writing a letter for themselves 5 years down the road about anything they want.
For ELL students, they will be given the option to write their letter in their native language

Double Fudge

Blume, Judy. Double Fudge (2002). New York, New York: Dutton Children's Books

Double Fudge, is the final book in Judy Blume's Fudge series. In the book the Hatcher family takes a family trip to Washington D.C to show Fudge that Bureau of Engraving and Printing, in hopes that his love for money would stop. Fudge's love for many may not have stopped but along the way he found his twin. While the family is in D.C, they find some long lost cousins who have a young boy name Drexel Hatcher, which just happens to be Fudge's real name. 

Connecting to the Standards 
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 standards is met through having to write a summary at the end of each reading time but also at the never end when students sequence the events of the story  

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

• This standard is met through the class timeline that the students will make at the end of each reading. Students also meet this standard when they write a summary of the chapters read that day in their journals.

Learning Outcomes 
In small groups students will put events from the text in order for which they occurred with 70% accuracy.

Adapted to the Classroom
This book would be one that I read aloud to students after lunch/recess to just simply calm them down. Before reading this text, we would have already read the first three and students would be family with Judy Blume, but also Fudge and his story.

While reading this text I would have students at the end of each reading time, write down in their journals what happened during those chapters and what they think to be important. After the students have written down we would come back together as a class. It is at this point that we would make a timeline of the important events from that section. We would add these important events to a class timeline from previous chapters.

At the very end of reading the book, children would be given pieces of papers that would have the events typed out on them and would put them in order by which event happened. The students would use glue to put the events in order of how they happened in the text. For this activity that would work in groups to put the events in order.

Bloom's Taxonomy
What do you think Fudge thought when he first found out someone else has his name? (Analysis)
What is the main idea of _____ chapter(s)? (Comprehension)
Where is the setting of the story? (Knowledge)

Differentiation
For students who are ELL students, I would do my best to try and find a way to get the text into their language. Be that they listen to the text read aloud in their native language. I would also translate the events into their native language for them to put in order.
For students who are unable to use fine motor skills to paste the events on another piece of paper, I would provide them with an assistive technology to help them complete the activity.

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.