Happy Birthday Kirsten!

Title: Happy Birthday Kirsten!
Author: Janet Shaw
Illustrator: Renee Graff
Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary
Kirsten Larson is a pioneer girl who lives on the Minnesota prairie in 1854. Happy Birthday Kirsten (A springtime story) is the fourth book in the American Girls Series about Kirsten. This specific story takes place in the spring. Many new things are coming to the Larson family this spring. The family is expecting a new baby girl and a big new barn. These changes bring worries to Kirsten though because she is worried about her mother’s health during the pregrancy and she has to take over most of her mother’s chores. Before taking over her mother chores, Kirsten and her friends begin making a quilt at school that they were planning to give Miss Winston, their teacher, as a gift of appreciation. However, Kirsten is unable to contribute much to the making of the quilt so Miss Winston and the other girls decide to make it for Kirsten’s tenth birthday instead. A few weeks after the baby is born, Kirsten’s family throws her a birthday party. All her friends and their families are there to put up the new barn and to celebrate Kirsten’s tenth birthday. At the celebration, Kirsten’s friends present her with the quilt they made for her and they tell her it is a friendship quilt. Each person signs the friendship quilt. Kirsten has so much fun at her birthday party and does not think another birthday will top this one.

Classroom Connection
Happy Birthday Kirsten is a historical fiction book. Students could research the 1850’s and 1860’s to see how people actually lived during this time. Students could then make comparisions between things that happened in the book and things they found out while researching this time period.

At the beginning of the year the class could read this book aloud or for homework on their own. Once everyone was finished, I would discuss a fun activity that we could do in relation to this book throughout the entire year. Whenever it is someone’s birthday in the class, each person would be handed a piece of paper that was in the shape of a square and they would decorate it for whoever’s birthday it was. Once everyone was done, we could put the square pieces together and the birthday boy or girl would have a “birthday quilt” to take home with them from the class.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Title: Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Retold and illustrated by: Jan Brett
Genre: Folktale


Summary
Once upon a time there lived three bears, one was a little, small, wee bear, one was a middle-sized bear, and the other was the older great huge bear. Each bear had their own bowl for porridge, their own chair to sit in, and their own bed to sleep in. One morning while waiting for their porridge to cool, the three bears took a walk in the woods. While they were out, a little girl named Goldilocks came to their house. She looked in the windows and noticed that no one was home so she lifted the latch and went into the house. As soon as she entered the house, she smelled the porridge. She went into the kitchen and tasted the porridge out of the huge bowl, but it was too hot, then she tasted it out of the middle-sized bowl, but it was too cold. Lastly, she tried the porridge out of the small bowl and it was just the right temperature; she ate all the porridge in that bowl. Next, Goldilocks decides to sit down. She tries each of the chairs and decides the little chair was neither too hard nor too soft, but just right. She sits in the chair until the bottom gives out and breaks. Lastly, Goldilocks goes upstairs to the bedroom where the bears sleep. She tries each of the three beds and decides the bed of the little, small, wee bear was neither too high at the neither head nor foot, but just right. She ends up falling asleep in this bed. While sleeping, the three bears returned to their home, each of the bears had noticed that someone had been eating their porridge, so they go into the living room to see if they can find anyone. Once in the living room, they noticed that the pillows and cushions were not in the same place they had left them. Since they had not discovered anyone yet, they went upstairs to check in their bedrooms. The big bear noticed that the pillow was out of place on his bed, the middle bear noticed that the cover was out of place on her bed, and the little, small, wee bear discovered Goldilocks sleeping in his bed. Goldilocks awakened to the voice of the little, small, wee bear. She immediately jumped out of the bed and ran to the window. She ran as fast as she could and never looked back. This was the last time that the three bears ever heard or saw Goldilocks.


Classroom Connection
There are several activities I could use in my classroom with the book Goldilocks and the Three Bears. First, I could use this book in a unit on fairytales and folktales. First, students would identify specific characteristics that this type of genre has. One characteristic that would be interesting to discuss in relation to this book and a few others is the resemblance of the number three. Students would write down all the stories that use the number three. Then students would describe the situation in each of these stories where the number three played a role. Finally, students would get in groups and discuss why they believe that the number three is so significant in fairytales and folktales.
Another activity I would use Goldilocks and the Three Bears in would be in role-playing or Reader’s Theater. Children would get into groups of four students each and come up with their own script of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but they would need to put their own little twist on it. For example, the students could change up the characters a little bit or change some of the situations or circumstances. Once the group finished writing their own script and practiced with their group, they would have the opportunity to perform for their peers.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Chapter Book)
Author: Roald Dahl
Genre: Modern Fantasy

Summary
Charlie Bucket is a young boy who lives with his mother, father, Grandpa Joe, Grandma Josephine, Grandpa George, and Grandma Georgina. The seven of them live a very poor life because Mr. Bucket is the only person in the family with a job. In the evenings, Charlie always goes into the room of his four grandparents and listens to their stories. His Grandpa Joe was always telling him stories about the mysterious Willy Wonka who owned the biggest Chocolate Factory in the world. One evening his Grandpa Joe tells him that one day the chocolate factory had suddenly closed without giving anyone a reason why. Unexpectedly, the factory opens again, people see the smoke from the furnace rising once again, but nobody sees any workers coming in and out of the factory. One day Willy Wonka announces in the newspaper that he is holding a world-wide contest. He is putting five golden tickets in his chocolate candy bars and the five children that find them will have the opportunity to visit the factory as well as be given free chocolate for life. The names of the children who find the Golden tickets are Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee, and Charlie Bucket! The tour of the factory takes place on February 1st, the day after Charlie found the fifth and final Golden Ticket. Charlie decided to bring his Grandpa Joe with him to the factory. While on the tour of the factory, many interesting things occurred: Augustus gets sucked up into a pipe after refusing to get out of the chocolate lake, Violet turns purple and blows up as big as a blueberry, Veruca gets put into the bad nut shoot and ends up in the trash, and Mike shrinks after attempting to end up in a television. By the end of the tour, Charlie is the only child left. Willy Wonka tells Charlie that he has won the contest for being the last one left on the tour and that the prize is that the factory is now his when he decides to retire.



Classroom Connection
To incorporate technology in my classroom I decided to create a wordle that related to a specific section of the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The site www.wordle.net generates word clouds from texts and picks out the most commonly used words. For the wordle I created, I typed the first three paragraphs of the chapter called The Big Day Arrives. The purpose of this wordle was to get an idea of what this chapter might be about, based on the words that popped up in the word cloud.

This would be a fun and interactive technology application to use in the classroom. Students could use this application to make predictions of a particular chapter or section of an article by typing a few sentences or paragraphs into the text box and then letting wordle electronically pick the most commonly used words and display them in a word cloud. Students would then look at these words and try to make a prediction based on them. Another way to use wordle would be to have one student type up a description of a main character in s book and then have another student type up a description of that same character in the same box. Wordle would then take these two paragraphs and find the most common words and display them. Students would then be able to discuss what common descriptions they came up with as a class.

Ella Enchanted

Title: Ella Enchanted (Chapter book)
Author: Gail Carson Levine
Genre: Modern Fantasy

Summary
Ella Enchanted is about a girl named Ella who was unfortunately given a foolish fairy gift at her birth. Only an hour after she was born, the fairy Lucinda gave her the gift of obedience. This meant that Ella had to obey every thing that was commanded of her no matter how little or big it was. Ella grows up hating the gift that Lucinda bestowed upon her. At age fifteen, Ella’s mother dies, this turns her world upside down because she loved and enjoyed her mother very much. At her mother’s funeral she meets Prince Charmont, the Prince of Kyrria. They immediately bond and become close friends. A little bit after her mother’s funeral, Ella is sent off to finishing school with Olive and Hattie, the two girls she dislikes, because her father gets tired of her disobedience. Hattie figures out that Ella has to obey everything that is commanded to her and begins to use it against her. Ella cannot deal with Hattie anymore, so she runs away from finishing school. The night she ran away from finishing school, she read a letter out of the fairy tale book that Mandy had given her. This letter said that there was going to be a wedding on the Uaaxee’s farm and that several fairies were going to be present; Ella thought that this might be her chance to meet Lucinda who could perhaps take away the gift she had given her at birth. On her journey to the Uaaxee’s farm she has many adventures; she runs into elves, ogres, Prince Char, giants, and Lucinda. Once arriving at the wedding, she eventually speaks to Lucinda, but has no luck with having her reverse her gift. After the wedding, Ella returns home to find out that her father has lost everything and must get remarried. Ella’s father remarries Dame Olga, and Hattie and Olive become Ella’s stepsisters. Once settled into their new home, Ella’s father leaves and Ella is left alone to deal with the deceitfulness of Dame Olga, Hattie, and Olive. Ella begins exchanging letters with Prince Char while he is on a year-long journey to another country. Both Ella and Prince Char begin to fall in love with one another, however when Prince Char asks Ella to marry him over a letter, she refuses because she is under a spell and does not want him to get hurt. A ball is held to welcome Char back home and Ella decides to go in disguise and calls herself “Lela.” Throughout the three balls, “Lela” and Char form a special bond. On the third night, Hattie snatches off Ella’s mask and Char sees that she is Ella. Ella runs home, but Char follows her. Once she is face to face with Char she admits everything. Prince Char tells Ella to marry him and she refuses, Ella breaks the spell by not responding to several commands presented to her, but after figuring out that the spell is broken she runs up to Char and kisses him. The two of them get married and live happily ever after.


Classroom Connection
The story of Ella Enchanted is very close to the fairytale Cinderella. Students could read Ella Enchanted and then pick two other versions of Cinderella and compare and contrast the three books. Students could present their findings on some sort of visual aid and present it to the class. I think students would find it interesting to know how many different variations of Cinderella there are in existence.

Tomás and the Library Lady

Title: Tomás and the Library Lady
Author: Pat Mora
Illustrator: Raul Colón
Genre: Multicultural

Summary
Tomás and the Library Lady is about a young boy and his family who have to travel back and forth between Iowa and Texas depending on the seasons because his parents are migrant workers. At the beginning of the story, Tomás and his family are traveling in their rusty car on their way to Iowa so that his parents can pick fruits and vegetables for Iowa farmers during the summer. During the day when his parents are out working in the fields, Tomás and his brother, Enrique sit under the tree in the shade listening to their grandfather’s stories. One day, grandfather asks the children to guess what is about to happen in the story and Tomás responds with the correct ending because he has memorized all of grandfather’s stories. His grandfather tells Tomás that it is time for him to go to the library and learn new stories that he could come back and tell his family. The first day Tomás goes to the library, he meets the librarian who is very friendly and nice. She picks out several books for Tomás that fit his interests perfectly. When Tomás reads, he becomes extremely engaged in the stories, and feels like he is actually part of the story. Throughout the summer, Tomás goes to the library on a regular basis and reads all kinds of books. While at the library, the librarian and him form a very special bond; she reads to him and he teaches her some simple Spanish words and phrases. Each night when Tomás goes home after being at the library, he shares the stories he read with his family. At the end of the book, summer is coming to an end and it is time for Tomás to say goodbye to the librarian. Tomás thanks the librarian for all the fun times they shared and she responds to him by saying “gracious” to show him that she learned a lot from him as well.

Classroom Connection
In the classroom, I would tell my students that Tomás and the Library Lady is based off of the real life story of Tomás Rivera. It would be interesting to have students research Tomás Rivera and his life after reading this book aloud together. Students could then compare Tomás Rivera’s life story to what happened in the book. The students could use a Venn Diagram to organize their thoughts and be able to see the similarities and differences among his real life and the book.

Pablo's Tree

Title: Pablo’s Tree
Author: Pat Mora
Illustrator: Cecily Lang
Genre: Multicultural

Summary
Pablo’s Tree is a book that captures the special bond between a grandparent and child. The day Lito, the grandfather, found out that his daughter was going to adopt a child, he went down to the nursery and bought a small tree. Lito was so excited to see Pablo for the first time. After holding Pablo for awhile, Lito decided it was time to plant the tree. Each year on Pablo’s birthday, Lito decorates the tree with something new. On his first birthday, he decorated it with streamers. On Pablo’s second birthday, he tied balloons to the tree. When Pablo’s third birthday came along, he had put paper lanterns on his tree. On his forth birthday, Lito hung birdcages all over the tree. This year was Pablo’s fifth birthday. Pablo was extremely excited to see what Lito had decorated his tree with this year. On the way to Lito’s house, Pablo begged his Mama to tell him what was on the tree, she smiled and said “Don’t you like surprises?” Once they arrived at Lito’s house, Pablo gave Lito a huge hug and asked him if they could go sit under his tree and play with all his new toys. The two of them walked out the door and Pablo sees that his tree has colored bells and wind chimes all around it; he gets extremely excited! Next, Pablo and Lito sit under the tree and play with all the new toys. Lito tells Pablo the entire story about how his tree came into existence. The two of them have fun the rest of the night sitting under the tree, eating apples, and playing with the toys.

Classroom Connection
Pablo’s Tree is a multicultural book about a boy and his birthday tree. The book is Spanish/Mexican oriented and the illustrations portray that of the Mexican culture. It would be a good book to use when exploring different types of cultures. Children could research the Mexican culture and then compare what they found to what is portrayed in the book. It would be interesting to see if the book portrayed authenticity of the Mexican culture.

Abuela

Title: Abuela
Author: Arthur Dorros
Illustrator: Elisa Kleven
Genre: Multicultural Literature


Summary
Abuela is a heart-warming story about a little girl named Rosalba and her Grandmother. Abuela means grandmother in Spanish. Her Grandma speaks mostly Spanish throughout the story because that is what people spoke when she grew up before coming to this country. This book uses a combination of both English and Spanish phrases throughout the text. Common Spanish phrases like “Me gusta” and “Buenos dias” are used and defined throughout the book, connecting strongly to bilingual students.
At the beginning of the story Rosalba and her Abuela are riding a bus through Manhattan. Rosalba talks about how her and her Abuela go many places together. Today they decide to go to the park. Roslba sees birds flying at the park and imagines what it would be like if her and her Abuela got carried away into the sky. She imagines they are in the sky, flying over all the sights of New York City. Some places they fly over are factories, the sea, the Statue of Liberty, the airport, and many other places. After flying over many places, Roslba and Abuela come back to the park. Abuela takes her granddaughter to the lake for yet another adventure. They go hand and hand as they enter the boat. The book Abuela portrays the special bond that is shared between a child and a grandparent.

Classroom Connection
At first glance, the book looks fairly simple, however, since the text has both English and Spanish phrases in it, it becomes a little more difficult to read especially if a child is not familiar with one of the languages represented in the book. I would use this book in my classroom as an introductory book for students to read when they are first learning common phrases in Spanish because they are able to compare it to the phrase in English. I think it is important for students to gain a basic knowledge of Spanish because so many people living in the United States speak Spanish. If students become interested in Spanish at an early age, they will be able to communicate easier with students who are fluent in Spanish.