Elementary

=Student Created Books=

The Invasive Plant
By Emily Stone

Connection to content area instruction- This book provides students with an initial introduction to the different parts and components of a food chain or web. It could also serve as a reinforcement of information they have already learned, or as a review strategy. The book includes descriptions and examples of all the parts of a food chain, and even incorporates one specific food chain that students could actually experience and observe in our area. The book discusses how foreign plants can cause harm to an ecosystem, and how it impacts the animals in that ecosystem. A family is on vacation in a foreign country and brings a plant back with them. The animals in this area are not used to a plant like this, and the animals that feed off this plant and other plants surrounding it begin to die off. Because those animals are dying off, the next two levels in the food chain don't have as much food to feed off of, and have to move elsewhere to find food. Also, the number of scavengers and decomposers in the area begin to rise because of the increasing amount of dead primary consumers.

Possible specific literacy strategies and activities- I would use this book in a few different ways. One strategy would be to have students read through the book on their own. I would have them make predictions based on the title and then complete a post reading activity like a 3-2-1 chart or a ticket out the door. A possible question for a ticket out the door could be "explain in your own words why they omnivores and carnivores had to leave their environment". Students could also use this book as an introduction to a writing prompt. After reading the book, they could come up with another situation where something like this might happen and write about it. If this book were being used as an introductory piece, I would use it as a class read aloud because of all the rich vocabulary and so that everything could be discussed and explained in more detail.

Can you Guess What I am? The Solar System
By Courtney Ariola

This book focuses on the Solar System in second grade science. Students will read riddles about different parts of the solar system and try to figure out which part is being described. When you flip to the next page, you will see what part of the Solar System was in the riddle. This is a great follow up activity for students to read after learning about the Solar System. The teacher can have the students write down students answers before flipping to the next page to see how many understand the new material. Also, after students learn about the Solar System and read this book, they can create a model of the Solar System on their own. Some literacy strategies that would be great with this book is the inner and outer circle activity and the 3-2-1 strategy.

Name that Shape
by Rachael Rzepka The book that I created is in connection with Math content. This book looks at the characteristics of shapes and asks students to guess the shape based on the clues that they are given. Before reading this book, you can create a motivational poster of an environment in which they are familiar. You can have them identify shapes that they see in that environment. You can then have them use post-it notes to find similar shapes within the classroom. While reading the book, you can have students visualize what the shape would look like before they guess. As the student’s guess the shape, you can have them create a matrix of the characteristic of the shapes that they just learned more about. After reading the text, you could have students look at the shapes they selected in the classroom. Were any of them in the book? Why is that shape considered a shape and what characteristics make up the shape? You could also do a word sort of the vocabulary that is covered in the book. In addition, you could have students create a voice thread showing environments and have them find the shapes in the pictures, and describe the characteristics of the shape that they chose.

Allerbaster the Alaskan Salmon
By Amanda Adams

The book is about a Alaskan Salmon named Allerbaster who created a scrapbook of his life. It shows the life cycle of the Alaskan Salmon. It connects to connects to the science content area because it illustrates one of the life cycles. Some literacy strategies I might use are to have the students do a RAFTS and have them pick a stage of the life cycle to use as their role. As an activity, I also might have the students create their own digital text about a particular animal or plant that they choose.

Photosynthesis: Big Word, Big Meaning
by Amanda Herbert This book is directly about photosynthesis. Students will read familiar vocabulary they have learned previously. The book is factual and has simple explanations about photosynthesis. There are many activities students can complete after reading the book. Students can read the book and fill out a graphic organizer with information they found from the book. Students can also complete a vocabulary concept card using vocabulary they found in the book.

Making Work Easier
by Kaitlin Dardis This book can be used as an introductory text to simple machines. The book gives an overview of each simple machine and how they help people make work easier. The vocabulary used is not too difficult but may be new to students who are learning about simple machines for the first time. The students can read through the book to get an idea of what each simple machine does. The teacher can also use this book as a guide for a unit on simple machines. Each section can be read before doing a lab about the specific simple machine. The students can also use this book as a reference as they progress through the unit on simple machines. The teacher may want to design a vocabulary strategy such as the Frayer model to become familiar with new terms. The teacher may also want to have students complete a KWL chart in order to have a place to organize their thoughts as they complete the unit on simple machines.