The Bus Ride That Changed History

The Story of Rosa Parks

By: Pamela Duncan Edwards

Hiatorical Fiction

In 1955, a young African American woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger.  In doing so she took a big step for civil rights.  She did not budge from her seat even though the bus driver and Jim Crow laws told her to move.  Her actions and strong determination would eventually change the course of American History. This book retraces the chain of events that happend after one woman refused to give up her seat on the bus. 

As students come into the class one morning I would hand each of them a blue square or a red circle.  The students who were handed a blue square would not have to complete their morning work and would get to play board games in the classroom, while the students with the red circles would have to set at their desk and complete their morning work.  The students with the blue squares my also be given other privleges throughtout the day before I read the book discribed above.  After reading "The Bus Ride That Changed Everything" aloud to my students we would have a discussion about how the students with the red circles felt throughout the day and compare that to how they thought Rosa Parks and the other African Americans felt.  From this activity I will want my students to understand that everyone should be treated equal, and give them a small glimps of how it would have felt to be colored and discriminated against during the time of Rosa Parks.

Rules

By: Cynthia Lord

Realistic Fiction

(Chapter Book)

http://mewilli6.glogster.com/rules-by-lord/ 

Catherine is a 12 year old girl who just wants a normal life.  Her younger brother is autistic and her parents put her in charge of him more often than she would like, and her best friend is in California for the summer with her dad.  Catherine spends alot of time drawing in her sketch book and writing down rules for her brother to follow to try and get him to act "normal."  When Catherine finds out that a girl her age in moving in next door she starts thinking about all the things that they could do together over the summer.  Catherine also meets Jason when she goes with her brother to ocupational therapy.  They become good friends and she helps Jason have a more positive outlook on life.  Catherine also figures out that her new neighbor Kristi is not what she had hoped for.  Read this book to see the changes that Catherine goes through and how her views on some things seem to change.

I would read this book aloud to my students.  I would read a chapter or so at the end of the day, so that we could talk as we read about the things going on in this book, such as autism.  After we had finished reading the book I would have the students pair up and make 26 word cards like Jason has.  I would then ask them to use these cards and see how Jason and Catherine communicated with each other.  I feel that this activity would help students develop a greater appreciation for people that my be "different" for them and admire them for the way they accomplish things that we may take for granted, such as talking.

Potato

A Tale from the Great Depression

By: Kate Lied

Historical Fiction

During the Great Depression, Clarence loses his job in Iowa.  He takes his family to Idaho where there is work picking potatoes.  At the end of the work day, Clarence, his wife Angus and young daughter Dorothy are allowed to pick the leftover potatoes to keep for themselves.  After two weeks of picking potatoes, Clarence and his family go back home with a car full of potatoes.  Back in Iowa they trade their potatoes for groceries, clothes and even a pig.  Finally Clarence finds a new job and the family moves to Washington D.C.

I would read this book aloud to my students.  I would have the students do independent research on the Great Depression and the difficult times that people faced during that time.  Then I would have them write a report on what they learned and then present what their findings to their classmates.  Hopefully, learning about the Great Depression will help my students be thankful for the things that they have.

Number the Stars

By: Lois Lowry

Historical Fiction

(Chapter Book)

This story is set in Denmark during the Nazi occupation.  Annemarie Johansen is a ten year old girl who is friends with a Jewish girl named Ellen Rosen.  Since the Rosen's are Jewish they are in great danger of being captured and taken to a concentration camp.  Because the Rosen's are in such great danger, the  Johansen's take in Ellen in hopes that she can pass as their daughter until the Rosen's can safely leave Denmark and go to Sweden.  However, this is going to be hard since Ellen has dark hair instead of blond like Annmarie.  Read this novel to find out the great lengths one family will go to in order to help another get to safety. 

I would have my students read this novel individually inside and outside of the classroom.  After the students read the book I would have them do some research on the path that was taken to get the Jews from Denmark to Sweden, and then we would get out a map and try to trace their path.

Pink and Say

By: Patricia Polacco

Historical Fiction

Sheldon Curtis ("Say") is a Union soldier and has been shot in the leg, and left for dead in a pasture.  A colored Union soldier, Pinkus ("Pink"), comes along and carries him to safety.  Pink carries Say to his home where his mother takes care of Say.  Pink's Mother, Moe Moe Bay, takes good care of both boys but warns them that if they hear marauders they must hide in the cellar.  The day has come when the boys are getting ready to leave Moe Moe Bay and go back and fight, as they are getting ready to walk out the door they hear marauders and run for the cellar.  Moe Moe Bay tries to get rid of the marauders, but she is shot.  The boys leave and head back to the front line and are captured by confederates and taken to Andersonville prison.  Pink is hung at the prison, and Say was released some months later.

After reading this book aloud to my students I would discuss themes with them.  Then as a class we would talk about the themes that we read in Pink and Say; such as hope, friendship and war.  Then we would make a class list of events from the book that support the themes the students came up with.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

By: Judi Barrett

Modern Fantasy



PowerPoint

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0Bw9rkxA8sN0UZTY2MzhiODctMjc2ZC00ZDg3LTlkNTktMzYxNzM5YmUwZWMy&hl=en&authkey=CMupmPYM

Among the Hidden

By: Margaret Peterson Haddix

Science Fiction

(Chapter Book)

Luke Garner is living in a time of famine.  Because of the shortage of food people are only allowed to have two children.  Luke is a third child so he must stay hidden from public view.  The government starts building houses in the woods behind the Garner's and Luke is forced to total isolation from the outside world.  From his attic Luke sees the face of a girl in a house that already has two children.  Luke runs to the house to meet this other third child named Jen Talbot.  Jen organizes a rally to support third children, but Luke refuses to go with her.  Luke doesn't hear from Jen for a week and finds out from Jen's father that she along with everyone else at the rally were killed.  Jen's father provides Luke with a "new" I.D. of a boy who was killed the day before.  Luke accepts it, but has to leave his family forever.

I would read this book aloud to my students, a chapter or two at the end of the day.  With reading this book aloud I would have my students interact with the text before, during, and after listening to each chapter that we read.  This would give the students a chance to talk about the characters, setting, plot, making inferences between each chapter and so much more. 

Running Out of Time

By: Margaret Peterson Haddix

Science Fiction

(Chapter Book)

Jessie is a thirteen year old girl who lives with her mother, father, and siblings.  The year is 1840, or at least that is what Jessie and her siblings think.  Jessie's mother ends up telling her that truth about their life.  It is actually 1996, and they are living in a historical village called Clifton where tourist watch them through hidden cameras.  The people in Clifton are brainwashed into believing that it is 1840 and are being held captive by the owner of the complex.  There is an outbreak of diphtheria in Clifton and the owner will not provide them with medicine.  This is why Jessie's mother tells her the truth, because she wants her to escape into the real world to get help.  In her adventure Jessie is almost drugged and killed, she talks to the local newspaper and media, and at one point she wakes up in a hospital.  In the end Clifton is closed down, but read this book to find out more about the struggles that Jessie faced along her journey.

I would have my students read this chapter book on their own.  I would provide each student with a copy and assign times inside and outside of class to read the book.  After every assigned reading from the book we would talk as a class about what the students read, and at the end I would give the students a test on the book to check their comprehension of what they read.

Night of the Gargoyles

By: Eve Bunting

Fantasy

(free choice)

When night falls, the gargoyles on the outside of the museum building come to life.  They creep around and peer inside of the museum at the mummies.  The ones who have wings fly up to the stars, and some go down to the fountain.  At night while the gargoyles are moving around the museum they mock the watchman, but people don't believe the him when he tells them what he saw.  As morning approaches the gargoyles return to their spot until night falls again.

I would read this book to my class around Halloween, because it is a spooky story.  After reading the book we would discuss gargoyles and why the students thought that older castles, museums and other buildings have them.  Then I would have each student research and find one reason why some buildings had gargoyles on them.

Something Beautiful

By: Sharon Dennis Wyeth

Fiction

(free choice)

The little girl in this story looks out her window and the area around which she lives and longs to see beyond the trash and graffiti.  At school her teacher writes the word "beautiful" on the board, and the girl decides to look for something beautiful in her neighborhood.  At the diner Miss Delphine serves the girl her "beautiful" fried fish sandwich.  Mr. Lee offers her an apple from his "beautiful" fruit store.  She visits several people and they tell her what is beautiful to them.  She then goes back home to think and she decides that beauty is all around her and she begins to pick up the trash and clean the writing off the walls.

After reading this story out loud to my class I would have them think about something that is "beautiful" to them, and I would have them write about that in their journal.  Then as a class we would brainstorm ways that we could make our school more beautiful, and hopefully be able to carry out some of those actions within the school.

Woolbur

By: Leslie Helakoski

Fiction

(free choice)

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3063874/Woolbur

Woolbur is not like other sheep.  He hangs out with wild dogs, cards his own wool to avoid the shearing barn, and even dyes his wool blue.  "Don't worry!" says Grandpaa when Maa and Paa fret that Woolbur is different.  Maa and Paa tell their son to follow the flock, but the opposite happens—the flock follows him!

Woolbur is a fun book, but in the end I think it teaches a valuable lesson.  I would read this book aloud to my class, and then we would discuss as a group what they thought the main message of this book was.  Hopefully, they would see that this book conveys the message that it is okay to be different and that we should celebrate people's differences instead of trying to change them into something they are not.  I feel that this is an important lesson for people of any age to hear.

Princess Pigtoria and the Pea

By: Pamela Duncan Edwards

Fairy Tale

(Traditional or Folk Literature)

Pigtoria is bummed out because her palace is looking a bit dingy and she’s got no cash.  She reads a personal ad in the paper "Wanted: A Proper Princess..." and heads off to find her prince.  However, while Pigtoria is at the castle she discovers that the prince is arrogant.  Not willing to settle for any old pig, she tells the prince that she prefers Percy-the-Pizza-Pig after she finds out that the prince put a pea under her pillows. Pigtoria's decision to marry the pizza pig turns out to be the best decision for everybody.



This story is a version of the original fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea.  After reading Princess Pigtoria and the Pea to my students I would have them come up with and write their own version of this fairy tale.  This assignment will help meet the fourth grade standard 4.07 in English Language Arts: compose fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using self-selected and assigned topics and forms.

Paul Bunyan

By: Steven Kellogg

Tale Tall

(Traditional or Folk Literature)



Paul Bunyan was the largest, smartest, and strongest baby ever born in the state of Maine.  One morning Paul heard a moan out in the snow, he found a shivering ox calf.  Paul adopted him and named him Babe, and they both grew at an enormous rate.  When Paul decided to move from home he traveled all across the U.S.A. - starting with his birth place in Maine all the way to his retirement in Alaska, and points all over the map in between, clearing a path for frontier settlers.  Together with his blue ox Babe and his crew, Paul Bunyan fights the wild Gumberoos, digs out the Great Lakes and gouges out the Grand Canyon, along with many other adventures.

The fifth grade standard 2.04 in English Language Arts calls for students to identify elements of fiction and nonfiction and support by referencing the text.  I would read this tall tale of Paul Bunyan to my students and then we would discuss what they thought were elements from this story that were common in all tall tales.  Then I would have my students read a few more tall tales to see if the elements they came up with were in fact represented in other tall tales.

Smoky Mountain Rose

An Appalachian Cinderella

By: Alan Schroeder

Fairy Tale
(Traditional or Folk Literature)



Smoky Mountain Rose is a book about a girl named Rose whose father is a trapper.  Rose's father gets married again to a mean lady with two daughters.  When Rose's father dies, her step-sisters make her do all the work on the farm.  A rich fellow, Seb, has a party and invites all the girls in the Smoky Mountains.  The step-mother makes Rose stay home with the hogs.  Then one hog starts talking to Rose.  The hog transforms many things outside into everything that Rose needs to go to the party.  At the party Rose and Seb dance the night away, until Rose runs out leaving one slipper behind.  Seb searchers for the girl who lost her slipper at his party, he finds Rose and they live happily ever after in the Smoky Mountains.

After reading this version of Cinderella to my class I could do a few activities with it.  First of all this fairy tale is a North Carolina version, set in the Appalachian Mountains.  After reading this book you could show the students where the Appalachian Mountains are on a map, which could help begin to meet standard 1.01 in 4th grade social studies: locate, in absolute and relative terms, major landforms, bodies of water and natural resources in North Carolina.  However, you could also read this version of Cinderella along with the original version and have the students complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the two versions of the fairy tale.

One Grain of Rice

By: Demi

Multicultural/International Literature

The raja in India, believed that he was wise and fair.  Every year he had the people give him most of their rice so he could store it in case there was ever a famine.  If a famine came the raja said he would share the rice with the people, but when a famine did come the raja kept all the rice for himself.  But a village girl named Rani developed a plan on how to get the rice from the raja for the people, and it worked.  Read this book to find out how Rani got the rice from the raja to feed the people, and how she taught the raja what it really means to be wise and fair.

I would read this book aloud to my students, but would not show them the grid at the end that shows exactly how much rice Rani collected from the raja.  After the reading the book to my students I would have them do the math to figure out exactly how much rice Rani received.  To start with I would have my students use only pencil and paper to solve until they got to about day ten and then I would let them use a calculator as the numbers got bigger.

A Black Foot Legend

Buffalo Dance

By: Nancy Van Laan

Multicultural/International Literature



It was nearing winter and the Blackfoot village would starve unless they could find a way to trap the buffalo.  One morning a young Blackfoot woman was at the stream when she saw hundreds of buffalo grazing at the edge of the cliff.  She cried out to the buffalo, "I promise to marry one of you if only you will jump!"  Then many buffalo jumped to their death, but the buffalo chief survived and the young girl followed him out to the prairie.  The village was delighted with all the buffalo, but the girls father noticed she was missing and went looking for her.  The father found his daughter but was trampled to death by some of the remaining buffalo.  But then, something magical happens!  Read this book to find out how the girl and the buffalo reach an agreement and both end up happy.

To the Indians of the great plains, the buffalo was a sacred animal.  After reading this book aloud to my students, I would have them research the buffalo to find out why the buffalo was sacred to the Indians.  I would also have them make a list of ways that the Indians used the buffalo, because they did not waste any part of the buffalo like we do with animals today.

Stone Soup

By: Jon J. Muth

Multicultural/International Literature

Three monks, Hok, Lok, and Siew were traveling a mountain road trying to understand what makes one happy.  The three monks came upon a village, but this village had been through some hard times and they were no longer willing to help each other out.  When these villagers saw the monks coming they disappeared into their houses and closed their windows tight.  The three monks decided to show the villagers how to make stone soup.  As the monks started making the soup the villagers began to come out of their houses in curiosity.  They all ended up bringing items to help make the stone soup better and the villagers discovered how much they had to give to help one another out.

This book would be a good book to have a short mini lesson on, maybe at a morning meeting or at the end of the day.  I would read this book out loud to my students and discuss with them the importance of sharing and helping others out instead of keeping things all for themselves.  Then I would have the students write a short response in their writing journals about something that they have that they could share to help others.

The Battle of Antietam

"The Bloodiest Day of Battle"

By: Larry Hama

Nonfiction

(Graphic Novel)

The battle of Antietam is the bloodiest day in American History.  By September 1862 the Civil War was in its seventeenth month, and any hopes of this war being short were gone.  By this time President Abraham Lincoln desperately needed a significant Union victory to show Europe that the issue of slavery was at the heart of the War Between the States.  As Union and Confederate armies met, ordinary men and women showed extraordinary courage as they fought to decide the future of their county.  The brutal battle at Antietam Creek gave Lincoln what he needed, and days after its conclusion he issued his Emancipation Proclamation.  Read this graphic novel to find out more details of this war and how it changed our history.

I would read this graphic novel out loud to my class, and then I would split my class up into small groups to work on a group project.  For this project I would assign the groups either the Union Army or the Confederate Army, and I would have them create a PowerPoint.  In this PowerPoint I would want the students to provide as much detail as they could find on their Army.  Not only will this assignment let students work with technology while creating their PowerPoint, but it will also help them learn to work together in groups.

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Thomas Jefferson

Great American

By: Matt Doeden

Nonfiction

(Graphic Novel)

This graphic novel follows Thomas Jefferson's life from a teenage boy, where he helped his father with the farm and plantation, through his death at Monticello.  As a promise to his father, Thomas Jefferson continued his education through college, and then he returned home to work as a lawyer and a farmer before taking on other responsibilities.  Both Jefferson's accomplishments, such as the Declaration of Independence, as well as his struggles are discussed in this book.  Read this graphic novel to find out more about the life of Thomas Jefferson as a young child, a family man and a founding father, his triumph and tragedy, as well as his presidency.

After reading this graphic novel aloud to my class I would have them choose a President that they wanted to learn more about.  They would be given time in class to research their President choice using books, internet, and any other helpful research.  After the students had collected research, they would proceed to write a short research paper using the information they had collected about their President.





The Civil War in the East

(1861-July 1863)

By: Dale Anderson

Nonfiction

It was the bloodiest conflict in United States History.  More soldiers were killed and wounded in the Civil War than any other war.  This book explores the many battles that took place in the eastern theater of the war, from the time it broke out in 1861 to the crucial battle of Gettysburg.  The book also talks about how this war transformed the lives of millions of African Americans by freeing them from slavery.  Read this book to find out more about the battles that took place during the Civil War in the East and how they transformed the lives of many.

I would be most likely to use this book with a fifth grade class because it would be a lead way into meeting objective 4.05: describe the impact of wars and conflicts on United States citizens, including but not limited to, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Persian Gulf War, and the twenty-first century war on terrorism.  I would read the book to my class and then I would have them pick the battle or event from the book that interested them the most.  I would then have the students create an informational poster on the battle or event that they picked.  After every student had ample time to complete their poster I would have them share the new information that they had learned about events from The Civil War in the East with the rest of the class.