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.