Posts tagged ‘numbers’
119. Full Count: A Baseball Number Book by Brad Herzog
Retell: A numerical version of his alphabet book H is for Home Run.
Topics: baseball, numbers, Hall of Fame, Women’s League, tee ball, bat boys, Yogi Berra, Joe Nuxhall, Jackie Robinson, Little League, multiplication
Units of Study: Nonfiction, Content Area
Writing Skills: incorporating rhyme and rhythm
My Thoughts: I now have yet another genre to think about when we get to the Content-Area unit: Number Books. This is one number book that fourth graders will find to be quite interesting. Full Count follows the same format as its alphabet companion book–a rhyming poem accompanies a more detailed expository explanation of the content behind the rhyme. This book has an added bonus of having illustrations that can support a unit on multiplication. The illustration for 25, shows five groups of five baseball bats. The illustration for 50, shows 10 groups of five jerseys. If you use the TERC math curriculum you may want to use this book for the Ten-Minute Math activity, Quick Images.
78. Amelia Writes Again by Marissa Moss
Retell: Amelia is a young girl who collects thoughts, souvenirs, photos and stories in her writer’s notebook. Through the pages of her notebook we learn about Amelia’s friend Leah, her sister Cleo, and the terrible arsonist who destroyed her school.
Topics: writing, birthdays, siblings, friendship, daydreaming, numbers, arson, symbols, partnerships, writer’s notebooks
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Realistic Fiction, Social Issues, Personal Essay
Tribes: appreciations/no put-downs, right to pass, personal best
Habits of Mind: responding with wonderment and awe
Writing Skills: generating notebook entries, using pictures and objects to inspire writing, writing about ideas, spelling tricky words by writing it in different ways
Thoughts: This is volume 2 in a series of “Amelia” books. I use this each year when we relaunch our writer’s notebooks. The book resembles a composition notebook. There are many ways that it can be used to teach writing skills, but it also stands alone for discussing other issues. For example, Amelia writes about how she is reluctant to show her notebook to her friend Leah. This could be a great time to discuss taking the right to pass. During a Social Issues or Personal Essay unit you could use this book to analyze the issue of school vandalism.
If you have used any books from the “Amelia” series please post your ideas in the comments section.
Teachable Texts 