Let's Go Nuts!

Non-Fiction Picture Book Wednesday

I review a non-fiction picture book every Wednesday for Non-Fiction Picture Book Wednesday hosted by Alyson at Kid Lit Frenzy. Visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what great non-fiction books are shared this week!

Title: Let's Go Nuts!: Seeds We Eat 
Author: April Pulley Sayre    
Illustrator: April Pulley Sayre 
Publisher: Beach Lanes 
Publication Date: August, 2013  
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: This seed-themed companion to Rah, Rah, Radishes! and Go, Go, Grapes! proves that healthy eating can be both fun and delicious!

What do nuts, beans, grains, and even some spices have in common? They’re all seeds—seeds we can eat! So get ready to greet lentils and limas, take a crack at coconuts and cashews, and say hi to rye and buckwheat. You’ll soon be seeing seeds in a whole new way!This seedy celebration comes complete with an author’s note full of fascinating facts about seeds, including a section about nut allergies and how to help nut-sensitive friends and classmates stay safe and healthy. 
What I Think: Since I'm vegan, we talk about what's in the food we eat a lot at my house. We also have lots of conversations with our kids about eating healthy in general, too. When I was growing up, we ate all sorts of foods but I'm still learning about all the different types of seeds and nuts there are and finding new recipes for how to use them. I love that this is a simple book with photographs that share the types of nuts and seeds out there in a fun way. I can easily see how this is a book that would lead readers to looking into more about seeds and nuts and trying recipes new recipes to taste some of the things in the book!
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 2 
Read Alone: Grades Pre-K - 4 
Read With: recipe books or online recipe resources 
Snatch of Text:  

"Bravo, black beans!

Rah, rah, rice!

Seeds are meals.

They're snacks. They spice!"

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Expository, Rhyme, Alliteration
Writing Prompts: Write an expository piece where you write step-by-step how to make your favorite dish with seeds.  
Topics Covered: Integration - Science 

I *heart* It:

The Animal Book

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy. Every Wednesday, 
I'll review non-fiction picture book. (It may not always be a picture book.) Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other non-fiction books are shared this week!

Title: The Animal Book  
Author: Steve Jenkins  
Illustrator: Steve Jenkins 
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers 
Publication Date: October, 2013  
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction/Picture Book/Collection 
GoodReads Summary: Animals smooth and spiky, fast and slow, hop and waddle through the two hundred plus pages of the Caldecott Honor artist Steve Jenkins’s most impressive nonfiction offering yet. Sections such as “Animal Senses,” “Animal Extremes,” and “The Story of Life” burst with fascinating facts and infographics that will have trivia buffs breathlessly asking, “Do you know a termite queen can produce up to 30,000 eggs a day?” Jenkins’s color-rich cut- and torn-paper artwork is as strikingly vivid as ever. Rounding out this bountiful browsers’ almanac of more than three hundred animals is a discussion of the artist’s bookmaking process, an animal index, a glossary, and a bibliography. A bookshelf essential!  
What I Think: This book is a wonderful collection of so many animal stories. It was so fun to read through and recognize animals from Jenkins' other books. There are some great timelines and opportunities to look at the size of animals in comparison to a human or another reference. All books should inspire us to think but I found that this book truly made me slow down and think about the information in a different way than some other non-fiction books. Non-fiction books that are a collection of facts similar to this are often fascinating to read but I find myself usually overwhelmed by all the information and just trying to read all the facts. The information is usually fascinating but sometimes can be overwhelming. Steve Jenkins got the balance of his artwork and facts and themes exactly right.
     Each layout in this book targeted a specific topic and was able to bring a specific lens to how we thought about the animals on the page. We didn't just read about the animals, we were really thinking about why they were all on the same page and we looked at the timelines and noticed when there was something on the page to help us figure out the scale size of the animals as they were pictured in the book. As we were looking a the biggest and smallest animals, Peanut wanted to know just how small the smallest animal was and we had the answer right there. We learned so much by slowing down and paying attention to the captions for the pictures but also the overall subject of the layouts. I've seen so many students check out non-fiction books and just read the pictures. There's absolutely nothing wrong with reading the pictures but I love that when we read the pictures and the text of this book, that there is so much more than picture of animals collected on a page.
Read Together: Grades Pre-K - 6 
Read Alone: Grades K - 6 
Read With: Any of Steve Jenkins' other books, Books by Nic Bishop and Seymour Simon 
Snatch of Text: 

Good designs

"Some animals are so well suited for survival 

that they haven't changed much in a long 

time. For these creatures, no variation

or mutation is likely to offer much of an 

advantage."

"The earliest turtles lived more than 200 million years ago.

Dragonflies have been with us for the past 250 million years.

Sharks have been described as nature's perfect predators. 

They have hunted in the oceans for almost 400 million years."

Reading Strategies to Practice: Non-Fiction Text Features, Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Asking Questions 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Expository 
Writing Prompts: Choose one of the animals or topics from the book to research and write about what you learn. 
Topics Covered: Integration - Science, Animals 

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The Boy Who Loved Math

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy. 
Every Wednesday, I'll review a non-fiction picture book. (It may not always be a picture book.) Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other non-fiction books are shared this week!

Title: The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos
Author: Deborah Heiligman 
Illustrator: LeUyen Pham 
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press 
Publication Date: June, 2013 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction Biography/Picture Book 
GoodReads Summary: Most people think of mathematicians as solitary, working away in isolation. And, it's true, many of them do. But Paul Erdos never followed the usual path. At the age of four, he could ask you when you were born and then calculate the number of seconds you had been alive in his head. But he didn't learn to butter his own bread until he turned twenty. Instead, he traveled around the world, from one mathematician to the next, collaborating on an astonishing number of publications. With a simple, lyrical text and richly layered illustrations, this is a beautiful introduction to the world of math and a fascinating look at the unique character traits that made "Uncle Paul" a great man. 
What I Think: I know this is a non-fiction picture book that Aly really loves this year! Now that it's a Nerdy nominee, too, I finally had to get it. And I'm so glad that I did! I love picture book biographies, and especially of people I may not have known about otherwise. A picture book is just the right kind of way to tell an obscure biography if you ask me.
    What I enjoyed most about this book is that I felt like I connected more and more with Paul as the story went along. At first, he was just a kid who loved math and wanted to avoid school at all costs. But then Paul got a little older and quirkier and then adventurous and truly eccentric....and I loved him. What a fascinating guy.
     I really like this book for talking about being in tune with who you are and what you want. While students might not - and maybe should not - know exactly all their hopes and dreams and aspirations, I hope they do have some kind of inclination. There's nothing to say we can't change our hopes and dreams as we grow, but I think it's great to encourage students to have both personal and academic goals. One year, I worked with a sophomore in high school and he was really struggling to focus on academics...at all. I started talking to him about his interests outside of school and he was adamant about participating in Parkour. Usually, I'm pretty hip to what kids are interested in but Parkour was new to me. This student had to explain it to me and he seemed to know everything there was to know about Parkour. We wrote this down as his personal goal. I believe in balance in life though so we discussed how important it is to balance personal goals with academic goals. We had to be more specific and set very attainable goals so that he could reach them and we could celebrate a small success like writing his homework down in his planner.
     The Boy Who Loved Math would pair well with other non-fiction picture book biographies and also Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown as students think about their hopes and dreams and make plans for being true to themselves and achieving those goals. 
Read Together: Grades 2 - 12  
Read Alone: Grades 2 - 12 
Read With: Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter Brown, Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown, Here Comes the Girl Scouts by Shana Corey 
Snatch of Text:  

"Paul and his friends did math together all over Budapest.
But Paul was the best.
He loved being at the top in math
and at the top of towers
and mountains
and buildings, too.

He thought about math
whatever he was doing,
wherever he was."

Reading Strategies to Practice: Activating Background Knowledge, Making Connections, Visualizing 
Writing Strategies to Practice: Personal Narrative 
Writing Prompts: Write out your personal and academic goals and then outline steps to get you closer to achieving each of them. Explain why you feel strongly about working towards those goals. 
Topics Covered: Integration - Math, Hopes, Dreams, Passion, Determination 

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Common Core Grammar ToolKit

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy. Every Wednesday, 
I'll review non-fiction picture book. (It may not always be a picture book.) 
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other non-fiction books are shared this week!

Title: The Common Core Grammar Toolkit  
Author: Sean Ruday 
Publisher: Routledge 
Publication Date: January, 2013 
Genre/Format: Non-Fiction/Professional  
GoodReads Summary: Teaching grammar for the Common Core can be easy! This comprehensive guide helps you show students how grammar rules are simply tools that will help them become better writers and enjoy the writing process. Get step-by-step recommendations for teaching each of the grammar tools, plus classroom snapshots that show you the tools in action, and an appendix of handy, use-now reproducibles.
What I Think: Yes, this book has the word "grammar" in the title but no, this book is not about copying over ten sentences and correctly inserting commas. This book is about using mentor texts as models to study and imitate and carry over into writing for students in grades 3 to 5 with a focus on the language standards in the Common Core Standards for those grade levels. Sean offers practical ideas and real-teaching examples of how to integrate mentor texts into looking closely at writing. Below are just some of the mentor texts Sean highlights in The Common Core Grammar Toolkit but you can definitely use books from your own classroom library and have students find examples of different grammatical concepts. Sean does reference Jeff Anderson's book, Mechanically Inclined, which I recommend as the place to start when it comes to mentor texts and writing.

 

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