Mrs. Stuckey's Classroom

This book is so exciting for me because I love The Magic School Bus!  In this particular  book, the class goes on a field trip unlike any other to find a specific leaf to add to their leaf collection.  This would be a wonderful book to do an inclusion lesson for science and reading.  This would be perfect to use to help teach about the seasons and to help teach about leaves and plants. This would be great for kindergarten through about second grade.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis combines fantasy and reality to tell a beautiful story about adventure and exploration. Four children find their way into the land of Narnia and their lives are forever changed. C.S Lewis presents a book that you can not put down! The intended audience is 3rd to 5th grade. One way you could use this book is to have a project where the child creates a diorama of their favorite scene from the book. This could be a great Language Arts project. I had to do this in elementary school and it is the only project that I can vividly remember doing. That is how much of an impact this book had on me. This is my favorite book of all time and The Chronicles of Narnia is my favorite series.

Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse is a sweet story about friendship and differences. The story involves a mouse named Alexander and a wind-up mouse named Willy.  They quickly becomes friends.  When Willy is suddenly in danger of being thrown out, Alexander uses an opportunity where he could have helped himself, to instead help Willy. 

This book would be great for kindergarten through 2nd grade.  It teaches about selflessness and consideration. It also teaches that even though someone might look the same on the outside, they can be very different on the inside. 

I would have small reading groups read this story and pause at certain parts of the book to ask what they think might happen next.  I might draw a picture of what they think might happen next and have them share it with their group. 

Harriet the Spy is a classic children's book.  It is a book that is best introduced around the 4th or 5th grade.  The main character, Harriet, keeps a journal where she writes down everything she is thinking!  This includes some not so very nice things about her friends, enemies, and anyone she happens to cross paths with. 

When her journal is discovered and all of it's contents are shared to everyone she talked about , Harriet learns the hard way just how much words can hurt.  She ends up friendless and miserable.

This is a wonderful story that can be used to show the importance of words.  You could do several activities that show a child they should be very careful about what they say about one another.  A teacher could have the class write one compliment about a friend to share with the class.  Another good activity would be to have the class write a short story about something that was said about them, whether it be positive or negative, and how it made them feel. 

Pete the Cat-Pete's Big Lunch is a perfect story for emergent readers in kindergarten.  Pete is trying to make his lunch but he is just not satisfied with any food he chooses until he invites his friends over to share his lunch with him.  This book teaches that sharing can make you feel good and make activities more enjoyable.

Along with the sharing lesson that this book teaches, this book could be a great tool in teaching children about nutrition.  There are several activities that could be done that help children in selecting healthy food options versus not so  healthy options.