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Book Blog #10 on "The Ugly Duckling"

Title: The Ugly Duckling
Author: Hans Christian Andersen
Illustrator: Jerry Pinkney
Publisher: Morrow Junior Books
Copyright: 1999
Number of Pages: 40
Genre: Traditional Literature
Grade Level: 2nd
Content Area: Science



This story is about a swan who is born into the family of ducklings and is thought to be ugly by all of the others. Even all of the other animals that sees him with them thinks he is ugly too and shuns him. After a long winter, he finally grew into the most beautiful swan in the pond and realized he was not a duck after all. I think this is a great story to read to children, especially if some of them feel like they look differently than the other children in the class. I would also use this to talk to the kids about bullying and how it is not tolerated in my classroom. Then I would relate it to science by talking about all the different animals that live in ponds.

Book Blog #9 on "The Giving Tree"

Title: The Giving Tree

Author: Shel Silverstein

Illustrator: Shel Silverstein

Publisher: Harper & Row

Copyright: 1964

Number of Pages: 64

Genre: Poetry

Grade Level: 3rd

Content Area: Science

This story is about a tree’s love for a boy. The boy visits the tree every day to gather leaves, climb, swing from her branches, eat her apples, play hide-and-seek, and rest against her trunk. The boy loves the tree and so the tree is happy. The boy gets older and doesn’t visit as much. He visits rarely throughout the rest of his life, but never wants to play. At one point, he wanted money, so the tree offered him her apples to sell. He does and she is happy again. The next time he wants a house, so the tree offered him her branches to build a house. He does this also and she is happy again. He visits the next time when he is an older man and says he wants a boat to travel far away. She tells him to cut down her trunk and make a boat, so he does but this time the tree is not as happy. The last time he visits he is an elderly man and the tree is upset because she has nothing left to give him. This time the old man says all he needs is a quiet place to sit down and rest, so she proudly offers her stump. The boy sits down to rest and the tree is happy again. I think this story is very sweet and cute for kids. The illustrations aren’t very vivid or colorful, but I think they illustrate the story very well. I would read this story to the students and then bring in science by talking about trees.

Book Talk #2

This book would be really great for Mathematics with Kindergarteners or First Graders. It also has a lot of flash cards and stickers that comes with it for the kids to use! I forgot to mention in the video, but the Genre is Modern Fantasy because of how the author personifies the animals!

Book Talk on Pete the Cat's Got Class