My, Oh My- a Butterfly! By: Dr. Seuss

Book Title: My, Oh My- a Butterfly!

Author: Dr. Seuss

Illustrator: Dr. Seuss

Genre: Nonfiction

Summary: This colorful rhyme filled book goes through the life cycle of butterflies

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 2, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #6- Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.

How it Connects:Clear diagrams and illustrations show what happens to a butterfly when it goes through the various stages of life

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 2, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #8- Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.

How it Connects:Students can compare and contrast butterflies from moths or even as simple as comparing and contrasting caterpillars from butterflies

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1)bug 2)butterfly 3)chrysalis

How Children Use Book: Small Groups

Meets Needs: Gifted students can use this for additional research for later projects

The Art Box By: Gail Gibbons

Book Title: The Art Box

Author: Gail Gibbons

Illustrator: Gail Gibbons

Genre:Nonfiction

Summary: This book lists and labels many different kinds of art tools and what they are used for.

ELA Content Standard 1:Kindergarten, Craft and Structure #5- Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

How it Connects:Students can explore this book as a physical book before going deeper into the content to understand the basic necessities of navigating the pages and who created this book they are about to read

ELA Content Standard 2: Kindergarten, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #7- With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).

How it Connects:Students can read the labels next to the drawings of each new word and object

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1)box 2) drawing 3) protractor

How Children Use Book: Dyslexic students can use this book to clearly see the word and the picture of the word side by side

Meets Needs: SPED can use this for artistic styles of learning/comprehension and expression of understanding through creativity

The Tiny Seed By: Eric Carle

Book Title: The Tiny Seed

Author: Eric Carle

Illustrator: Eric Carle

Genre: Nonfiction

Summary: A story of the cycle

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 2, Text and Types of Purpose #2- Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

How it Connects:Students can use this book as a guide when writing their own stories based on their research

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 1, Text Types of Purpose #2- Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.

How it Connects: Students can use this book to focus on blending facts and story components together into their writing based on information and research

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) seed, flower 2) Autumn 3) seed-pod 

How Children Use Book: Individually and Small Groups

Meets Needs: Gifted students can use this book to talk about how the plants grow (photosynthesis) 

The Magic School Bus and the Shark Adventure By: Elizabeth Smith

Book Title: The Magic School Bus and the Shark Adventure

Author: Elizabeth Smith

Illustrator: Carolyn Bracken

Genre: Nonfiction

Summary: A group of students and their wacky teacher go on a field trip to the ocean as their magic school bus turns into a fish. They explore and learn all the many neat things that live in the ocean. 

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 2, Text and types of Purpose #2- Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section.

How it Connects:Students can take the information form the book and use it to help in deeper research.

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 3, Comprehension and Collaboration #3- Ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.

How it Connects: Students can listen to presenters on various topics centered around their book (like this on on oceans and sharks) and develop note-taking and research skills among information

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) school bus 2) ocean, waves 3) predator

How Children Use Book: Individually

Meets Needs: Gifted students can use this book for research in addition to other nonfiction books as a base before going more in depth

No Two Alike By: Keith Baker

Book Title: No Two Alike

Author: Keith Baker

Illustrator: Keith Baker

Genre: Nonfiction

Summary: This story explains how many things we might think are the same, are actually just similar. Everything is different and unique in their own ways.

ELA Content Standard 1: Kindergarten, Craft and Structure #5- Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

How it Connects:Students can see the physical components of the book with guidance from me and talk about books that have the same author and illustrator or who have series of continuing books with the same characters or themes.

ELA Content Standard 2: Kindergarten, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #9- With prompting and support, identify basic similarities in and differences between two texts on the same topic (e.g., in illustrations, descriptions, or procedures).

How it Connects:Students can compare and contrast what makes something similar and what make it different.

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) no, 2) house 3) bridge

How Children Use Book: Individually

Meets Needs: ELL can use this for simplistic vocab and matching pictures

Henry's Freedom Box

Book Title: Henry's Freedom Box

Author: Ellen Levine

Illustrator: Kadir Nelson

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary: Henry, a young boy, is a slave. He grows up a slave and is moved to a new master after his first master falls ill. He is taken aways from his family to work and grows up to become a man. He finds love and marries and had three children. But one day while he is at work, he gets news that his family has been taken away and he will never see them again. It is then that Henry decides he needs to get to freedom. He had a plan to travel in a little wooden box to Philadelphia with the help of some good friends.  

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 1, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #7- Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

How it Connects:Students can use the pictures to make predictions about what Henry is going to do with the box and why he is going to Philadelphia. They can also see how uncomfortable he must have been being smashed in that box upside-down. 

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 1, Key Ideas and Details #3- Describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas or pieces of information in a text.

How it Connects: Students can discuss the relationship between Henry and his family and the can also discuss deeper meanings behind slavery and the relationship between slaves and slave owners

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) box 2) factory 3) Philadelphia

How Children Use Book: Individually

Meets Needs: Gifted Students can use this book to look up other events and famous people during slave times to gain more insight into that time period

All the Way to America By: Dan Yaccarino

Book Title: All the Way to America

Author: Dan Yaccarino

Illustrator: Dan Yaccarino

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary: The story of an Italian immigrant and his journey to make a living for himself and his family after ariving in American. This story goes through the generations and how a little shovel, a tomato sauce recipe, hard work, and family are the important things that were carried down.

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 1, Key Ideas and Details #3- Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

How it Connects:Students can see how the shovel was passed through the generations and how the life of the family was changed because of immigration.

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 2, Craft and Structure #5- Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

How it Connects: The beginning of the story sets up the rest of the book by describing the journey of the family's first immigrant to American and how he needed to find work and continue to work hard and always remember his family and to pass his knowledge down through the generations to be successful himself and for his family to be successful. 

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) boat 2) family 3) zucchini 

How Children Use Book: Individually and Small Group

Meets Needs: ELL students can use this to relate differences and similarities to the cultural vocab and theme of this book to their own lives (mirrors vs windows)

A Picture Book of Helen Keller By: David A. Adler

Book Title: A Picture Book of Helen Keller

Author: David A. Adler

Illustrator: John & Alexandra Wallner

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary: The story of Helen Keller's life as told through kid friendly vocab and illustrations 

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 2, Key Ideas and Details #3- Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

How it Connects:Students can take the challenges Helen faced growing up and discuss what actions she and her family took to overcome them

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 2, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #7- Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

How it Connects:Students can see demonstrations of how Helen learned that everything has a name by her teacher running water over her hands and spelling the word water in her other hand to make that connection. Can also use images of braille to see what she would have used and maybe bring in braille charts for students to have a physical sense of what it is like to use.

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) she, mother, father 2) pantry 3) mischievous

How Children Use Book: Individually and Small Group

Meets Needs: Dyslexic students can use this to relate in the ways that Helen struggled to read and had to learn in braille but worked hard to be successful (windows and mirrors)

A Medieval Feast By: Aliki

Book Title: A Medieval Feast

Author: Aliki

Illustrator: Aliki

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary: A book about all the necessary preparations of hosting a feast and party in medieval times

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 3, Key Ideas and Details #1- Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, explicitly using the text as the basis for the answers.

How it Connects:This book is very informative but also very vocab heavy with words that students may struggle with, asking and answering questions can help clarify for easy understanding

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 3, Key Ideas and Details #2- Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

How it Connects: Again, with the help in vocab, the students can depict the main idea as a whole

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) castle 2) knights, medieval 3) provisions  

How Children Use Book: Centers

Meets Needs: Gifted students can expand their vocab and try to indicate what the words mean based on context clues

Lucky Beans By: Becky Birtha

Book Title: Lucky Beans 
Author: Becky Birtha

Illustrator: Nicole Tadgell

Genre: Historical Fiction

Summary: A boy growing up in the great depression wants his mother to enter to win a contest for a new sewing machine. To win, they need to guess the number of beans in a jar. The boy knows about estimation from what he learned at school and applies that to help her win the contest.    

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 3, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity #10- By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

How it Connects:Students can see historical significance with the times of the great depression and I can easily connect this to a math curriculum 

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 2, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #6- Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.

How it Connects: Students can use the mathematical arithmetic drawing in the book to see how they came up with their estimation

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) jar 2)contest 3) arithmetic

How Children Use Book: Small Groups

Meets Needs: Gifted students can use this book to see how much things like the sewing machine would cost now

el Peor día de Toda mi vida (The Worst Day of My Life Ever) By: Julia Cook

Book Title: el Peor día de Toda mi vida (The Worst Day of My Life Ever)

Author: Julia Cook

Illustrator: Kelsey De Weerd

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Summary: When RJ doesn't listen or follow instructions, he gets himself into a bunch of trouble and ends up having the worst day ever.

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 2, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas #7- Describe how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text

How it Connects:Students can discuss the importance of following directions as the authors intentions in the story

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 3, Key Ideas and Details #3- Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.

How it Connects:Students can see the cause and effects of listening to directions and following the rules. If RJ would have been more careful to listen, his bad day wouldn't have happened

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) gum, play 2) running 3)instructions

How Children Use Book: Individual and Small Groups

Meets Needs:ELL students can use this book because it is translated into both Spanish and English

Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun By: Maria Dismondy

Book Title: Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun

Author: Maria Dismondy

Illustrator: Kimberly Shaw-Peterson

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction 

Summary: A young girl named Lucy finds the courage to be different after a bully at school teases her

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 3, Key Ideas and Details #3- Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

How it Connects:Students can make connections to how Lucy felt when she was being bullied and how how the bully felt after she was still nice to him

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 2, Fluency #4a- Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension: Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.

How it Connects: Appropriate for grades 2 and 3 (self reading) with larger print and recognizable words for the age group

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1)school 2)breakfast 3) distance

How Children Use Book: Individually and Centers

Meets Needs: ELL students can use this as a way to seem themselves to embrace their differences (mirrors vs. windows) 

A Chair for My Mother By: Vera B. Williams

Book Title: A Chair for My Mother

Author: Vera B. Williams

Illustrator: Vera B. Williams

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction 

Summary: A young girl living with her mother and grandmother save up to buy a new chair after a devastating fire at their house.

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 3, Key Ideas and Details #2- Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.

How it Connects:Students can understand the reason they are trying to save money to buy a chair is because they lost everything in the fire and discuss what they do to save the money.

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 3, Key Ideas and Details #3- Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.

How it Connects: Students can recognize the characters feelings towards the fire and loosing everything. That become the motivation to save up the money to buy the chair.

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) mother, chair 2) wonderful 3) wrappers

How Children Use Book: Small groups and Centers

Meets Needs: Low SES students can use this book to relate to knowing that they may not be the only ones who are struggling financially or students who have encountered something like a fire (windows and mirrors)

Big Red Lollipop By: Rukhsana Khan

Book Title:Big Red Lollipop

Author: Rukhsana Khan

Illustrator: Sophie Blackall

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Summary: When a young girl gets invited to a birthday party, her mother says she can only go if she takes her little sister along. Having your littler sister a party only you were invited to is a little embarrassing and when it's time to go home each of the girls receive a goodie bag with lollipops. Little sisters don't know how to make things last and eats her lollipop that day... and eats her older sisters lollipop the next morning that her sister had been saving.

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 2, Key Ideas and Details #3- Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

How it Connects:Students can discuss how the girl responds and reacts at various point in the story when she was excited to go to the party, embarrassed and upset, and when she got so mad at her little sister for eating the lollipop that she chased her around the house and threw the stick of the lollipop.

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 2, Craft and Structure #6- Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.

How it Connects: The litter sister who wants to go the her older sisters party ends up getting invited to a party of her won, but their other youngest sister wants to go with her, just like she did for her older sister. Students can see the different points of view and make connections to how it feels for the middle sister to understand what she made her older sister go through.

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) home 2)birthday 3) invitation

How Children Use Book: Individually and Small Groups

Meets Needs: ELL students can use this book to relate to the cultures and names they may be familiar with in an Americanized setting just like the book

No,David! By: David Shonnon

Book Title: No, David!

Author: David Shonnon

Illustrator: David Shonnon

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Summary: A young boy named David is always getting into trouble and is told the oh so familiar word 'no'.

ELA Content Standard 1: Kindergarten, Key Ideas and Details #1- With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

How it Connects:Students can discuss what David is doing and why his mother would tell him no

ELA Content Standard 2: Kindergarten, Craft and Structure #6- With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story.

How it Connects:Students can use this as a more 'challenging' example to identify the author and illustrator because it is the same person.

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) no 2) house 3) instant

How Children Use Book: Individually

Meets Needs: Dyslexic students can use the to help with their understanding of 'no' vs 'on' because of the repeated word and context

Moosetache By: Margie Palantini

Book Title: Moosetache

Author:Margie Palantini

Illustrator: Henry Cole

Genre: Poetry

Summary: A moose has a hairy problem when his mustache grows out of control. He can't cute it because it grew in so thick, so he needs to find other ways to tame all that hair and attempts that in creative, silly ways. 

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 2, Craft and Structure #5- Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.

How it Connects:This book focuses heavy on alliteration and rhymes that are perfect for students to engage with and listen for during read alouds.

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 3, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity #10- By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

How it Connects: This book fits into poetry because of it's use of rhymes and alliteration but follows more of a traditional story line with a clear plot. Students can listen for the components that make this story fit in the poetry category

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) hair 2) wonderful 3) mangled

How Children Use Book: Small Groups

Meets Needs: Gifted students can use this book to discuss the similarities and differences of what books fit into specific genres.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom By: Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Book Title: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Author: Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault

Illustrator: Lois Ehlert

Genre: Poetry

Summary: All the lowercase letters of the alphabet try to climb to the top of the coconut tree, but will they all fit?

ELA Content Standard 1: Kindergarten, Craft and Structure #5- Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).

How it Connects: Students can use the large printed letters to familiarize themselves with the alphabet and hearing the rhymes that follow the book can encourage them to recognize letter names to their physical appearance. 

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 2, Craft and Structure #4- Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.

How it Connects: An easier read but perfect for understanding beats, rhymes, and syncopated words and phrases of poetry (songs that go along with this book can be a useful tool as well)

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) Aa, tree 2) coconut 3) tangled 

How Children Use Book: Individually

Meets Needs: ELL students can use this to practice their understanding of alphabet names and pronunciations with guidance 

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish By: Dr. Seuss

 

 Book Title: One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Author: Dr. Seuss

Illustrator: Dr. Seuss

Genre: Poetry

Summary: A story through silly rhymes about finding funny things everywhere each day...even when the words and funny things are made up!

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 3, Fluency #4b- Read on-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.

How it Connects: Using a lower-level book that uses familiar words with an easily flowing rhyme scheme can be very helpful to students practicing their fluency, especially with the challenge of tongue twisting rhymes

ELA Content Standard 2: Kindergarten, Craft and Structure #5- Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems).

How it Connects: Students can discuss the rhymes of poems and easily identify words that rhyme with listening and simple spelling techniques

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1)fish, blue 2) something, fear 3) wire

How Children Use Book: Individually

Meets Needs: ELL students can use this to see simple words and words alike that rhyme

Where the Sidewalk Ends: Sick By: Shel Silverstein

Book Title: Where the Sidewalk Ends: Sick

Author: Shel Silverstein

Illustrator: Shel Silverstein

Genre: Poetry

Summary: A child is complaining of multiple illnesses and reasons why they cannot go to school, until they realize that it's Saturday, they suddenly feel miraculously healed. 

ELA Content Standard 1: Grade 2, Craft and Structure #4- Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.

How it Connects: Students can hear the rhythm and rhyme of the poem and the flow of the story within that poem make sense with the words that connect each line

ELA Content Standard 2: Grade 3, Craft and Structure #5- Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections.

How it Connects: Students can recognize the layout of the stanzas in the poem and follow the patterns of how every other line (in this case) ends in a rhyme scheme.

3 Tiers of  Vocab: 1) school, blue 2) chicken, weak 3) Instamatic

How Children Use Book: Individually

Meets Needs: Gifted students can use this poem to create rhyme stanzas that mimic the style of this particular author