Booktalks – Page 28 – Booktalking #kidlit

Monster Trucks: Tearing It Up

Monster Trucks: Tearing It Up
by Brian Howell (Author)

Booktalk: Do you know what it’s like to drive a truck that is as big as an elephant? Despite their giant size, monster trucks can pull off soaring jumps, flips, and other epic stunts. These trucks compete head-to-head to reveal the fastest and the most agile of them all. Events such as the Monster Jam World Finals keep the crowds on the edges of their seats.

Snippet: In monster truck racing, two trucks race to the other end of the arena. The trucks do a turn around an obstacle and race back to the finish line. During the last part of the race, the trucks go over a ramp that launches them into the air. After landing, the first truck to reach the finish line is the winner.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Cool Engineering Activities for Girls

How can engineering help me solve problems? Help K-5 students answer this essential question (and meet the Common Core State Standards) with the Teaching STEM lesson plans for this mentor text: Cool Engineering Activities for Girls by Heather E. Schwartz (IG740L)

Cool engineering activities for girls

Unit Summary: Students will examine the essential question, “How can engineering help me solve problems?” Students will solve an actual engineering problem by designing and testing a paper airplane. They will test their products and have the opportunity to work in groups to redesign a second plane after examining the more successful plane designs. They will use the steps an engineer might follow to address the problem and design a solution, and then retest it.

The Library Activity begins on page 138. The Collaborative Teacher Activity is on page 140.

Extension Activities (sample)

1. Have the students identify a problem they have in their daily life and design an invention that would help solve that problem.

2. Have the students each make new airplanes and test them individually. Measure how far they fly and see if they have improved on their designs following the lesson.

3. After reading the book, have the students write a short description of the main idea of the book. Use the phrase, “I am a engineer. I know that _________.”

You can find more Teaching STEM lesson plans on the Teaching STEM blog.

Hope Is a Ferris Wheel

Lost Girl Found
by Robin Herrera (Author)

Booktalk: Ten-year-old Star Mackie lives in a trailer park with her flaky mom and her melancholy older sister, Winter, whom Star idolizes. Moving to a new town has made it difficult for Star to make friends, when her classmates tease her because of where she lives and because of her layered blue hair. But when Star starts a poetry club, she develops a love of Emily Dickinson and, through Dickinson’s poetry, learns some important lessons about herself and comes to terms with her hopes for the future.

Snippet: Everyone at Pepperwood Elementary knows that I live in Treasure Trailers, in the pink-tinted trailer with the flamingo hot-glued to the roof. The problem is, I only told four girls, the ones who were standing by me the first time we lined up for recess.

“Isn’t that next to the dump?” one of them asked.

Little Naomi, Little Chick

Little Naomi, Little Chick
by Avirama Golan (Author) and Raaya Karas (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Little Naomi has a busy day! She gets ready for school, plays with all her friends, builds with blocks, bakes mud pies, colors pictures, eats lunch, and helps mom with the shopping. Little Chick has to stay at home with the other barnyard animals, but that doesn’t stop him from having adventures of his own.

Snippet:
She gives Little Bear a hug.
She kisses Mommy
and gives Daddy’s hand a tug.
Little Naomi is ready to go!
Off to preschool, with Daddy in tow.

But not little Chick.

One Word Pearl

One Word Pearl
by Nicole Groeneweg (Author) and Hazel Mitchell (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Pearl loves words. All kinds of words. Words make up songs, stories, poems . . . and what does a lover of words do? She collects them, of course!

But one day, most of Pearl’s words are blown away…

Snippet: Outside her room, safe from the storm, Pearl opened her chest. But the wind had only left a handful of words—not enough to tell a story, not enough to sing a song, and not enough to make a poem rhyme.

So Pearl decided she would use only one precious word at a time.

Malala Yousafzai and the Girls of Pakistan

Malala Yousafzai and the Girls of Pakistan
by David Aretha (Author)

Booktalk: In 2012, a Taliban gunman shot a bullet into the head of Malala Yousafzai. The fifteen-year-old Pakistani girl needed to die, Taliban leaders reasoned, because she spoke out against the group’s policies, which included the suppression of girl’a education in Malal’s home region of Swat Valley.

Snippet: Finally, the shooter belived, the outspoken Pakistani teen had been silenced. The girl had delivered a speech entitled, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education.” Now, she was surely dead.

The gunman was wrong. Malala survived.

Nonfiction Monday

It’s Nonfiction Monday!

Wired #lessonplans

Where does electricity come from? Help K-5 students answer this essential question (and meet the Common Core State Standards) with the Teaching STEM lesson plans for this mentor text: Wired by Anastasia Suen (ATOS 5.1 / 820L)

Unit Summary: Students will examine the essential question, “Where does electricity come from?” As you read the book, the students will identify and write the main idea for each spread. They will look up generators and read about them. Using the library resources and online materials, they will create a diagram of a generator and label it. Finally, students will design a flow chart leading from the generator diagram of where electricity goes when it leaves the generator and they’ll use their collected information to write about the entire process.

The Library Activity begins on page 111. The Collaborative Teacher Activity is on page 114.

Extension Activities (sample)

1. Explore other ways electricity is generated. Consider hydropower, solar power, tidal power, and wind power.

2. Bring in a guest speaker from the local power company.

3. After reading the book, have the students write a short description of the main idea of the book. Use the phrase, “I am a technology specialist. I know that _________.”

It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

You can find more Teaching STEM lesson plans on the Teaching STEM blog.

Lost Girl Found

Lost Girl Found
by Leah Bassoff and Laura DeLuca (Authors)

Booktalk: Poni’s life in her small village in southern Sudan is simple and complicated at the same time. But then the war comes and there is only one thing for Poni to do. Run. Run for her life. Driven by the sheer will to survive and the hope that she can somehow make it to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, Poni sets out on a long, dusty trek across the east African countryside with thousands of refugees.

Snippet: I have accepted the fact the no one is coming to save me or offer me a ride. I keep walking on my tattered feet toward Kakuma. This place is no longer real. Only a word, a hope.

Dog Comes Too

Dog Comes Too
by Hazel Hutchins (Author) and Gosia Mosz (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Little dog is not about to stay behind when its owner goes off for a walk in the country. But it’s quite a job for little dog to keep up! (Board book)

Snippet:
Too wide

Big jump

Bad Boy, Good Boy

Bad Boy, Good Boy
by Kay Chorao (Author, Illustrator)

Booktalk: Sam is always up to something in this oversized picture book comic with four short chapters.

Snippet:
GRANDMA: Bad boy!
SAM: Sorry, Grandma.

Sam could run like the wind.
Today the wind blew
swoooosssshhh.
Sam swooshed through
Grandma’s tulips.