litcurr

Mary Pitner's Literature Page

A child's literacy skills are the foundation for all learning. Because of this, I think it's important to tie literature into all areas of the curriculum. Picture books can be used in the upper grades, as well as with younger children. It is especially beneficial if you ask your students to find examples of the skills you are teaching while they are reading in their own books, such as during a Reading Renaissance mini-lesson. Since our school is a Reading Renaissance Model School, our students are also able to take Accelerated Reader tests on the books we use in our curriculum. Here are several ideas and links for integrating literature all across the curriculum.

Language Arts

Almost all books can be used as scavenger hunts for various parts of speech. Have students make a list of proper nouns, common nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc., as they read. Next, have them write sentences of their own using the words.

The Important Book, By Margaret Wise Brown	Wonderful book for teaching main idea. Use across the curriculum. For example, The important thing about our hometown is that it has nice people. It has a fun park. It is home of The Celebration. It is Pencil City, USA. But the important thing about our hometown is that it has nice people. In Science, write a paragraph on the important things about a certain habitat, biome, or animal.
A Dark, Dark Tale, By Ruth Brown	Good for teaching skill of making predictions.
Animalia, By Graeme Base	The skills you can teach with this book are endless! Early primary students can use it for beginning sounds. Older students can identify parts of speech, find details that fit the main idea in each sentence, and identify the alliteration on each page. Just for fun, try to find the author's self-portraits of himself as a child scattered throughout the book.
Bam, Bam, Bam, By Eve Merriam	Good, simple examples of onomatopoeia.
Stephanie's Ponytail, by Robert Munsch	Making predictions.
The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch	Characterization and making predictions.
Eight Ate, A Feast Of Homonym Riddles, By Marvin Terban	Fun riddles using homonyms!
Add It, Dip It, Fix It, A Book of Verbs, by R. M. Schneider	Colorful introduction to action verbs.
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Joffe Numeroff	Another fun title for teaching cause and effect. Let students write their own stories--If You Give a Teacher an Apple.
Mad As A Wet Hen And Other Funny Idioms, By Marvin Terban	A dictionary-styled book that gives explanations of common idioms.
Round Trip, by Ann Jonas	Amazing book! Read the story of a family's trip to the big city. At the end, turn the book upside down. Look at the pictures from a different point of view to finish the story.
The Flamingos Are Tickled Pink, By Chip Lovitt	A silly book that illustrates idioms.
The King Who Rained, A Chocolate Moose For Dinner, and A Little Pigeon Toad, All By Fred Gwynne	Fun with figurative language and homonyms. This is the same Fred Gwynne from The Munsters!
The Library Dragon, By Carmen Agra Deedy	How many "Fire" words can students find in this book? Good for making predictions.
The Principal's New Clothes, By Stephanie Calmenson	Hilarious story! Let students develop their characterization skills by writing a paragraph about this principal and comparing him to the principal of their own school.
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly, Illustrated By Pam Adams	Sequencing
Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, by Verna Aardema	Helps students to understand cause and effect.
Yo! Yes?, by Chris Raschka	Fun book for teaching types of sentences and the importance of ending punctuation.

Math and Literature

The Hundred Dresses, by Eleanor Estes	Very touching story. Let students make up their own word problems based on 100 dresses.
Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday, by Judith Viorst	Students pretend they have a certain amount of money to spend. Let them use catalogs, sales brochures, and want ads to create a list of how they would spend their money. Don't forget taxes!
Eating Fractions, by Bruce McMillan	Good visual representation of fractions. Students can make multiple servings of a recipe by multiplying fractions. You might even want to make a class cookbook.
How Much is a Million?, by David M. Schwartz	Good for introducing place value of larger numbers.
The M & M's Counting Book, by Barbara Barbieri McGrath	Basic Mathematical concepts. Older students could write their own books using different objects and share them with a primary classroom.
The Math Curse, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith	Pure fun! Helps answer that age-old question, "Why do I have to learn this?"

Social Studies and Literature

The American Girl Series, by various authors	This series of books offers wonderful opportunities for comparing life during different periods of American history. For instance, compare the schools of Samantha and Kirsten.
The Day of Ahmed's Secret, by Heidi & Gilliland	Touching book. Students can make predictions about Ahmed's secret. Describes life in Egypt. Students can compare and contrast what they see in their daily lives with the culture of Ahmed.
When I was Young in the Mountains, by Cynthia Rylant	How does environment influence a character's daily life? Compare the author's childhood with the present day.
Brother Eagle, Sister Sky, A Message from Chief Seattle	Beautiful book teaching the necessity of caring for our environment.
Jamaica Sandwich?, by Brian P. Cleary	Gets giggles every time! Hilarious examples of puns. Have students find places mentioned on globe or map.
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss	Lots of possibilities here….natural resources, consumers, scarcity, interdependence, and pollution. Ties in with lots of economic themes.
Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?, by Jean Fritz	Good for lead-in to the American Revolution.
Follow the Drinking Gourd, by Jeanette Winter	Tells story of slaves' journeys on the Underground Railroad.
Faithful Elephants, by Uukio Tsuchuya	I bet you can't read this one without crying! Tells what happened to the zoo animals in Japan during WWII. Introduces a whole other aspect of war.
The Wall, by Eve Bunting	Father and son's visit to the Vietnam Memorial.
Rose Blanche, by Roberto Innocenti	Haunting story of concentration camps. Can also use for language arts skills of inference and characterization.
Ox-Cart Man, by Donald Hall	Daily life of early 19^th Century New England.
Paddle to the Sea, by Holling C. Holling	Different type of waterways
And Then What Happened, Paul Revere?, by Jean Fritz	Life in the 1700's, as well as Revere's famous ride.
Pink and Say, by Patricia Polacco	Touching story of two boys in the Civil War.
Shh! We're Writing the Constitution, by Jean Fritz	Gives the text of the constitution, as well a history of the document.
The Berenstain Bears and Mama's New Job, by Jan & Stan Berenstain	The Bear family learns about goods and services when Mama begins work. Also, interdependence.
Blue Willow, by Doris Grace	Life of a migrant family.
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, by Curtis Christopher	Civil rights movement.
Sarah Morton's Day-A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl, by Kate Waters	Photographs help students see life in an early American settlement.
Freckle Juice, by Judy Blume	Consumer lessons.
I Gave Thomas Edison My Sandwich, by Floyd C. Moore	Story based on true event from author's childhood author written by a Tennessee native.
The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein	Resources and scarcity, needs and wants.
Homer Price, by Robert McCloskey	Read "The Doughnuts" for a hilarious example of production and productivity.
The Little House Series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder	All of Wilder's books offer us a look into our country's past. Find examples of use of resources. Compare and contrast the various books.
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, by Paul Goble	Native American story.
Uncle Jed's Barbershop, by Margaret King Mitchell	Opportunity cost, entrepeneurship.
Busiest People Ever, by Richard Scarry	Various jobs and job specialties.

Science and Literature

Poppy, by Avi	My students loved this book. We read it aloud as we studied habitats, environments, animals, predators and prey, and food webs. Afterwards, we dissected owl pellets.
Stellaluna, by Janell Cannon	Use during study of mammals. Compare and contrast birds and bats.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle	Life cycles, sequencing.
Where Does the Garbage Go?, by Paul Showers	Follow garbage to the landfill, the incinerator, and the recycling center. How do we deal with too much trash?

This page is always under construction. I will be adding links and updating the literature list continuously.

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