Dara Beth's Classroom Library

Froggy Goes to School was published in 1996 by Jonathan London. This story is a phenomenal picture book. In the story, Froggy is very excited about starting his first day of school. During the story, Froggy has a dream that he got on the bus for his first day of school and forgot his clothes! Froggy's mom comforts him by letting him know that all kids are nervous before they start school and that everything is going to be perfectly okay. In the end, Froggy goes to school and absolutely loves it! Personally, the Froggy books were my all time favorite growing up. As a fun activity, I would read this book to my students on the first day of school. After, I would have my students to complete a story map that covers characters, settings, problems and solutions.This story is on a 2.4 reading level according to the Accelerated Reader book leveling system.

The Very Busy Spider was published in 1984 by Eric Carle. This story is about a busy farm yard spider that will not stop spinning her web despite how many times her other farm yard friends try to get her to stop. Eventually, the spiders web is complete and has caught its first fly! When it reaches night time and the spider is sound asleep, the owl is amazed by the beauty of the web. Throughout the story, the students can see and feel the web growing until it is complete. As a fun science activity, I would have a printable of a spider that comes with cutouts for the parts of the spider for the students to glue in their appropriate spots! This would be a fun way for the students to easily learn about spiders. Fun fact: there is only one place in the whole world where there are NO spiders! This book is on a 1.3 book level according to the Accelerated Reader book leveling system.

The Watson's Go to Birmingham-1963 was first published by Christopher Paul Curtis in December of 1995. This story is about a family from Flint, Michigan. The story starts out telling the troubling experiences of the Watson kids (Byron, Kenny, and Joetta) at their school. After the parents have had enough, they announced that they would be traveling to Birmingham, Alabama, to visit their grandmother. One morning, Joetta also known as Joey, decides to attend church with some of her grandmothers friends. The church was the historical 16th Street Baptist Church located in Birmingham. While at church that day, a bomb exploded in the basement of the church. Needless to say, this story is based during the middle of the civil rights movement that was taking place here in the south. For an activity, I would have my students to choose a major event that occurred and was relevant to them. Ex) 9/11, major hurricanes, presidential elections. I would have the students to discuss how they felt or what they observed from their personal experiences. This book is on a 5.0 level according to the Accelerated Reader book leveling system.

Corduroy was first published in 1968 by Don Freeman. This story is about a stuffed toy bear, by the name of Corduroy, who lives his life on the shelf of a department store. Corduroy longs to have a sense of belonging and friendship. One day, Corduroy meets a little girl who instantly falls in love him and eventually adopts him. I would incorporate this book into my counting math unit. The students would complete a learning with buttons activity where they could glue a variety of buttons onto a laminated teddy bear and add up their total number of buttons at the end of the activity. This book is a 3.5 on the Accelerated Reading leveling system.