Dinosaur VS. Bedtime

This week my book talk was on Dinosaur VS. Bedtime by Bob Shea.

It is a very short book about a dinosaur who thinks he is so awesome that nothing can stop him.  He proves this statement by going against everyday activities and winning against each one.  ROAR!

Then when it comes to bedtime, Dinosaur is no match and bedtime wins.

In the book Dinosaur roars a lot, at least 3 times on each page.  When I first read it, I thought it might be a good idea to teach the students "roar" as a sight word, and when reading this book in class have them roar each time it comes up in the story.

I really enjoyed this book!  I believe that many kids can find a connection because the obstacles that Dinosaur faces are activities that a lot of younger kids struggle with (talking adults, tall slide, a bowl of food, taking a bath.) Kids can try to avoid all of these things if they want, but it is inevitable, everybody falls asleep.

Llama Llama Red Pajama

I did my book talk on Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney.

It is about a little Llama who misses his mama shortly after she tucks him into bed to go to sleep.  She begins to do some house work as he calls out to her.  When she doesn't respond right away Llama Llama red pajama begins to panic and act dramatically.  His mama reminds him that there is no need to act that way because mama loves him.

The story is told in a rhyme and highlights certain vocabulary words.  Even though the story itself doesn't have any certain lessons that can be learned in a classroom (besides being patient) there are vocabulary words that can be discussed such as 'fret' or 'tizzy.'

I really enjoyed this book and found myself being able to easily relate because as a child I was literally attached to my moms hip and constantly worried when I wasn't near her.

I found this cool video of some people singing the story. 

:LL

Old Bear

Old bear falls asleep as the snow starts falling at the beginning of winter.  He begins to dream about himself as a young bear.  In his dream he experiences all four seasons.  The seasons in his dream all have their own imaginative spin on them, for example, in summer the sun was a daisy, the leaves were butterflies and it rained blue berries.  Old bear wakes up thinking he took just a small nap, only to find out the whole winter season had gone by! 

I love this book because all of the imagination in it.  I have a huge imagination and enjoy thinking of different possibilities for ordinary things such as the seasons.  How awesome would it be if the sun was a daisy?!

I think this book is great for the class room because kids enjoys using their imagination as well and hearing of cool things like it raining blueberries.  I think a great lesson plan to follow it up would be to divide the class into groups and assign each group a season.  The groups could work together to paint, draw, or write a story describing their season and add a little imagination to it.