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Genre Connections: POETRY

April 30, 2013
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TweetLike her previously published, Comprehension Connections (Heinemann, 2007), Genre Connections: Lessons to Launch Literary and Nonfiction Texts by Tanny McGregor (Heinemann, 2013) is a great go-to resource for teachers looking for concrete, hands-on lessons that introduce students to “Big Idea” concepts. I particularly love Tanny’s idea of launching a unit of study on poetry by asking, “How is a poem like a [...]

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Forest Has a Song by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

April 9, 2013
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TweetThe forest is a living, breathing entity, alive with noise and song. Subtle music that can be missed if one is not quiet and still, with ears to hear.  Debut author Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has beautifully captured the forest’s delicate melody in her tender Forest Has a Song. Click HERE to access a Poetry Activity Kit in [...]

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Cowboy Up! by Nancy Bo Flood

March 7, 2013
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TweetTeachers, librarians, and cowpokes alike!  Pony up and access this CCSS Annotated Educational Activity Guide for Cowboy Up!, then let ‘em ride! Right out of the chute, let the vivid richness of Nancy Bo Flood’s poetry and Jan Sonnenmair’s provocative photographs inspire your young ‘uns to connect with the rodeo experience on a lively literary level.  Along with a [...]

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Doggone Feet! by Leslie Helakoski

February 25, 2013
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TweetThis charming story of the complexity of family life, written and illustrated by Leslie Helakoski, celebrates the notion that there’s always room for one more. The funny thing about this book is that it is told from under the kitchen table from a dog’s point of view.  Doggone Feet! begins with a stray who follows a lanky set [...]

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You’re Doing Fine, Oklahoma. Oklahoma – OK!

February 7, 2013
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TweetIn Miriam Glassman’s charming Call Me Oklahoma!, fourth-grader Paige Turner’s life is altered when she sees the Roger’s and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma! with her high-spirited cousin during the summer break. The music has her bouncing in her seat, bubbling with the desire to be like the “spunky women twirling around,” and “all the people onstage waving their hats and [...]

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My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood by Tameka Fryer Brown

January 29, 2013
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TweetMy Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood is an expressive tale about the diverse range of colorful emotions generated by everyday sibling rivalry. In the story, Jamie, a naturally creative boy, finds cool green pleasure in creative expression and dark-toned frustrations when his older siblings relentlessly tease him. He works hard to keep his frustrations under control until, [...]

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Thumbnail image for Hope’s Gift, by Kelly Starling Lyons

Hope’s Gift, by Kelly Starling Lyons

January 4, 2013
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TweetAs gifted storytellers do, in Hope’s Gift, author Kelly Starling Lyons  gently reveals unsettling truths during a tumultuous time in our nation’s history through the tender eyes of an impressionable young child named Hope. In this multi-layered tale, the reader emotionally connects with Hope’s anguish due to her father’s absence during the Civil War, for he has joined the Union Army in hopes of [...]

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