The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett

Recommended Grades: 4-6

All the birds have laid an egg, except Duck.  Duck wants an egg, too.  He comes upon a huge green spotted egg and makes it his own.  All the other birds make fun of him, telling him it will never hatch and calling it an odd egg.  When it finally does hatch, Duck (and all the other birds) are quite surprised!

Lesson Idea:

Six Traits

Organization, Surprise Ending: Read aloud The Odd Egg and have students predict what they think is in the egg prior to reading the ending.  Read aloud the rest of the story and discuss whether student predictions were correct.  How did the author surprise the reader with the ending?  Share other books with surprise endings and use them as mentor texts when writing in writer’s workshop. 

©2012 by Dawn Little for Picture This! Teaching with Picture Books. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

Published by: Harper Collins Children

Date: January 17, 2012

Recommended Grades: 4-6

On a cold afternoon, in a cold little town, where everywhere you looked was either the white of snow or the black of soot from chimneys, Annabelle found a box filled with yarn of every color. 

Using the yarn, Annabelle knits herself a sweater.  When she has extra yarn, she begins to knit sweaters for other townspeople and even for things that don’t wear sweaters.  When an archduke sails across the sea and offers to buy the yarn from Annabelle, she refuses.  The archduke steals the box of yarn and sails back across the sea.  What happens in the end is a surprise for all!

Lesson Idea:

Six Traits

Organization, Surprise Ending: Read aloud Extra Yarn to the point where the archduke sails away with the yarn.  Stop and ask students to predict what they think will happen.  Read aloud the rest of the story and discuss whether student predictions were correct.  How did the author surprise the reader with the ending?  Share other books with surprise endings and use them as mentor texts when writing in writer’s workshop. 

Note: I received this book for review from the publisher. 

©2012 by Dawn Little for Picture This! Teaching with Picture Books. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.

Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

Recommended Grades: 3-5

“Over the snow I glide. Into woods, frosted fresh and white” begins Kate Messner’s latest picture book in which a mix of language and science brings the subnivean zone to life.  What is the subnivean zone?  It’s the space between the snowpack and the ground, where many animals live during the winter. 

Lesson Idea:

Writer’s Workshop

Six Traits of Writing/Ideas: Read aloud Over and Under the Snow and discuss how the author used several techniques to make beautiful language (alliteration, repetition, descriptive words/phrases, etc.).  Discuss how student authors can mimic Messner’s craft and write their own pieces using alliteration, repetition or descriptive phrases.  Have students try to use one of  or a mixture of the craft techniques Messner uses in drafts of their own writing pieces.

©2012 by Dawn Little for Picture This! Teaching with Picture Books. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris Van Allsburg

Recommended Grades: 2-6

In the introduction, we learn that Chris Van Allsburg saw the drawings in this book at the home of Peter Wenders.  Wenders once worked for a children’s book publisher.  Thirty years ago, a man called Mr. Wender’s office, introducing himself as Harris Burdick and leaving 14 drawings with a title and caption for each one.  Burdick promised to return the next day with the stories he had written to go with each picture.  Mr. Burdick was never heard from again. . .

Lesson Idea:

Comprehension Strategies:

Making Inferences: Read aloud The Mysteries of Harris Burdick as part of a unit on making inferences.  Provide students with a picture and ask them to infer what is happening in the picture.  Use this book after modeling and making inferences with other books.     

Six Traits

Idea Development: After reading aloud The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, have students choose a picture from the book and using the first line that is written, continue the story.  How do they envision the story?

Note: Recently many popular children’s authors came together and wrote stories based on these pictures in The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales / With an Introduction by Lemony Snicket.  After students write their own stories based on the pictures, share some of the author’s ideas and how they envisioned the story. 

©2012 by Dawn Little for Picture This! Teaching with Picture Books. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.

Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst

Recommended Grades: 3-5

Alexander receives money from his grandparents and really wants to keep it, but does he?    

Lesson Idea:

Reading Workshop

Comprehension Strategies: Making Inferences: Read aloud Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday and model how to infer what characters are feeling based on the pictures and text.  Create a t-chart that says Text Clues and Inference and use it as a guide to scaffold for students (or What the Picture Shows/Inference).  Once you’ve modeled, provide students the opportunity to make inferences with a partner (use a different book) using the t-chart.  Eventually, have students make inferences as they read without the t-chart.

©2012 by Dawn Little for Picture This! Teaching with Picture Books. All Amazon links are affiliate links and may result in my receiving a small commission. This is at no additional cost to you.