The Hunger Games

Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

 “The Hunger Games” is a fantasy selection told from first person point of view.  16 year old Katniss Everdeen tells her story beginning the day of the country’s reaping.  The reaping began many years ago.  The country once had thirteen districts.  The districts rebelled, thirteen was destroyed, and the rest were handed the reaping ceremony as a reminder that the districts would never be able to prevail against the capitol.  The reaping ceremony consists of a male and female under the age of 18 being chosen from each district.  From this selection, 24 total from all around the country will meet up in an arena to fight to the death.

The first conflict arises when Katniss' sister, Prim is chosen to represent district 12.  Katniss is totally against this happening, therefore, she takes the place of her sister.  Ultimately, Katniss and Peeta Mellark go to the capitol to represent their country.  There are many, many more conflicts throughout the course of the book, which keeps the audience on a whim at all times.

There are several activities that you could do with this book, although, it would only be suitable for young adults.  You could allow students to compare and contrast many things in the book; my favorite thing to do is, of course, the countries.  This allows cross-curricular integration of social studies.

Henkes, K. (2004). Kitten's first full moon. New York: Harper Collins.
Kevin Henke's book, "Kitten's First Full Moon" depicts the story of a kitten whom is very hungry, but even more brave.  She looks up to the big, bright full moon that she is seeing for the first time and thinks that it is a big bowl of milk.  She stretches for it, licks at it, jumps up for the milk, climbs trees for it, and even jumps in a pond for it.  She had several unlucky happenings trying to get to her big bowl of milk, when all she had to do was go home.

The illustrations in this picture book are realistic and black and white throughout, helping us to better understand the setting of the story.
.The main character in the story, the kitten, is a very memorable character.  We get to watch her as she perseveres to try to get her bowl of milk, with many unlucky attempts.  Then, finally, she turns to go back home, and there it is...just waiting on her.

This is a story that I would love to use with my students.  We would begin by sequencing the story, and discussing how the kitten felt each time she tried and failed when trying to reach the big bowl of milk.  Then, we would brainstorm ideas of times when we showed perseverance; a time when we tried and tried to get to something, or do something.  Then we would illustrate the story by showing how we felt on each page.

Thurber, J. (1943). Many moons. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace & Company.
"Many Moons" is a picture storybook that tells the tale of a princess whose kingdom is by the sea.  The little girl falls ill, and when her dad, the king asks what would make her better, she replies "the moon."  Immediately, the king sets out to get his wise men to fetch the moon  for his daughter.  When told it is impossible for countless reasons, he turns to the court jester for help.  Needless to say, the little girl receives the moon in the end; to the king's surprise, she has it all figured out.  He was so concerned about her finding out that it wasn't the real thing, when in reality, she had the pure, innocent mind of a child and had reasoning that was unbeknownst to him and his other wise men.

The illustrations in this picture book were composed of cool, tranquil colors, complimenting the mood of the story when needed (the little princess sick, playing in the garden, etc.), and brighter fiery colors to depict the kings rage when he thought something was going to be out of his reach.

The plot of the story was very enjoyable.  In the beginning, it kept me on my toes to see what all the wise men would say about the king's request.  As the story progressed, I was more interested to see the kings reactions to the events in the story.

I would love to do a science extension with this book and study the different phases of the moon with students.

Ward, L. (1952). The biggest bear. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
"The Biggest Bear" is a picture storybook that tells the story of a little boy and his "pet bear."  This book received The Caldecott Medal in 1953.

Little Johnny Orchard lived on a farm, close to the woods.  Almost every barn in his valley had a bearskin, except for his.  His grandfather passed on a bear at one point and Little Johnny felt humiliated.  He was so humiliated that he vowed to shoot his own bear so that he could place a bearskin on the barn.

On the day that he goes out to get his bear, he finds one, but it is a cub, a cub that really likes his maple sugar.  He takes the bear cub home and keeps it as a pet.  The bear grows and grows until finally, it is the biggest bear around, and also the biggest nuisance around.  The father and Little Johnny decide there is only one thing to do.

At this point, my first grade son was reading the story to me and I literally had to close the book because I was so afraid of what was going to happen.  He insisted that he go on because he already had his own idea of what was going to take place.  His foreshadowing was correct, the bear was his pet and he would find a way to keep him.


The pictures in this book were realistic art and they were all in black and white.  The illustrations really complimented the text (they had my 7 year old son cracking up).  The plot had points that were conveyed through illustrations even when they weren't present in the text.

Honestly, after reading this book with my son, I don't think that it would be something I would use in my classroom, simply because I teach kindergarten.  I am a pet lover myself, and being the owner of two (indoor) Great Danes, I was in tears at the thought of what Little Johnny was going to do to this bear.  Although, you could do an activity with foreshadowing because that is exactly what my son did when I said he couldn't read the rest :).

An Introduction to Myself

Hey all!!!  I am Ashley Morgan...a wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, kindergarten teacher, and student.  Wow, that is a lot :) I am currently in my second year of teaching.  This is my first year as a kindergarten teacher; last year I taught PE.  I can honestly, without a doubt say that my kindergartners have my heart.  It is such an awesome, rewarding feeling to watch them grow academically each day.
This is actually my last class in the MAED program here at the Cumberland's.  I cannot wait to put this chapter of my life behind me.  I have enjoyed furthering my adventure as a lifelong learner, although I will say I am ready to put my focus solely on my family and career.  I do intend on pursuing my Rank I, and possibly even my doctorate in a few years, but right now I have the urge to breathe for a little while. :)
I am really looking forward to this class.  I love books...there is so much I can do with them to help enhance my students learning

Feelings, M. (1971). Moja means one. New York, NY: Dial books for young readers.
  Learning is an adventure for all students.  They get so much satisfaction from learning something new.  As a kindergarten teacher, the first several weeks of math with my students is spent on number recognition and the comparing of numbers (1-10).  I always like to make connections to real life, and one of my favorite books to use is "Ten Black Dots."  The students love this because they can make connections and they get to read a fun book.  With that said, something that I have been striving to do is use more books and to make multicultural connections during instruction time.  Upon much research, I found this fabulous book to add to next years collection.

"Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book" teaches the numbers 1-10 in the Swahili language.  The illustrations in the story depict the life of Africans.  It is a great story because it gives an introduction to the author and the Swahili language and gives some background of the African culture.

The folk art in the story is amazing; it truly gives readers a glance of the characters lifestyles.  The gray, black and white colors are used to compliment the stories setting.

This will be a book that I tie into my math instruction to make a multicultural connection.

"Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book" is a recipient of the Caldecott Honor.

Rylant, C. (1982). When i was young in the mountains. New York, NY: E.P. Dutton.
"When I was Young In The Mountains" is one of the most memorable picture books that I can recall from my adolescent years.  I remember the first time that I heard the story, in fourth grade; we were getting ready to write our personal narratives.  My teacher, Mrs. Ryan, read the story to us, and began telling us her own personal story that related so much to this amazing picture book.

The setting of this story is none other than my home, the Appalachian Mountains.  Through Rylant's story, she portrays the lives of a young boy and girl who spent lots of time with their grandparents.  The story is more of a reminiscence  from either the boy or girl, who are recalling their childhood.  They appeared to have a very loving, "country" childhood, that I, too, personally love to recall quite often.

The illustrations in this book were miraculous.  The color was soft/pale, which helped to set the cool mood for the story.  The realistic art greatly compliments the characters, setting, and plot of the story.

There are endless activities that you could do with any age-group using this story.  Personally, I would first allow my kindergarten students to sequence the story.  Following the sequencing activity, we would make our own classroom book about something that we recall doing "in the mountains."

"When I Was Young In The Mountains" was a recipient of the Caldecott Honor.