This week I decided to read One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by David Small. Since the book won a Caldecott Honor Award last year, it connected with our topic last week which was award winning books. In addition, our character education word this month at our school is manners and the character in this book is a very polite young man named Elliot. We talked about magic words (please and thank you), but that actions were even more important. David Small won another Caldecott award for his book “So You Want to be President” which just so happens to connect with President’s Day coming up next Monday.
While reading the story, I pointed out several times, the magic words that Elliott used . When we were introduced to Ferdinand Magellan and Captain Cook, I talked about how they were famous explorers. Later in the story, Elliott’s father was reading an atlas and we stopped and talked about what an atlas was and how you could use it like a maze to figure out different ways to get somewhere. After finishing the story, I talked about biographies and showed them some biographies about explorers and presidents and where to find them in the library. I, of course, had several on display in the library near where they are located.
Extension Activities – Read online Starfall’s nonfiction book Penguin, Penguin and watch Brainpop’s video about Penguins (subscription required)
Take a Reading Road Trip 