Basketball Belles

Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women's Hoops on the Map

By Sue Macy

Grades 2-6

The first line of this book says it all, "Nobody can ever accuse me of being a girly-girl." Hand this book to your girls who are tough athletes, the ones who wouldn't be caught dead reading Fancy Nancy. Basketball Belles tells about the first ever women's college basketball game that just happens to be between Berkeley and Stanford University (my husband's Alma Mater). These feisty women were breaking barriers and having a great time doing it!

GUYKU: A Year of Haiku for Boys

GUYKU: A Year of Haiku for Boys By Bob Raczka

Grades 1 and up

I just die for this book. Seriously. It's not just haiku for boys, it's haiku for kids, for grownups who still wish they were kids, for absolutely anyone who was ever a kid, ie everyone. It's divided into seasons and I have to share a few of my absolute faves.

I watch the worms squirm

and decide to bait my hook

with hot dog instead

Mosquito lands on

my cheek. I try to slap her,

but I just slap me.

Hey, who turned off all

the crickets? I'm not ready

for summer to end.

How many million

flakes will it take to make a 

snow day tomorrow?

Lesson Seed: This book begs to be read aloud and then turned into a class book of haiku poems, either season based or not. Just have fun with it and get those kids writing poetry. Bob Raczka explains a little about Haiku and why he wrote the book on the last page.

BookSpeak!

BookSpeak! Poems about Books By Laura Purdie Salas

Grades 2 and up

 

I can't imagine any library not owning this ode to books. Actually, I can't imagine any parent who loves books and reading not having this in their home to share with their children! It's just that awesome. Use this in your classroom to demonstrate the many different poetry formats. Salas uses acrostic poems, free form, speech bubbles, rhyming poems and not rhyming poems, both long and short. My favorite is the one titled Vacation Time! It's written from the book's perspective about all the different places it gets to travel when it's checked out of the library.

Dear Hot Dog

Dear Hot Dog By Mordicai Gerstein

Grades 1-5

Wonderful poems about the simple everyday things: toes, shoes, kites, crayons, etc. I think that's what so special about poems, they show us the beauty in things we might not have ever noticed before.

Discussion Seed: Read some of the poems that don't mention the object they are about and have your students guess as they listen to the poetic descriptions.

Dad and Pop

Dad and Pop: An Ode to Fathers and Stepfathers By Kelly Bennett

Ages 4-8

Going through a remarriage and have young kids? This book is a great way to broach the topic of having two fathers who can be very different, but have one important thing in common, loving their child/step-child.

Up Down and Around

Up, Down and Around By Katherine Ayres

Ages 3-6

Get your kids out in the garden with this book..or at least to the farmer's market! Such a bright, fun book that shows vegetables that grow up (like corn), down (like carrots) and around (like pumpkins). I think it's fabulous to show kids where our food comes from and reading about healthy foods might even make them more likely to try something new.

More

More By I.C. Springman

Ages 3-8

This intricately illustrated picture book is sparse in words. It sends a message about consumerism without ever mentioning the environment or shopping or buying. It shows a bird gathering more and more things for the tree in which it lives until it is ENOUGH and then TOO MUCH! It starts to give away things until is goes back to being just right. Interesting and unique book.

Discussion seed: When does it become too much? What can we do when we have more than enough? Charity? Sharing? Being thankful for what we have and not always wanting more...