Little Boo and Waiting

I LOVE discovering great new children's literature! These two new titles are absolutely fabulous! Let's look first at Little Boo by Stephen Wunderli. It is a the perfect tale for a unit on fall, Halloween, plants, pumpkins, or character education. Little Boo starts off as a seed who is discouraged because he isn't scary. The wind lovingly guides him on his journey into becoming a pumpkin. Little Boo learns that sometimes we have to wait for the things we want the most. 

Here is a video that will give you a quick picture walk through the book. It will give you a good preview of the text's level and the sweet illustrations. It is available in paperback from Scholastic's book clubs this fall. 

Who doesn't love EVERYTHING that Kevin Henkes writes?!?  His newest book, Waiting, is different from his other works, but it will become a classic, too. There is limited text on each page, but much of the story must be interpreted from the illustrations. It is the tale of 5 little toys who sit on a windowsill. Each one is waiting for something different to happen. None of them anticipate meeting someone new who will change the way they view waiting. I found a wonderful interview with Kevin Henkes on his latest book and how it was inspired. You can read it {HERE}.

Waiting can be so challenging for all of us! Children can find it especially challenging. I would highly recommend reading Little Boo and Waiting to the young children in your classroom or in your life. If you do, you may like this little freebie. {HERE} is a Venn diagram for comparing and contrasting these two beautiful stories.

I just added a book study for Little Boo to my Teachers pay Teachers store. It is full of activities, a nonfiction reader, and assessments related to the text. You can check it out by clicking the picture below. 

I hope that you have found a new title or two to check out soon! Happy reading! 

Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella FREEBIE

Happy Labor Day, everyone! Do you ever feel like Cinderella? I may not be covered in ashes and soot, but I do go home from school covered in ink smudges and feeling exhausted. In honor of all of the hard work you do each day, I just uploaded a new freebie to my store.

I love all of the different versions of Cinderella stories. I have activities for most of them in my fairy tale unit that's available {HERE}.   When I wrote that unit, I had never read Cinders: A Chicken Cinderella. It is absolutely delightful! You can grab a free comprehension activity for the book {HERE}.

Jan Brett's work is masterful --as always! She used many breeds of chickens in her illustrations. She even traveled to Russia to study their architecture and traditional clothing. Jan used both of those to create a marvelous authentic setting for her chickens. 

This video from Jan Brett's YouTube channel is fantastic! She will show you the live chickens that she used as models for her characters. She explains lots of interesting facts about the chickens and her trip to Russia. If you are interested, you can also have your students follow Jan through a directed drawing of Cinders. I hope you enjoy it!