Description of the book: This is a story about a young raccoon named Chester who doesn't want to leave home. He is not ready to transition into going to school. He wants to stay with his mom. Before going, his mother sends him off with a family secret. It is called the kissing hand. She gave him a kiss on his paw and told him to put it on his cheek whenever he started to miss her. Overall it is to ease his transition into school.

Connection to trait: Voice

This relates to the trait of voice because you can feel the emotion and meaning in the writing. You can also sense the tone of voice, it is calming and reassuring.  It has the same style of writing throughout and you can clearly take in what the author is proposing. When the author writes "But don't worry. when you open your hand and wash your food, I promise the kiss will stick." You can feel the love and sympathetic tone of voice in that statement.

Use in the classroom: This book is super easily relatable to children who are just starting school. It sometimes is a hard transition to make to leave home and start school. Leaving your parents and home, meeting new people, creating new relationships, doing school work, etc. It's difficult to settle in automatically. Creating a kiss on the hand like the raccoons do or something reassuring for the child is a way to help a child struggling. In relation to voice, it is a good mentor text to have around the classroom because you can really feel what the author is writing. An activity students can do is draw a picture of their house and family. It gives them something to look back to that they love.

Description of the book: This book is about how all animals have a specific color. It moves to tell the story about a chameleon who is lonely. The Chameleon doesn't like to change colors all the time to blend in, he'd like to just be one color. He tries to remain one color by living on a leaf. As the seasons change, the leaves change colors so he changes with them.  As the story progresses, he meets another chameleon and they decide to stick together and change colors together. 

Connection to trait: Sentence fluency

This relates to sentence fluency because this book uses short sentences. It is easy to read and makes it easy to follow.  The whole book had an impact even though it was short but sweet phrases throughout.  It still had power and no awkward word patterns that could slow the reader. When you read it aloud it flows and is fluent. 

Use in the classroom: Utilizing this book in the classroom would be sufficient because it teaches young kids about how chameleons live their lives. It is creative and colorful which will draw students attention. It is a smart way to teach them because after they read this, the teacher can explain why chameleons need to blend in with their surroundings. You can fit this in your science block. Plus, it has good sentence fluency and its a good way to introduce this trait. It is simple and sweet, a nice way to start off teaching this trait.  For an activity, students can draw what they visualize. 

Description of the book: This story is about a princess, Elizabeth, who is set to marry Prince Ronald. Unfortunately, her castle and clothes get burnt and ruined by a dragon. If it couldn't get any worse, the dragon kidnaps Prince Ronald. Elizabeth then must do what she has to do in order to save her Prince. She sets out only wearing a paper bag to follow the trail of destruction left by the dragon. She ends up tricking the dragon into following asleep and rescues the Prince. He doesn't even thank her because she isn't cleaned up. So she leaves into the sunet by herself. This story goes to show that you don't need to be a Prince to be a hero. It also shows that looks shouldn't matter, it's what's on the inside.

Connection to trait: Organization

This story greatly relates to organization because there is a structure of the piece. There is a clear start, middle, and end to the story. Though it is a children's book, so there are no true paragraphs or chapters, you can get a sense for how all the ideas piece together to create an overall story. There is chronological order. 

Use in the classroom:

This is a great story to express that beauty is only skin deep and appearances can be misleading. It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it is what you are like on the inside. I love this message because it teaches students ata young age that everyone is beautiful in their own way. In relation to organization, it is a good model of a fictional story. Students can refer to it in creating stories that utilize a beginning, middle, and end. An activity to do with this is to draw a story about something they love. They can add in little phrases to express what is happening in the story.

Description of the book: The book is about adjectives. Words like hairy, scary, and ordinary are adjectives. They go through all the adjectives about how they describe, they tell them things, and  tell them more.

Connection to trait: Conventions

To connect this to the trait of Conventions, there is correct usage of capitalization and grammar. It is a great way to teach students adjectives in a fun, simple, but effective way. The layout of the text is fun and pleasing to a child's eye. It makes them want to learn more and turn back to this to help them determine what adjectives are.

Use in the classroom:

This is a perfect book to use in the classroom when discussing adjectives, nouns, and verbs. It is a text to keep in your library so students can reference it when need be. It has so many different adjectives within the book, along with pictures to go along with them. Having pictures with the words makes it easier for students to connect them. This will stick in their brains and help with future work as they progress. An activity to pair with this is to draw a picture of yourself and the traits that come with it. Expressing what personality traits you have which portray adjectives.

Description of the book: This story is about a boy named Jerome, who has a special collection. That being words. He collected words he read, heard, saw, etc. He notes them wherever he finds them by writing them down, paste them in scrapbooks, organizes them by category, pairs them, and uses them in poems and songs.  He empties his entire bag of words at the end to share his thoughts and feelings with the world. He watched all the children below collect his words from the breeze.

Connection to trait: Word Choice

This is directly related to word choice since it capitalizes and bolds words in the book that are difficult and new. It talks about short and sweet words, two-syllable, and multi-syllable words. I love that on the pages of the book, the words are on a yellow piece of paper, so kids can really see what belongs in each category. Kids can relate to the book if they love reading and writing and it gives them ideas on how to track words when they learn them.

Use in the classroom:

This is helpful to use as a mentor text in the classroom because it highlights the tougher words and gives students something to look back on.  It makes students question and wonder what these words may mean. Creates a spark in their brains and has them wanting to learn more.  Also having this mentor text around the classroom, in the library, gives students something to look back on and refer to.  An activity with this is to write single words in relation to nouns, adjectives, and verbs on a sheet on paper. Then they can cut them out and make a scrapbook with it.

Description of the book: At the beginning of the book, the teacher reveals to the class that the US has never had a female president. Grace decides to be the first. She begins by starting her career in the school's mock election, but soon realizes that she has entered a difficult race. Her opponents claim to be the best suited for the job and while Grace focuses on just being the best person. The girls stuck by grace during this while the boys supported Thomas, the other cainidate. In the end, she won the election with 270 electoral votes. 

Connection to trait: Ideas and Presentation 

This text uses idea well because there is a clear meaning and development of the message. Grace is trying to run for president in the mock election. It also uses presentation well because the visual make up of the text is spectacular. There are words that are highlighted, different font sizes, colored, etc. It makes the words stand out from the rest. It lets the reader know that these are important words. 

Use in the classroom:

This text is awesome to use in the classroom for a few reasons. One being the presentation is appealing to the eye. It makes the book interesting and wants you to turn the page to see what happens next. Also the message it is portraying grabs your attention. Will Grace win the election? It makes a powerful statement that girls can participate in anything they dream of. It brings the dream into the classroom and makes girls want to achieve their goals and aspirations like Grace did. Don't let anyone stop you is the message I would want to be released to my students. An activity to do with this is would be to draw what their goal an aspiriation is in life. Something they are working towards.