The Grandchildren of the Vikings by Matti A. Pitkanen
Synopsis: This non-fiction book is a great text for children to relate to because it is all about the lives of actual children. This book tracks voyages of Vikings from long ago. Vikings settled in places like Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Children from these different places are introduced throughout this text and one is able to see the similarities in their Viking traditions. They are all grandchildren of Vikings whose backgrounds are very similar. This book has amazing photographs of these children and landscapes of where they live, as well as maps to show where these places are located.
Determining Importance Connection: For this text I would use the strategy, "Finding Important Information Rather Than Just One Main Idea" (p 166). This is when the students mark important information in the book with sticky notes. This is probably my favorite strategy because children are challenged to constantly be thinking and comprehending what they are reading. Children can even write what they were thinking when they read the idea on the sticky note so they may discuss with their peers or teacher why they put a sticky note in that spot.
Synopsis: This is a non-fiction book about a Siberian tiger, T.J., born in a zoo in Denver, Colorado. This book is unique in that all of the pages on the right tell the story of the tiger cub, and the pages on the left show graphs, including picture graphs, circle graphs, bar graphs, and line graphs, to help tell the story of T.J. As a young cub, his mother died, which would make it hard for T.J. to get proper nutrition. He would not eat anything for a long time, but when he finally did, he grew to be a beautiful, healthy tiger.
Determining Importance Connection: For this text I would use the strategy, "Important to Whom?" (p 167). In this strategy, students find what they believe to be the most important ideas of the text. When they find a main idea in the book, they underline this sentence or paragraph. Next, the student will be able to write down what they believe the author wanted to teach them. I believe this text is a great book for this strategy because it is possible children will come up with several different main ideas. Then, this gives the opportunity for children to really discuss what they have written down and see how their responses may be similar or different from their classmates.
Ancient Egypt Revealed by Peter Chrisp
Synopsis: This book is a great non-fiction text all about ancient Egypt. It has actual pictures and transparencies of the pyramids, tombs, hieroglyphs, mummies, etc. The text gives in depth information about topics from what life was like on the Nile River in ancient Egypt, to animal gods, to mummification and what ancient Egyptians believed happened in the after life.
Determining Importance Connection: For this text I would use the strategy, "Determining What's Important When Writing Information" (p 162). Students would be able to read this text and see what good informational, non-fiction books look like. The children would choose a topic of their own they wanted to write a non-fiction book about. When writing a book like this, it is essential for the author to be an expert on the subject. This would be a great activity for students to understand the importance of becoming experts on their subject of choice.
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