The Medieval World

Medieval worlds haven't ceased to tickle the imagination, especially Medieval-esque worlds, like Frozen. Here are some of my favourite medieval "worlds."

Midnight Magic

AVI


I must have picked this up as a young student because I was looking for a romance, but the story is certainly more of a mystery. If you know AVI, you know that his endings always beg a longer conclusion, but his stories are so engaging that it almost doesn't matter.

Reading Level: G. 5 and up

Knight at Dawn

Mary Pope-Osborne

The Magic Tree House series has continued to be immensely popular among emerging readers for obvious reasons.

First, the writing style. Mary Pope-Osborne keeps short sentences and reduces the text on the page. She asks questions first and answers them later.

Second, the content: who wouldn't be intrigued by finding a secret tree house that opens doors to other worlds? There are so many imaginative possibilities here.

Third: there is a larger story that binds all the smaller stories together that gets kids hooked on reading them all.

Reading Level: G. 3 and under

Ella Enchanted

Gail Carson Levine


 This classic that was made into a movie is considerably less popular today than it has been, but it's still a great read and wow, Newberry Honor!

Gail Carson Levine has a quick, easy way of writing that lets you enter the story fairly quickly. The characters are mostly predictable, but if you have a student looking for a romance, this is a great story.

Reading Level G. 4 and up










If we want a rendition of Cinderella, my personal favourite is....




Just Ella

Margaret Peterson Haddix

Definitely this is a more mature version of the story, but there is nothing in the book that is innapropriate for younger readers. Margaret Peterson Haddix weaves a convincing, compelling, and very convincing story that leads you on a more emotional ride than Levine's Ella Enchanted. I think for this reason, that it has more "adult sentimentality" that I give it an older rating.

Haddix is also just a brilliant writer!

Reading Level G. 7 and up

Ancient Civilizations

Did you ever wish as a child that you could travel back in time to Ancient Egypt or Greece?

Children's imaginations today still sparkle when you tell them about how Egyptians were mummified, Roman gladiators fought, and Greek temples were built. And there is so much more to tell about the ancient world: samurai warriors in Japan, forbidden silk secrets in China, and the haunting empire of the Aztecs.

Here's some great books for 10-12 year olds that read like a story book--with a quick pace, dialogue and even great pictures:

This is such a fun and intriguing way to learn about the Aztecs. It's extremely informative, but also riveting at the
same time! The students were really into it as I read the excerpt. The book in length is like a short novel, but there are
a number of photos and artful renditions of events.
By Shelley Tanaka

Follow the events of this great historical disaster with a young
boy named Eros. Real photos of artifacts are also shown.
By Shelley Tanaka

"The room is dark, even though it is early
afternoon. Heavy curtains have been
pulled across the tall windows, blocking
out light and noise from the busy city
street outside...The guests are waiting,
their voices hushed."
Excerpt from book, by Shelley Tanaka 

This series follows two modern characters as they
get lost in different historical periods!
By Linda Bailey

 

Reading for Science: Space

I am a firm believer that the primary purpose of library time should be about expanding the imagination, not teaching information. However, I am a big lover of learning.

So here's my compromise:

"The library is a place for love of reading and independent learning."

Let's face it, the library is the only unstructured learning environment in the school!


Even so, it's still not usually very interesting to read a non-fiction book out loud to classes. Better, I will read through the non-fiction text on my own, and then give the students a guided reading, speaking ad-lib about the subject and pointing out the pretty pictures.

My theme of the week is accompanied by a display table with a number of topical books, non-fiction and fiction. It's not enough to leave the books there. I find the most effective way of encouraging children to try new books is to take the first step myself . So I give a short phrase about a few of the books, and then open some up (some kids are hesitant to do this!) I find this introduction is enough of a hook to have a few kids crowding around the table to check the books out for themselves.


Read-alouds should be either interesting, or fun, or both. Even a simple, easy-to-read book like, "Going Around the Sun: Some Planetary Fun" is enough of an appetizer to get some students interested about bringing a book home about space.

This book by Marianne Berkes and illustrated by Janeen Mason gives some information, but the rhyming made it a great favourite with my kindergarten and Gr. 1 classes. The kids enjoyed counting along with me too as we named each planet.

Here's an example of a page from the book:

 

Great Books for Literacy Week

There are some fun grammar books like "To Root, to Toot, to Parachute" by Brian P. Cleary that reads like a fun rhyming story.

Students can read the book to each other and then make up a list of verbs on their own.

One activity you can do is set up stations with one of these books at each table: verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns.

In small groups, the students move from one table to the next, reading the book and then making a list.

The students have 5 minutes at each table, and its a competition to see which group can come up with the greatest list of words at each table.

I had a Gr. 5/6 class that really enjoyed this activity!

My Gr. 1/2 class were surprised when I read them this book by Jo Ellen Bogart:

Not very many students know that there are people in the world who cannot read or have not gone to school. "Jeremiah Learns to Read" was very eye-opening for them.

Here is a more modern version of "Jeremiah Learns to Read." What a great way to open children's minds to situations in our world today:

This book can be bought through Scholastic!
















 

Transitioning to Chapters

It's so necessary to find great transitioning books that will help readers move from burgeoning to blossoming. Here are two books that I am currently reading to my 3/4 classes.

Time Warp Trio

Jon Scieszka

Funny, short chapters, great characters, teaches about history.

These books make great read-alouds as well!

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Roald Dahl

The students can't get enough of the cliff-hangers at the end of each chapter. This is great read-aloud material as well.