All Around Town
Last stop on Market Street by de la Pena, Matt — G.P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), 2015--E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 3.3 A young boy rides the bus across town with his grandmother and learns to appreciate the beauty in everyday things.
Rationale: Early primary grade social studies curricula often include a study of local community life. This award winning picture book fits nicely into that study because it explores the city and bus transportation.A well designed curricula is a spiraling sequential one, always expanding from the core idea as students skills and maturity grow. Library lessons, according to my philosophy, need to completely integrate into classroom lessons, supplementing and expanding what is happening in the classroom, not a stand alone isolated lesson. Never being one to do the same activity each year or do it the same way, these are a few of the content development and library and media skills I used that can be incorporated in a unit about city life and bus transportation. Here are a few ideas that I use in the library-computer lab.
After reading the Inspiration Book aloud to the class, or one of the others listed below, the following computer related activities support the community life strand of the social studies curricula. Substrands that are supported include maps, addresses, types of city housing, and city transportation.
Maps: Make a large wall size map of the school area, drawing by hand or downloading a computer map from MapQuest or GoogleMaps. If you have the capability laminate the map for future use.
Using a draw program in the computer lab, students draw the front facade of their home including a house number, print, cut out and mount at their address. If students live outside the immediate school neighborhood, mount their homes along the edge in the appropriate directions.
Take a field trip walk around the neighborhood looking for details like stop signs, fences, parks, playgrounds, stores, gas stations, house styles, street signs, hills, water, bridges, railroads, streets, etc. Provide a clipboard and sketch paper for each child on which each child sketches one item when identified. Back in the school, use the map to trace the walk--if the map is laminated, use a vis-a-vis marker. In the computer lab, have each child draw their neighborhood detail, print, cut out and mount at the spot.
Students in second and third grade often learn about community services such as specific types of stores (gas, clothing, grocery, furniture), government buildings (city hall, fire department, police station, library), recreation facilities (swimming pool, parks, skating rinks, gyms), houses of worship, Ys, etc. In the computer lab each student draws, print, trims, and mounts their service on the map.
2. Housing: In the computer, using a draw program, have students draw the facades and/or cutaways of at least three types of housing: single family, duplex, apartment, high-rise apartment, multi-use building, shelters, homeless. The concept of a cutaway may be new and require demonstration. Discussion about types of housing and lack of housing and advantages and disadvantages of types of housing in certain locations can lead from the drawings.
4. Community Service: Grandma and CJ serve a meal at a community food kitchen for less fortunate. Does your local community have a food kitchen? Do local churches or other organizations serve food to the homeless or poor? Is there a food pantry in the community? The students can organize a food drive for the pantry. Follow-up the reading of the book with a guest speaker from one of the community food services.
3. Transportation--Buses: Rural and small town students may already ride a school bus. As a homework assignment, have students look for new sights or scenes, on their bus ride, they have never noticed and do a pencil or crayon drawing to share with the class.
Likewise students who come by car or walk can do the same.
If a city bus route goes by the school, arrange a bus field trip for the class, noting sites and services. Follow the same homework procedure or complete the drawings and class discussion as part of a class.
Related Titles:
My bus by Barton, Byron — Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2014. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 0.8. A bus driver named Joe heads out on his route, stopping at one bus stop after another to pick up passengers. He picks up five dogs and five cats in all, dropping nine of them off at the plane, train, or boat. The tenth passenger, a dog, Joe takes home.
The bus is for us! by Rosen, Michael — Candlewick Press, 2015. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 0.9. In rhyming text, an exuberant cast of kids express their travel preferences while ultimately agreeing that the bus is the best ride of all because it's designed for everyone to share.
All through my town by Reidy, Jean — Bloomsbury, 2013. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 1.0. Illustrations and simple, rhyming text take the reader on a tour around town. FREE Teaching Resources available for download from Follett.
School bus by Crews, Donald — Greenwillow Books, 1984. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 1.2. Follows the progress of school buses as they take children to school and bring them home again.
Madlenka by Sis, Peter — Square Fish/Farrar, Straus, Giroux, c2000 p2010. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 1.3. Madlenka, whose New York City neighbors include the French baker, the Indian news vendor, the Italian ice-cream man, the South American grocer, and the Chinese shopkeeper, goes around the block to show her friends her loose tooth and finds that it is like taking a trip around the world.
Say hello! by Isadora, Rachel — Putnam's, 2010. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 1.6. A little girl greets people in her neighborhood in many different languages
Goggles! by Keats, Ezra Jack ( — Puffin Books, c1969 p1998. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.1. Two boys must outsmart the neighborhood bullies before they can enjoy their new treasure, a pair of lensless motorcycle goggles.
Nana in the city by Castillo, Lauren — Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014.. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.1. A young boy is frightened by how busy and noisy the city is when he goes there to visit his Nana, but she makes him a fancy red cape that keeps him from being scared as she shows him how wonderful a place it is.
Cityblock (Buildablock Die-Cut-PK) by Franceschelli, Christopher — Abrams Appleseed, an imprint of ABRAMS, 2016. Dewey: 307.76; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.2. Die-cut pages look at city life, focusing on a high-rise building, the subway, hailing a taxing, and taking the bus.
Brown Rabbit in the city by Russell, Natalie — Viking, 2010, Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.2. Brown Rabbit is excited to make his first-ever trip to the city to visit his best friend, Little Rabbit. But the visit doesn't go quite as planned. Little Rabbit is so busy making sure that they see all her favorite cafe’s, shops, and museums that she forgets the real reason for Brown Rabbit's visit'to see her! It takes a lovely garden and a sweet surprise to show them both that all the hustle and bustle of the city is worth little without a good friend to share it with.
A bus called Heaven by Graham, Bob ( — Candlewick Press, c2011 p2012. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.4. A young girl named Stella discovers an abandoned bus on the street in front of her house, and after she takes notice of the bus's hand-painted sign that says, "Heaven," and the sparrows nesting in the engine, Stella sees an opportunity to bring together her entire neighborhood. FREE Teaching Resources available for download from Follett.
In the town all year 'round by Berner, Rotraut Susanne — Chronicle Books, 2008. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.4. Illustrations and sparse text present a variety of characters going on errands and adventures around a small town throughout the seasons and asks the reader to find surprises and details.
Laundry day by Manning, Maurie — Clarion Books, 2012. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.4. A boy travels throughout his lively neighborhood, searching for the owner of a red cloth he has found.
All aboard for the Bobo Road by Davies, Stephen — Andersen Press USA, 2016. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.8. In Burkina Faso, Fatima and Galo load the luggage while their dad Big Ali drives the bus. Help count bikes, sacks of rice, melons and even goats and chickens as the bus travels past Gurunsi houses, the hippo lake, waterfalls and jungle, all the way to Bobo.
When Grandmama sings by Mitchell, Margaree King — Amistad, 2012. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 2.9. An eight-year-old girl accompanies her grandmother on a singing tour of the segregated South, both of them knowing that Grandmama's songs have the power to bring people together.
Round trip by Jonas, Ann — Greenwillow Books, 1983. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 3.0. Black-and-white illustrations and text record the sights on a day trip to the city and back home again to the country. The trip to the city is read from front to back and the return trip, from back to front, upside down.
In New York by Brown, Marc Tolon — Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. Dewey: 974.7; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 3.3. Takes readers on a tour of New York City.
Doug unplugged by Yaccarino, Dan r — Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 3.4. Doug the robot discovers that cities are much more than downloaded facts when he unplugs from the computer feed and explores one first-hand.
The silver button by Graham, Bob — Candlewick Press, 2013. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 3.7. At the same moment that Jodie's baby brother takes his first step, a city's worth of moments unfold.
City shapes by Murray, Diana — Little, Brown and Company, 2016. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3; Rd Lvl: 5.4. A young girl walks through the bustling city, while a pigeon flies above, both spotting hidden shapes at every turn.
Alphabet city by Johnson, Stephen — Viking, 1995. Dewey: 307.76; Int Lvl: K-3. Illustrations of objects in an urban setting present the letters of the alphabet.
City colors by Milich, Zoran — Kids Can Press, 2004. Dewey: 535.6; Int Lvl: K-3. A collection of photographs that introduce young readers to colors and the cities of the world.
Spot, the cat by Cole, Henry — Little Simon, 2016. Dewey: -E-; Int Lvl: K-3. In this wordless picture book, a cat named Spot ventures out an open window and through a city on a journey, while his owner tries to find him.
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