This post is a continuation of my discussion about using picture books to create science-themed Readers Theater scripts that can help your students meet CCSS for ELA in the Reading Informational Text #4.
Today I’ll be discussing two books that are
structured so that the reader begins and ends in the same place. These circle
stories are appropriate for Readers Theater scripts because they describe a
variety of creatures, each of which can become characters portrayed by your
students, and because they have natural choruses. (And because both books
describe relationships between living things, they can also be used to address
CCSS for ELA in the Reading Informational Text #3)
Trout
Are Made of Trees
by April Pulley Sayre (illus. by Kate Endle; Charlesbridge) has an
alluring title that most young readers will question, but as students plunge
into the food chain narrative, they will begin to understand how all the living
things in an ecosystem are interconnected. Although the text doesn’t mention
people, the fun, colorful collages brings two children into the story—notebooks
in hand.
The interconnectedness of living things is also
the theme of Frog in a Bog by John Himmelman (Charlesbridge) , which leads young readers through a chain of
natural events that occur on a typical day in a bog, beginning with a frog
hopping off a fern and landing on some moss, which causes two mosquitoes to fly
away. Simple sentences describe what is happening in the soft, colorful
watercolor art, introducing readers to a variety of plants, insects, and animals.
One event leads to another until, finally, the frog spots a cricket, catches it
and then hops onto a fern.
What’s next? More book suggestions for
Readers Theater.
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