- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Ancient Asia
[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades (K-3) Cat and Rat: The Legend of the Chinese Zodiac-Young (3.3/0.5) Day of the Dragon King-Osborne (3.3/1) The Empress and the Silkworm-Hong (4.4/0.5) The Emperor’s Army: A Mathematical Adventure-Pilegard (5.4/0.5) The Emperor’s Painting: A Story of Ancient China-Gunderson (3.8/0.5) Fa Mulan-San Souci (4.8/0.5) The Jade Dragon: A Story of Ancient China-Gunderson (3.2/0.5) The Long Silk Strand-Williams (4.1/0.5) (Japan) Piecing Earth and Sky Together: A Creation Story from the Mien Tribe of Laos-Day (2.8/0.5) The Silk Princess-Santore (5.5/0.5) Stranger on the Silk Road: A Story of…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: WWII Aftermath
[This is a subtopic of World War II and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] The Aftermath Lower Grades (K-3) Boxes for Katje-Fleming (3.5/0.5) The Gift: A Hanukkah Story-Brodmann (4.3/0.5) Middle Grades (4-8) Alan and Naomi-Levoy (3.3/5) Journey Home-Uchida (5.3/4) Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift’s “Chocolate Pilot”-Tunnell(7.2/2) Nonfiction Candy Bombers-Elmer (4.7/5) Chasing the Wind-Elmer (4.7/7) Lost in America-Sachs (4.5/4) Miracles on Maple Hill-Sorenson (4..9/7) When the Sergeant Came Marching Home-Lemna (5.4/8) Annie’s War-Sullivan (4.7/5) The Bear Makers-Cheng (3.3/4) Escape to Freedom-Kasper (4.4/7) Far From the Storm-Elmer (4.5/7) Forget-Me-Not-Haworth (5.3/7) The…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: WWII Home Front
[This is a subtopic of World War II and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Setting/Home Fronts/Occupied Land Lower Grades (K-3) Across the Blue Pacific: A World War II Story-Borden (4.6/0.5) All Those Secrets of the World-Yolen (3.5/0.5) Anna’s Goat-Keefer (4.4/0.5) Children of the World War II Home Front-Whitman (5.3/0.5) Coming on Home Soon-Woodson (2.9/0.5) Ellen: The Waiting Time-Harris (4.7/2) Far from Home-Wishinsky (3.6/1) Flags-Trottier (3.4/0.5) How I Learned Geography-Shulevitz (4.4/0.5) Just Like New-Manson (4.8/0.5) Lily’s Victory Garden-Wilbur (5.4/0.5) The Lion and the Unicorn-Hughes (4.1/1) Lisette’s Angel-Littlesugar (3.1/0.5) Love You, Soldier-Hest (3.4/1) Mama…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: WWII Holocaust and Minorities
[This is a subtopic of World War II and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here. For photos of my visit to Dachau Concentration Camp, click here.] Holocaust/Minorities/Concentration and Internment Camps Lower Grades (K-3) Anne Frank-Brown (3.4/0.5) Nonfiction Anne Frank-Davidson (4.6/1) Nonfiction Anne Frank: Voice of Hope-Woronoff (4.2/0.5) Nonfiction Baseball Saved Us-Mochizuki (3.9/0.5) The Bracelet-Uchida (4.0/.5) By the Hanukkah Light-Oberman (3.4/0.5) Home of the Brave-Say (2.8/0.5) Honey Cake-Stuchner (4.0/1) I Will Come Back for You: A Family in Hiding During World War II-Russo (3.6/0.5) Let the Celebrations Begin!-Wild (3.7/.5) The Lily Cupboard-Oppenheim (2.9/0.5) A…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Pre-World War II
[This is a subtopic of World War II and also part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Middle Grades (4-8) Ashes-Lasky (5.2/10) Breathing Room-Hayles (5.3/5) Chicken Foot Farm-Estevis (5.1/6) Darkness-Schraff (4.4/3) Don’t Talk to Me About the War-Adler (3.8/6) The Devil In Vienna-Orgel (4.4/8) Echo-Ryan (4.9/13) I Should Worry, I Should Care-Chaikin (3.7/3) Listen for the Singing-Little (4.7/8) Something Remains-Barth-Grozinger (6.3/17) Middle Grades+ (6+) A Brief History of Montmaray-Cooper (6.5/12) Daniel Half Human: And the Good Nazi-Chotjewitz (5.0/9) The FitzOsbornes at War-Cooper (6.7/22) The FitzOsbornes in Exile-Cooper (6.6/18) My Family for the War-Voorhoeve (6.2/17) Upper…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: World War II
[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Pre-War Holocaust and Minorities Home Front Aftermath Soldiers/Battles/Leaders/Resistance Movements/Spies Lower Grades (K-3) The Bicycle Man-Say (3.8/0.5) The Butterfly-Polacco (3.8/0.5) Shoes for Amelie-Steiner (3.1/0.5) Tail-End Charlie-Manning (3.8/0.5) (more suitable for 2nd or 3rd grade) The Tuskegee Airmen Story-Homan (4.2/0.5) The Unbreakable Code-Hunter (4.2/0.5) War Dogs: Churchill& Rufus-Selbert (5.3/0.5) Wind Flyers-Johnson (2.9/0.5) The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark-Deedy (3.7/0.5) Middle Grades (4-8) Aloha Means Come Back: The Story of a World War II Girl-Hoobler (4.1/1) The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips-Morpurgo…
- 3-5 Year Old, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Preschool, Teaching, the Give Way, Tot School, Unit Study
Tot School: Intro to Shapes
Some find the idea of planning activities for two year olds crazy. But as a former teacher, I can rarely go a day without planning in my head. It used to be U.S. History that I saw everywhere (Pool noodles on sale? Those would make great bayonets for a Civil War battle! Controversial Dixie Chicks song? Perfect for our freedom of speech discussion!). Now that I’m a parent of a toddler, it’s a little different (Extra coffee beans? just the thing for the brown sensory bin! Worn out frying pan? Put it in the yard for the future mud kitchen!) It’s what we teachers do. I can’t not plan.…
- Adult Education, Book Reviews, Classroom Management, English, Healthy Living, History/Social Science, Life, the Give Way, Parenting, the Give Way, Teaching, the Give Way
Book Recommendations
In an effort to share information, I thought I’d put together a list of books that have been very helpful to me as a person, teacher and parent. I’ve written reviews of some of them, so you can link to those below, or head over to Amazon to find out more. Teaching The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher by Wong (The main point: procedure, procedure, procedure — the best and most effective teaching tool (I think it’s effective as a parent as well). He gives other info, but that was my huge take away, and it made my classroom function 100 times better.) Help Your Preschooler Build…
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Soft-Spoken Parenting
I like reading. In fact, one of my favorite past times (pre-parenting days), was to go to the bookstore, get a drink (or a donut, if we’re being honest 😉 ) and head straight to the parenting/education section. I’d find a book I liked and sit and read for a couple hours. If it was really good, I’d stay until I was done. (Sorry, Borders — I guess I was one of those people who helped contribute to your demise…but I did buy a lot of donuts from you. 🙂 ) With all the reading I did, I absorbed a lot, became a better teacher, and also learned about things…
- 3-5 Year Old, Curricula, English, Interest Led Homeschool, Math, Preschool, Science, Social Activities, Teaching, the Give Way, Theme, Tot School, Unit Study
Tot School
“Tot school” is a term someone coined for doing activities with a toddler. I’d never heard it before having a toddler, but it’s real. My favorite site — and inspiration for a lot of what I do — is 1+1+1=1. They have a fantastic amount of information about this kind of thing. Many parents will say that there’s no need for “tot school” since they never did it with their child. But really they did — they just never used the term. Every time a parent does something that helps their young child learn (talking to them, letting them help cook, etc.), that could be called “tot school.” The difference…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: Ancient India
[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades (K-3) The Elephant Dancer: A Story of Ancient India-Gunderson (2.9/0.5) The Horse on the Hill: A Story of Ancient India–Gunderson (3.2/0.5) The Little Brown Jay: A Tale from India-Claire (3.4/0.5) The King’s Warrior: A Story of Ancient India–Gunderson (3.1/0.5) One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale-Demi (4.6/0.5) The Servant and the Water Princess: A Story of Ancient India-Gunderson (3.0/0.5) The Token Gift-McKibbon (4.9/0.5) Middle Grades (4-8) The Iron Ring-Alexander (4.8/10) In Defense of the Realm-Deshpande (4.6/2) (graphic novel) The Rajah’s Rice-Barry (5.0/0.5) Middle Grade + (6+)…
- 12-14 Year Old, 15-18 Year Old, 3-5 Year Old, 6-8 Year Old, 9-11 Year Old, Book Focus, English, Historical Fiction Book Lists, History/Social Science, Interest Led Homeschool, Teaching, the Give Way
Historical Fiction: India (1 CE to Present)
[Part of an ongoing series of historical fiction book lists for students and teachers. For the full list and to see more info, click here.] Lower Grades (K-3) Aani and the Tree Huggers-Atkins (3.3/0.5) Becka Goes to India-Wendel (2.7/0.5) The Birdman-Charles (4.7/0.5) Chachaji’s Cup-Krishnaswami (3.5/0.5) The Cherry Tree-Bond (3.9/0.5) A Crazy Day with Cobras-Osborne (4.0/2) Divali Rose-Rahaman (3.4/0.5) Fine Feathered Friend-Gavin (4.7/1) Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-ji – Zia (3.0/0.5) Incredible India-Thompson (4.0/0.5) Monsoon-Krishnaswami (3.4/0.5) Monsoon Afternoon-Sheth (3.7/0.5) The Reluctant Rajput-Moverley (3.6/0.5) The Sanyasin’s First Day-Shank (4.9/0.5) When I Met the Wolf Girls-Noyes (4.6/0.5) Middle Grades (4-8) Anni’s India Diary-Axworthy (4.9/0.5) Binya’s Blue Umbrella-Bond (5.1/1) The Blood Stone-Gavin (6.1/14) Boys Without Names-Sheth…
