Books for Future K-6 Students

Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak is a level J on the Fountas and Pinnell reading level scale. Where the Wild Things Are is a book about a boy named Max who is a little too wild. He gets sent to his room without dinner, but instead once he got to his room he set out on a journey to a far away land where the wild things are. He became king of the wild things, but decided that he missed being at home so he sailed back to find dinner waiting for him. This book is wonderful to help spark your students inner wild side. You can have them create their own wild thing, and they can draw a self portrait for the face. 

A Light in the Attic is a level R on the Fountas and Pinnell leveling system. A Light in the Attic is a collection of children's poems that range over many topics. This book has had a lot of controversy because some poems encourage disobedience, one poem describes the death of a girl due to her parents' refusal to give her a pony, and certain poems mentioning supernatural themes. In my opinion, I think this book, and all Shel Silverstein books, are great for the classroom and for students. Growing up, I was a struggling reader, and these poems gave me the confidence to read because the pages were short, with pictures, and were silly. In my future classroom, I would love to have this book for reading and language arts centers, to warm my students up for reading small groups, and for the struggling readers in the class to help boost their confidence just like it boosted mine.

The Tale of Despereaux is a level U in the Fountas and Pinnell reading level scale.The Tale of Despereaux is about a mouse named Despereaux Tilling. He sets out on an adventure to save a HUMAN princess named Pea from the rats. The book is split into four separate "books", and each book takes place in a different character's point of view. I remember reading this book when I was in 5th grade as a shared reading, and I remember enjoying it. However, it was not the most memorable book for me personally. What you could do in the classroom (maybe) is have this as a literature circle book and give different groups different "books" in the Tale of Despereaux. Once everyone has met with their literacy circle groups, one role could be the Shimmery Sharer and they could share what happened from that character's point of view and what they came up with in their literacy group. Other than that, I would like to have it in the classroom as a free reading book for my students.

Frindle is a level R by the Fountas and Pinnell leveling system. Frindle is about a boy named Nicholas Allen who is a bit of a troublemaker. However, in fifth grade it seems like those days are over. In Mrs. Granger's classroom nobody can get away with anything, and she is overzealous about the dictionary which to Nick is boring. However, Nick finds out where words come from and hatches a new plan, to create a new word. He changes the name of a pen to the frindle. This book is great to bring student's creative side out, and have them brainstorming about vocabulary. A lesson I would like to do with this book would be to get student's to create their own words and a definition for them. The students would also have to draw a picture that goes along with their created word.