Five Ugly Monsters

Author: - Tedd Arnold

Title: - Five Ugly Monsters

Illustrator: - Tedd Arnold

Publisher: - Scholastic Inc.

Year: - 1995

Format: - Hard Cover

Genre: - Counting Book

Reading Level: - Kindergarten, Very Early Elementary

Interest Level: - Assisted Reader

Topics: - Monsters, Counting

Summary: - This book is the classic story of the Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, but with a twist. Instead of being monkeys jumping, it's monsters. Its an easy book for children to follow along with because of the repitition, and the rhyming makes it fun.

Extension Activities: - This would be a perfect book to use a visual activity so that the children can follow along easily. Using five monster finger puppets would work very well because every time you read the next verse you could take away one puppet. This would also make a good book to read around Halloween because after reading the book, each child could make a monster of their own.

Shrinking Days, Frosty Nights: Poems about Fall

Author: -Laura Purdie Salas

Title: - Shrinking Days, Frosty Nights: Poems about Fall

Illustrator: - none

Publisher: - Capstone Press

Year: - 2008

Format: - Hard Cover

Genre: - Poetry

Reading Level: - Elementary: Second, Third, Fourth

Interest Level: - Individual

Topics: - Fall, Weather, Halloween, Back to School

Summary: - This book has many short poems about fall. Mostly the poems are about things you would see during this season such as apples, scarecrows, pumpkins, and school buses.

Extension Activities: - One activity is to bring the kids outside in the fall and ask them to write a poem about something they see. You could also ask them what their favorite part about fall is and have them write a poem on that. Something to do as a class is to go outside and play in the leaves, bring them back in to drink warm apple cider, and have every student create a leaf out of construction paper to put up around the room.