Rhyming+and+Counting+Books+-+Animal+Habitats

From “Explore Sidekicks Across the Curriculum”, I used “Are You a Reader?” from the Language Arts Project Starters for the template for my project. I also kept most of the teacher directions from Dr. Lamb’s template as they were adaptable for readers and for younger students not yet reading.  Dr. Lamb suggested non-fiction books, or a series such as Step into Reading. I found this template to have many possibilities with 2 rhyming/counting books. The first book is __Over in the Ocean In a Coral Reef__ by Marianne Berkes. (This is one of the Young Hoosier Book Award nominated books for 2008-09.) Teachers can read this book to the students, modeling the fun rhythm and showing the different animals and their actions in the ocean. They can focus on the counting, number recognition, or number words; rhyming words; reading fluency; and science facts about the ocean. My starter lists the numbers, number words and the names of the animals. [|Over in the Ocean starter.ppt]

 For my sample (completed version) of __Over in the Ocean In a Coral Reef__ I recorded the second part of the rhyme which uses an action word and the number of animals. I would have the students read this part, not the teacher. [|Over in the Ocean sample.ppt]

 The adapted version uses the book __Over in the Meadow__, by Jack Ezra Keats. There are the same possibilities for matching rhyming words, numbers and number words, animals and numbers, or animals and action words as the first sample. In this sample, the students can show or tell what they learned by moving animals to their habitat, or by writing. [|Over in the Meadow starter.ppt]

These sidekicks are intended for K-2 classes. However, I can also see a book buddy situation with 5th or 6th grade students recording, or assiting younger students to record vocabulary words or parts of the text of the story.