Theme scheme

Teaching Pre K-8, May 2001 by Hurst, Carol Otis, Otis, Rebecca

Keep students- and thier fmailies-reading and sharing over the summer with these books for children and adults, grouped by theme

The family that reads together has more fun, talks more and, of course, reads more. Here we have a season's worth of books to read, but there's a twist to our list. We've suggested a picture book, a book for older kids and a book for adults about each of 30 topics, the first five of which we're presenting here. You'll find 15 more at www.TeachingK-8.com then 10 more in the September and October 2001 issues. The hope is that, this summer, each member of the family will read on his or her level, share the knowledge gained and then participate in some activities together based on the reading.

After you've read the books that are appropriate for your level, talk about the different feelings and observations the various readers have taken from their selections. Read the picture book together and point out the details that have meaning for you.

Here are five themes to get your students and their families hooked on our reading scheme. If they beg for more summer reading, direct them to www.Teachingk-8.com and if that's not enough for them, we'll see you in September!

1 ART MASTERPIECES

PICTURE BOOK: Weitzman, Jacqueline Preiss. You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum. Dial, 1998, ISBN 0-8037-2301-6. This delightful wordless romp through the museum has parallel plots.We follow a grandmother and child through the museum while simultaneously watching the travels of the child's balloon as it is chased through the city. Each experience is echoed by the other in intricate and intriguing ways.

UPPER GRADES: Konigsburg, E. L. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Simon & Schuster 1987 ISBN 0-689- &- Schuster, -198-7, 71181-6. Claudia decides to run away from home. Her reasons are unclear but her plans are not. She will hide out in the! Metropolitan Museum and she will bring her younger brother along because he has some money. Soon after taking up residence, the children become involved in solving the mystery of the artist who created a statue. He may or may not be Michelangelo.

ADULT: Zuffi, Stefano. Michelangelo: The Sistine Chapel Rizzoli, 2000, ISBN 0847-82310-5. This is one of a series of books detailing the life and one work of the masters. There are 16 fold-out pages opening up into poster-sized reproductions of the master's work on the Vatican chapel.

POSSIBLE ACTIVIIES: Go through some art books together, pointing out art that appeals to you. Can you explain why it does or does not? Visit an art museum together and spend some time with one or two particular paintings. Talk about what you see and feel.

Browse the Internet for works of art to examine together. Go to http://members.nbci.com/Eiman/ and have fun with some of the art activities there.

Choose an art medium and explore it together Order an art print to stick on the refrigerator. 2 TOPIC: ECCENTRICS

PICTURE BOOK: Lester, Helen. Tacky the Penguin. Houghton Mifflin, 1988, ISBN 0-395-56233-3.

This engaging fable makes a humorous plea for tolerance toward those who march to a different drummer.

UPPER GRADES: Peck, Richard A Long Way From Chicago. Dial, 2000, ISBN 0-1413-0352-2. This is a funny, touching book about Grandma Dowdel, a woman with her own sense of justice and no qualms about how to achieve it.

ADULT: Mallon, Thomas. Tv Moom. Pantheon, 2000, ISBN 0-37540025-7. This charming novel is set in 1870s Washington, D.C. and gives us several wonderful eccentrics, including Cynthia May, a clerk typist in the Interior Department who longs to become a computer (human, of course) at the Naval Observatory.

POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES: Describe the most outlandish thing you've ever done.

Go through photograph albums to find relatives and friends who behave eccentrically

Have a party during which each guest wears or does something unexpected.

What is it about each person you know that makes them predictable? What about them that makes them different?

3 TOPIC: FEARS

PICTURE BOOK: Waber, Bernard. Ira Sleeps Over. Houghton Mifflin, 1975, ISBN 0-395-20503-4. Ira's going to spend the night at a friend's house, but he's afraid to sleep without his teddy bear and he's afraid his friend will make fun of him.

UPPER GRADES: Hamilton, Virginia. Willie Bea and the Time the Martians Landed. Morrow, 1983, ISBN 0-688-02390-8. This novel revolves around Orson Welles' radio broadcast of 1938, in which a drama told of the landing of Martians in America. This rural African-American family reacts in a funny and touching novel.

ADULT: Spoto, Donald. The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock. Da Capo Press, 1999, ISBN 0-306-80932-X. This is al biography of the man who was perhaps best at creating fear in his viewing audience. The author uses Hitchcock's films as his memoirs.

POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES: Interview people in your family and neighborhood about their fears.

Are any adults afraid of the dark? How many of the fears of childhood are shared by some adults? Brainstorm a list of approaches to handling fear. How many are possible for you to use? Each member of the group should choose something he or she is a tiny bit afraid of and help each other conquer the fear.