Weekly Book Series: Spring
Spring has sprung! We’re a little late to the party so we added an extra Spring book for the week. Check them out below!
Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring by Kenard Park
From the publisher:
As days stretch longer, animals creep out from their warm dens, and green begins to grow again, everyone knows—spring is on its way!
Join a boy and his dog as they explore nature and take a stroll through the countryside, greeting all the signs of the coming season. In a series of conversations with everything from the melting brook to chirping birds, they say goodbye to winter and welcome the lushness of spring.
Frequent speech sounds in the book include:
initial /h/ (e.g., hello)
medial /l/ (e.g., hello)
s-blends (e.g., spring)
“ing” final (e.g., spring)
initial /w/ (e.g., winter)
final “er” (e.g., winter)
Key language concepts in the book include:
Sequencing: order of the creatures or parts of nature that the boy greets
Vocabulary: drift, sycamore, husky, huddle, ceiling, sweeps, slender, draped, brook, banks, shudder, lash, striking, dawn, illuminate, thaw, meadow
Figurative Language: personification, metaphor, simile
Grammar: adjectives, prepositional phrases
Text Features: repetitive text, change in font color
Compare/Contrast: how things look, feel, sound, smell, etc. in winter vs. spring
Inferencing: make some guesses - Where is the boy going?, How does it feel outside?, etc.
Real-Life Connection: Go on a walk and find the signs of saying goodbye to Winter and hello to Spring.
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner
From the publisher:
Explore the secret realm beneath the dirt that brings the world of nature to life: Follow a young girl and her grandmother on a journey through the year planning, planting, and harvesting their garden—and learn about what's happening in the dirt to help make it all happen.
Up in the garden, the world is full of green—leaves and sprouts, growing vegetables, ripening fruit. But down in the dirt exists a busy world—earthworms dig, snakes hunt, skunks burrow—populated by all the creatures that make a garden their home.
Frequent speech sounds in the book include:
initial /g/ (e.g., garden)
medial /d/ (e.g., garden)
medial “ar” (e.g., garden)
initial /d/ (e.g., down, dirt)
medial “er” (e.g., dirt)
initial “th” (e.g., the)
Key language concepts in the book include:
Sequencing: order of how things change through the seasons
Vocabulary: garden, seeds, earthworms, insects, soil, brittle, stalks, weeds, squabble, compost, armor, furrow, snuggle, sprout, pollen, tunnel, aphids, scrumptious, harvesting, orb, litter, frantic, burrow, autumn, tremble, ripe, hunkered, biding, bare, blanketing
Figurative Language: personification, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia
Grammar: adjectives, present tense and action verbs
Text Features: repetitive text, italics, ellipsis, exclamation and question marks, change in font size and features, all capitalization
Compare/Contrast: what can be found up in the garden vs. down in the dirt
Phonological Awareness: alliteration
Real-Life Connection: See what you can find by digging down in the dirt and planting your own garden.
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