My school requires a summer reading assignment for each grade level. In my 4th grade class, students read one required book and three "free choice" books from a list I provide. This year, I asked rising 4th grade students to read The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies. I do not like to dwell on the summer reading for too long at the beginning of the year, but I do want students to complete some sort of writing assessment. This year students created a fun Amazon book listing.

First, we looked at actual book listings for favorite books I had read over the summer (hint, hint... generating book recommendations for your students). We identified key features in an Amazon book page and items that seemed to be the same in every book listing.

Students discussed the differences between the book summary at the top of the listing and the book reviews at the bottom of the site page. We noted that the summaries contained more facts and less opinion, but the summaries did try to entice a reader. We also noticed how the summaries did not give away the ending or any surprise twists but created a little bit of a cliff hanger for a potential reader.

Finally, we discussed the "Frequently Bought Together" section in each Amazon listing and the purpose of that feature.

I designed an Amazon-like template and gave the students a copy. Each student completed an Amazon book listing for The Lemonade War that included the title of the book, author, a book level that the students determined like 3rd to 5th grade or 8-11 years old, year published, star rating, summary, and three additional book suggestions.

It is a simple writing activity that could be used for any novel. It incorporates many literature skills like summarizing and identifying important details and main characters. I was also able to sneak some library skills into the assignment by having students look for the year published and choose a reading level for the book. My favorite piece of the assignment is asking students to generate three additional book suggestions that would be good "next reads" to share with classmates.

To download a copy of the Amazon template (and see a few more writing activities for novel studies), CLICK HERE. To purchase a complete Lemonade War novel unit CLICK HERE.

Happy Reading!

Caitlin
TheRoomMom

The Business of Teaching Literature

My co-teacher and I have a business theme that is the backbone to our 4th grade curriculum. One piece of our academic plan is literature with a business focus. There are many book recommendations (see list below) that portray a main character who gets things going. The character might run a business, be the leader of a project, or become responsible for something significant.

This type of storyline promotes creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit. Many of these books teach students about the basics of business (profit, loss, partnership, etc.). While there is almost always a supportive adult in the story, I like the fact that these books depict children as problem-solvers without a parent or adult handing them the easy solution. 

Chapter Books

• The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies (click for novel unit)
• The Bread Winner by Arvella Whitmore (click for novel unit)
• Crunch by Leslie Connor
• The Secret School by Avi
• Lunch Money by Andrew Clements (click for novel unit)
• School Story by Andrew Clements
• Frindle by Andrew Clements (click for novel unit)
• Hotel for Dogs by Lois Duncan
• Tarantula Shoes by Tom Birdseye
• Lawn Boy and Lawn Boy Returns by Gary Paulsen
• Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary
• Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
• The Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin
• The Toothpaste Millionaire by Jean Merrill
• Ten Good and Bad Things About My Life by Ann M. Martin

Non-Fiction

• The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton
• Everyone Wears His Name: A Biography of Levi Strauss by Sondra Henry
• Model T: How Henry Ford Built a Legend by David Weitzman
• Chocolate by Hershey: A Story About Milton S. Hershey by Betty Burford
• Kidpreneurs, Young Entrepeneurs with Big Ideas by Adam Toren and Matthew Toren
• Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids by Gail Karlitz and Debbie Honig

Classroom Ideas

• Have students write a personal business plan for a company they could start at school. After reading The Lemonade War, my students wrote a business plan for a lemonade stand that we ran during student recess. We used the best ideas from all of the students business plans to create a master plan for the class that we took to our principal. 
• Do the math. In books like Lunch Money by Clements and The Bread Winner by Whitmore, students can use details in the book to calculate business costs and profits. It is fun to project how much money the characters could potentially earn in a year, two years, or five years.

• Create a business using advance orders. Film and edit a commercial to share with the school if that technology is available to you. As orders arrive, students use spreadsheets to track and sort orders by class. You can create graphs that show which grades buy the most of a product. This year, my group is selling Mason Jar Cookie Mixes. Not only did we have to record the orders, the students had a ton of recipe math to complete. Our original recipes for the mix made 2 jars. We had to calculate ingredient amounts for 267 jars of cookies mix! I even had the students track down the stores with the best prices (FYI-- Walmart for jars, white chocolate chips, and M&Ms, Costco for the other ingredients in our area).

Books with business provide such rich learning opportunities for students. It makes it so easy to incorporate many layers of skills. What are your best novel studies that give you more bang for your buck?

Happy Reading!

TheRoomMom