Osborne, W. and M. (2003). Twisters and Other Terrible Storms. Random House.
One of THE most popular series of chapter books in my second grade classroom year after year is the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. This fantasy series is enjoyed by children for their fast pace, familiar characters, and fantastic adventures back in time. Teachers like them for the way the children are engaged in devouring book after book, and by the way the fantasy element combines to draw in historical facts about the particular place and time the characters are traveling back to explore. I share a particular one aloud with my students, Day of the Dragon King because the two main characters, Jack and Annie, travel back to Ancient China, and explore time period things such as the way people are dressed, how reading on bamboo scrolls was endangered, the famous Terra Cotta soldiers (accidentally) and have a run in with the emperor Ch’in (aka “The Dragon King.”) If the fire for this series isn't already lit in one of my students, there curiosity is certainly peaked after this read aloud!
Osborne added to the series by creating companion non-fiction guides, each one themed to compliment one of her fiction offerings. The current regular series of books stands at 28, with 15 of them having a corresponding research guide full of facts to further children’s understandings of the history encountered in the fantasy adventure. Some of the research guides highlight the history of the fiction book, such as Mummies and Pyramids to compliment Mummies in the Morning, and some highlight the science aspect of the particular book, such as the one that I am reviewing that I had not yet read entitled Twisters and Other Terrible Storms, which goes along with Twisters on Tuesday. Some of the fiction books are mostly focused on a historical time period, whereas some take place in the past, like Twisters on Tuesdays does, which is during the 1870s, but an element of science is also a part of the story, and thus lends itself to be the focus of the accompanying research guide.
Again, these research guides are a favorite of my classroom library by me as the teacher for several reasons. They are great to use with a guided reading group or a whole class modeling think aloud about how to read non-fiction and how to use the supportive elements such as a table of contents, index, diagrams, and photos. We can also relate what is fact and what is fiction in the story (think also Magic School Bus stories.) I plan on sharing this book with my class as a non-fiction read aloud starting this week, to correspond to our study of weather during our Roots and Shoots gardening program. Students use their listening and visualizing skills, as well as prior knowledge of what things look like in real life and in photos in true books, and can connect to the fiction Twisters story if they have personally read that selection. Some features that I especially like about this particular research guide is:
-the listing and diagrams of weather tools
-important vocabulary written in italics to draw attention to them
-words that may be new to the reader are defined in the margin by Jack or Annie (ex. “The line where a high pressure and low-pressure area meet is called a front.”)
-plentiful diagrams – not just illustrations but labeled drawings and photos are labeled as well
-Jack and Annie “Facts in Action” – points in the book where the reader learns about how to do simple scientific observations (such as how to observe snowflakes or how to tell how far away lightening is from where you are.)
-“Doing More Research” section in the back – where students can find specific sources to find out more on weather – such as particularly age appropriate particular books, videos, museums, CD-ROMS, and Internet sites.
I highly recommend having these in any elementary classroom (grades 1-5.) The focus grades would be grade 2-3, in my opinion, but can find an interested audience in older elementary grades for certain!
One of THE most popular series of chapter books in my second grade classroom year after year is the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. This fantasy series is enjoyed by children for their fast pace, familiar characters, and fantastic adventures back in time. Teachers like them for the way the children are engaged in devouring book after book, and by the way the fantasy element combines to draw in historical facts about the particular place and time the characters are traveling back to explore. I share a particular one aloud with my students, Day of the Dragon King because the two main characters, Jack and Annie, travel back to Ancient China, and explore time period things such as the way people are dressed, how reading on bamboo scrolls was endangered, the famous Terra Cotta soldiers (accidentally) and have a run in with the emperor Ch’in (aka “The Dragon King.”) If the fire for this series isn't already lit in one of my students, there curiosity is certainly peaked after this read aloud!
Osborne added to the series by creating companion non-fiction guides, each one themed to compliment one of her fiction offerings. The current regular series of books stands at 28, with 15 of them having a corresponding research guide full of facts to further children’s understandings of the history encountered in the fantasy adventure. Some of the research guides highlight the history of the fiction book, such as Mummies and Pyramids to compliment Mummies in the Morning, and some highlight the science aspect of the particular book, such as the one that I am reviewing that I had not yet read entitled Twisters and Other Terrible Storms, which goes along with Twisters on Tuesday. Some of the fiction books are mostly focused on a historical time period, whereas some take place in the past, like Twisters on Tuesdays does, which is during the 1870s, but an element of science is also a part of the story, and thus lends itself to be the focus of the accompanying research guide.
Again, these research guides are a favorite of my classroom library by me as the teacher for several reasons. They are great to use with a guided reading group or a whole class modeling think aloud about how to read non-fiction and how to use the supportive elements such as a table of contents, index, diagrams, and photos. We can also relate what is fact and what is fiction in the story (think also Magic School Bus stories.) I plan on sharing this book with my class as a non-fiction read aloud starting this week, to correspond to our study of weather during our Roots and Shoots gardening program. Students use their listening and visualizing skills, as well as prior knowledge of what things look like in real life and in photos in true books, and can connect to the fiction Twisters story if they have personally read that selection. Some features that I especially like about this particular research guide is:
-the listing and diagrams of weather tools
-important vocabulary written in italics to draw attention to them
-words that may be new to the reader are defined in the margin by Jack or Annie (ex. “The line where a high pressure and low-pressure area meet is called a front.”)
-plentiful diagrams – not just illustrations but labeled drawings and photos are labeled as well
-Jack and Annie “Facts in Action” – points in the book where the reader learns about how to do simple scientific observations (such as how to observe snowflakes or how to tell how far away lightening is from where you are.)
-“Doing More Research” section in the back – where students can find specific sources to find out more on weather – such as particularly age appropriate particular books, videos, museums, CD-ROMS, and Internet sites.
I highly recommend having these in any elementary classroom (grades 1-5.) The focus grades would be grade 2-3, in my opinion, but can find an interested audience in older elementary grades for certain!
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