Ag Unit: Ag Books

I LOVE to read.  As a kid I used to sneak books into my room and read them under the covers with a flash light when I was supposed to be sleeping.  It didn't matter what I was reading - I would read a home remedies book my parents had.  I had no idea what acne was when I was 8 but I knew how to treat it!

So, as a teacher I read aloud to my class at least 3 times per day.  Even when with all of the focus being on teaching reading and math - I will never give up my read aloud.  They are too important!  Most of my students do not speak English at home and only hear it from me while they are at school, so not only are they learning academic vocabulary, fluency, and tons of other English/Language Arts standards they are also learning the English language. 

My read aloud shelf - these are the books that I read to the kids.  This was the first set of books about agriculture.  I have a hard time finding books that I like about agriculture - I am very picky with books.  Last year I got 50 books from the library and ended up buying three of them.  This year I ordered 30 books and didn't order a single one. 

I wanted a book that was simple and to the point and talked about the 5 areas of agriculture, so I made my own:

There is an error in this book and it is driving me crazy! But, other than that I think it is a great book!  the kids love it - the academic vocabulary is very rich.  We read it many many times during our ag unit and my kids didn't get tired of it.  I found the pictures on google - someday I would like to write ag books for children and I would love to take my own pictures, but that will be a long way down the road.

Farming by Gail Gibbons

Gail Gibbons is one of my favorite authors.  If you are not familiar with her books - she writes non-fiction books.  She writes books about apples, pumpkins, owls, basketball, and many more.  If you are new to ag books then check her books out first!  This book is about farming (kind obvious from the title) and talks about all the the jobs a farm does.  This is a great book! I love that she write about the farm in different seasons but I don't like that the farmer in the story has all sorts of animals and a few crops ... that is not realistic to modern farms.  But, I still love it and bought it last year. 

The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons

Another Gail Gibbons books that I love.  This was a reading rainbow book so there is a reading rainbow video to go along with it. 

It is a long clip (the full episode) but I watched it with my kids and they LOVE reading rainbow - just like I did when I was a kid. 

Two Old Potatoes and Me by John Coy

I LOVE THIS BOOK!  It is about a girl who finds some old potatoes at her dad's house and they plant them, take care of them and in the end the grow new potatoes.  This girl's parent are divorced and I love that the books portrays a good relationship between the girls' father and mother (it is very subtle but the father asks about the girl's room and tells her that he would love to see it when she is done).  The illustrations are fantastic!  This is a must for any classroom library!

World of Farming Set from Scholastic Book Clubs.  I cannot find this on the Scholastic website but it was $18 from the book clubs a month or two ago.  If you want the isbn number leave a comment or send me an e-mail and I will get it for you.  I was surprised when I saw this in the book club flyer and I had to buy it.  There are five small books (I think they are about 7 pages each) and they are amazing.  They are a little low on the academic vocabulary but they are easy to read and a great addition to my library!

I read many many books to my students over the course of our 4 week unit, the few above are just my favorites. 

What is your favorite ag book for children?