The Brainstorm Vol 3 (revamped): Books that can be used in K-12 classrooms

This Brainstorm was originally shared internally with ICS staff Nov 1, 2012. It has been revamped for this blog.

Picture Book Resources

Tuesday by David Wiesner

This is one of my all time favorite picture books. Almost entirely wordless, Wiesner uses his illustrations to tell the story about the rather unusual and extraordinary adventures of some frogs who suddenly find themselves able to fly on Tuesday night. Unhappily for them, their flying adventures are short lived, but the last illustration hints that perhaps some other animals will get their own adventures the next Tuesday.

Activity tie-ins:

• Frogs/Amphibians: Obviously, this would be an easy tie-in for classes studying frogs specifically or amphibians in general.
• Talking about Genres: This would be a great book to have students classify into a genre, whether they are just at the place of differentiating between true stories and fiction, or mystery, adventure, science fiction and fantasy (incidentally, you could make a case for any of those genres for this book, so kids could debate which one they think it best fits and why, and there really are no wrong answers to that debate). 
• Cool colors: The entire book happens at night so it abounds in cool colors. Art classes could use the book to talk about the challenges of portraying evening in art, the definition of cool colors and the psychological effects of cool colors. Of course, Psychology classes could use this to talk about the effects of colors too.
• Emotions in art: There are so many different emotional responses among the frogs, the people, and creatures the frogs run into on their adventure. Classes have a lot of material here to study how Wiesner was able to convey those emotions purely through the artwork. This could also be a tool for kids with disabilities who have a hard time reading emotions on faces.
• Creative Writing: There are a total of only about 5 words in this book. Most just give the time frame for the story, so there's a lot of opening for students to write their own story to go with this book. There's also a wide open hint at the end of the book as to what happens next Tuesday night, so students could write and illustrate their story of the pigs' adventures next Tuesday.
• Setting: This is a nice, easy book to introduce what a setting is. It's pretty easy to determine the locations for the various parts of this story (pond, house, street), and Wiesner is kind enough to even give the time every few pages. From the clothes the people are wearing, you can even determine a basic time period. So this would be a clear cut example for introducing this aspect of a story.
• Point of View: This kind of goes along with the creative writing. This story lends itself well to being told from multiple view points. Students could write the story from the perspective of a frog enjoying itself, or a frog that doesn't like this Tuesday night. There's a dog who could tell his version of the story, a man up late at night who ends up telling his story to a tv anchor in one illustration, so they could write the man's story or the tv's version of the story...there's lots of options.
• Foreshadowing: The way Wiesner has laid out the story often provides hints on one page spread as to what is coming on the next page spread, so this is a great book to talk about foreshadowing. 
• Plot Progression/Organizing Events by Time: This book has a pretty straightforward plot with building and high point and then denouement and would be easy for students to plot out as practice for a possibly trickier book with words. Also, it would be a good book to test students on whether they can put the story events in order afterward. (This could easily be done by showing a portion of the pictures and asking which came first, second, etc.)
• Caldecott Medal/Illustrator: Wiesner has won multiple Caldecott awards, both medals and honors for his incredible illustrations. Most of his books are wordless like this one and many are very imaginative. You could have students compare/contrast his books, use him to talk about the Caldecott award, or look at the career option of author/illustrator. Here is David Wiesner's website.

Weslandia by Paul Fleischman

Wesley needs a summer project so he starts growing a garden. His simple gardening project grows to the extent that Wesley ends up developing his own civilization complete with clothing, language, religion, and food.

Activity tie-ins:

• Civilization & Culture: This is a great book for classrooms discussing different cultures, or how civilizations develop. An extension would be to have students develop their own culture. 
• Crops & Culture: Wesley's culture ends up revolving around the crops he grows. Classes can study how this reflects the way many actual cultures revolve around certain crops/products and how that ends up being evident in art, language, and traditions.
• Boredom: Everyone gets bored at some point. Have students brainstorm their own projects and activities so they have ready options could do the next time they get bored.
• And More: This book has been around for a while and there's a LOT of lesson plans out there for it. Just type "Weslandia lesson plans" in the search engine of your choice and you'll get dozens and dozens of results.

Nonfiction Resource

Candy Bomber: the Story of Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot" by Michael O. Tunnell

This is an incredible true story about how small gifts of kindness can bring hope, mend bad relations, and encourage others to do likewise. Lt. Halverson was an American pilot dropping supplies to residents in Berlin after WWII. After meeting some children, he felt led to drop his candy rations in small parachutes for the kids who had not tasted candy in years. Halverson’s gifts of kindness for people who were former enemies touched lives there in Berlin and all over the world. Soon, others wanted to be a part of this and donations of candy came from all over the world, while letters and drawings of thanks poured in from the German children and their families. Halverson has left a legacy of kindness, care and love for others that continues still today. The book is filled with great pictures and copies of thank you notes from Halverson’s personal files.

Activity tie-ins:

• WWII: This book highlights a time period right after the war that's often glossed over in history books. It could easily be a conclusion to a study of WWII, and it is a heartwarming story from a period of time that is often filled with bleak and harrowing tales.
• Loving Your Neighbor: This is a great book to illustrate a real life Good Samaritan and could easily be tied in with a lesson on that Bible story.
• Mending Relationships: Lt. Halverson was able to help the healing process between Germans and Americans just with gifts of chocolate. This is a great opportunity to talk about broken relationships and the best ways to go about fixing them.
• Helping Those in Need: Lt. Halverson's idea was relatively simple. Talk to kids about simple ways they can bless others. Halverson's organization still drops goodies to kids in war torn areas today. Have students research how they can get involved or other similar organizations that help kids less fortunate than themselves. 
• Effects of War: Halverson's story highlights some of the lesser-known after-effects of war. Ask the students why he media doesn't usually cover this. Have government classes brainstorm the myriad of things that a recovering government would have to think through and deal with, and along with that, why this can be a dangerous time in a country. Discuss what actions on the parts of other countries could help or hurt people during such a time. And lastly, this would be a good time to debate war versus non-violent solutions.
• Generosity: Have students discuss or reflect on whether or not they would have given their candy to the children like Lt. Halverson, and/or ask them if they can think of other acts of generosity. Then challenge them to think of a way they could be generous.
• East/West Germany: This would be a good book to tie into a study of the Cold War or how Germany was divided up after WWII.
• Picture Book: If this book is too long, there's a picture book called Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot by Raven that tells the story from the perspective of one of the children who really received the candy, Mercedes Simon. Sadly, we don't have that available in our library right now. I've been itching to get my hands on it and read it, but so far it's evaded me. I've heard it's good too.
• Fiction Book: We do have a middle grade fiction book called Candy Bombers by Robert Elmer. The main characters in this book are residents of Germany in 1948 and make contact with a US airman who hands out candy to them. Students could read both books and compare and contrast the real stories versus the made up one.