By: Kim Norman
Publisher: Sterling Books
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7076

FROM THE FLAP: Join ten adventurous friends as they speed down a snowy slope on their giant toboggan. How many of them will end up together at the bottom of the hill? With plenty of slipping and sliding, gliding and riding, this raucous race promises to have a very bumpy ending.

KATE’S TAKE: Kim Norman takes readers on a whimsical, rollicking, winter ride.

ALLITERATION PARTNERS Interpersonal and Verbal/Linguistic
Write the name of each animal on ten separate index cards. Then write each animal’s action on ten other index cards. Give ten children animal cards and ask them to find their action partner whose card will start with the same first letter as their animal does.

Seal and spilled, hare and hopped, sheep and shot, walrus and whirled, fox and flipped, squirrel and squeezed, wolf and wiped, moose and muddled, bear and bailed, reindeer and running

POPSICLE STICK SLEDS Visual/Spatial
Each child will need six Popsicle sticks and a 3x5 index card. Before you give the children the Popsicle sticks, you should make these adjustments: cut the ends off at forty-five degree angles from two of the sticks and cut one stick in half. Three of the sticks will remain unaltered. Ask the students to paint all of their sticks red. Then have them place one of the short sticks on the bottom of their index card, and one short stick at the top of the index card. Next ask them to glue the three unaltered long sticks on top of the two short sticks. After the top of the sled has dried, students can glue the runners(the sticks cut at 45% angles to the bottom of the sled.

TEN ON THE SLED BOOKS Visual/Spatial and Verbal/Linguistic
Give each child a ten-page mini book with the simple sentence: There were ____________ on the sled. Have the children write in the missing number words 10-1 and illustrate each page. On the last page the sentence should look like this: There _________ _____________ on the sled. Students can write in the word was on the last page.

TEN ON THE SLED MATH Logical/Mathematical
Now that the kids each have their own sled, you can use teddy bear math manipulatives to have the students tell addition and subtraction stories. For example, there were ten bears on the sled and four fell off. How many are left? Kids reenact the stories with their bears and write the algorithms on their white boards.

TEN ON THE SLED SING-A-LONG Musical and Kinesthetic
Have ten kids sit one behind the other on the rug. Ask the whole class to sing the words to the book and ask kids to roll off the sled.

BOOK BUDDIES
-Christopher Counting by Valeri Gorbachev
-Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh
-Ten in the Bed by Jane Cabrera
-The Baker’s Dozen: A Counting Book by Dan Andreasen
-Who Invited You by Candace Fleming

HAPPY SNOW DAY NEW ENGLAND! I'M OFF TO JOIN THE SNOWBALL FIGHT RAGING IN MY YARD.

CALVIN CAN'T FLY: The Story of a Bookworm Birdie

By Jennifer Berne
Publisher: Sterling
ISBN: 978-1-4027-7323-5

FROM THE FLAP: Calvin was born under the eaves of an old barn with his three brothers, four sisters, and sixty-seven thousand four hundred and thirty-two cousins. Calvin may be one of many, but he’s certainly different from the rest.

While the other little starlings learn to swoop and hover and fly figure eights, Calvin buries his beak in books. In the library his mind soars, taking him places his wings never could.

KATE’S TAKE: A fun fall read that celebrates books and being one's self.

FALL FUN BOOKS: Verbal/Linguistic, Visual/Spatial, and Intrapersonal
Give each student a piece of paper with the sentence starter: In the fall I like to_____________. Ask each student to finish the sentence and draw a picture to go with it. Then, have students illustrate their sentences. Put each sheet in a three ring binder and make a class book to send home with the students.

FORMATION TAG-Bodily/Kinesthetic and Naturalist
Discuss the possible reasons why starlings might fly in formations. One reason is to protect themselves from possible predators such as hawks. Take students outside to play a game of predator vs. prey tag, hawks vs. the starlings. As the starlings try to cross from one line to the other, they’ll learn the benefit of flying in a group vs. flying solo.

STARLING BLACK BIRDS-Musical and Bodily Kinesthetic
These lyrics are adapted from Music Together
Starlings black birds-put hands in your armpits and flap wings
Crow flying round-flap arms out at your side
Nut hatch hopping down the tree-have one hand hop down your opposite arm
Chickadee, dee, dee, dee-hold both hands out front and open and close fingers to thumb like a bird beak, using quick, small motions
Caw, caw, caw, caw-do same motion as chickadee but open the beaks wider and at a slower pace
Repeat chickadee line and actions four times
This is a fun song to sing in a round, too.

STARLING STAMPS-Visual/Spatial
Starlings form all sorts of amazing formations while flying through the sky. Ask each student to outline their favorite shape on a large piece of sky blue construction paper. Make bird stamps out of a potato or apple and have kids stamp multiple bird shapes inside their outline.

STARLING SENTENCE SEQUENCING-Verbal/Linguistic
Divide a 8x11 sheet of paper into 6 parts. Trace a flying bird shape into each section. Write one of the following six words on each bird: Starlings fly south for the winter. Make enough copies for the class. Ask each student to cut out the six birds and glue them in order onto a long strip of paper made from a 11x18 sheet of construction paper cut in half length wise and stapled together. Ask students to glue the birds down in order on their paper.

BOOK BUDDIES:
-Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss
-How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills
-Swimmy by Leo Lionni
-The Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
-Wolf! by Becky Bloom