First grade students have started a unit in their library classes about communities around the world. The students have been studying their school and local community in their classrooms, and this library unit gives them a chance to compare and contrast what they know about their own communities with the communities in the nonfiction books we are sharing.
The first book we shared was Chopsticks For My Noodle Soup by Susan E. Goodman, which is set in Malaysia. Students were especially intersested in the similarities and differences between school in Richmond, Vermont and school in rural Malaysia: children in both schools learn reading, writing, and numbers, but the school cook in Malaysia sells unlimited candy to her students! Mrs. Kent in the RES cafeteria would never do that!
In future weeks we will be sharing An Elephant in the Backyard by Richard Sobol (Thailand), Far North by Jan Reynolds (Scandinavia), and My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me by Maya Angelou (South Africa).
Students are also asking the questions: what can we learn about the climate and geography of these countries from the words and pictures in the books? What evidence in the text and illustrations tells us about the weather and the land where these books take place?
Book cover images are from amazon.com
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