UEL PGCE group 2011-2012 discussion
p2 on- programme reviews
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Ali
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May 12, 2012 07:32AM
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These are all the links to all my reviews in one place.I know some of the links I posted last time were links to the book instead of my reviews.
Enjoy your placements everyone!
Clifford The Big Red Dog
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The Carrot Seed Board Book
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Me...Jane
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Planting a Rainbow
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Grandpa Green
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I Want My Hat Back
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Bedtime for Bear
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The Twits
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Perfect Square
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Stars
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The Giving Tree
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
A review of 'Horrid Henry Meets the Queen' by Francesca Simon.http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...
A review of 'Moody Margaret Strikes Back' by Francesca Simon.http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77...
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Hello,This is my review of 'Even Steven and Odd Todd' by Kathryn Cristaldi:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
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This is my review of 'Even Steven and Odd Todd' by Kathryn Cristaldi:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/..."
Thanks Helen! There are some fantastic picture books to help children develop mathematical skills.
A review of 'Spider in the Bath!' by David Orme and Beccy Blakehttp://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63...
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Hi Everyone!
Hodder Childrens Books 1992 by Mick InkpenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mick Inkpen is a successful author and illustrator who continues to delight young readers and their parents.
Mick has won many awards for his books including: the Children’s Book Award and The Parents and Munch Bunch Play and Learn Award.
Nick Butterworth is also an author and illustrator. Both authors worked together to write a series of children’s picture books.
Jasper is determined to grow a beanstalk. He plants a bean and tends to it carefully each day. Finally, he gets fed up of waiting for it to grow so he digs up the bean and throws it away.
Jasper thinks that the bean will never grow into a beanstalk, but a long time later he is surprised.
This book is in the fairytales and their alternatives genre. The book has clear illustrations which will allow readers to use picture cues to help them read the text. The book has simple, clear and extra large text.
The story touches on the topic of the cycles of nature and how things grow, with a gentle moral of how everything comes to those who wait.
NLS Links Foundation and key stage 1, ages 3 – 6
Cross circular links Science – growing plants
View all my reviews
MR Big by Ed VereMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This story is based on Mr big who is bigger in size compared to everyone else. As such, wherever he goes everyone runs away from him as they see someone big and scary. Due to this even though he is big he feels very small and lonely from inside. One day Mr Big walks past a shop and notices a piano in the window. He feels that it looks all alone, just like him, so he decides to buy it and take it home. Mr Big starts to play the piano thinking of all the things that make him sad and so he plays and plays. Everyone in the neighbourhood hears the beautiful music and wonders where it is coming from; people came from all over town every night to listen to the beautiful music. However Mr Big is still alone and sad, until one morning when he receives his first ever letter sent to the ‘pianist’. The letter reads ‘thank you for your beautiful music, everyone has been listening to your music and who are you’? This leads to an invitation to come and join their band at the blue note. Mr Big joins the band and everyone has a great time and at last everyone can see the real Mr Big. The story ends with Mr Big having loads of fans and having no time to be alone which is just the way he likes it.
The moral of the story is “a true friend can come in any shape or size”. This was a great story that I enjoyed reading it. The illustrations and pictures were also very good in demonstrating the reactions of the people he encountered. This story enables children to learn about feelings such as sad and happy and the importance of friendship. This story can be linked to cross-curricular subjects such as PSHE learning about friendships, feelings and music such as creating music with feelings and emotions such as what Mr Big did.
View all my reviews
Class Two at the Zoo by Julia JarmanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Julia was born in March in 1948. She studied English and Drama at Manchester University and became a qualified teacher.
She is a British author of books for children of all reading ages and ability. Her first book was published in 1985 “When Poppy Ran Away”.
This is a story about a teacher bringing her class two to the zoo. The children are so wrapped up in looking at “hippos hopping in the mud” and “monkeys eating chocolate pud” that they don’t realise the anaconda is following them and gobbling up their classmates one by one and then their class teacher. Molly acts quickly and gets a stick and puts it in between the monsters jaws and rescues the teacher and the rest of her class. They leave the zoo and the teacher says “Let this be a terrible warning for you! When you go on a safari or visit a zoo keep your eyes open whatever you do”.
This is a picture book with the story told in the third person narration. It is a funny rhyming story with a happy ending.
It's an entertaining book and every teacher’s worst nightmare of loosing children at the zoo. It would be a great bedtime read for younger children. The illustrations are very good and detailed.
NLS Links Class reading for KS1, Ages 4-8
Cross-curricular Links Art and Design- painting pictures
Maths- counting the animals and children.
View all my reviews
Remembering Mum by Ginny PerkinsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
‘Remembering Mum’ is a book that illustrates some of the feelings children go through when they lose a parent. The book uses an example of two children who have lost their mother and comments on the way they may feel and ways of remembering her. The book is full of pictures and talks about every day things children can do to remember somebody they love who has died. The language used is simple but thought provoking and would be a good resource to make discussion of death easier for both adults and children alike.
I feel this book would be a vital resource to have when helping children deal with the loss of a parent. It tackles issues which many other books won’t, for example is shows a child visiting the grave and feeling upset. The book is accessible for all children as it is very factual and no one particular viewpoint is represented, e.g.) it discusses all emotions from showing a very unhappy child to one who is laughing playing with friends.
I think this book is aimed at Key Stage 2 children although it could be used with any age range. As the book covers a range of sensitive experiences and emotions younger children would probably benefit from having an adult with them. This book would also be an excellent resource for class discussions and work on the children’s personal social and emotional development.
View all my reviews
Rhymes For Bedtime by Ronne RandallMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
‘Rhymes for Bedtime’ is a children’s poetry boo with over seventy traditional rhymes and lullabies suitable for children of all different ages. It contains some classics, which are often favourites with children and some new rhymes and poems which children will enjoy reading. The book is full of beautiful illustrations and the text structure is altered to emphasise certain reoccurring rhymes in the poem.
Throughout the book the poems are themed together in groups, for example there are several poems with the theme of nighttime, the moon, the stars etc, which all follow on from each other. These poems would be suitable for children from a young age to an older age. For the younger reader the illustrations help them to grasp the theme of the poem and on some particular poems there is a small illustration for each item mentioned in each line.
This is an book full of humorous enjoyable poems which all children should benefit from and find amusing, I feel it is a valuable resource for the classroom, either to be used in literacy teaching or as a general reading book.
View all my reviews
No Hickory, No Dickory, No Dock by John AgardMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a collection of poems, which as the name implies is different to traditional poetry books. The Caribbean authors have given a fresh spin to some traditional poems. There are alternatives to familiar rhymes and characters plus some Caribbean ones drawn from the poets’ own childhood memories of Guyana.
The book contains a contents page with a list of all the available poetry from which children will be able to recognise some of the more familiar poems such as ‘London Bridge’ and ‘Humpty Dumpty’.
The language used in this poetry book is traditional for Caribbean poetry but children may not be familiar with the grammar difference from the kind of written English they are used to seeing and hearing. For example, in the poem ‘No hickory no dickory no dock’ phrases such as ‘I didn’t run up no clock’ is common parlance in the Caribbean, however, in England it is grammatically incorrect.
The majority of the poems have accompanying pictures, which also reflect the cultures and traditions some of the poems refer to. Children will enjoy looking at these pictures as it brings the poem to life and adds interest. The language used is warm and friendly and many of the poems rhyme and have rhythmic structures, which the children will enjoy listening to, or reading.
This book is suitable for Key stage 2 children and is a valuable resource, especially useful for increasing the variety of poetry books available for children and their knowledge of other cultures and traditions.
View all my reviews
Exploring Inner Cities by Danielle Sebsier and Amanda EarlMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
‘Exploring Inner Cities’ is a non-fiction book, which explains many of the different features of living in a city. The book is aimed at young people and covers issues such as going to school in an inner city, the population of young people in large cities, etc. The book starts with the section ‘What is an inner city?’ and then goes on to investigate many of the features associated with the city. For each section there is an activity provided for children to carry out, which will help develop their knowledge and understanding.
For each page there is a photo, which accompanies the page of text, there are also small captions next to each photo describing the area or city in which the photo was taken.
The language used in the book is written in the present tense and explains some processes step by step. The text contains many geographical words which children may not have come across. However, there is also a glossary at the back of the book with detailed explanations of words. Each double page of the book contains pictures, text, and also some interesting facts or unusual information, which the children will find helps them to absorb the information in a variety of ways.
The book contains a glossary, index, a map showing all the major cities and also a suggests further reading page so the children can use the book as a useful classroom or homework resource and can use the index to search for specific information.
This book is aimed at Key Stage 2-3 and would be particularly helpful to use during a topic or project involving major cities and to increase children’s Geographical vocabulary and knowledge.
View all my reviews
Walking the Bridge of Your Nose: Wordplay Poems Rhymes by Michael RosenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This poetry book begins with an introduction from the author explaining the collection he has brought together and some information about where poems, tongue twisters and funny rhymes originated. The introduction has a personal touch for the reader telling them to ‘prepare to be baffled, ‘bamfoozled’, bewitched and bedazzled’. It also encourages them to sit back and enjoy the poetry. The poetry book contains a contents page and an index of first lines and titles making it accessible for the children to use the book easily. In some of the poetry written, there are games for the children to play and some brainteasers for them to try. The answers are displayed at the back of the book with explanations.
Each page is highly decorated and illustrated, containing various coloured backgrounds and pictures.
The font and text type is effective and makes the particular poem more appealing and interesting to look at. One poem contains a few verses on the subject of something sliding away and those few lines are written on a tilt to remind the reader of the sliding process. Some poems are written over a double page with one page full of illustrations, which are bright and colourful to entice the reader.
View all my reviews
Festivals of the world - Israel by Don FoyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book describes and explores many Israeli festivals. The first two pages answer the question ‘when’s the celebration?’ The book then goes on to explore a few of the Israeli celebrations; this is done in various ways. When learning about the festival ‘Pesach’ a story is told which retells what happened to the Jewish people in Egypt. As each festival is explored a different method is used, from recounting events, to giving the children instructions of how to make Israeli biscuits, which are eaten during celebrations. The book aims to involve the reader as much as possible so their understanding and knowledge of the festivals increases. There is also a section with activities such as a traditional Jewish dance, which also has the accompanying music.
The book gives the reader a chance to reflect on what they are reading by providing small snippets on each page labelled ‘think about this’ which encourages the children to identify with Israeli children, especially when explaining sensitive issues such as remembering the Holocaust.
The book contains many interesting pictures which will maintain the readers attention, for example one whole page is a display of fireworks exploding to accompany the text which explains how the Israelis felt when they celebrate Independence Day.
Lots of new vocabulary will probably be introduced when children read this book. There is a glossary and index page to support their learning and also any Israeli words which are used are spelt out after the word to allow the children to try and pronounce the word, e.g.) gregers (GRAY- gurs).
I think this book is an excellent resource for the classroom and an effective way of encouraging children to learn about and explore other children’s cultures and traditions.
View all my reviews
New Baby by Judith BaskervilleMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is designed to report on and inform children about many of the different issues surrounding pregnancy and having a new baby in the family. It contains lots of information but also has a story running alongside each stage of the process with a character called Judith who is having a baby of her own. The book is written in the present tense and is in chronological order; going from Judith finding out she is pregnant to her having the baby and taking it home. The way the book is structured makes it very accessible for children to read and understand, containing a large picture on each page with a small snippet of writing. On several of the pages questions are asked such as ‘How long were you when you were born?’ and ‘Can you see where the baby will sleep?’ This helps the children relate to the information and see how it is relevant in their own lives and how they too were once small babies.
The book is very effective for informing children and showing them what a happy event a new baby in the family can be but I feel it lacks any negative feelings or experiences the children may have when a new baby arrives. For example there is no mention of older children feeling jealous or resenting the new baby, which I think would be useful in allowing them to comprehend these feelings.
This book would be a useful resource for all children, especially Key Stage 1 at which it is aimed. For older children there are some suggested activities in the back of the book such as making a family tree.
This book is a useful classroom resource with an easy to read format and language, which informs but is not to technical so all children should be able to gain something from the book.
View all my reviews
UEL PGCE group 2011-2012
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