Cookies written by Amy K. Rosenthal and Reach for the Sky written by Allison Stoutland are great books to use at the beginning of any school year. The focus is on character education and will get students to think about the world a little differently. After reading these two books I took my 2nd graders outside and went for a "Scavenger Hunt". We looked for things that could teach us life lessons. They came up with phrases such as, "The Monkey bars taught me to hold on tight." "The swing taught me what goes up must come down." We made a big class book with all of the life lessons. Both of these books taught my class that there are lessons in everything - we just have to take time to notice.
Not a Stick and Stick Man are excellent stories to compare and contrast using a Venn Diagram. Both stories feature a stick as the main character or idea to the story. The organization of the stories are very different (one is a traditional narrative with plot, setting and characters while the other has a see-saw pattern) but it leads to some great discussion on which ideas are the same and which are different.
Bear and Bee and Waiting for Winter would be excellent mentor texts to compare and contrast themes or ideas of stories. Both stories show characters that don't have schema for things in life and how that changes their perspective. They would be excellent texts to illustrate the importance of schema and the misconceptions it could possibly lead to without experiences.
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