Officer Buckle and Gloria

Officer Buckle and Gloria

Author: Peggy Rathman

Genre: Fiction

Grade Level: Grades K-2

Year Published: 1995

Summary

This book takes place in a place called Napville, and it centers around a policeman, Officer Buckle, who knows more about safety than anyone else in the town. No one listens to his safety tips until he brings the police dog Gloria with him. Without Officer Buckle knowing, Gloria acts out the safety tips in a way that grabs everyone’s attention, and all of a sudden Officer Buckle and Gloria are requested everywhere. When Officer Buckle discovers that everyone is watching Gloria and not him, he stops doing the safety tips. Eventually, Gloria and the children convince him to come back and help after Napville has its worst accident ever!

About the Author

Peggy Rathman was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was one of five children. She attended many different colleges with many different majors, and eventually received a B.A. in  psychology from the University of Minnesota. She then studied children's book writing and illustration at Otis Parsons School of Design in L.A. She says, "I spent the first three weeks of my writing class at Otis Parsons filching characters from my classmates' stories. Finally, the teacher convinced me that even a beginning writer can create an original character if the character is driven by the writer's most secret weirdness. Eureka! A little girl with a passion for plagiarism! I didn't want anyone to know it was me, so I made the character look like my sister." This resulted in her first book, Ruby the Copycat. Since then, she has written many more books, including Good Night, Gorilla, and Ten Minutes till Bedtime. She resides in Nicasio, California with her husband.

Source: http://www.peggyrathmann.com/peggyrathmann.html

How to Use it

The main idea of this book involves the safety tips that Officer Buckle gives. Also, it shows how two people (or, in this case, a person and an animal), can work together to get across an important message. 

Pre-Reading: Talk to the children about safety rules. How important are they? What are some examples of them? Make a list with the children about some rules that they are aware of in their school. What makes some rules more important than others? What kinds of things would happen if there was no rules? Discuss this with the class as a whole group.

Post-Reading: Each child should individually make up a rule that they think would be the most important rule in their school. On a star-shaped paper, they should write the rule and illustrate Gloria acting out the consequences if the rule isn’t followed, as she does in the book.

 

What do I Think?

This book fits in quite nicely with our first grade social studies unit of rules/laws. I will definitely use it in my classroom this year. I think that the book is entertaining, informative, and thought provoking. 

Snow Lion

Snow Lion

Author: David McPhail

Genre: Fiction

Grade Level: Grades 1-2

Year Published: 1982

Summary

This book is about a lion that lives in the jungle. This lion is very hot and sweaty one day in the jungle, so he decides to go away from the jungle to find somewhere cooler. He goes to the hills, and while there he discovers snow! He twice tries and fails to bring the snow back to his friends, due to the fact that it melts in the heat, and they think he is going crazy. Eventually, his friends follow him to the hills where they play and have fun in the snow, and thank lion for bringing them to this wonderful relief from the heat.

About the Author

David McPhail has been an artist since he was two years old! He grew up drawing on and about anything and everything. He grew up in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and currently resides there today. He is married and together they have four children. McPhail "says he has drawn his children so often that it just comes out in his characters!" He is best known for his characters that are animals. 

Interesting facts (taken from his website):

"After he finished high school, McPhail played in a rock and roll band. He writes and draws in a studio in his attic. He has been a member of the Riverview Pizza Bowling Team in Portsmouth, New Hampshire."

  

Source: http://www.eduplace.com/kids/tnc/mtai/mcphail.html

How to Use it

The main idea of this book involves a lion who just wants to share wonderful news with his friends, but when they don’t believe him, he has to find another way to teach them about the snow he found. It also contains the fact that snow cannot exist where it is to warm for it to keep its form, and how snow turns into water when it melts.

Pre-Reading: Discuss with the class what jungles are like, what type of animals normally live in jungles, and what would happen if snow was brought into the jungle.

Post-Reading: Have the students get into small groups and talk about the book. What did they learn from the book? If it is winter, have an experiment where they can bring some snow in a plastic bag from outside into the classroom, and watch it melt into water. This illustrates the processes that occurred during the story.

 

What do I Think?

I think that this is definitely an enjoyable book. It is a great story that children typically enjoy, and I think that it is entertaining. I like how you can tie science into the book, and illustrate the properties of snow.