melissel Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 How do you decide what to include on it? I'm putting together 12 books for 4th grade, and there are so many I'd love to include! I'm not sure how to narrow it down. I was thinking about choosing one book per month that corresponded with something we're doing that month--for example, we're traveling to the Outer Banks in September, maybe something a little spooky for October, etc. Is that silly? If you've BTDT, can you tell me how you did it, and how it worked out? And if you have a 4th grade list that you'd care to share, I'd love to see it! TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I think something for each month sounds pretty cool! I tend to correspond our literature with our history studies. If we find ourselves lacking a family read aloud, and there isn't something that will work well with our current history era, we'll just pick something that looks good, usually some good classic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Most years I use straight Sonlight, but the years I've gone eclectic I've chosen from Sonlight's lists as well as other lists--WP, Illuminations, Diana Waring, etc... There's also the 1000 good books list, have you seen that? They are broken down by grade ranges. HTH! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I try to coordinate with history, but I also select books that will inspire and encourage. I also like to pick books that feature different cultures. I have a mental list of favorite authors and classics that I want her to read as well. Here is our 4th grade list: Jungle Book Favorite Folktales from Around the World Heidi All of a Kind Family Best Christmas Pageant Ever Big Wave Bully for you Teddy Roosevelt Freedom Train Mary Poppins Snow Treasure Treasure Island Wheel on the School The Call of the Wild Anne of Green Gables I require 40 pages a day (200 a week) so we will get through these with ease and still have time to for 'fun' reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I think your idea of having themed books available is lovely! We've always used the VP lists plus WTM plus things for our history (TQ, etc.). Basically I just keep piles of books around, and as long as it's happening, I'm happy. Some years she got onto a comic binge, and I had to curb it by requiring a genre diversity reading list. (a sheet each week with blanks for various genres, thus requiring diversity in her choices) But really, as long as reading is happening and her level is generally moving forward, I wouldn't feel too compelled to keep a specific required list. But that's just me. Come to think of it though, one thing I usually have (and have prepping now for next year) is a shelf where her "recommended" place is to look for book reports. Is your dd doing book summaries? If not, this is a really nice age to start. And for those books I always have a higher standard than just pleasure reading. So if she's not appearing with something of the level I want for that book writing, I send her to that shelf and tell her to make a selection. That's actually how I knew when she was having eye problems, because always before she had read the books I had bought for the year. That year she balked and wouldn't read ANY of them on that shelf. Then I knew we had a problem, lol. But I don't get more particular than that, because people's tastes really vary, kwim? Or maybe she's just astoundingly picky. Or we don't have the same taste. Or something. As long as I look back in retrospect and know she hit the books on the VP and WTM lists and is generally moving forward, I'm ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Robyn Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Last year I made two book lists for grade 3 - one list of books my ds would read aloud to me and another of books he could choose from to read independently. I started with an author study and chose Roald Dahl as our author, so I found a bioography on him and picked four books he wrote. I chose those books just based off of my own personal interest in having them read to me. Then we did books for which we had MBtP literature guides. We're ending with Redwall, again, personal interest. (And of course I think my ds will be interested, but he's pretty easy to please when it comes to reading. If I picked just based off of his interest I would never get the list narrowed down.) Next year, for fourth grade all the books that he will read to me are SL and/or OM books, plus extras from the Little House series in order to have Laura Ingalls Wilder as our author to study. We won't get through all the SL books because I am combining SL D+E with OM 5. Also because for read-alouds, I have chosen some SL books and some non-SL books. The SL books that we will not get to are going on his independent reading list, but I will choose other books to put on there as well that are just good literature and not related to American history. Our grade 4 list - books my ds will read to me Om-kas-toe Pocahontas and the Strangers The Witch of Blackbird Pond The Matchlock Gun Johnny Tremain By the Great Horn Spoon! Caddie Woodlawn Ben and Me Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Biography Little House in the Big Woods Farmer Boy Little House on the Prairie Freedom Train Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson After finishing the list I realized I had only scheduled 3 of the Little House books, and my goal is for our author studies to include a biography and four books by the same author. However, I'm happy with the line up and how it works with SL and OM, so I'm thinking other Little House books (or at least one of them) will be read aloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almondbutterandjelly Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I keep a shelf full of books that are 4th grade level. My dd is required to pick one and read it to herself for about 30 minutes every school day. No further work or discussion of the book is required. (Although I certainly don't discourage her telling me about it or making connections!) This is the list of books she read this year for 4th grade: Peter Pan Illustrated Classic The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary Famous Fairy Tales The Story of Dr. Doolittle by Kathryn Knight The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne B is for Betsy by Carolyn Haywood Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh The Boxcar Children: Mystery at the Dog Show by Gertrude C. Warner Henry and Ribsy by Beverly Cleary Back to School with Betsy by Carolyn Haywood The Boxcar Children: Mystery at the Crooked House by G.C. Warner The Boxcar Children: The Gymnastics Mystery by G.C. Warner McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm by Sid Fleischmann The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle Illustrated Classic by Bryan Brown The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Illustrated Classic by Kathy Wilmore Don Quixote AGS Illustrated Classic by John Norwood Fago Charlotte's Webb by E.B. White The Great Encounter: A Special Meeting Before Columbus by P.A. Piercy The Ghost of Windy Hill by Clyde Robert Bulla Journey to Jo'burg: A South African Story by Beverley Naidoo Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner Helen Keller by Margaret Davidson The Apple and The Arrow by Mary and Conrad Buff Trapped In Ice by Ruth Harnden The Lemonade Trick by Scott Corbett In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson Gulliver's Travels Treasury of Illustrated Classics by D.J. Arneson Kidnapped AGS Illustrated Classics by Nick Tall Pygmalion Treasury of Illustrated Classics by Nicole Vittiglio Anne of Green Gables Treasury of Illustrated Classics by Adam Grant The BFG by Roald Dahl Oliver Twist Great Illustrated Classics by Malvina Vogel Moby Dick Treasury of Illustrated Classics Little House on Rocky Ridge by Roger Lea MacBride Little Farm in the Ozarks by Roger Lea MacBride Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone by J.K. Rowling Encyclopedia Brown Solves Them All by Donald Sobol Encyclopedia Brown Carries On by Donald Sobol Encyclopedia Brown Sets the Pace by Donald Sobol Me and My Little Brain by John D. Fitzgerald The Secret of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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