What's a literature pocket? A literature pocket is a "student portfolio with pockets full of projects." Each of these workbooks starts off with detailed instructions on how your children can create their own personal portfolio to hold their literature pockets. Literature Pockets - Caldecott Winners are exciting workbooks full of age-appropriate projects for grades 1-3 and 4-6. Each of these workbooks highlights the works of eleven award-winning illustrators through eleven creative and fun projects. A complete list of all the Caldecott winners from 1938 through 2001 is provided in each workbook. As you learn about each illustrator, you might want to check out the book from the local library so your children can experience their artwork and the story first hand. There are seven pages dedicated to each illustrator. A thorough biography is provided, and the following pages hold fun projects and cut outs to create a new pocket for the portfolio. The projects focus on creative writing and artistic creation. These fun projects often are a spin-off of what the story is all about. For example, in the grades 1-3 workbook, one of the Caldecott winners featured is Ezra Jack Keats who illustrated The Snowy Day. The projects that follow have children write about their own snowy day experience, create a snowflake stamp, cut out snowflakes and write about what snow is, and create an accordion book with a simplified version of the story. Each project provides a list of the materials you need, reproducible patterns, and detailed instructions. Literature Pockets - Nursery Rhymes follows the same structure as the Caldecott Winners workbooks. This workbook is created for grades K-1 and contains activities for twelve nursery rhymes. This book contains well-known favorites such as "Jack and Jill" and Little Bo Peep." As well as lesser-known rhymes such as "My Black Hen" and "To Market, To Market." All twelve nursery rhymes are printed in the book, and eight pages of simple and fun art projects accompany each one. For example, for "Little Bo Peep" your child will create an accordion book, cut-and-paste to make a sheep out of cotton balls, and color a picture to see how many sheep are hidden in the background. Each workbook features reproducible student pages and is 96 pgs. - elise
