Check Out my April Library Lesson Plans

APRIL Library Lesson Plans

April is National Poetry Month, so..., remember to read lots of poems to your kids and make them smile and laugh and reflect on what the author is saying.  Have them create their own poetry.   Hang it up if they are willing.

Caldecott Medal Winners
Library Lesson Plan (Developed by Dana Stemig, Library Media Teacher)
Grade Level  2nd+
Time  One 30 minute session
Lesson Title  Caldecott Medal Research
Introduction :  Read a Caldecott Medal winner to the class. Explain what the
Caldecott Medal is and why books are awarded the Caldecott.
Activity : Using the smart board, show students a copy of the Caldecott list/poster.   Point out that when no illustrator is listed the author is also the illustrator.
Have students say their answers to the following questions to
their partner.
• Who won the Caldecott Medal in 1998? (Paul O.
Zelinsky)
• What year was Officer Buckle and Gloria the Caldecott
winner? (1996)
• What Caldecott winner did David Small illustrate? (So
You Want to Be President)
• Who won the Caldecott in 1999? (Mary Azarian)

Caldecott Medal Winners, 1938 - Present

• 2012: A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc.)
• 2011: A Sick Day for Amos McGee illustrated by Erin E. Stead, written by Philip C. Stead (Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group)
• 2010: The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown and Company)
• 2009:  The House in the Night illustrated by Beth Krommes, written by Susan Marie Swanson (Houghton Mifflin Company)
• 2008: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic)
• 2007: Flotsam by David Wiesner  (Clarion)
• 2006: The Hello, Goodbye Window Illustrated by Chris Raschka, written by Norton Juster (Michael di Capua/Hyperion)
• 2005: Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollinsPublishers)
• 2004: The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein (Roaring Brook Press/Millbrook Press)
• 2003: My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann (Roaring Brook Press/Millbrook Press)
• 2002: The Three Pigs by David Wiesner (Clarion/Houghton Mifflin)
• 2001: So You Want to Be President? Illustrated by David Small; text by Judith St. George (Philomel Books)
• 2000: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback (Viking)
• 1999: Snowflake Bentley, Illustrated by Mary Azarian ; text by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Houghton)
• 1998: Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky (Dutton)
• 1997: Golem by David Wisniewski (Clarion)
• 1996: Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann (Putnam)
• 1995: Smoky Night , illustrated by David Diaz; text: Eve Bunting (Harcourt)
• 1994: Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say; text: edited by Walter Lorraine (Houghton)
• 1993: Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully (Putnam)
• 1992: Tuesday by David Wiesner (Clarion Books)
• 1991: Black and White by David Macaulay (Houghton)
• 1990: Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China by Ed Young (Philomel)
• 1989: Song and Dance Man , illustrated by Stephen Gammell; text: Karen Ackerman (Knopf)
• 1988: Owl Moon , illustrated by John Schoenherr; text: Jane Yolen (Philomel)
• 1987: Hey, Al , illustrated by Richard Egielski; text: Arthur Yorinks (Farrar)
• 1986: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton)
• 1985: Saint George and the Dragon , illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman; text: retold by Margaret Hodges (Little, Brown)
• 1984: The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice & Martin Provensen (Viking)
• 1983: Shadow , translated and illustrated by Marcia Brown; original text in French: Blaise Cendrars (Scribner)
• 1982: Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton)
• 1981: Fables by Arnold Lobel (Harper)
• 1980: Ox-Cart Man , illustrated by Barbara Cooney; text: Donald Hall (Viking)
• 1979: The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble (Bradbury)
• 1978: Noah's Ark by Peter Spier (Doubleday)
• 1977: Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions , illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon; text: Margaret Musgrove (Dial)
• 1976: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears , illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon; text: retold by Verna Aardema (Dial)
• 1975: Arrow to the Sun by Gerald McDermott (Viking)
• 1974: Duffy and the Devil , illustrated by Margot Zemach; retold by Harve Zemach (Farrar)
• 1973: The Funny Little Woman , illustrated by Blair Lent; text: retold by Arlene Mosel (Dutton)
• 1972: One Fine Day , retold and illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian (Macmillan)
• 1971: A Story A Story , retold and illustrated by Gail E. Haley (Atheneum)
• 1970: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (Windmill Books)
• 1969: The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship , illustrated by Uri Shulevitz; text: retold by Arthur Ransome (Farrar)
• 1968: Drummer Hoff , illustrated by Ed Emberley; text: adapted by Barbara Emberley (Prentice-Hall)
• 1967: Sam, Bangs & Moonshine by Evaline Ness (Holt)
• 1966: Always Room for One More , illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian; text: Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. [Leclair Alger] (Holt)
• 1965: May I Bring a Friend? illustrated by Beni Montresor; text: Beatrice Schenk de Regniers (Atheneum)
• 1964: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Harper)
• 1963: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking)
• 1962: Once a Mouse , retold and illustrated by Marcia Brown (Scribner)
• 1961: Baboushka and the Three Kings , illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov; text: Ruth Robbins (Parnassus)
• 1960: Nine Days to Christmas , illustrated by Marie Hall Ets; text: Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida (Viking)
• 1959: Chanticleer and the Fox , illustrated by Barbara Cooney; text: adapted from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales by Barbara Cooney (Crowell)
• 1958: Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey (Viking)
• 1957: A Tree Is Nice , illustrated by Marc Simont; text: Janice Udry (Harper)
• 1956: Frog Went A-Courtin' , illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky; text: retold by John Langstaff) (Harcourt)
• 1955: Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper , illustrated by Marcia Brown; text: translated from Charles Perrault by Marcia Brown (Scribner)
• 1954: Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)
• 1953: The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward (Houghton)
• 1952: Finders Keepers , illustrated by Nicolas, pseud. (Nicholas Mordvinoff); text: Will, pseud. [William Lipkind] (Harcourt)
• 1951: The Egg Tree by Katherine Milhous (Scribner)
• 1950: Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi (Scribner)
• 1949: The Big Snow by Berta & Elmer Hader (Macmillan)
• 1948: White Snow, Bright Snow , illustrated by Roger Duvoisin; text: Alvin Tresselt (Lothrop)
• 1947: The Little Island , illustrated by Leonard Weisgard; text: Golden MacDonald, pseud. [Margaret Wise Brown] (Doubleday)
• 1946: The Rooster Crows by Maud & Miska Petersham (Macmillan)
• 1945: Prayer for a Child , illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones; text: Rachel Field (Macmillan)
• 1944: Many Moons , illustrated by Louis Slobodkin; text: James Thurber (Harcourt)
• 1943: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton (Houghton)
• 1942: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (Viking)
• 1941: They Were Strong and Good , by Robert Lawson (Viking)
• 1940: Abraham Lincoln by Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire (Doubleday)
• 1939: Mei Li by Thomas Handforth (Doubleday)
• 1938: Animals of the Bible, A Picture Book , illustrated by Dorothy P. Lathrop; text: selected by Helen Dean Fish (Lippincott)

Top of list
Closure:  Review poster or list and point out that tables, posters and lists might be found in their textbooks, magazines, nonfiction books, encyclopedias, and newspapers. 

    


Name __________________________ Teacher ________________________ 
The Caldecott Medal is awarded to the illustrator of the most 
distinguished picture book published during the previous year. The 
book must be an original creation and the winner has to be a citizen 
or resident of the United States. The award was first presented by the 
Association for Library Service to Children in 1938. 
Answer these questions using the table Caldecott Medal Winners 
1987-2012. 


1. The Three Pigs won the Caldecott Medal in ___________. 
2. Emily Arnold McCully wrote ____________________________ 
__________________________________________________ 
3. The author of Smoky Night is __________________________. 
4. Who won the Caldecott Medal in 2000? __________________ 
5. How many books have both an author and illustrator listed on 
the table? _________ 
6. When did Eric Rohmann win the Caldecott Medal? _________ 
What was the name of his book? ________________________ 
7. Grandfather’s Journey was written and illustrated by 
________________________________________________. 
8. The Caldecott Medal winning book in 1992 was ____________. 
9. Golem was written by ____________________________

Additional Lesson Plan

Library Objective/s:   Student will know why the Caldecott Medal is given, how it is

chosen and how different illustrators use different materials to create book illustrations.

Time  3- 30 minute lessons

Lesson Title:  The_Caldecott_Medal

Introduction:  Read the standard. Explain how awards are given to people for

doing well in something. Show samples of awards that might be for good attendance,

test scores, team accomplishment, etc. Explain that books can get awards too. A special

award called the Caldecott Medal is given every year for the book with the best pictures.

Vocabulary:  Caldecott, style, vote, match, award, prize, medal

Activity: 

Lesson 1: Pull, read and show several Caldecott Medal 1^st  place (gold sticker) and 2nd

 place (Silver sticker) winning books. Read a few and talk about the styles of illustrating.

While reading aloud discuss what the illustrator used to create the pictures.

Example:

Eric Carle spends many days just finger painting on large sheets of paper! He stores

them in his office. When he is going to make some illustrations for a book, he goes to the  

finger painted sheets and selects the colors he wants. He then cuts out the shapes of the

objects he wants in his picture and glues the shapes to a blank paper to make the

illustration. We can see in his book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar that he used some

yellow and orange sheets for the sunrise. He used various colors for the things the

caterpillar eats…

 

(Biographies on illustrators-Aliki, Trina Hymen, etc.) Discuss the characteristics of

award winning books: Pictures match the words. Neat, not sloppy. Used most of the

page for the illustration, not just in the middle or corner unless it was significant to the

story.

Discuss the challenges of the judges and that many books are great that have not received awards.

Lesson 2:

Have a mini-Caldecott event (Not “contest”). Students are provided with a sheet of paper with a sentence at the top. They are told to illustrate that page of a story. Review characteristics of award winning illustrators. The students will draw with pencil and then color their papers. Have students put their names on the back of the papers.

Lesson 3:

Mix the drawings up and have students vote on 5 at a time. (They are judging by the characteristics of award winning illustrators. Take the winners in each and have another vote from the class. Narrow it down to two pictures. Have all students vote on these. Award a gold and silver sticker to the winners. 

Closure

The Caldecott Medal is just one of many awards given to books. It is just for the illustrations. Other awards are given for the story-writing, subject matter, etc.

Questioning students: What is the Caldecott Medal award given? How do the judges decide on what book to choose for the gold medal?…for the silver medal?

   

Resources: Pre-selected Caldecott Medal winning books

           Some samples are:

Where the Wild Things Are (E Sen) 

                   (Pen & ink with watercolor)

The Very Hungry Caterpillar (E Car) 

                  (Finger-painted cut paper)

Hello, Goodbye Window (E Ras) 

                  (Poster paints, vibrant colors)

Kitten’s First Full Moon (E Hen) 

                  (Black ink and white space) Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (E Wil) 

                  (Photographs with cartoon characters on top)

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (E Wil) 

                  (Simple paintings with less detail, background is plain.)                                            

Olivia (E Fal) 

                  (Use of black and red paint, airbrush)

Drummer Hoff (E Emb OR 398.8 Emb) 

                  (Wood cuts)

No, David! (E Sha) 

     (Cartoon-style, child-like paintings)

Officer Buckle and Gloria (E Rat) 

                  (Opaque watercolors)

Seven Blind Mice (E You) 

                  (Use of bold primary colors)

The Big Snow (E Had) 

                  (Use of two- and three-color illustrations)

Inch by Inch (E Lio) 

                  (Tissue paper, opaque and transparent watercolors,

                  ink)

The Snowy Day (E Kea) 

                  (Collage with wallpaper cutout shape, cotton 

                  balls, airbrush, etc.)

Drawing paper

Pencils and crayons

Notary seals- gold and silver (Found in stationary stores. Used by notaries.)