Vendor | ISBN | Title/Description | Published | Type | Format | Price | Citation |
1) Crabtree | 978-0778704567-9 | Meet My Neighbor series | 2009 | Non-Fiction | Book - 8 in Series | $146.88 | CN Magazine Review |
2) Elmo’s Teacher Tool/Amazon | Model – TT-02s | Document Camera | Technology | Device for viewing books on overhead | $125 USD | Amazon user reviews | |
3) Enchanted Learning | Online subscription – School 1 year | Updated regularly | Technology | Webpage – Teacher printable | $425 USD | ||
4) Scholastic | 9780779124947 | My Dad’s Fire Truck (6 copies) | Fiction | Narrative/Information – students read together on subject area | $39 | ||
5) Amazon.com | Amazing Heroes: Spend a Day with Firefigters, Police Officers, and Rescue Workers | Non-Fiction | DVD | $12.95 UDS | Amazon Editorial Reviews | ||
6) Learner Books | 978-0-8225-6078-4 | Pull Ahead Books – Community Helpers Complete Collection | Non-Fiction | Book – 12 in set including a TR book | $72.63 USD | School Library Journal and Booklist reviews (bottom of webpage) | |
7) Leaner Books | 978-0-8225-5480-6 | Pull Ahead books - Custodians | Non-Fiction | 6 books in set for group reading | $39.62 | School Library Journal and Booklist reviews (bottom of webpage) | |
8) Amazon.ca | 978-0778720935 | My Community and its Helpers | 2005 | Non-Fiction | Book – series of 6 | $81.89 | CM Magazine |
9) ULS | 9780766034358 | Community Helpers of Past, Present and Future | 2010 | Non-Fiction | Book | $26.26 | CN Library Thing |
10) Amazon.com | 978-1404819764 | Whose Hat (Tools/Car/Gloves Shoes) is This? | 2006 | Non-Fiction | 5 Books in Series | $39.75 | Good Reads - review |
Material Selection Rational
The materials that have been selected to replace the weeded materials from the last assignment will do an excellent job by bringing the library up to date with many materials in different formats.
This project was based on looking at a Kindergarten class, but the reality is that the materials purchased will help the 4 teachers in primary teaching K-3. The reason for this is that these 4 teachers will all be using these materials. I have selected a wide range of reading levels for the books in order to accommodate the wide range of readers there will be from K-3. I have also included some items with teacher resources to help those new teachers with ideas for their units. This is done to make their lives easier, but also to make me look like a valuable resource as I am helping make their lives easier.
The totals for this project are:
1 – Document Camera
1 – Webpage Subscription
1 – DVD
38 – Books
Costs:
$294.03 Canadian plus taxes and shipping
$714.95 USD plus taxes, shipping, possible duty (dollar about par)
Estimated Totals:
$1,008.98 without the taxes, duty, and shipping
Materials Explained
1) Meet My Neighbor Series – This is a series that is very popular and can be purchased from many different companies. Although the reviews from CN Magazine were not that positive I have actually seen these materials and I think they are a good choice for K/1 or low readers in 2/3. They have large print, good pictures and current facts. The series also includes a couple of other jobs then the usual police, fire, emergency jobs. There are hair dressers, chefs, and martial arts instructors.
2) Document Camera – This camera was recommend to me from a co-worker. She did a lot of research into these before buying one, but she went with the cheaper one from Toshiba because she was spending her own money. This teacher believed this model was much better, but she did not want to spend $800 for it. Lucky for me, it is on sale for half of that now. The document camera will come in handy for stories in the library, creating a “big book” feel. This will also help when I am teaching library skills and want the whole class to be on the same page (no pun intended) when doing a lesson. For the community helpers unit, this camera will help me and the classroom teacher show the class what we are discussing on a big screen as well as share student work related to the assignments they will be doing.
3) Enchanted Learning Webpage – This is a webpage that has a 1 year subscription for $125 for an entire school (or $20 for 1 teacher). Enchanted Learning has over 20,000 different reproducible lessons. This webpage will be an excellent source for those new teachers looking for quick and easy worksheets to add onto their units as well as give great ideas on how to create their unit. There are many great ideas here for community helpers along with thousands of other ideas for other units. I have discussed this webpage before with some staff members. They liked what they saw from the free sample pages and were interested in getting a membership. I believe this would be a good time to purchase this material. The entire teaching body will benefit, hopefully enjoy it, and make me look more indispensable in the process.
4) My Dad’s Fire Truck – This is a narrative fiction book that has 6 copies in the package. The reason for getting this package is for the teachers that like to sit in small groups with the students and group read. This story will be perfect for this unit. This is a story about a father that is a fire fighter and the storyteller tells the reader what his job is like through a story. This way the students are learning about the content area while reading in small groups.
5) Amazing Heroes – This is a non-fiction DVD geared for younger students that covers spending a day with fire fighters, police officers, and rescue helpers. This DVD would be too long for any primary students to sit and watch the entire DVD, but instead it would work great breaking it up into 20 minute segments. Over a 3 week period, the teacher could focus on one of the jobs each week. The jobs on this DVD are considered to be 3 of the more popular jobs in the community helpers unit.
6) Pull Ahead Books Community Helpers Complete Collection – This is a collection of 12 non-fiction books that highlight a list of jobs that we would find in a community. The School Library Journal recommends buying this series. These books will work great for K-3 and complement the other series I have purchased (Meet My Neighbor) because there will be some of the same jobs covered with a different look to them. The really great part about this package is there is a teacher’s resource manual included that will help the teachers with ideas on how to teach with these books.
7) Pull Ahead Books Custodians – This is a non-fiction book that is in a collection of 6 books. This book will also have one copy in the “Pull Ahead Books Community Helpers Complete Collection.” The reason for doubling up on this book is to give the teachers a non-fiction book that they can use for reading in small groups. There are a couple of reasons for selecting the custodian book. Often with a community helpers unit police officers and fire department jobs are always focused on. Secondly, it is important to teach students the value of what a custodian does. Many of the students in my school need to learn to be better citizens when it comes to cleaning up after themselves. Hopefully reading information books like this will help.
8) My Community and its Helpers – This is a non-fiction series of 6 books. I selected the hardcopy versions of this book for this assignment, but in reality, I would probably select the paperback version for about a third of the price. Since so many of the non-fiction books are dated so quickly and used so little (usually once per year per class) it is better to buy the paperback version because the book will be outdated before it falls apart. This is another series that will help to accommodate the other 2 series with giving a different perspective and reading level. The jobs included here will cover police, fire department, famers, vets, doctors, and teachers. Since this series is from Amazon it is actually 6 books listed individually, however I have listed them as a package.
9) Community Helpers Past, Present, and Future – This is a non-fiction hard cover book that will help to educate the students about what the community helpers’ jobs would have been like and where they might be going. This will be a good book for the teachers to use to spark classroom discussion after they read part of the book about each job.
10) Whose Hat (Tool/Shoes/Car/Gloves) is This? – This is a non-fiction book collection of 5 books. This collection takes a different look at community helpers by looking at a piece of equipment and discussing which job would go with that piece of equipment. Like the previous purchase from Amazon, this series is actually 5 books listed individually on their webpage that I have put into one series for the purpose of this project.
