Below is an annotated list of children's literature for the elementary classroom. The books are organized by the Six Elements of Social Justice Curriculum Design (Picower, 2007). It is based on work by pre-service teachers at Montclair State University. They have read and reviewed these books and provided insights into how they can be used in K-5 settings.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Love Your World



Title: Love Your World

Author: Dawn Sirett

Illustrator: Rachael Parfitt

Ages: 4-6




Summary: This book demonstrates eco-awareness and going “green” in words that children will understand. The author introduces the terms recycle, reduce, and reuse by showing different ideas for each one. It informs children to take care of the earth in variety of ways such as turning off the lights when it is not in use to growing their own garden with recycled containers. Furthermore, this book teaches children that we are not only taking care of the world but the animals and people that live in it. Children will enjoy the vivid and vibrant photographs in this book.

Social Injustice:
This book represents element six of social justice by providing several of ways to take action on an issue such as going “green.” It is important to introduce children in an early age to be aware that they can make a difference in the world. This book is a great way to demonstrate different ideas of taking care of the world by making a small difference in their community. Also, young children will learn that everyone in this world is worthy of making small changes no matter if they are big or small.

Here are some activities that can be done with this book:
In order to demonstrate eco-awareness to children you should begin recycling in the classroom. You could bring in bins and label it such as: paper, cans, plastic, and donate old clothes. You can, also, make copies of I promise to: from the back of the book. It has a list of several of ideas of what can be done to help take care of their environment and if they keep their promise they receive an award (that can be also found on the back of the book). Lastly, students can take action on this issue at their school. They can place recycling bin around the school and post up pictures of the importance of going “green.”

Here are some additional activities.
You can purchase this book here.

1 comment:

  1. Great post! I linked this page to my blog (on the sidebar under Children's Books). Thanks!

    ReplyDelete