Young John Quincy by Cheryl Harness

This story is about young John Quincy Adams. His father John Adams is in Philadelphia fighting for independence from the King of Brittan. While young John's father is away, the eight year old has to become the man of the house and help his family. His father comes home for a visit and tells the family stories about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ben Franklin. Soon young John Quincy's father has to go back to Philadelphia to finish what he and the other men started. While John Adams was gone, his wife knitted uniforms for the army to wear in the upcoming war. The war started March 4th, 1776 and on the morning of March 17th the British ships sailed from the Boston Harbor. After the war, people finally received INDEPENDENCE!

This book is full of facts that children will learn in social studies or U.S. History. I would use this book to teach students about America and the American Revolution. This book could also be used as a reference for students in elementary school who may have to write a paper on the American Revolution. This nonfiction autobiography will engage young students because of the vivid pictures. It will also engage older students because it is packed full of useful information.

Mother Teresa by Demi

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910. Her father died when she was 9 years old. She wanted to become a missionary and in 1928, she left her family and traveled to Rathfarnham Ireland. She chose the name Sister Mary Teresa. She opened many schools and places for people with diseases. In 1953, she and her sisters moved to a new home and everyone called her "Mother Teresa" because she acted as the mother of the house. On September 5th, 1997 Mother Teresa dies but she leaves a legacy of all of the people that she helped in opening hospitals and schools for people who were less fortunate.

Teachers can use this book to teach students about Mother Teresa and all of the activities that she did to help people. Students may be interested in her life and may have to write an autobiography about Mother Teresa. This would be a great book for students to use as a reference for an autobiography.

Water Worlds: Coral Reefs by Cheryl Hook

This nonfiction book gives students the opportunity to learn about the coral reef. The book gives definitions of words such as continental shelf, tropics, and zooxanthellae. This shows that the content of this book is advanced a a upper elementary student would benefit from it. The pictures are intriguing as well as informing. It gives details on how the coral reefs are built and found. It also has a glossary in the back of the book to help the students understand the words that the author uses.

Teachers can allow students to draw pictures of the coral reef or make a video of the components of the coral reef in order to assess their understanding. The students can show pictures of the words like continental shelf and zooxanthellae.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Teachers can use ANIMOTO videos in their classroom to give their students an opportunity to create their own videos. It is very simple to make. The student needs to have pictures in order to create the video and ANIMOTO provides music that students can choose from to make the video even more special.