Clear Moments in Time

Focus, Support and Elaboration Organization Beginnings Endings
Style Word Choice Sentence Fluency Introduction

A Clear Moment in Time

Students want to write stories that go on for days, months, even years. Reading the books in this list will help them understand the time span that a "clear moment in time" should represent.

When using picture books as models for other traits it will be a good idea to mention and compare the time frame if it is not "a clear moment in time" and talk about how it differs from the expectations of the state test.

Author	Title * Indicates Out of Print	Summary	Curriculum Connection	Character Trait
Alexander, Martha	?Where Does the Sky End, Grandpa?*	Grandpa and his little grandchild walk together at the end of the day wondering about all kinds of things.	Science	Respect
Aragon, Jane	Salt Hands*	A young girl?s brief encounter with a deer.	Science	Respect
Bates, Artie	Ragsale*	A family spends Saturday morning going to rag sales.	Social Studies Cultural Group: African-American
Battle-Lavert, Gwendolyn	The Barber?s Cutting Edge	Rashaad gets his hair cut and discovers the joy of learning new words.	Social Studies Cultural Group: African-American
Brinkloe, Julie	Fireflies	A young boy is pleased with the jar of fireflies he caught until their lights begin to dim.	Science	Respect
Bunting, Eve	Ghost?s Hour, Spook?s Hour	Scary incidents at midnight give Biff the dog and his master a frightening time.	Health	Courage
Bunting, Eve	Night Tree	A family makes its annual trip to decorate an evergreen tree with food for animals at Christmas.	Social Studies	Caring
Bunting, Eve	No Nap	Dad?s efforts to make Susie take a nap only exhaust him.	Health	Perseverance
Bunting, Eve	Smoky Night	During the Los Angeles riots a young boy and his mother discover the value of getting along with others.	Social Studies Multicultural	Respect
Burningham, John	Harvey Shumfenburger?s Christmas Present	Santa discovers one last gift he must deliver.	Social Studies	Responsibility
Cherry, Lynn	The Great Kapok Tree	Animals convince a man not to cut down the tree that is their home.	Science	Responsibility
Crews, Donald	Shortcut	Children put themselves in danger	Health Cultural Group: Afro-American	Responsibility
Daly, Niki	Not So Fast, Songololo	In South Africa, a young boy shares a special day with his grandmother when they go into the city on a shopping trip.	Social Studies Cultural group: South African	Respect
Dooley, Norah	Everybody Cooks Rice	A young girl exploring her neighborhood discovers that everyone is cooking rice for supper that night in their own way.	Math: Measurement Multicultural	Respect
Fleming, Virginia	Be Good to Eddie Lee	Eddie Lee, a boy with Down?s Syndrome, follows Christy into the woods and shares several special discoveries with her.	Science	Compassion
Friday, Beverly & David	Time To Go*	As a family prepares to leave a child takes one last look at his farm home.	Social Studies	Caring
Gilliland, Judith	Not in the House, Newton!	Everything Newton draws with his crayon becomes real.	Health	Self-discipline
Gliori, Debi	The Snow Lambs	A sheepdog guides a lamb about to give birth to safety during a snowstorm.	Science	Courage
Goode, Dianne	I Hear A Noise*	A little boy?s worst fears are realized.	Health	Responsibility
Goode, Dianne	Where?s Our Mama?	A quartet of lost children look for their mother in a Parisian railway station.	Social Studies
Harden, Dan	Colliding With Chris	A young boy?s first ride on a bike with handbrakes turns out much wilder than he ever thought possible.	Health
Harrison, Troon	Don?t Dig So Deep, Nicholas	Nicholas begins digging a hole in the sand and unleashes a whole gang of animals from New Zealand that go wild on the beach.	Science	Self-discipline
Herald, Maggie	A Very Important Day	A group of immigrants become citizens of the US on a winter day in New York.	Social Studies Multicultural	Citizenship
Herman, Emily	Hubknuckles	Each Halloween a ghost named Hubknuckles dances around the outside of the house. The oldest daughter decides she is not afraid and thinks her mom and dad are just playing a trick. She finds out she is wrong.	Social Studies	Courage
Hesse, Karen	Lester?s Dog	A boy overcomes his fear of mean dogs when he has to protect a frail, abandoned kitten.	Health	Courage
Howard, Elizabeth	Chita?s Christmas Tree	Papa and Chita leave downtown Baltimore in a buggy to find a tree in the deep woods.	Social Studies Cultural Group: Hispanic
Hutchins, Pat	The Doorbell Rang	More and more friends arrive to share a plate of cookies.	Math: computation	Fairness
Impey, Rosa	Joe?s Caf�*	Big brother Joe comes to understand what the responsibility of being in charge means when his little sister disappears while Joe is playing.	Health	Responsibility
Johnson, Paul Brett	The Cow Who Wouldn?t Come Down	Miss Rosemary?s cow has learned to fly and won?t come down. Miss Rosemary uses all of her imagination to convince the cow to return to her regular station.		Perseverance
Johnston, Tony	The Promise*	A farmer passes down the tradition of making a promise to care for animals with a little girl who helps him birth a calf.	Science	Responsibility
Joosse, Barbara M.	Snow Day	When school is cancelled because of snow, Robby and his family enjoy the day together.	Social Studies	Caring
Keats, Ezra Jack	Apt. 3	On a rainy day two brothers try to discover who is playing the harmonica in their building.	Cultural Group: African-American	Compassion
Kumin, Maxine	The Beach Before Breakfast	An adult and child explore the beach early one morning.	Science	Respect
Moore, Clement	The Night Before Christmas	A narrative poem about Christmas Eve and a visit from St. Nick.	Social Studies
Munsch, Robert	The Dark	Jule Ann pounds on the bottom of the cookie jar, and a small lump jumps out and starts gobbling up every shadow in sight.	Science
Noble, Trinka	The Day Jimmy?s Boa Ate the Wash	A boy relates the events of his school field trip.
Pilkey, Dave	The Paperboy	A paperboy?s morning delivery routine.	Social Studies	Responsibility
Pinkwater, Daniel	Author?s Day	A famous author visits a school and things don?t go quite right.		Perseverance
Rylant, Cynthia	When I Was Young in the Mountains	Episodic remembrances of the author?s childhood linked by the title phrase.	Social Studies	Compassion
Van Allsburg, Chris	Bad Day at Riverbend	This surrealistic journey into the imagination is set in a western town where things start to go haywire.	Social Studies	Courage
Viorst, Judith	The Good-Bye Book	A child begs his parents not to go out to dinner, separation anxiety.	Health	Courage
Waddell, Martin	The Big Big Sea	A young girl and her mother take a moonlight walk to the sea.	Science	Caring
Weller, Frances and Robert Blake	The Angel of Mill Street	On a snowy Christmas Eve in the late 1800?s a family waits and worries when their cripple uncle doesn?t come home.	Social Studies	Caring
Wilder, Laura Ingalls	Dance at Grandpa?s	A young pioneer girl and her family attend a wintertime party at her grandparent?s home in the big woods of Wisconsin.	Social Studies
Yolen, Jane	Beneath the Ghost Moon*	Poem: follows "Twas the night before Christmas," mice battle mean-hearted creepy crawlies to protect their home.	Science	Courage
Yolen, Jane	Owl Moon	On a winter night under a full moon, father and daughter trek into the woods to see the Great Horned Owl.	Science	Caring
Young, Ed	Night Visitors	A young scholar learns respect for all forms of life when he dreams he becomes part of an ant colony.	Science Cultural Group: Chinese	Respect

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A Clear Moment in Time

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