Grade level: 1, 2, 3, 4, k, p, e, t.

A creative guide to over 5000 alphabet books with activities, games, and projects that can be used with ABC books.

Through reviewing documents held for over a century in St. Petersburg Russia, DNA tests, the Facebook Lithuanian Genealogical Society, various genealogy websites and traveling to Lithuania, I have unraveled stories of my noble Lutkiewicz and Dowgwillo ancestors who were born in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, once the largest country in Europe. Over the centuries my ancestors lived through Czarist Russian occupation, Napoleon’s invasion, uprisings against occupation, Soviet and Nazi occupation, and independence. At the turn of the 20th century many ancestors, including my great grandparents immigrated to the United States. This is a collection of their stories.

This compendium of outstanding read-aloud choices for grades pre-K–3 will enrich and extend content area instruction, helping busy teachers to meet curriculum requirements within the confines of their busy schedules. It's a familiar and unfortunate story: educators everywhere are being asked to do more teaching with less—less money, less staff, and less time. One easy way to provide more content area instruction to very young readers is by scaffolding beneficial learning subjects within memorable read-aloud activities. This augments the instructional curriculum and keeps learning fun—without adding to the educator's already-full plate. Read-Aloud Scaffold: Best Books to Enhance Content Area Curriculum, Grades Pre-K–3 offers teachers and librarians over 700 content area connections through carefully selected, recently published children's trade books. These selections include fiction and non-fiction titles that represent outstanding read-aloud choices that will augment the instructional curriculum, covering subjects ranging from history to holidays to special events, and from biographies and memoirs to poetry and character education. "A Closer Look" suggests outstanding read-aloud choices related to key units in the curriculum and features discussion points, cross-curricular activities, writing prompts, and related online and print materials.