My Books - With Teacher Study Guides

There’s a Dog on the Dining Room Table

What would you do if you found a dog on your dining room table? Would you try to figure out what he’s doing there? That’s what happens in There’s a Dog on the Dining Room Table, a short and silly rhyming story about a dog’s mysterious appearance on top of a child’s dining room table.

For ages 0-5.

If a Dog Could Wear a Hat

A young girl finds a creative way to pass the time while home sick from school, much to the dismay of her canine companion.

For ages 0-5.

Stuffed Animal Dance Party!

It’s fun time for their toys when two girls go outside to play for the day.

For ages 0-5.

The National Early Literacy Panel has identified certain characteristics of the very young that lead to later literacy success. They include oral language development and phonological/phonemic awareness. Additionally, P.E. Bryant, M. Maclean, L. Bradley, and J. Crossland (1990.Rhyme and alliteration, phoneme alliteration, phoneme detection, and learning to read. Developmental Psychology 26: 429-438.) and M. Maclean, P. Bryant, & L. Bradley (1987. Rhymes, nursery rhymes, and reading in early childhood. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 33: 255-81.) address the importance of nursery rhymes, rhyming, singing, and word games to the development of linguistic and phonemic awareness.

I wrote my books completely in rhyme purposely to introduce very young children to the magic of language. Teachers will find it relates to certain of the New York State Common Core prekindergarten learning standards in English Language Arts and Literacy:

Reading Standards for Informational Text, No. 3: In There’s a Dog on the Dining Room Table, children will learn to connect the dog on the dining room table with the reason for his sudden appearance. In If a Dog Could Wear a Hat and Stuffed Animal Dance Party!, children will learn to connect the surprise ending with the story’s events.

Reading Standards: Foundational Skills, Phonological Awareness, No. 2 (a) Engage in language play (e.g., alliterative language, rhyming, sound patterns), and No. 2(b) Recognize and match words that rhyme: The cadence and rhyming patterns I utilize purposely lend a sing-song nature to the text to make the reading and learning experience fun for the child.

Here are links to the Amazon pages for my books:

http://www.amazon.com/Theres-Dog-Dining-Elizabeth-Maginnis-ebook/dp/B00N9HII7I