Bea and Mr. Jones
Story and Pictures by Amy Schwartz
Beatrice is tired of going to kindergarten and playing all of the games. Mr. Jones is tired of catching the 7:45 and laughing at all of his bosses bad jokes. At this point, Bea and Mr. Jones decide to switch places for the day. Bea gets on the train and sits with her father's business associate Harvey, and he explains that they have a busy day ahead of them. When they arrive at work, Harvey sends out a memo to the office stating that Bea will be replacing Mr. Jones for the day. When Mr. Jones arrives at kindergarten, he gives Miss Seymour a note excusing Bea from school and informing her that Mr. Jones will be participating in class for the day. Mr Jones loved all the games, and he was an excellent snack monitor because he didn't spill the milk. He also was able to help get kids unstuck from the trees. Bsck in the office, Bea sent her secratary home for the day and loved all of the bosses jokes. She was also able to help come up with a jingle for the cracker account, and received a promotion at the end of the day. Mr. Jones and Bea decided to permanently switch places. Bea became the president of toy sales and Mr. Jones became a star student.
This was such a cute book, and would be great to use in a classroom. I used it for my read aloud, and the kids absolutely loved it. They all wanted to tell me what their parents did at their jobs and share their experiences when they went with their parents to work. There are many open ended questions you could use with this book that would get kids thinking and sharing their ideas. I also really liked the illustrations. The whole book is in black and white, but the pictures still helped get the story line across.
I was looking online for a picture to add to the blog when I came across a great lesson plan you could use with younger kids. Here is the link to the lesson plan:
This book sounds adorable. I agree that it's a great portal to discuss jobs and maybe even introduce a career day type activity. The illustrations may be lacking a bit without the color but maybe you could show the kids that they can make their own illustrations for the book! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteThis was such a cute book!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteKids have such crazy ideas about what they want to be when they grow up, and I think this is a great way to start that discussion. A lot of schools have parent career days where the parents come in and talk about what they do, and I think that this would be a good book to introduce the idea of that.
I don't know if you could really tie this in with any other huge lessons, but it is just an entertaining book and it's one that I think everyone can relate to.
I definitely want to read this book, it sounds like a really interesting and fun book to read. I like how you said that you can really ask a lot of open ended questions with this book. This is good because by doing this you really get the kids thinking and reflecting on what is being read. For my class I would use this book to talk to the kids about different work professions that there are and also what they do in each. Then I would have each kid pick one of those jobs and then write a story about what their day would be like if they would to trade places with that person.
ReplyDeleteThis book would be a great segway into talking to children about careers and what their parents do. It would also help children recognize their personal talents. After all it will be our job to introduce them to their futures. Great book and it is amazing for your BIB theme.
ReplyDelete