Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff

(TESOL Materials--Story Time)

This is another book by Syd Hoff, who also wrote Sammy the Seal.  Although unlike Sammy the Seal, I don't think I've read this book in my childhood.  At least not that I can remember.

The premise, however, is golden--a young boy gets to spend a day playing with a dinosaur.  How could you not go wrong with a book like that?  And indeed, it went over pretty well with my students.

Unfortunately, there are a couple pages near the beginning of the book which are a bit dated: stereotypical portrayals of Indians and Eskimos, as well as some depictions of guns and swords.  These things made me pause a bit before taking it into the classroom, but I ultimately decided that the positives of this book outweigh the negatives.

Supplementary Materials
Google Drive Folder HERE

Slideshow: slides, pub

Circle the things in the story worksheet: docs, pub

Coloring sheet: docs, pub

Sammy the Seal by Syd Hoff

(Graded Readers)

I used this book with a small group of emerging readers, and I found it worked well. 

I chose this book up primarily just because my school had multiple copies, because it seemed to be at a suitable level, and because the animation looked appealing.  Once we got into the book, however, it started to sound familiar, and I am relatively sure that I myself read this book in elementary school at one point (or perhaps had it read to me by a teacher.)

The book is just about the perfect length--not too long, not too short.  And the words are easy for emergent readers, but the sentences are long enough to give them some decent practice.

A trip over to Wikipedia reveals that the guy who wrote this book, Syd Hoff, had an interesting life.  See his wikipedia article Here.

Supplementary Materials:
I found a good Kahoot for this book here: Sammy the Seal Second Grade Review by cnayman.  I made a duplicate of this Kahoot so I could edit it slightly.  My duplicate version is here.