Finally! The updates you have been waiting for:OUR 5th YEAR OF HOMESCHOOL: 3rd GRADE and 4th GRADE (2006-7)!
Do you have kids that are younger than these grades? Go see my previous book lists. They are linked on my Homeschool Series post by year/grade level. Pardon me for any of this post that seems like a repeat for those of you who frequent my blog… the long explanation is for those who are new visitors.
These are the books we read in 2006-7. In case you are just “tuning in”, our kiddos were 8 and 10 at the time. Both of the kids were reading very well already. Many of the books on this list are well over their grade level. Some are encyclopedia type books which we either read parts of or all of – depending on the unit and level of interest. There are some that we skimmed for photographs and subtitles of interest and only read small bits of (most of this type are listed as such in italics).
Our curriculum dictates that we should have an ongoing “family reader” (usually a chapter book) for each unit study, and then I require most school days that the children read on their own or out loud. There are 246 books listed here. As the books get thicker, the list gets shorter. I did NOT include any PREVIOUSLY read books in this list (and there were quite a few). That means that all of my book lists should NOT contain duplicate books (even though the children often re-check books or re-read some at home in our personal library).
Many of these books can be read at a much older age level as well, so don’t let the grade level fool you. The grade in the title of this post just happens to be the grade they were in when WE read them. You can read them any time you like (I’m not a kid, and I enjoyed many of them!). The ones that my children considered too ‘babyish’ or young are noted in italics, along with any other notes I made when recording the book list that year.
The books that we enjoyed the MOST are bolded. A few were so good that we went out and bought our own copy to add to our library at home. I didn’t write down the reasons why we loved them. Some times it was content, others it was illustrations, and sometimes both. The kids love revisiting those books; and if we don’t have them at home, they don’t hesitate to re-check them at the library. The rest of the books which are NOT bolded are probably great, too (I either didn’t remember them very well, the children read them without my help and didn’t comment about them, or they just weren’t a FAVORITE). Don’t think that just because the book is not bolded, it isn’t a good book! Our favorites are subjective and you should read these for yourself to find out what your family’s favorites are!
Books that had objectionable content (according to our worldview – which is Christian in nature) are conveniently listed in red. These are books that went above and beyond truth and logic to preach evolution or erase the line between fact and theory. Another reason it may be red is if it had sexual, spiritually dark, mystic or adult themes. If you aren’t a Christian and you don’t have a problem with evolution or early exposure to sensuality, you can read them/watch them without issue. They are labeled in red as a service for other like-minded Christian moms who read this blog.
If you enjoy using our book lists and ideas here at Sprittibee’s Homeschool Blog, please consider dropping some spare change in the tip jar – no donation too small! We could use a few dollars to buy more books with since most of these are LIBRARY books we checked out! Another way you can support my blog is to order the books you want through my Amazon store! You can check out my little Amazon book store up at the top of this blog by clicking the bookstore link, or clicking the text in this sentence! Many of our favorites are there and sorted by category. If you purchase them through our referral, my kids might eventually get a free book for their library. It’s a win-win situation! You get great books, we get a few pennies for telling you about them.
SPRITTIBEE’S THIRD / FOURTH GRADE BOOK LIST
The Library of the Five Senses and the Sixth Sense: Hearing – Sue Hurwitz
Helen Keller and the Big Storm – Patricia Lakin (Ready to Read Level 2, Childhood of Famous Americans)
Helen Keller Courage in the Dark – Johanna Hurwitz
I’m Deaf and It’s Okay” – Lorraine Asettine
Cats from Away – Peter Parnall
Exploring our Senses: Hearing – Henry Pluckrose
Antonio Vivaldi and the Baroque Tradition – Donna Getzinger
How to Talk to Your Cat – Jean Craighead George
Video: Helen Keller (Animated Hero Classics) – Nest Entertainment
Video: War & Peace – Russia During Napoleon’s Invasion
Video: Reading Rainbow: Music, Music, Everywhere
My Five Senses – Aliki (early elementary)
Biography (DK) Helen Keller: A Photographic Story of a Life – Leslie Garrett
Chris Gets Ear Tubes – Betty Pace
Video: Say, Sing & Sign – American Sign Language Series: Animals
You Can’t Smell a Flower with Your Ear – Joanna Cole
All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir – Bill Staines
Plantzilla – Jerdine Nolen
Perk Up Your Ears – Vicki Cobb
Eyes and Ears – Seymour Simon (*awesome photos)
The Brain and the Nervous System – Steve Parker
A New True Book: Your Five Senses – Ray Broekel
Ah, Music! – Aliki (Informative with great illustrations)
Long Live Music! – Les Chats Petes (*awful, disrespectful!)
A Horn for Louis – Eric A. Kimmel (Louis Armstrong/Jewish Traditions)
Star Wars Boba Fett: Pursuit – A Clone Wars Novel – Elizabeth Hand
Shake, Rattle & Roll – Holly George-Warren
Once Upon a Time in Chicago: The Story of Benny Goodman – Jonah Winter
Honky-Tonk Heroes & Hillbilly Angels: The Pioneers of Country Western Music – Holly George-Warren
Video: The Miracle Worker (1962)
Sebastian – A Book About Bach – Jeanette Winter
The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner (Cornerstones of Freedom) – Natalie Miller
Maine Coon Cats – Stuart A. Kallen
A Day in the Life of a Musician (OK Readers Level 1) – Linda Hayward
Fortune – Diane Stanley
The Magic School Bus and the Science Fair Expedition – Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen
The Magic School Bus Explores the Senses – Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen
The Story of the Incredible Orchestra – Bruce Koscielnak
Ludwig Van Beethoven Musical Pioneer – Carol Greene
Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Mike Venezia
Composer’s World: Ludwig van Beethoven – Wendy Thompson
Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers: George Handel – Mike Venezia
Hallelujah Handel – Douglas Cowling
Young Mozart – Rachel Isadora
Video: Eyewitness CAT
The Story of Mozart – Helen L. Kaufmann (1955)
Seasons: A Book of Poems (An I Can Read Book) – Charlotte Zolotow
Yankee Doodle – Gary Chalk
Comet’s Nine Lives – Jan Brett
The Bremen Town Musicians (The Brothers Grimm/Illustrated by Josef Palecek)
Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists: Van Gogh – Mike Venezia
Video: Sound of Music (1965)
Video: Fiddler on the Roof
Video: DK Eyewitness: Sight
Visiting the Art Museum – Laurene Krasny Brown
The Jazzy Alphabet – Sherry Shahan (too young)
Uncle Frank’s Pit – Matthew McElligot
The Birman Cat – Joanne Mattern
Old Turtle and the Broken Truth – Douglas Wood (new age/utopian)
Bunny Tails – Barbara Brenner, William H. Hooks, and Betty Boegehold
Explorers! Lewis and Clark American Explorers – Arlene Bourgeois Molzahn
Indoor Cats – A Complete Pet Owners’ Manual – Barron’s
The Ragdoll Cat – Joanne Mattern
Insect Masquerades – Hilda Simon
Insect Pests – George S. Fichter (A Golden Nature Guide)
How Artists See Animals – Colleen Carroll
Art for Children: Animals Observed – Brigitte Baumbusch
The Library of the Five Senses and the Sixth Sense: Sight – Sue Hurwitz
What Do You See and How Do You See It? – Patricia Lauber
It’s All in Your Brain – Sylvia Funston and Jay Ingram
Everything Cat – Marty Crisp
Becoming Your Cat’s Best Friend – Bill Gutman
The Library of the Five Senses and the Sixth Sense: Smell – Sue Hurwitz
The Library of the Five Senses and the Sixth Sense: Touch – Sue Hurwitz
The Library of the Five Senses and the Sixth Sense: Taste – Sue Hurwitz
Stick Out Your Tongue! – Joan Bonsignore
How Artists See People – Colleen Carroll
How Artists See the Elements – Colleen Carroll
How Artists See the Weather – Colleen Carroll
The Tiny Seed – Eric Carle
Little Pierre: A Cajun Story from Louisiana – Robert D. San Souci
Chicken Soup Boots – Maira Kalman
Touch, Taste and Smell – Steve Parker
Sacagawea – Jan Gleiter & Kathleen Thompson
Mountain Men – Andrew Glass
Buffalo Hunt – Russell Freedman
The Trail of Tears (Cornerstones of Freedom) – R. Conrad Stein
Video: Alamo (2004)
Video: Red Ryder & Little Beaver (1945)
Make Way for Sam Houston – Jean Fritz
Picture the Past: Life on the Trail of Tears – Laura Fischer
Susanna of the Alamo – John Jakes
Despite All Obstacles: La Salle and the Conquest of the Mississippi – Joan Elizabeth Goodman
New Hope – Henri Sorensen
The American West – Leslie Waller
Prarie Dog – At Home on the Range – Sarah Toast (Leap Frog)
Video: Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery – PBS DVD Gold Edition
Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President – Shirley Raye Redmond (younger)
All About Turtles – Jim Arnosky
Defenders – Bernard Stonehouse
Video: Vincent – The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh (kids watched a portion – rated PG13)
Video: Love’s Long Journey
First 500 Words in French (Chick-Fil-A & Usborne)
Ishi – Louise V. Jeffredo-Warden
The Wild West in American History: Fontiersmen – Gail Stewart
Cherokee Summer – Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith
My First Little House Books: Going to Town – Laura Ingalls Wilder
A Library of Congress Book: Pioneers – Martin W. Sandler (Chick-Fil-A)
A Search & Find Geography Book: Travels with Charlie – Way Out West – Miles Backer
Navaho Land – Yesterday and Today – Solveig Russell Paulson (not accurate)
Gold Fever! Tales from the California Gold Rush – Rosalyn Schanzer (NG)
Roughing It on the Oregon Trail – Diane Stanley
Combing Through the Blizzard (A Christmas Story) – Eileen Spinelli
The Extinct Files: My Science Project – Wallace Edwards
Chato Goes Cruisin’ – Gary Soto
Our Colonial Year – Cheryl Harness
Video: Davy Crockett (narrated by Nicholas Cage: Rabbit Ear Productions)
Nine for California – Sonia Levitin
Boom Town – Sonia Levitin
Me and My Pet: Cat – Christine Morley & Carde Orbell
Striking it Rich (The Story of the California Gold Rush) – Stephen Krensky
Minipets: Beetles – Theresa Greenaway
Klondike Gold – Alice Provensen
Meow Ruff (A Story in Concrete Poetry) – Joyce Sidman
Davy Crockett – retold by Felicity Trotman and Shirley Greenway
California Gold Rush (Sightseers – Kingfisher)
America’s Gold Rush! – Joanne Mattern
Video: Tall Tales & Legends: Davy Crockett (Shelley Duvall’s)
Voices of the Alamo – Sherry Garland
Video: Melody Time – Disney (Pecos Bill/Johnny Appleseed)
Video: Miracle of the White Stallions – Disney (Lipizzaner Stallions of Vienna)
Cowboys – Mary & Douglas Gorsline
Minn of the Mississippi – Holling C. Holling
Frontier Life (Historical Etchings) – Bobbie Kalman
The Story of the Alamo – Norman Richads (Cornerstones of Freedom)
The Cherokee (Native American People) – Barbara A. McCall
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce – Matthew G. Grant
The Cherokees – Eileen Lucas
Native Americans – Discoveries (Barnes & Noble)
Native American Migration – Tracy Sioux
Moe McTooth: An Alley Cat’s Tale – Eileen Spinelli
Buffalo Bill Cody – Showman of the Wild West – William R. Sanford & Carl R. Green
Daniel Boone – Jan Gleiter & Kathleen Thompson
Daniel Boone: Man of the Forests – Carol Green
Pioneers – Leonard J. Matthews
The Fowler Family Gets Dressed (Frontier Paper Dolls of NW)
Sam Baker Gone West – Elaine Raphael and Don Bolognese
Bull’s Eye: A Photobiography of Annie Oakley – Sue Macy (NGS)
Video: Animals are Beautiful People (1975)
King o’ the Cats – Kristin Sorra
Bad Boys – Margie Palatini
Plains Indians – Kate Hayden
When Pioneers Pushed West to Oregon – Elizabeth Rider Montgomery
Children of the Wild West – Russell Freedman
Indians of the Northwest – Petra Press
The Plains People – Sally Hewitt
Video: Beatrix Potter’s Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes
Night of the Moon Jellies – Mark Shasha
The Fat Cats at Sea – J. Patrick Lewis
Pilgrims Progress – John Bunyan
2000 Leagues Under the Sea (abridged) – Jules Verne
Video: 2000 Leagues Under the Sea
Bread Comes to Life – George Levenson
Video: Swiss Family Robinson
Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
The Runaway Tortilla – Eric A. Kimmel
Orphan Train – Verla Kay
I Have Heard of a Land – Joyce Carol
The First Book of the Oregon Trail – Walter Havighurst
Hiawatha – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Davy Crockett: Hero of the Wild Frontier – Elizabeth R. Moseley
Movie: Miss Potter (2007)
Jim Bowie – Marianne Johnston
The Cherokee – Barbara A. McCall
God’s Design for Sex: Before I Was Born (Book 2, Ages 5-8) – Carolyn Nystrom
Tuff Fluff: The Case of Duckie’s Missing Brain – Scott Nash
Video: Little House on the Prairie (Season 1, Disc 1 – 4 episodes)
The Wild West in American History: Pioneers – Leonard J. Matthews
Widget – Lyn Rossiter McFarland (for younger kids)
Video: documentaries on China/Iran
Our Tree Named Steve – Alan Zweibel
I Love Passover – Marilyn Hirsh
The Matzah Man – Naomi Howland
The Four Questions – Ori Sherman & Lyne Sharon Schwartz
Matzo Ball Moon – Leslea Newman
The Sacraments – Inos Biffi
Why on This Night? (A Passover Haggadah for Family Celebration) – Rahel Musleah
Pegasus the Flying Horse – Jane Yolen
Passover – Miriam Nerlove
The 21 Balloons – William Pene du Bois
Wee G. – Harriet M. Ziefert (baby book)
The Easter Story – Carol Heyer
Princess and the Goblin – George MacDonald
Video: Last Voyage of the Lusitania (Mysteries of the Deep: Legendary Shiprecks) 1996 (graphic photos)
Video: Submarine: Steel Boats: Iron Men 1989
Fireboat – Maira Kalman
Chato’s Kitchen – Gary Soto
Movie: Night at the Museum 2007
Video: Lost Ships of the Mediterranean (Mysteries of the Deep: Legendary Shipwrecks) 1999
Video: The Pirate Ships: The Great Ships (History Channel) 2005
Ghost Liners: Exploring the World’s Greatest Lost Ships – Robert D. Ballard
Under the Sea – Discoveries (Barnes & Noble)
Magician’s Nephew – C.S. Lewis
Video: End of the Spear 2006
The Floating House – Scott Russell Sanders
Video: Atlantis 1991 (off topic – underwater sea pictures to music)
Ships – David and Patricia Armentrout
Let’s Look at Ships and Boats – Rupert Matthews
Timelines Ships Sailors and the Sea – Richard Humble
The Sinking of the Titanic – John Dudman
The Big Golden Book of Boats and Ships – Patricia Rolf
Treasures in the Sea – NG
The Great Ships – Patrick O’Brien
I Didn’t Know that Some Boats Have Wings – Clare Oliver
Video: Love’s Abiding Joy 2006
Mourka, the Mighty Cat – Lee Wyndham
Video: Reading Rainbow: Ocean Life
Video: Veggie Tales: Tuba Warrior (Gideon)
Mother Grumpy’s Dog Biscuits – Becky Wilson Kelly
Sanji and the Baker – Robin Tzannes
Wheat; The Golden Harvest – Dorothy Hinshaw Patent
Bimmi Finds a Cat – Elizabeth J. Stewart
What Would Jesus Eat? – Don Colbert, M.D. (parts about wheat)
Ling Cho and His Three Friends – V.J. Pacilio
The Duchess Bakes a Cake – Virginia Kahl
A Flea in the Ear – Stephen Wyllie
The Foxes – Mark E. Ahlstrom
The Lorax – Dr. Seuss
Angel Cat – Michael Garland
Algernon and the Pigeons – Valdine Plasmati
Minette – Janice
Storm Boy – Paul Owen Lewis (weird)
Family Farm – Thomas Locker
Harvest Home – Jane Yolen
Children of the Dust Days – Karen Mueller Coombs
Hank the Cowdog: the Case of the Booby Trapped Pickup – John R. Erickson
Ms. Frizzle’s Adventures: Imperial China – Joanna Cole & Bruce Degen
Video: Billy Graham: The Hiding Place (1975)
Everybody Cooks Rice – Norah Dooley
The Tortilla Cat – Nancy Willard
The Tiny Tortilla – Arlene Williams
Bionicle Adventures #7: Web of the Visorak – Greg Farshtey
NG Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America – Mel Baughman
From Seed to Sunflower – Dr. Gerald Legg (Lifecycles)
The Mushroom Hunt – Simon Frazer
Fungi and Molds – Jennifer Viegas
Summer Reading (not listed – moving!)
Up next in the series will be:
Post #2 – Third and Fourth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Third and Fourth Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Third and Fourth Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite KONOS Memories from Third and Fourth Grade
Post #6 – Memories from our KONOS ??? Unit! *stay tuned – we haven’t decided yet*
Check back in here every day this week for more homeschool records for third and fourth grades. And don’t forget to vote in the Texas Primary today (to prevent things like THIS from happening)!
Have a super Tuesday!
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Anonymous says
So happy to learn that you liked my book. Quite impressed with your vast reading list, too! Best always,
Mark Shasha,
AUTHOR, NIGHT OF THE MOONJELLIES
Anonymous says
I was delighted that you mentioned my Lewis & Clark, A Prairie Dog for the President book in your blog–and in bold print no less! I have several newer titles out as well, if you're interested. As a former homeschooling mom myself, I applaud all your hard work and creativity.
Warm regards,
Shirley Raye Redmond
http://www.readshirleyraye.com