Customer Reviews

A Mink, A Fink, A Skating Rink: What Is A Noun? (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a teacher of third graders, I've used this book and "Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is an Adjective" to teach and delight my students, and to take some of the tedium out of parts of speech. Within a day or so of introducing these books, all 27 of my group knew the difference between the major parts of speech. We found out that Mr. Cleary has a website, and I printed out some word-building worksheets off it for free, and a took away a couple of suggestions on how integrate teaching nouns with a fun art project, called the noun quilt, in which each letter of the alphabet has a noun, as in B, BOOT, C, CAT and the students draw the item and eventually it becomes this big old paper quilt full of nouns. His publisher assures me that TO ROOT, TO TOOT, TO PARACHUTE: WHAT IS A VERB? will be in soon, and it's a no-brainer that I'll get that as well.

Funny, silly, but slyly (if that's a word) educational, A Mink A Fink A Skating Rink: What is a Noun? will do for grammar what "Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue in Fourteen-hundred ninety-two" did for social studies. Kids can't help but remember which part of speech a word is because of the clever rhymes. My second graders find the illustrations wonderful as well. Cleary's first series includes great teaching tools like "Jamaica Sandwich?", which is really a 4th-5th grade combination Geography/English lesson.

This is an exciting, well illustrated, fun book to read! This book is one of the favorite picks in my third grade classroom. The students enjoy reading the story over and over again. Thumbs up for the fabulous idea of teaching language through exciting stories!

This book taught my 4 year old what nouns were. I read it for her older brother, but they both picked up on the concept. The rhymes are silly, so it keeps their attention, and they really get it by the end of the book.

I also recommend the others in the series - To Root, To Toot, To Parachute:What is a Verb?; Hairy, Scary, Ordinary: What is an Adjective? We don't have the latest ones, but I'm sure they're just as good.

After reading the other reviews, I want to check out other series that this author has done.

My five year old daughter loves this book! Prosmitsky's colorful illustrations make it so much more fun learning the parts of speech. My daughter adores the illustrator's goofy pillow-like cats!

This book was great. It was too young for my 8yr old but just right for the 6yr old.

Funny, silly, but slyly (if that's a word) educational, A Mink A Fink A Skating Rink: What is a Noun? will do for grammar what "Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue in Fourteen-hundred ninety-two" did for social studies. Kids can't help but remember which part of speech a word is because of the clever rhymes. My second graders find the illustrations wonderful as well. Cleary's first series includes great teaching tools like "Jamaica Sandwich?", which is really a 4th-5th grade combination Geography/English lesson.

Cleary's "Words are CATegorical" series aims to teach young students the parts of speech; and language devices such as simile, and metaphor through humor, rhyme, creative story telling, and a zany group of animals. The nouns book is a great place to introduce the Cleary series, and establishes the format used throughout the series. The definition is stated right off the bat, and then the story is simply one noun example after another, with colored text to emphasize each noun used.

One thing to keep in mind is that, unlike many of Cleary's later books in the series, Nouns at times is more nonsense, and puzzling, rather than an artful play on words. The illustrations are also not as rich and engaging as you'll find in the later books. Jenya Prosmitsky's illustrative style is more cookie cutter and flat or one-dimensional. Whereas, in the books illustrated by Brian Gable, the scenes are much more involved, multi-dimensional, and alive.

All in all, this book is a great instructional tool to get kids thinking, and to start grammar instruction off with interest and fun.

Great Book...my kids love them. I wish that these books had been around when I was a kid. This book is fun and has a Dr. Seuss feel to it. Great for reinforcing the parts of speech to kids...