My Grandfather's Coat

My Grandfather's Coat 

Author: Jim Aylesworth 

Illustrator: Barbara McClintock

Genre: Traditional Literature

Awards: None

Grade Level: Pre-K- 2nd Grade

This book begins with a man planning to get married. He wanted to make his future wife proud to marry him, so even though he did not have much he made a jacket to wear on his wedding day. After the wedding, he continued to wear the jacket and it eventually got worn out. He then made it into another jacket and continued to wear it until it was worn out. The man then decided to make it into a vest, then a tie, and then a small stuffed animal for his grandchild. When the child's toy is worn out a family of mice use the scraps to help set up their home under the floorboards.

My Grandfather's Coat can be used to teach students about repetition and rhyming. One could also use this book as a tool to teach students how to hypothesize what is going to happen next as the Grandfather continues to make his jacket into different things. Another way that this book can be used in a classroom is as a tool to teach students how to reuse things.