Nights of the Pufflings by Bruce McMillan

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Nights of the Pufflings by Bruce McMillan

• Theme 4

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Awards

• Outstanding Science Trade Book for Children
• ALA Notable Childrens Book
• Hungry Mind Review Childrens Books of
  Distinction
  
• Parenting Magazine Best Childrens Book
• SLJ Best Book

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Genre Nonfiction

• A nonfiction story is about real people, things,
  and events.
  
• Nothing in the story is made-up.

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Summary

• For two weeks in the late summer, the children
  of Heimaey Island in Iceland roam their village,
  rescuing stranded pufflings. Each night,
  children gather the young birds. The next day,
  they release the pufflings into the safety of the
  sea.

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Background Information

• Click on the puffins to go the the authors
  website for information on Iceland and puffins!

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Key Concept

• Iceland

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Key Vocabulary

• ashore
• burrows
• instinctively
• launching
• stranded
• uninhabited
• venture

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ashore
on or to the shore (from the water)
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burrows
holes or tunnels small animals use as underground
nests
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instinctively
X
acting on inner feeling done without thinking
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launching
sending up in the air
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stranded
in a helpless or difficult situation
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uninhabited
having no people living there
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venture
to set out to do something even though it might
be dangerous
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Strategy Focus Evaluate

• When we evaluate, we form an opinion about we see
  and/or read.
  
• The author calls this story extremely goofy.
  Do you agree with him?
  
• Evaluate how well he uses the words and pictures
  to make you feel this way.

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Strategy Focus Evaluate
Lets try it!

• Tell a partner how the picture
• on the title page makes you feel.

or
Tell a partner how you feel about the
title of this story.

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Comprehension Skill Focus Fact and Opinion

• A fact is a piece of information that is totally
  accurate and can be proven-it is true all of the
  time.
  
• Fact-Pufflings are baby puffins.
• An opinion is how someone feels about something.
  It may be true for some, but not for others.
  
• Opinion-Pufflings are really cute. (Some people
  might think pufflings are ugly!)
  

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Graphic Organizer
Fill in the organizer with details from the story.
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Meet the Author and Photographer

• Bruce McMillan received his first camera at age
  five and his first
  
• professional camera at age nine. By the
  time he finished high school, he
  
• was quite accomplished as a photographer.
  After college, he worked for
  
• three years at a television station as a
  camera operator, director, and
  
• producer. For two years after that, he was
  a caretaker on an island off
  
• the Maine coast. In that isolation, he
  worked on improving his writing
  
• skills. By the end of his time on the
  island, he had photographed and
  
• written his first book, Finest Kind o' Day
  Lobstering in Maine.
  
• McMillan calls himself a photo-illustrator
  rather than a photographer
  
• because, he says, "what I do issimilar to
  what other children's
  
• illustrators do. We approach books in the
  same way." Like other
  
• illustrators, he creates each book as a
  whole. First, he thinks through
  
• the story and visualizes how he wants each
  photograph to look. Only then
  
• does he take the photos.
• One of Bruce McMillan's books, Nights of
  the Pufflings, focuses on
  
• puffins, a species of bird that lives in
  northern areas of the Atlantic
  
• and Pacific Oceans. McMillan is so taken
  with these birds that he also
  
• leads participants on a yearly "puffin
  tour" in Iceland! (from www.eduplace.com)

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Link to Houghton Mifflin

• If you enjoyed reading Nights of the Pufflings
  and would like to check out some more information
  and activities, click below to go to
  www.eduplace.com, Houghton Mifflins web site.

Click Here!