Sock Monkey Goes To Hollywood started off our "sock week" . In this story, a sock monkey is invited to a party but needs to be clean in order to attend. The trouble is, he hates taking baths! This is a great story because there is a twist at the end that the students don't expect. It's interesting, because children this age are starting to see patterns in the storylines of books and so they thought they knew how the story was going to end, but were surprised.
The Glass Doorknob is another one of my favourite books. It's about a sock monkey who works with his friends to solve a problem. There are many levels in this book so it appeals to a variety of ages. On the surface it is about a groups of friends solving a mystery. But it is also a great story to introduce science concepts of seasons and prismatic light. In kindergarten, we talked about how we know this is a fiction story (the toys move and talk). My son Dean loved this book and there was an extended period of time where we read this story every night before bed!
Only In Dreams is a great story to introduce the discussion of imagination. In the story, the monkey character lists all the cool things that he can do in his dreams (but not in real life). Things like being really tall, being able to fly and visiting a village with cupcakes for houses.
I Love Monkey is a story that talks about how everyone is special in his/her own way. The monkey tries to be various other things, for example, a chicken or a piece of sushi but is never quite happy. Of course at the end of the story, he realizes that he is happy just being himself.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Read Aloud Books for February 25
Pancakes, Pancakes! is a great book to read aloud and then cook pancakes with the students. In the story, a boy wants pancakes for breakfast, but his mother says he has to help to get the ingredients. Since the setting is in a time long ago, the boy has a lot of work to do to get the flour, eggs, milk and butter. This book provides a great opportunity to compare how the boy in the book made pancakes and how the students made pancakes in the classroom. Eric Carle is a favourite author in our classroom and we compared this book with another of our favourites, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?.
I found this book, One Shoe Blues, a few years ago and I use it every year to teach my students. I love blues music and B. B. King is the famous ambassador of the blues. Here he is the main character in a story where he has lost his shoe. There is a DVD that comes with the book and the short movie provides another opportunity to show children alternative ways to tell a story. In this case, the story is in a book, a song and a movie. The supporting characters are sock puppets and they are the comic foils to B. B King's laid back singing and guitar playing. I used this book as a jumping off point for our new class project where the students will make sock puppets next week.
I found this book, One Shoe Blues, a few years ago and I use it every year to teach my students. I love blues music and B. B. King is the famous ambassador of the blues. Here he is the main character in a story where he has lost his shoe. There is a DVD that comes with the book and the short movie provides another opportunity to show children alternative ways to tell a story. In this case, the story is in a book, a song and a movie. The supporting characters are sock puppets and they are the comic foils to B. B King's laid back singing and guitar playing. I used this book as a jumping off point for our new class project where the students will make sock puppets next week.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Read Aloud Books for February 17
Guess How Much I Love You is a beautiful story to share on Valentine's Day. It's the story of a small rabbit trying to let a large rabbit know how much he loves him. The class had a great discussion about love. I asked them, "Can you hold love in your hand?", "Can you draw love?", "Can you buy love at a store?". They answered "no" to each question of course, and in doing so they realized why the little rabbit was showing how much he loved the large rabbit by opening his arms wide and reaching up to the sky. In the end, the little rabbit thought of the biggest distance he could and declares, "I love you up to the moon and back again!" This book has great memories for me, because my younger son would say that to me when he was kindergarten age.
Corduroy has been a popular read aloud story for young children for 40 years. Our class even has a stuffed Corduroy bear in green overalls. Corduroy is a bear that has an adventure in a toy store at night and is later taken home by a little girl. At the end of the story, Corduroy is happy that he has a new home and a new friend. This is a great book to get the children to think about how the characters are feeling at different parts of the story. Sad, afraid, surprised and happy were some of the feelings the class talked about. It also shows that even if you look different (at the beginning of the story, Corduroy has lost a button, and so does not look "new"), you can still be accepted for who you are.
A Pocket for Corduroy is the follow-up story to the original Corduroy book. Corduroy has another adventure, this time at a laundromat. He gets lost, almost gets put in the dryer and has a "snow" adventure involving soap flakes, after the laudromat is closed. In the end, the little girl and Corduroy are reunited. She decides to sew a pocket on his overalls and tucked an information card inside so that if he gets lost again, they will know who he belongs to. The Corduroy stories are a great tie-in to our upcoming class project where the stuffed Corduroy bear goes home with the star student each day and the family writes a short adventure for him.
Corduroy has been a popular read aloud story for young children for 40 years. Our class even has a stuffed Corduroy bear in green overalls. Corduroy is a bear that has an adventure in a toy store at night and is later taken home by a little girl. At the end of the story, Corduroy is happy that he has a new home and a new friend. This is a great book to get the children to think about how the characters are feeling at different parts of the story. Sad, afraid, surprised and happy were some of the feelings the class talked about. It also shows that even if you look different (at the beginning of the story, Corduroy has lost a button, and so does not look "new"), you can still be accepted for who you are.
A Pocket for Corduroy is the follow-up story to the original Corduroy book. Corduroy has another adventure, this time at a laundromat. He gets lost, almost gets put in the dryer and has a "snow" adventure involving soap flakes, after the laudromat is closed. In the end, the little girl and Corduroy are reunited. She decides to sew a pocket on his overalls and tucked an information card inside so that if he gets lost again, they will know who he belongs to. The Corduroy stories are a great tie-in to our upcoming class project where the stuffed Corduroy bear goes home with the star student each day and the family writes a short adventure for him.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Read Aloud Books for February 11
Clifford's First Valentine's Day is a great book to read to kindergarten students because most already know the lovable Clifford character. In this simple story, the concept of sending Valentine cards is discussed as Clifford has an adventure at the post office (he gets lost). This is a good story to talk about the feelings of the main character during different parts of the story and to discuss the odd kinds of things that can happen in a story. That is, in a story, there can be a bright red dog the size of an elephant, but that can't happen in real life.
100 Days of School is the perfect book for the 100th day of school. It talks about 100 in many different ways (many math concepts are covered) and reinforces how special this landmark day is in the life of kindergarten students.
100 Hungry Ants is a good book to reinforce the concept of 100 during our 100th day week . The ants are trying to get to a picnic before the food is all gone. They spend so much time rearranging themselves that the picnic is over before they get there. The ending, in my opinion, is a bit weak. However, the class took the opportunity to discuss different ways for the book to end.
Rumpelstiltskin is a fairy tale that illustrates the idea of a "magic" figure in some fairy tales. In this story, it is a little man that is able to spin straw into gold. There are complicated lessons in the story, but the students talked about what it means to be greedy and how to be careful what you promise to someone! The class is also very interested in the number of letters in children's names, so the 15 letters in Rumpelstiltskin was quite amazing to them!
100 Days of School is the perfect book for the 100th day of school. It talks about 100 in many different ways (many math concepts are covered) and reinforces how special this landmark day is in the life of kindergarten students.
100 Hungry Ants is a good book to reinforce the concept of 100 during our 100th day week . The ants are trying to get to a picnic before the food is all gone. They spend so much time rearranging themselves that the picnic is over before they get there. The ending, in my opinion, is a bit weak. However, the class took the opportunity to discuss different ways for the book to end.
Rumpelstiltskin is a fairy tale that illustrates the idea of a "magic" figure in some fairy tales. In this story, it is a little man that is able to spin straw into gold. There are complicated lessons in the story, but the students talked about what it means to be greedy and how to be careful what you promise to someone! The class is also very interested in the number of letters in children's names, so the 15 letters in Rumpelstiltskin was quite amazing to them!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Read Aloud Books for February 4
This is a traditional version of this story. The class had a great discussion about if Goldilocks was a good character or a not-so-good character. Remember, she did do a lot of things without permission... This is also a good story to illustrate the characteristics of a fairy tale, "Once upon a time..", and animals that talk and dress like humans. We also talked about the "rule of 3" or how fairy tales often have three things in them, three bears, three pigs, three wishes.
This version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one of my favourites because the illustrations uses clothing, furniture and architecture from the 1930-1950's. It is a very "moderne" version of the story. It is also easy for the children to pick out what is different in this story from the traditional version (e.g., the bears eat chili instead of porridge).
My First Chinese New Year is a great information book to introduce this holiday. It covers the things people do to celebrate this special time of year. One of the things people do is use red "lai see" or lucky envelopes to give as gifts. In my class, I had some to show the children and each child had one to take home.
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is a funny take on the traditional story. It is told from the point of view of the wolf. He says that everybody has the story all wrong and that he really isn't a bad guy at all. He just wanted to borrow a cup of sugar and because he had a bad cold, he sneezed and blew down the houses. He says it's not his fault that the pigs didn't build their houses properly. It was funny to read this story to the children because even after I read the story and we talked about it, the children were not convinced that he was really a good wolf!
This version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears is one of my favourites because the illustrations uses clothing, furniture and architecture from the 1930-1950's. It is a very "moderne" version of the story. It is also easy for the children to pick out what is different in this story from the traditional version (e.g., the bears eat chili instead of porridge).
My First Chinese New Year is a great information book to introduce this holiday. It covers the things people do to celebrate this special time of year. One of the things people do is use red "lai see" or lucky envelopes to give as gifts. In my class, I had some to show the children and each child had one to take home.
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is a funny take on the traditional story. It is told from the point of view of the wolf. He says that everybody has the story all wrong and that he really isn't a bad guy at all. He just wanted to borrow a cup of sugar and because he had a bad cold, he sneezed and blew down the houses. He says it's not his fault that the pigs didn't build their houses properly. It was funny to read this story to the children because even after I read the story and we talked about it, the children were not convinced that he was really a good wolf!
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