Read Aloud Books for April 1

This is the House That Jack Built is a new version of the nursery rhyme written over 200 years ago. The modern, cartoon like pictures are very appealing to the students as they learn the cumulative rhyme that tells the story. It also links nicely to our current unit on building and structures. We read this story twice and then condensed the words so the children could learn the poem. The students also used word cards to stand up and "act out" the rhyme. That is Jack held the "Jack" card and the cheese and so on. The class looked forward everyday to the time when we acted out and recited the rhyme and were eager to be a part of the performance.


Shape is a book that helped our class review the names of two-dimensional shapes and introduced the names of three-dimensional shapes. I used this book as a link to our unit on building and structures. I was also lucky enough to locate an unusual block puzzle that is featured in the book and the students had fun this week exploring/solving patterns using the six sides of each block.


The House That Jill Built is a fun version of the "Jack" nursery rhyme (see above) but with a girl as the main character. This story also links in several characters from other nursery rhymes. The students liked this version because there were little flaps on each page that, when lifted, revealed a picture of a character. The children really appreciated the end of the story because there is a pull and fold out page of the huge house that she built for her friends and then a 3-dimensional house that she built for herself and her cat. There was a lot of discussion around how this book was the same as the book "This is the House That Jack Built" and how the paper engineering of the book took her final house from 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional.

Read Aloud Books for March 25

A Fly Went By is a great story to help the students develop their prediction strategies. It is written in cumulative rhyme and so the logic of the story line (What might chase a cat?) and the clues in the rhyming words help the children predict what will happen next. It also allows for a deep discussion of how the boy in the story can help the animals and solve their problem (which stems from a simple misunderstanding).


The Little House is a story by the wonderful author/illustrator Virginia Lee Burton. Even though this story was published over 65 years ago, it has a lovely, timeless quality that the children love. Her illustrations are designed to show what happens to the little house over time, as buildings/subways/roads are built around her and the position of the house remains in the centre of the page. When this book was put in the reading corner, students loved to look for the little house on each page. Burton even managed to subtly have the house look happy or sad by how she drew the windows ("eyes"). The class discussed the change of the house as the countryside was turned into a city and rejoiced as the story ended happily with the house being moved back to the country.


Tools is a very useful book for our unit on building and structures. It is not a story per se, as it simply lists and illustrates different kinds of tools that are used for different jobs (e.g., carpenter, chef, doctor). The book helps the students label and identify various tools. It also helped to start a discussion of the different kinds of jobs that people do.


Iggy Peck Architect is always a hit with students. Although the story, told in rhyme, can be difficult to follow for younger children, Iggy's imagination is very interesting to the students (hence several readings are recommended). Iggy is a child that uses almost anything to build structures (e.g., pancakes, chalk, diapers). He and his teacher disagree about building things in the classroom, but Iggy's abilities save the day at the end of the story.

Read Aloud Books for March 11

Monkey and Me is a lovely, lyrical book with predictable text and easily decoded words that the children really enjoyed listening to and reading themselves. I read this aloud to the class at the beginning of the week. All week I could hear children say aloud the refrain but adding their own words. For example, "Monkey and me, monkey and me, monkey and me we went to see, we went to see the 'sand table'."

Are You My Mother? is a classic book from the 1960's. I remember reading this book myself as a child. In this story, a baby bird asked various animals and things if they are his mother and in the end he realized that, of course, a kitten or an excavator cannot be his mother as he embraced the big mother bird. Children love the sense of the absurd in this story as the reader is challenged with questions like "could the cow be the baby bird's mother?" Of course they all shouted out "NO!"

The Mixed Up Chameleon is an Eric Carle book that has a great message. The class actually saw a video of this book. In this story, the chameleon was not happy they way he was and tried on different parts of different animals. Of course, he got all mixed up and in the end realized that he was happy being a regular chameleon.


I Wish That I Had Duck Feet was a book I read to the class in September. We read it again this week because the children made a connection between this story and the Eric Carle book, The Mixed Up Chameleon. Students are expected at all grade levels to make a connection between books, as in "This book reminds me of..." With this book I could model for the children how this is done. It is also a humourous book that is always great fun to share with a class.