Read Aloud Books for May 27

The class now has started a unit on caterpillars.

Casper the Caterpillar is a fun book for the students since there are cut-out holes for the "googly eyes" of the caterpillar. In this story, Casper asks his friends what costume he should wear to the costume party. His friends shared their ideas but in the end Casper changes into a butterfly so he no longer needs a costume!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is another classic story from Eric Carle. Since most students have read this story before, I chose to show the movie version. Before I showed the movie, I asked the students to pay attention to what the job of a caterpillar is (that is, to eat and eat!) This is important because over the next several days the caterpillars will change dramatically in size, because they eat and eat and eat!

The Bookshop Dog is a lovely book to launch discussions about the role of dogs in people's lives and about the proper treatment of animals. This latter point has been a the topic of several teaching moments in the last several weeks. A funny, sentimental book to share with the children that has a very, happy ending.

Read Aloud Books for May 19

Moira's Birthday is a very funny story by Canadian author Robert Munsch. The children love this story of a little girl who wants to invite all 200 students in her school to her birthday party. Solving the problems of having 200 children at her house, plus 200 gifts and feeding them all proves to be the beginning of some very funny events. The students love to read along to the repeated sentence:

"I want to invite grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5, grade 6 aaaannndddd kindergarten!"


The video version of Moira's Birthday is always a hit with students. After reminding the class that a movie is another way to tell a story, I instruct the children to watch the video and look for ways that the movie is different from the story book. The video of course, has music and no written words, but the frantic elements of the story come alive in the movie as the 200 hungry students descend on Moira's house for her birthday party, with hilarious results.


Reading the fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk was a logical choice this week, since the students planted their sprouted bean seeds in soil. Because beans are an integral part of the story, the children could relate much better to Jack's story since they have examined bean seeds, witnessed them sprouting and know what the resultant plant looks like. The story does have some scary elements, with the mean orgre always chasing Jack, but that is often one of the elements of fairy tales and the children know that in fairy tales, everyone always lives "happily ever after".

Read Aloud Books for May 13

Hey Little Ant is a great teaching tool to explain empathy to young children. I chose this book this week because the children were looking at ants on the playground and the issue of how to treat them came up. This book turns around the issue of a boy who is about to squish an ant. The ant cleverly demonstrates what it would be like if the ant was a giant and the boy was the size of an insect. Both classes understood the lesson and when we were outside in the playground you could hear the conversations that contained respectful language. For example, "Remember don't touch the ants, just look with your eyes."


Something From Nothing is a classic Canadian children's book. It has a wonderful lyrical quality to it that has the children reading along with the repetitive text. In the story a young boy has a special blanket that his grandfather made him. As he grows older, the blanket grows older too and he does not want to part with it. His grandfather makes new things out of the material until only a piece the size of a button is left. The students and I had a great discussion about memories ("Can you hold a memory in your hand?") This is a real thinking story and we took two days to fully talk about this book.


Seeds is a great non-fiction book to introduce children to the different kinds of seeds and the ways that plants have adapted to make sure that its seeds are distributed far and wide. I used this as an introduction to our plant unit. The children learned how to sprout seeds and we even examined, and ate, corn seeds (as popcorn), sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. The favourite part of this book for both classes was learning that when birds eat berries, for example, blackberries, the seeds are not digested and the seeds are distributed to different places through the bird's poop!

Read Aloud Books for May 6

Up, Down and Around is a informational text that was read as part of our new unit on plants. It categorizes vegetables by how they grow: above the ground, below the ground and above ground, on vines. I used the "big book" format to read to the class so the children could get a really good look at the illustrations. Specifically, our class was interested in the picture of the fully-grown bean plant as this week the students studied the seeds for green bean plants.


Mom and Me is a great book to read to the class around Mother's Day because it relates all the ways that children appreciate mothers. This book uses photographs to illustrate the stories of three children and their mothers. I think it is a good book because it shows different parenting styles. This book was a good introduction for our discussion about all the ways that children love and appreciate their moms.


Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big was a book chosen by our student teacher Ms. Griffin, to read aloud to the class. Basically this book is about honesty and why it is so important to have honesty in our world. The story is challenging, but with the guidance of Ms. Griffin, the students grasped the storyline and message.

Read Aloud Books for April 29

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel was written in 1939, but it is still a great read aloud book today. It is an engaging, informative story that illustrates many themes but the notion of Mike and his steam shovel (named Mary Ann) digging the cellar for a new town hall in one day drives the story as Mike says "Mary Ann can dig as much in a day, as 100 men can dig in a week (although he wasn't really sure that this was true)". Of course, the story all ends well. I take two days to read this story to young children so that they can really understand what is happening in the story.

Join In is a compiliation of stories in a "big book" format. This format allows for all the children in the class to read along together. It also allows for the discussion of book features (e.g., table of contents) and to read and discuss the elements of a variety of genres (fiction, non-fiction, poetry). This book can be read using individual stories, or the complete book if read over several days.