Read Aloud Books For November 26

Children love books that pop-up and have moving parts. Unfortunately, they are not always the most gentle users of this kind of book. I found Slide and Surprise Numbers at my favourite bookstore (Indigo/Chapters) and immediately I knew it was a book for my class. Because it is a board book, it is very durable. The book also reinforces the numbers 1 to 12 through pictures, numbers and words. It was a very popular book this week in the reading corner during centre time.

The Color Kittens ( 1949 )is a classic book from Margaret Wise Brown (who wrote Goodnight Moon). Brush and Hush are two kittens that are trying to make the colour green. The book is, of course, about colour mixing but it is also about experimenting and not giving up. My class learned from this book that when you mix all colours together, you get brown. This fact was talked about extensively during our next painting time. A nice gentle story about colours in our world.

Put Me in the Zoo (1960) is another Ms. R family favourite! I remember reading this book as a child and it was also a favourite of my own two sons. It served as a great review of colour identification for the students. It also has easy to read language for the beginning reader. The creature has a lot of magical talents and tries to convince two children that he is special enough to be in the zoo. Watch for a cameo from our favourite character, The Cat in the Hat!

Little Blue and Little Yellow (1959 ) by Leo Leonni is destined to be a class favourite as he also wrote Swimmy which we read at the beginning of the year. The children loved this story of two friends that had an adventure together. The book also reinforces some of the colour theory the students have been talking about. The simple collage illustrations and limited text were a good discussion point for the class. We talked about how to use their imaginations to help them understand the story.

Read Aloud Books for November 18

This is the POP UP version of the book, The Incredible Book Eating Boy, that we read last week. There are lots of moving parts and pieces that "jump" off the page to help add an extra dimension to this funny story.

Chameleons' Colours is a book (translated from Japanese) that follows the adventures of a chameleon that is tired of changing colours all the time. He helps the other animals change colours too but there are problems and so, in the end, the animals realize that they were happy just the way they were. This is a good book to read and compare with the book Elmer in order to talk about what the main character learns in the story.

Elmer is a classic story that teachers have read aloud for over 20 years. We read this story to compare with the book, Chameleon's Colors. The main character has a patchwork of different colours on his skin, which makes him different from the other elephants. One day, Elmer covers himself in grey berry juice so he looks like the others, but his friends don't recognize him. Through a sweet storyline and gentle humour, the message of the story (that it is okay to be different) shines through.

Read aloud books for November 12

This is a wonderful book to introduce colours to children. It follows the thinking of a cat who is trying to figure out which colour is his favourite colour. Our class used the pattern of this book to write a class book using the sentence starter, "I like...." so each student can state his/her favourite colour. The illustrations are fun and informational so that, upon the second reading, the students were able to "read" along.

It is very difficult to talk to very young students about Remembrance Day and what the day means to Canadians. Luckily this book talks about peace in an age-appropriate way. The focus is on peaceful living and the things that people can do to lead a peaceful life. It really appeals to the students and the words and pictures communicate the message very well. At the end of the second reading, the students in one of my classes started to applaud!

The Incredible Book Eating Boy is a strange book but with a very cool concept. The book begins with Henry finding out that if he eats a book, he gets smarter, even smarter than his teacher! However, things start to go horribly wrong and in the end, he realizes that reading books is a much better way to learn new information and enjoy books. At first the students are perplexed by Henry's actions but then they realize the important lesson that he learned by the end of the story.

Read Aloud Books for November 5

This is a new publication with a wonderful story. Don Freeman (author of "Corduroy") wrote this story in the 1960's but it wasn't published until his son found the manuscript many years after he passed away. His son arranged for an artist to finish Freeman's original illustrations and the book was published. The story follows a little grey squirrel, named Earl, as he gathers acorns for his family. This was a great connection to the "Grey Squirrel" song our class learned this week and our study of oak trees and acorns.

This is the first story of Earl the squirrel that Don Freeman wrote. In this story, the squirrel needs to find acorns to help his mom. He has some exciting adventures along the way, culminating in an encounter with Conrad the bull. Conrad inadvertently helps Earl find a fantastic source of acorns. The illustrations are black and white with red accents and really demonstrates the range of Don Freeman as an illustrator.

The book on animal homes (featuring squirrels) is, sadly, out of print.

This book by Canadian author Melanie Watt has won numerous awards. It is a humorous look at the life of a squirrel that is afraid to leave his tree. Because this book has a lot going on in the story, we read it twice. The class was challenged to think about how the squirrel was feeling at the beginning of the story and how he was feeling at the end. We even discussed the idea of, "What did the squirrel learn?"

Read Aloud Books for October 29

This book was a favourite book of my two boys when they were younger. I've read it so many times that I have the words memorized. It's the story of "a big skeleton, a little skeleton and a dog skeleton" who go out on an adventure. The combination of unusual story and the repetition of key phrases, (for example, "in a dark, dark street, there was a dark, dark house and in the dark, dark house, there was a dark, dark staircase..."), makes this book one that the children really enjoy and they begin to read along as the book is read aloud. We read this story together twice this week.

This is a good story to read in the classroom because it shows how a classroom of students celebrates Halloween at school. I particularly like it because it demonstrates how the children chose what his/her costume would be based on the interests of the child. For example, a child who went to visit the fire station with his family, chose to be a firefighter. One who liked a particular TV show, she chose to be the main character of that show. On Halloween there was a parade and the children had cupcakes for a treat. This connected nicely with our own school's Halloween parade and the fact that we also had cupcakes for a treat.

I chose this story because it integrates the subject of dinosaurs with celebrating Halloween very nicely. It's a charming story of how a dinosaur tags along with a boy and his dog trick or treating. When some nasty kids start causing trouble for the boy, the dinosaur saves the day in a way you don't expect.

Read Aloud Books For October 22

This is our class book for October. "Thanks for..." details the things that the students are thankful for in their world. The children were thankful for everything from their parents to pizza! Each child glued the typed words and his/her photo on a piece of paper and then they drew a picture to go with it. The books were read aloud to the class. It was wonderful to see the pride on each child's face as his/her page was read aloud!

This non-fiction book is a great overview of a farm. It talks about the buildings, the land and the animals. I chose this book to get the students thinking about our trip to the farm next week. The photographs are clear and the text is written in kindergarten appropriate language. After reading this book, we listed the animals that could be found on a farm and then sang the song "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" using the animal names we wrote down.

This is a great book for playing with language. I chose this book because it brought together two of the things our class is talking about, trees and the alphabet. I also happened to have bought a version of this book that came with a CD that had the musician, Ray Charles, reading aloud the story. I had the students lie down on the carpets and close their eyes to listen to the story. It was a good introduction to the fact that you can listen to a story and make the pictures in your mind.

Read Aloud Books for October 15

This is reprint of a lovely book from the late 1950's. It details many reasons why trees are important to our world. It provides a great starting point for discussion with the students about the role of trees in our lives and how trees change through the seasons. At the end of the story, it talks about planting trees and how to take care of them. I a lso like this book because the illustrator, Marc Simont, also illustrated the wonderful early reader series, "Nate The Great".

The Little Yellow Leaf by Carin Berger is a wonderful find! The little yellow leaf is all alone and unsure about leaving the security of his tree but when he finds another leaf still clinging to its branch they decide to take the leap together. The story is told in a spare, lyrical way and it complimented by the muted colour palette of the collaged illustrations. We read this book twice in our class this week and the students really understood the book's message and how the little yellow leaf felt at the end of the story.

I read the "big book" version of this Robert Munsch story to the class. My own children loved this funny tale of a mud puddle that hides and jumps on Jule-Ann and gets her "all over muddy". The mud puddle hides in an apple tree, on the roof of the house and even jumps over the fence! Jule-Ann is a clever little girl and uses her brain to outsmart the mud puddle. This story is excellent for the students to act out, to demonstrate their understanding of the story structure. Our class will do this next week.