Read Aloud Books for April 15

Skip Through The Seasons is a good book to review the seasons, the months of the year and the changes that happen in each. The story is written in rhyme and the illustrations are very detailed so that when a child reads this book in the reading corner it is easy for them to pick out the different activities for each month.

Lego House is an adult book that I chose to show to the class because we were talking a lot about lego this week. The photographs document the life-size house made out of lego that includes everything in the house made out of lego (chairs, tables, sinks). I used this to show the children two things. First, never give up on your dreams (James May faced many obstacles in getting this project finished) and second, how many people worked together to get the house finished. (If you are interested, youtube has many short films on this project. Just search "James May Lego House")

Chicken Soup With Rice (A Book of Months) is a Maurice Sendak classic from 1962. I remember reading this book as a child. It is a great read aloud because of the engaging cadence of the rhyming text and the repeated words encourage the children to read aloud with me. Ask your child to finish the following : Sipping once, sipping twice, sipping chicken soup with rice!


The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree was another of my sons' favourite read aloud books when they were little. It follows the adventures of Arnold, a little boy who loves an apple tree in his backyard. The text details the different things he does through the seasons (for example, he gathers apples to make apple pie and apple cider). I really like how the text is written to clearly demonstrate the cyclical nature of the seasons, as this is a concept that is difficult for small children to understand.

Read Aloud Books for April 8

Let's Look At Spring is a good non-fiction book for talking about the spring season. In class, we have been talking about the different changes that are happening as winter fades into spring. When we are outside each day, we are watching the buds on the shrubs around our playground to see when they change from brown to green (not yet!). This book talks about other signs to look for, like seeing robins.

What! Cried Granny is another of my all-time favourite stories. I have the text memorized because this was another of my son's preferred bedtime books and we read it every night for ages. It was also one of the first books that he could read completely by himself. This is a funny story about a boy staying overnight at his grandmother house and finds all kinds of ways to delay going to bed. The text has several repeated phrases that allows for a enjoyable read along style read aloud. The students love to yell out "What! Cried Granny". Whenever, I read aloud this story to a class at the end, there are always pleas for me to read it again. So, of course, we did!

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.

Read Aloud Books for March 4

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.

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.