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.

Read Aloud Books for April 21

The Matzah Man is an excellent adaptation of the classic story, The Gingerbread Man, for the Jewish holiday of Passover. The story incorporates many of the details of the Passover celebration, so this is an excellent multi-level book to work with a variety of ages. My classes were also able to make a connection with another book we read aloud, "A Fly Went By" since both books employ the device of a cumulative chase. This book also has a very catchy refrain, that is repeated often throughout the book. The children loved to shout out these words as they read along with me:

Hot from the oven, I jumped and I ran,

You can't catch me, I'm The Matzah Man!

The Easter Egg is a book written and illustrated by Jan Brett (best known for her book, The Mitten). It is a beautiful book with lovely, detailed pictures. The story is about Hoppi the rabbit who wants to win the egg decorating contest and he goes around looking at what the other rabbits are doing. The winner of the contest gets to help the Easter bunny deliver his eggs. I like to use the story to emphasize with children all the creative ideas. There are painted eggs, wooden eggs and robot eggs! Also, every illustration has pussy willows framing the page and this is an excellent link to our discussion and investigation of actual pussy willow branches in the classroom.

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!