Children's Books

Children’s books are my absolute favorite! When I was working on my undergrad degree, I spent a small fortune to have my own nice collection of children’s books. Thank GOD, because when I arrived at the school to set up my class last summer, I was equipped and ready to educate my students…with 18 books! Yes! Thank God I had invested my money in my own books! I have probably 300 plus or minus. I will compile a list of last year’s favorites! (Take notes Heidi…that sweet baby is gonna need these books in his library!)

Pinkalicious and Purplicious
I was hesitant to read these books at first, even though they were all the rage at my school. I figured they would be way too girly and that I could find something that would be more appealing to boys AND girls. Turns out, these books have really good story lines that my four year olds (even the boys!) loved! They asked me to read these books over and over!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar
This is a classic! I do this in the Spring when we are learning about the life cycle of butterflies. It’s perfect to read in the Spring, because by the end of the year the students are doing an awesome job of remember familiar stories and “re-reading” them. Even though this book only has a couple of repetitive lines, they knew it by heart!

The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything
I used this book during Halloween…we were still reading it at Christmas! I just couldn’t put it away if the kids loved it that much! In the story, one by one, parts of a scarecrow sneak up behind the little old lady. First the shoes come, then pants, a shirt, and on and on. The reader doesn’t know that the items make a scarecrow until the end of the book when we see that the little old lady has take the items and placed them in her garden. This is perfect for sequencing and I love using the props and letting the students dress up in the various scarecrow items.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear
I’m sure most of you know this book! It’s perfect for early readers as it is very repetitive. It is also good for color and animal identification. The students can practice their sequencing skills with this book as well. I have many versions of the story: magnet board, felt board, apron, etc. The students could also use the CD to sing the words of this song. They loved it and since it was easy to memorize, it was a boost to their confidence, because they thought they were really reading by themselves!

The Foot Book
Nine times out of ten the Dr. Seuss favorite is either Green Eggs and Ham, The Cat in the Hat, or One Fish, Two Fish. However, my students loved The Foot Book the most of all. I did an entire unit on feet based on this book. Students were able to trace each others feet and measure to compare and see whose foot was bigger. We observed how different shoes made different foot prints and how some surfaces/substances can show footprints and some can’t. It was a huge deal and the kids loved it! This book is also very repetitive with lots of sight words! Great for early readers!

The Jolly Postman
This book would actually be good for PreK-3. It contains “real” letters in addressed envelopes that the Jolly Postman delivers to all of the characters in the fairy tale kingdom. We used it during Valentine’s when we talked about writing letters and the students really got into sending letters to one another in out “Post Office.” I think it was because they loved this book!

It Looked Like Spilt Milk
This book is an easy read, but for some reason kids love it. Once you read it to them several times, they will remember the entire book, but every time you read it they react as if though they have never heard what happens in the end. You can create lots of activities with this book and it may be good to use even with older kids to talk about visualization.

Miss Nelson is Missing
This book is too funny! My parapro actually came to school on Halloween dressed like Viola Swamp, the villain in this book, and the students were scared silly! I read it during the first couple of weeks of school, because it is a good book to use to talk about behavior. As I was reading it, with complete emotion of course, I kept hearing a sniffing noise. I looked down to see that one of my students was crying! Bless he little heart! Even though this book is not “scary” apparently my “scary” voice got to her! It was quite funny!

Pirates Don’t Change Diapers
This book is hilarious! The kids love the whole pirate theme, and the simple fact that it talks about diapers gets a four year old going every time! J My parapro and I actually dressed up like the characters for this book, and the kids LOVED it! How do you like the Johnny Depp wig?