My favorite time of day is read aloud in the classroom.
All my students sitting around and enjoying a story together. As the teacher, I always like to choose rich texts with tons of learning opportunities for our read alouds. Some of my favorite books are the ones we can read over and over and STILL learn something new.
I thought over the next few months I would share some of my favorite read alouds, the skills I teach while reading them, and when I read them!
In August, my students are introduced to an interactive read aloud while we review the basic concepts of print and focus on respectful listening and interactions. The main skills I teach during this month are centered around the importance of illustrations as it connects to the text of a book. Four books I love to teach these skills are:
How To Read a Story by Mark Siegal:
This is GREAT book to kick off reader's workshop at the beginning of the year. I read this book to show my students that the illustrations in a story match the text that is written.
Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola:
This wordless book is a classic. This story always helps emphasize that illustrations tell a story and that even though the author didn't write ANY text... he still told us a wonderful story.
The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak:
This is a relatively new book and is a HILARIOUS hit in my first grade room. This book has no pictures (shocker, ha ha) and is perfect to show my students that text has meaning.
Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann:
This book is a fun one to teach students that illustrations can give us more information than the text alone. We look closely at the pictures to see what is happening in the story and use our beginning inferring skills.
You can grab any of these books here:
As September rolls along, we begin to meet our characters in different stories. I want my students to be able to identify the inner and outer character traits of main characters as well as their actions and feelings.
Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell & Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae:
I use both of these books to kick off our character unit. They are great for students to identify character traits - both inner and outer!
A Weekend with Wendell & Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes:
In these two classics, we identify characters and the feelings they have throughout the story. These two books always allow for great discussions around our feelings at the beginning of the year!
The Recess Queen by Alexis O'Neill & The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch:
I use both of these books to model character actions and what it says about the character.
You can see any of the above books here:
I also spent all of last year creating one page lesson plans for all of the above books with stopping points and questions that relate to the skills I mentioned! If you want to see those and try a FREE one click the image below and download the preview: