Adventures in Literacy Land: picture books

Showing posts with label picture books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label picture books. Show all posts

Let Me Finish!

At about 4 years old, my daughter started to ask me if we were in a book.  What an interesting question.  At almost 8 years old, she continues to get lost in books, is constantly connecting personal experiences to events in books, and must be reminded often to close the book and brush her teeth!  This love for books is something that we wish for all of our students.

At Nerd Camp this year I met Minh Lê, the author of Let Me Finish.  I realized this book was written for my daughter and all of the other children that we want to get "sucked" into books. This is Minh Lê's breakout book and my, oh, my...there is a lot that we (as teachers) can do with it!



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Big Kids Need Picture Books Too!

Hello, everyone! It's Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars!

Last weekend, I had the joy of presenting with my good friend and former author in Lit Land, Melissa from Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late on a topic that is near and dear to us.  Many times we forget that older students can and will read pictures books.  There are so many reasons for them, but I am going to highlight my top four.

So, why do big kids need picture books?


Picture books are great for so many comprehension skills for older students.  The simple plots help students see beyond the words and dig into the comprehension skills. I love using them for everything from simple plot elements to the more intense making inferences. ReadWorks has a plethora of awesome comprehension lessons that use picture books, a geat starting point!  Though you have to sign up to use it, it is completely free!


Picture books have a very rich vocabulary and are great for building that in so many ways. The book Baloney (Henry P.)  by Jon Scieska has words from other languages the students must figure out as they are reading it.  Many picture books help students learn new vocabulary through words and pictures.  How aswesome is that!


Picture books are geat for helping students become better writers. The letter above was written by some fourth graders after reading Dear Mrs. LaRue by Mark Teague.  The site Writing Fix has a ton of great writing mentor text lessons, and don't forget Read Write Think!

And finally!

Older students can be mesmerized by picture books.  What you can't see is the flock of students who are up in the front of the room listening to their fourth grade teacher share on of her favorite books. Big kids love these books for so many reasons.  Sometimes the picture books are actually meant for "big kids" too.

So, don't hold back! Read those pictures books with your older students! They won't forget it!






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13 Picture Books That Get Your Students UP and MOVING


Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Hi, this is Jessica from Literacy Spark.  If there is one thing I have learned teaching young students, it's that reading needs to be fun!  If reading is a forced chore  for a child in first grade, it will likely remain that way for years to come unless an awesome teacher comes along and makes an impact. 

One of the ways to make reading engaging for young readers is to use books that encourage movement.  This makes reading books a desirable activity because it is fun!  It's that simple.  I am going to share with you today 13 books that you can use to get your students up and moving.  The majority of them are most appropriate for pre-k, kinder, and first.  Many also incorporate rhyming and repetitive text.

Note:  This post contains affiliate links.  Click the book images or links to find the them on Amazon.

Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
From Head to Toe by Eric Carle is a favorite in our house!  My daughter is only 15 months old and she has learned the movements of the animals from this book.  She even opens it up and does what the animals are doing all by herself.  And now if she sees or hears "gorilla" she pats her chest.  Amazes me!  I used to have a big book of it when I taught first grade and it is really fun book for early readers.  It's very repetitive ("Can you do it?  I can do it! I can do it!") and on every page a movement is encouraged, for example, turning your head like a penguin or stomping like an elephant.

Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams is a classic and Halloween favorite.  The little old lady is walking outside late at night when she starts being chased by shoes, pants, gloves, etc. Each of the items chasing her makes a special sound or motion (the gloves clap, for example).  This book would be great for working on sequencing with little ones as well as problem and solution.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Silly Sally by Audrey Wood is silly book about dancing, leaping, tickling, walking backwards, and more.  While not much depth, it does rhyme and have repetitive phrases so it would be good for fluency practice.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Huff and Puff by Claudia Rueda is a very simplistic take on The Three Little Pigs with a surprise ending.  There is not a lot of text and the pictures allow for kids to tell and interact with the story themselves. The book itself has holes in it so that the reader can pretend to "blow" down the houses like the wolf.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
In Oh! by Kevin Henkes, the animals all want to come out and play after a snowfall.  Each page has a different motion being performed by an animal so this would be a great book to use for teaching action words to young readers.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
There is something about The Gingerbread Man that makes me (and my students) feel like running!  Kids into second grade still love this story!  I've had second graders work together to put this into a play.  Since the text is repetitive, it's easy for them to remember and they absolutely love running around and role playing it.   This is still my favorite version.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
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Today I Feel Silly by Jamie Lee Curtis is a really cute book all about feelings.  It also rhymes and reads to a rhythm.  Kids love acting out the different emotions shown in the text. Great for helping students learn to express their emotions using words other than happy and sad.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Up, Down, and Around by Katherine Ayres describes how some plants grow up, others grown down into the ground, while others grow around so it would work perfectly for a science lesson  with young students. The text is simple and rhymes making it fun to read while learning how plants grow.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
All kids know this song, right?  I mean I listen to it in the car every day now...   I bet your students would be surprised to know that it is a book and I bet they would also find it very fun and easy to read!  If You're Happy and You Know It! adapted by Anna McQuinn has colorful illustrations of children around the world and also comes with the music CD.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Like a Windy Day by Frank & Devin Asch would be an excellent book to use for visualizing.  The little girl in the story basically imagines that she is the wind.  It has fairly decent descriptive language for young readers too ("zoom down the hillsides") that they would have fun trying to replicate.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood has simple sentences that describe a boy pretending to be certain characteristics of animals, such as  "I am as small as an ant."  This text would be a good model for having students write their own similar sentences.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.

Move! by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page would be a another book to use for teaching about action words or even for science as it specifically describes how different animals move.  Kids love trying to act out the motions, which are pulled out of the text and written in large print on each page.
Looking for ways to engage and motivate your young readers?  Here are 13 picture books that will get early readers up, moving, and having fun while reading.   Simple, repetitive, and rhyming texts for emergent readers in pre-k, kindergarten, and first grade.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen brings the famous song to text.  I'm actually not sure which came first since I never knew this was a book!  Kids love singing along to the rhythm and patting their knees while they role play the actions.  Here's a good You Tube video with the song and photographs to go along with it.
I hope you have found something new to use with your students or even your toddler at home.  Just remember to let them move and have fun reading!
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