This week’s blog is written by Silvana Oderisi. This is Silvana’s seventh year teaching kindergarten and her third year with the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center where she is the reading teacher. Prior to joining SEEC, she spent two years as a Corps Member of Teach for America in Tulsa, Oklahoma as well as teaching in the District of Columbia. She is passionate about reading, learning languages, and being active.
As I mentioned in my last blog, Top 5- Elements of a Great Read-Aloud, I thoroughly enjoy getting the chance to read to my group of kindergarten students during our daily read-aloud lessons! As a class, we love engaging with exciting and fun stories that push us to think critically about what we see and hear therein.
Here are some of the books we love the most and how we’ve used them in our classroom.
This is one of my students’ all time favorite authors. So, suffice it to say that any book of his is bound to be a crowd pleaser for a read-aloud in a kindergarten classroom and beyond! This particular book of his combines silly rhyming words with a very relatable problem. On a trip to the bakery for her mom, Nanette eats all of the warm, delicious baguette before she even gets home! With a twist ending that shows adults can be as silly as kids, the book will have your children roaring with laughter!
Get ready for another fun book to read with your children. This popular book is one that will have kids re-evaluating the way they treat the crayons in their own crayon boxes. The poignant, hilarious letters from the crayons in Duncan’s crayon box, give kids a glimpse into the point of view of what they had formerly thought of as inanimate objects. In our classroom, we like to use this book to help us practice identifying problems in a story. We define a problem as something the character wants to change, fix, or figure out. And boy, do those crayons come to Duncan with some problems! From arguing over which color is the true color of the sun, to being overused and overworked, or not used enough, each letter provides my class with practice identifying problems and then using critical thinking skills to wonder how we would solve the problem if we were Duncan!
If you couldn’t tell by now, I am a big fan of comedic children’s books. I love to make my students laugh and see them smile as we think about the stories we read together. I want nothing more than for my students to absolutely LOVE reading, so I try to incorporate as many of these happy moments as I can into my read-alouds. This book, in particular, combines silly characters and a relatable competition to get the last drop of maple syrup making for one hilarious story. In our classroom, we used this story to help us be able to identify a character as the person, animal, or thing (we really had to include that last one in this story) that does the ACTIONS! This helped us look more closely at a character’s actions, which comes in very handy when analyzing character traits, discussing problems and solutions, and more critical thinking questions.
While I do appreciate the imaginative and abstract characters in a lot of the books on this list, I strongly believe that it is also important for my students to see and read books that are a positive reflection of their own identities. I try to incorporate books, such as this one, so that the young girls in my class (and especially the girls of color) see their own potential in the STEM field. Reading books like this helps open the doors for young girls to explore their own curiosities about the world and ask questions about how the world works, without feeling like they’re stepping into a “boy’s world.”
Not only do I believe that my students should see their own identities reflected in the stories they read, but I also like to make sure that my students are able to make positive personal connections to other cultures through our read-alouds. This book is based on an African tale, and tells the story of a king looking for the “most worthy and beautiful” woman to be his queen. Mufaro believes that his two daughters, Manyara and Nyasha, are worthy and beautiful enough for the king and they decide to journey to the palace. Although both characters are outwardly very beautiful, their choices and actions throughout the story demonstrate two entirely different concepts of beauty, giving your readers plenty of opportunities to analyze personality traits along the way. This story truly begs the question of whether or not beauty can be found on the inside or the outside and can lead to very powerful discussions with your children about the concept of beauty.
A classic Kindergarten favorite, this book is helpful to readers practicing sequencing events of a story, an important kindergarten comprehension skill. My students love the hilarious events that happen in the Napping House and re-tell the events with ease thanks to the silly rhymes and repetition throughout the book. The repetitive phrases help not only with remembering the sequence of events from beginning to end, but also help this age group develop fluency skills as they read, re-read, and read again the same words throughout the text.
I just could not go through this Top 8 list without adding another book by Mo Willems. As one of my personal favorite children’s authors, I really enjoy using any of his books in my classroom for a multitude of learning objectives. In particular, this book is helpful for making inferences about a character’s physical and personality traits. This is a great opportunity to practice identifying personality traits by analyzing the character’s actions, words, thoughts, and feelings. Wilbur is a naked mole rat who likes to wear clothes – fancy outfits, fun costumes, you name it! However, Wilbur is the only naked mole rat in his colony who does so, leaving his peers to be outraged by his scandalous behavior. Nonetheless, Wilbur shows determination and bravery to stay true to himself and even dresses up for a royal proclamation wearing…socks!
This book is one of my favorites because no matter the age group, every class I’ve read this book with has been on the edge of their seats to see what happens to the Magic Tree. This book incorporates movements like rubbing, tapping, counting, patting, and blowing that encourage children to participate in the changing of the seasons. The beauty of this book is that the realistic looking illustrations and bodily kinesthetic movement make it fun for many different age groups to read. If you’re interested in learning more about how to make your favorite picture books age appropriate for both toddlers and kindergartners, make sure to check back in for the blog I will be co-writing with toddler expert, Meredith Osborne!
seecstories.com 