My kids have a lot of books. It's because their mom is a book addict teacher. I might be a little out of control- especially now that I know that Goodwill sells children's paperbacks for 75 cents and hardcover books for $1.25. And let's not even discuss the ones that are 50% off of that because they have the "color of the week" sticker on them! Be still my heart!! It really didn't help the situation any that last summer I went & found a teacher had retired & turned in what looked like her entire collection. Imagine- barely used & beautiful books for such a steal. This is where I go to load up for my classroom library, and inevitably some awesome special find makes it's way home for my own kids.
Reading research says that reading aloud to your kids is one of the best things you can do for their reading, writing, auditory, and oral skills; plus it's a lot of fun- so we do a lot of it around here. I'll be posting some of our favorites here on my blog- check them out!
One of the kids favorites, we just returned it to the school library after having it for a ridiculously long time. (Thank goodness our Media Specialist likes me & didn't come hunting it down!) Monkey fell in love with a ripped up, pages missing copy of this at Peanut's ballet school when he was 2. We never knew what happened in the great hall with the knights until we got a copy of the book with all the pages intact. A wonderful book with repetetive text that the kids can start to help "read" along with you once they're familiar with the story. Great for "reading" the pictures also- once they know the story they can retell it easily by reading the pictures.
I'm not sure who loved this story more- the kids or mommy! Hilarious story about all the things Mr. McGreeley does to keep the bunnies out of his vegetable garden. Fun, repetetive text that the kids can help read along with you, GREAT vocabulary building- talk about all the different names he calls the bunnies, lots of great synonyms in this book. If you have a preschooler, check out the lapbook resources for this story at
Homeschool Share. This
classroom guide to the book with garden-themed teaching ideas is great. For some cool writing lesson ideas to use with this book, check out
Two Writing Teacher's Site.
Last one for tonight- the book that I SWEAR is the reason Peanut knows the letters of the alphabet. Between the time she was 1-2 I lost count of how many times I read this book at night-night time. She loved it, found it hilariously funny, and sat patiently listening while I pointed out the letter/sound each of the letters made on each page. Not the quickest book to get through, with 26 letters, but so enjoyable you won't notice, I promise. Wonderful illustrations, rhyming verse, & each monkey's name starts with the same letter as the naughty thing that s/he is doing on their page. This book is just plain FUN to read & share with someone you love- you'll laugh together as you read. After enjoying the book check out some of the fun activities at
Shannon's Book Nook.
