Early Learning September Bonus List of Books and Activities! Because I gave a presentation to awesome librarians this month and I couldn’t resist sharing all the great ideas we came up with, you get a bonus post this month! And because you’re getting a bonus post, I hope you’ll allow me to indulge in a bit
Counting Book 27 Books You Can Use This Year During the “Moving Beyond the Basics… Reaching for More” conference on Aug. 11 at the Byron Center High School in Michigan, a roomful of teachers and I read through boxes of books. (Thank you, Annemarie Johnson and Kate DiMeo, for inviting me to share informational picture books and to talk
Early Learning Moo! It’s the beginning of a new school year and we want all our students to start off feeling successful. If you have kids that are beginning or struggling readers, here is a book that almost everyone will be able to read confidently: Moo! written by David LaRochelle and illustrated
Craft and Structure Wumbers “What do you get when you combine a word with a number? A wumber!” Wumbers is wri10 by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustr8ed by Tom Lichtenheld, the dynamic duo who made Duck! Rabbit! and other books I love passion8ly. With Wumbers, kids have 2 pay at10tion to the sound of
Body Smart Frank Was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance Here’s a treat for you this Halloween: a rhyming picture book that will delight your little monsters while you hit the CCSS of Fluency and Phonics & Word Recognition. Frank was a Monster Who Wanted to Dance by Keith Graves is simple, spooky, silly fun. Frank’s dancing delights
Art Knock, Knock! Trent, one of my preschool pals, couldn’t stop giggling as he told me this gem, “So, a horse walks into a bar and the bartender says, ‘Hey, why the long face?'” Kids love good jokes – and they don’t seem to mind the bad jokes, either! Joke books
Art Rosie Revere, Engineer I have the best of reasons for posting late this week: I’ve been on Mackinac Island at the Michigan Reading Association conference, being inspired by dedicated educators and loving the slower pace of an island with no automobiles. Now I’m sitting in a white wicker rocking chair with
Early Learning Farmers' Market Day I am counting the days until my local farmers’ market opens. Until then, I’m glad I found this perfect pick: Farmers’ Market Day written by debut picture-book author Shanda Trent and illustrated by Jane Dippold. This rhyming book is a quick read that can easily be turned into an
Art Iggy Peck, Architect Long have I loved Andrea Beaty’s picture book series about a bear named Ted (grab Doctor Ted, Firefighter Ted, and Artist Ted from your local library and prepare to be charmed.) Then, I saw sitting on the shelf by the Ted books this gem, just waiting to tie in
Early Learning Oh, No! Where Are My Pants? and Other Disasters: Poems Poetry doesn’t have to be “roses are red, violets are blue…” As David Lubar wrote in his young adult novel, Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, “There are as many types of poems as there are types of food. As many flavors, you might say. To claim you don’t like
Art Max's Castle Let me make it easier for you this holiday season, because I know how it is. You want to buy a book for a child for the holidays, but you think they’d probably like a toy better, but you don’t want to give plastic junk, and yet do
Body Smart Go, Go, Grapes! Hip, hip, hooray for April Pulley Sayre and Go, Go, Grapes! A Fruit Chant! How do you make healthy eating fun? With Sayre’s vibrant photos of fruits taken at her local farmer’s market paired with her contagious rhymes: “Nectarines, tangerines, hit the spot. Glum? Go plum. Or apricot!
Early Learning We Will Miss You, Maurice Sendak May 8, 2012, the children’s book world lost an honored artist/author/illustrator, Maurice Sendak. Most people remember his book Where the Wild Things Are, but Sendak was by no means a one-hit wonder. He wrote and/or illustrated dozens of children’s books, so today, I’m mentioning
Color Knowledge Rah, Rah, Radishes! Three cheers for April Pulley Sayre and Rah, Rah, Radishes! A Vegetable Chant! How do you make healthy eating fun? With Sayre’s vibrant photos of vegetables taken at her local farmer’s market paired with her contagious rhymes: “Oh boy, bok choy! Brussels sprout. Broccoli. Cauliflower. Shout it out!
Body Smart The Piggy in the Puddle “See the piggy, see the puddle, see the muddy little puddle. See the piggy in the middle of the muddy little puddle.” This classic tongue-twisting pig tale, The Piggy in the Puddle, by Charlotte Pomerantz and James Marshall is almost 40 years old, and it is still pure fun to
Body Smart The Ballad of Valentine “Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Valentine, I have written forty letters, but you’ve never read a line.” Alison Jackson and Tricia Tusa have me singing this Valentine’s Day. In their book, The Ballad of Valentine, a narrator tries most every way he can to
Early Learning Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? Before I rave about Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan A. Shea and Tom Slaughter, first I must rave about the public librarians in Washington. I just spent a day talking about great books and ideas with some of the most dedicated, hardworking, professional librarians I’ve
Early Learning Retelling with file folder puppet theaters Kids retell stories all the time: they tell what they did over the weekend, what happened on the playground, who really put the building blocks in the fish tank, etc. Retelling is an important skill, and one fun way to retell a story is with puppets. I snagged this idea
Early Learning Bubble Trouble “Little Mabel blew a bubble, and it caused a lot of trouble… such a lot of bubble trouble in a bibble-bobble way. For it broke away from Mabel as it bobbed across the table, where it bobbled over Baby, and it wafted him away.” I double-dog dare you to pick
Early Learning Chew on these great books In a recent Remenar Seminar, a principal pointed out that I share lots of stories, but not a lot of non-fiction. That’s something I’m working on – I love fiction, but I know many learners really respond to informational text. So, I’m trying to pair up books on
Body Smart Why Nursery Rhymes Work I had the pleasure of attending a kindergarten “family night” at an elementary school. The theme was nursery rhymes, and once again I was reminded why these rhymes are so powerful. I could (and often do) go on for days about the phonological awareness that rhyme builds, how children who
Early Learning Potty Animals! It’s time to potty! If you work with or have young children, you need Hope Vestergaard’s book “Potty Animals: What to Know When You’ve Gotta Go!”, illustrated by Valeria Petrone. One of the essential literacy skills kids need to become readers is “print motivation”. There has to
Counting Book "One Boy" With cool cut-outs on the pages, One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger shows how one word can be found within another word. This counting book starts with the words “One boy” (who we see through a cut-out square on the next page.) Turn the page, and the square hole is
Body Smart Big Chickens These chickens really are big chickens – they’re afraid of everything. When a wolf sneaks into the farmyard, they tumble out into the wide, scary world. “‘I’m afraid to go home,’ said one chicken. ‘Ohh….’ said the others. ‘Me too.’ ‘Me three.’ ‘Me four.'” But somehow, these chickens
Body Smart Cool "Jazz Baby" “Brother’s hands tap. Sister’s hands snap. Itty-bitty Baby’s hands clap-clap-clap!” I don’t think it’s possible to read Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler and R. Gregory Christie aloud without bouncing a bit. This book, which earned the Geisel Honor Award, works on so many levels. Your
