Must Have Picture Books

I stumbled on a linky party about books at The Teacher Wife. I love to talk about books, so here I'll add a few that I haven't seen listed on some other lists! It's terribly hard to think of absolute favorites, but I'll just stick with a few that I love or my kids loved or both! My guilty pleasure, especially during garage sale season is buying books, so I love getting ideas, link up and share yours for others to read about!

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1. The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane DeRolf

This book tells a story about a bunch of crayons that doesn't get along. They each believe they are the best color and will argue about the others. When bought and taken home, they learn they can make a beautiful picture by using all of the colors. 

I read this around Martin Luther King Jr. Day to help teach acceptance and diversity. It could be read anytime and this next school year, I'll read it much sooner. 

2. Pinduli by Janell Cannon 

The author of Stellaluna, also deserving top mentions, also wrote this book. Opposite of The Crayon Box that Talked, Pinduli is a young hyena that doesn't like being different. She's picked on one day and ends up running into a number of other animals that weren't having a good day either. It teaches about how words can travel and hurt those you say things to. In the end, Pinduli learns to accept herself and helps other accept each other too. 

I read this last year in the beginning of the year to help teach about how to discover what words mean. The book is filled with great vocabulary. We used context clues, picture clues, and the dictionary to help us out. The kids loved the imagery and enjoyed all the animals in it. 

3. Zink the Zebra by Kelly Weil

Now, I'm on a roll with books that teach about appreciating differences. Zink the Zebra is another book about how people can be different. This story follows two zebra siblings: Zink and Fink. Zink was born with spots, Fink, with stripes. They go around the jungle asking which one was "weird." Their parents tell them they are special the way they are. 

I've been reading this one to kids for a long time now. Having worked with Girl Scouts, this program was a big part of our camp. This very short story was written by a young girl, Kelly, who had cancer. She felt alone and different. She did lose her battle, but her memory stays with this book and program. You can watch a video online for free with your class: http://www.zink.org.

4. Black? White! Day? Night! by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Less of a picture book and more of a flip book, this book still deserves a mention. The book is a great book of opposite with excellent pictures to illustrate opposites. One part of the page will have a picture with one idea and you open it and see the opposite. The pictures here are tiny and huge.

When I started to read the book with my second and third graders when teaching antonyms, they said: "This is for Kindergartners!" By the end, they were saying their predictions and how cool the book was!

5. Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel

By no means is this a masterpiece, but it is terribly funny. Kitty used to be a very good kitty but then became a very bad kitty when her owner had only healthy food for her. She goes through a terrible fit and does some terrible things until her owner buys her "tasty" food. Then, she must apologize and fits all the wrong things she did. 

My students loved this book, the illustrations, and the chaos! It is easy to read with an ABC format and has some great vocabulary as well. My kids wanted to read it again and again, along with any other book that was in the series! The Poor Puppy book has good geographic locations, which is another fun aspect to talk with kids about. 

Extra: Oh, How I Wished I Could Read! by John Gile

I almost forgot about this one. I got this when I was in school and absolutely loved it! I read it so often! So, I figured, I may as well add it as an extra. It's about a little boy who dreams he can't read. He has a terrible experience without knowing what the letters meant! It helps to show kids the importance of reading and how words surround them. I did read it to my class, but it was so early in the year I forgot it originally on the list!

Those are just a few, there are so many other books I could rave on and on about! Check out the linky party to add your own! 

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Like I wrote before, I am trying to do something a day for Kindergarten. Some things are more general, like the pocket chart and now these. I searched many places around me to get library pockets to no avail. So, I decied to make my own. I cut 12 x 18 pieces of construction paper into four parts: 4.5 inches by 12 inches. I then cut them all to be 9 inches long, saving the other 3 inches. These can fit into the pockets later on.

I scored them with my scissors four inches up so I could later fold them. Before I did that though, I cut .5 inches off of each side of the longer chunk.

I folded them up next. Then, I glued the excess tabs and folded them over to create pockets. I rounded the top corners to make it look more professional. It took about 3 episodes of The Vampire Diaries (my latest Netflix TV show) to make 25. 

The Lovely World of Seuss

Hands down, Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein show up more in my classroom than any other authors. They are creative, funny, filled with good language, and simply enjoyable for all people of all ages. Not to forgot that I also absolutely adore poetry! We spent a good two months on rhyme, similes and metaphors, types of poetry, and writing poetry.

This last year, we did a few activities to go along with Dr. Seuss and his wonderful books.We also did a lot of comparing of his style as well (going along right into our author study standard).

Yertle the Turtle

I had a lot of bullying in my classroom this year. With Yertle the Turtle, my students instantly connected his behavior with some of the behavior they had seen. We all agreed that Yertle wasn't a good king at all. Since we were working on quotes and vocal expression, each student figured out what he or she would say to Yertle if they were under him.

We put this together into a craft using paper plates, green construction paper, and the quote shape design on Word. Ie: Right here! Since we were also studying geometry, shapes, and symmetry, students needed to create a pattern. It was an early introduction to rotational symmetry for them!

Bartholomew and the Oobleck 

 What a better way to study Solids, Liquids, and Gases by reading Dr. Seuss and making the devastating Oobleck. Note: this is a dirty project but very enjoyable with the kids. You can usually clean up with just water and a paper towel, though the food coloring has been known to stain!

I've done it with corn starch and water and borax, glue, and water. Either will work. Just add some color and let kids enjoy!

The last time I did this:

- Quart sized plastic baggy per student

- Add about 1 part corn starch for 1 part water and mix slowly in the bag (I did about half a cup of each this last year, it spreads out or sinks and I didn't want too big of a mess if someone popped theirs open (which happened later in the day!))

- Add some food coloring and mix through it (I had neon colors and let the kids pick which, adding two or three drops and letting them mix and explore)

We also did some comparing between Bartholomew and Yertle. We thought both were bad kinds and Dr. Seuss likes to have "normal" people be good and help save the day.

The Lorax

Who doesn't read The Lorax for Earth Day or when studying natural resources? Well, I love it and students were really excited to read it this year due to the movie coming out. This made for some interesting discussions with my kids. "The book is based on the movie!" and "He did plant the trees, it was in the movie!" Since we were studying both of the above at the time, we used the lovely Mel D's Seusstastic Activities to write about how we will protect the earth.

To display these (right in time for conferences), I made the Lorax and some Truffala Trees to place around it in the back of my class. I projected some images onto the SMARTBoard, got out some construction paper, and traced the edges. It took a little while, but I couldn't draw that well without this great technology. I know other teachers that use their overhead projector for doing similar! 

Anyway, we read a few more, but here are a few activities we did. I just felt like posting some activities we did that connected literature and standards!

On a different note, it is most likely that I will teach Kindergarten next year. Boy, I'm both terrified and psyched for this experience! I will be spending a lot of my summer trying to collect resources, make activities, and learn as much as I can about effectively teaching Kindergarteners. If you have some clever Kindergarten ideas, management ideas, etc., let me know!

Islam and the Classroom

Outside of all that I am learning about teaching this year, I am learning more and more about the Islamic culture. All of my students are Islamic.

What I found hardest to do this year was find characters that my students could relate to in literature and lessons. So rarely are their Muslim characters in children's literature. Rarer still is to find a book with Muslim characters that is secular. I researched a lot at my local libraries and online. Yet I have wound up with only a few.

I am incredibly happy with two books I got through Scholastic this year: Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan and The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania Jordan Abdullah. The only other age appropriate book I found and read is One Green Apple by Eve Bunting.

Clip art images are just as tricky when putting together projects and packets. No, it isn't imperative that I have to use Muslim characters- but I have so many girls that do wear the hijab that it would be nice to show kids like them. So, to add decoration in my room, I look out my Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut Cartridge and created these:

I am happy with them. Each is based on a student in my class. If interested, let me know and I can help you to figure out how to create the look. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out how to make the hijabs!

One of the neatest things about working with students from a diverse background is the culture days we have had. I had a student bring in sambusa and dished me out some. I absolutely loved it! I tried to recreate it and ended up with these ones below. Although they looked far from the Somali dish, they tasted just great. I accompanied them with the Somali rice. Lovely dish!

It has been an adventure with these students. I am still struggling with finding more literature though, let me know if you have crossed books with Muslim characters with little stress on religion!