I spend a lot of time reading the very best children's books I can find and then build on the ideas, characters, or illustrations from those books. The goal of each read-aloud experience is to help young children develop a love for reading and to build connections between reading and their everyday world.
Below are many of my absolute favorite read-aloud books along with a few ideas to keep the story going all around the classroom.
Tree farm small world sensory play!
I wasn’t sure if my students would really be all that excited about the idea but to my delight, they absolutely loved it! I put
Read and then press here!
The children’s book “Press Here” by Herve’ Tullet is always a favorite in our classroom and I love it because there are just so many ways we can expand the book all throughout the classroom.
5 ways to have fun with reading
Each year, Read Across America day falls on March 2nd in honor of Dr. Seuss Birthday. Whether you choose to read a Dr. Seuss book
Please pass the orange
With the winter days still around, it is nice to bring a little color into the classroom right now. This past week we have been exploring
Put your favorite children’s book in a discovery bottle!
Amazing and affordable literacy discovery bottles for the early childhood classroom!
Let’s make a rainbow together!
A fun and creative process that will encourage teamwork in your classroom! Whenever I can find an idea that our whole class can work on
Simple and fun alphabet review in preschool
Exploring leaves outside and extending the fun inside with our Alphabet Tree letter review!
Fun with Fall Leaves!
Today with our preschool class, we explored the different colors that the leaves change into as this season progresses, observing different greens, yellows, oranges, and even browns!
Sharing cookies : storytelling and creating
Reading a fun story about cookies, retelling the story then expanding on the topic of cookies as we made our own creative puffy paint cookies in preschool!
Ten little caterpillars in a jar
We read the book “Ten Little Caterpillars” by Bill Martin Jr. then enjoyed a little counting and patterning of our own ten little caterpillars!
Fun with some bugs!
What do you do if you have a kid who loves bugs? You find a book about some bugs and spend lots of time playing with pretend bugs and looking for real bugs too!
Let’s go on an up walk
We took an “up” walk to see if we could spot anything stuck in the trees…
Building up the word “up!”
Exploring the word “up” through a fun building block and dice game.
Exploring the inside of our outside
The study of x-rays, bones, and our bodies turned out to be quite an interesting and fun experiences as the prekindergarten age children worked to complete the skeleton of a paper boy in our classroom.
Polka dot painted fish
We recently spent time exploring “under the sea” and the children created one of our old favorite paper plate activities – the polka dot painted fish.
Storytelling on the easel
This week we have been exploring waves in the ocean through our literature, art, water play, and other experiences in preschool.
All pumped up for water play and moose track soap
An amazing water play process that combines literacy, motor skills, and water play! You won’t want to miss the fun with this one!
What can you find in a people house? Exploring with Dr. Seuss
We read the Dr. Seuss book “In a People House” and then spent time exploring things you can find in a people house all around our preschool classroom.
Cotton ball clouds
We recently spent a few days exploring different types of weather. We also focused a great deal on raindrops and clouds. This simple activity that
Exploring space with Dr. Seuss
In celebration of Dr. Seuss week, our Pre-Kindergarten class enjoyed the book “There’s No Place like Space” as well as a few space related activities we had set up to explore around the classroom.
Chopstick painting
Exploring a new art process with a book and a pair of real chopsticks!
Don’t push my button!
You quickly learn that if you don’t want a preschooler to do something then just start your sentence with the word “Don’t!”. Come see what my preschoolers are saying, “Don’t push my button!”
Patterning with hugs and kisses
We recently introduced the letter Kk, and with Valentine’s day coming soon, we thought it was most appropriate to explore hugs and KISSES.
Hunting for shapes
To introduce this our new shape unit we read the new book “Hearts are for Loving” and played this fun and colorful game in preschool.