early literacy
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Book Talk Tuesday
I’m linking up with Mrs. Jump’s Class for Book Talk Tuesday. I love Halloween books, but my favorites are all pretty well known – The Little Old Lady Who Was not Afraid of Anything, It’s Pumpkin Time, and Room on the Broom are all great books, but I really want to share new books with you. Spooky is a board book from Roger Priddy, and while you may not recognize his name, his books are staples in infant, toddler, and preschool classrooms. Spooky is a touch and feel picture book that includes both simple illustrations and lifelike photographs. It is a great way to introduce very young children to Halloween, and…
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Book Talk Tuesday – Big Pumpkin
It’s Tuesday, so I’m linking up with Mrs. Jump’s Class for Book Talk Tuesday. I know it isn’t quite time for Halloween yet, but I have to share this book with you now so that you have time to track it down and share it with your class for a couple of weeks before Halloween. Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman has been my favorite Halloween book ever since I was introduced to it my first year teaching. It tells the story of a witch who planted a pumpkin seed, which grows a pumpkin so big that she can’t move it by herself. One by one Halloween creatures attempt to move…
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Book Talk Tuesday – Leaf Man
Mrs. Jump’s Class Hi everyone! It’s Tuesday so I’m linking up with Mrs. Jump’s Class for Book Talk Tuesday. Today I’m sharing one of my favorite fall books – luckily I have enough favorites to get me through every week of autumn – but today it’s Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert. All of Lois’ books are amazing, her illustrating style is unique and it really speaks to children, and encourages their own creativity. This book in particular contains illustrations that are made out of leaves. This story opens up children’s imaginations to all of the possible places that leaves can fly on the wind. There are a number of activities…
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Book talk Tuesday – We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt
Today I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump's Class for Book talk Tuesday. Every year, this book finds a permanent place on my classroom bookshelf for the entire autumn season. My students love Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger. This book is perfect for preschoolers because it takes a story that they are already familiar with, and gives it an autumn twist. They are easily able to retell the story to themselves or each other after hearing me read it a few times. The pictures are also colorful, attractive and very descriptive. Books like this give young readers confidence in their beginning skills, making reading fun. I also love that it names…
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Friday Freebie
It’s Friday, which means it’s time for a freebie! This one is a great idea from Courtney Keimer. It’s a sensory alphabet book, each page has an upper and lowercase letter outline, along with a sensory material that begins with that particular letter. Students use glue and the suggested material to fill in each letter outline. I love this because it gives children a concrete example for each letter sound. Instead of drawing a picture, writing a word, or gluing in a magazine clipping, children actually get to handle the object that is associated with the letter sound, giving them a tangible example. I think that this is an awesome…
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Easy Alphabet Match Activity
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Going to the fair!
This week is our local county fair – one of my favorite weeks of the entire year! The fair is a big deal at my house, my husband and I were both raised in 4H, we met when we were counselors at 4H camp in high school, and now we serve as advisors for our local 4H club. We take the entire week off of work to help out with fundraisers and special events, watch our club members show their animals, and enjoy spending time with friends that we don’t get to see very often. In honor of the fair I wanted to share some of my favorite farm themed…
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Motivating Young Readers
My students are participating in the summer reading program at our local library and they absolutely love tracking the number of books that they’ve read. They are constantly asking to read books (I know, awesome!) and I am happy to oblige. I know that this is something I want to continue throughout the school year. For the library’s program my kiddos have to write down the title of each book that they read – which really means I have to write down the title of each book that they read. This doesn’t sound so bad, until I think about the fact that my 12 students are each reading at least…
