Elise has become a huge reader and I love it! She likes to sit and read books to herself and also enjoys bringing books for us to read to her. She still doesn't like to sit and read a book before bedtime every night. Often times she plays around while I read to Carter. She likes to have a stack of books in her bed to look at before going to sleep at naptime as well as bedtime. It's so cute. Carter has gotten to be really good at sounding out words and reading them. It's a little tricky for him because he switches back and forth between English and Spanish. He'll be reading a word in English but using the Spanish sounds. The other day it was "h-ah-th" for jazz since the j is makes the /h/ sound in Spanish and his teacher is from Spain so she pronounces the z sound as /th/. I don't want to confuse him so I'm going to wait until he's proficient reading in Spanish before practicing English sounds again and then reading in English, I'm thinking maybe this summer we'll work on reading in English. It took him a couple months to get used to the letter sounds in Spanish so I don't want to throw a wrench in that. This is such a fun time in our lives with Elise loving to be read to and Carter starting to read on his own. I love it! Here are some of our favorite books from this fall. At home outside of his practice readers Carter prefers to read in English as a break from Spanish so we mostly read books in English. Read last year's fall book list here, 2016 here, 2015 here, 2014 here, and 2013 here.
Our Favorite Books from this Fall:
- Brave Ben by Mathilde Stein- I'm not sure what exactly it was about this book that Elise loved, but love it she did! She wanted to read it over and over. In the book Ben refers to himself as a scaredy cat and I heard Elise call someone a scaredy cat on the playground at school so she definitely picked that up there.
- Dear Substitute by Liz Garton Scanlon- This was a great book about how things will be different when you have a substitute and that's okay. It would be a good book for a teacher to read to his/her class before being gone or for a substitute to read at the beginning of the day to remind students that things will be different and that's okay. I'm keeping this one on a list to read before I'm gone and have a sub and also for the future if I ever end up being a substitute teacher. It was that good!
- Hippos Are Huge! by Jonathan London- This book was recommended by our children's librarian because there is a page that talks about hippo poop and Elise is obsessed with What Do They Do With All That Poo? Both the kids loved it and wanted to read it over and over. I wasn't surprised that one of Elise's favorite pages was the one that talked about poop. She asked a lot of questions!
- Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson- This book has been a Halloween favorite of Carter and then Elise for years. It's also probably my favorite Halloween book. The one we read I bought at a garage sale around 10 years ago before my first year of teaching! I went back and saw I'd never listed it on a fall reading list so I wanted to list it here. The book is so good with the witch being saved at the end by all her friends she's made throughout the book. The book has been made into a short little movie that's on Netflix which is my favorite kind where all the words are straight out of the book. They only added a little bit with the bird's backstory that I didn't really like, but it's a great short little video to watch.
- I Would Tuck You In by Sarah Asper-Smith- This was a sweet book and Elise adored it because there was a mommy otter and a baby otter on the cover. She didn't want to return it to the library when it was due, that's how much she liked it.
- Over in the Forest: Come and Take a Peek by Marianne Berkes- We love the books that are different variations on Over in the Meadow, but with a different habitat. Every time we find one, the kids love it. They are great for discussing different habitats and what animals live there as well as practicing counting.
- Saying Goodbye to Lulu by Corinne Demas- The kids picked this book out at the library and wanted me to read it to them while we were there. I held it together and didn't cry at the library even though the dog in the story was even colored similarly to Harper. But each time we read it at home I cried at a different part of the story. I think the kids enjoyed the book so much because it put words to their feelings. It's always nice to have validation that it's okay to feel the way you do. Elise has told me, "Tesla is sweet and I like her, but I just want Harper back. Why can't God make Harper better and bring her back." It is so hard and I feel the same way. I sure love Tesla, but I just wish we still had Harper! I know over time it will get easier and even though this book made me cry, it did make me feel better.
- Tiptoe Tapirs by Hanmin Kim- Elise loved this book and picked it out to read every time we sat down to read. I'm not sure what it was about the book that she loved so much. I think she liked it when the leopard jumped out and surprised everyone.
- Dear Girl, A Celebration of Wonderful, Smart, Beautiful You by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal- This was another favorite of Elise's. She loved it and it was a sweet book. It would be a good one to give as a graduation present and I found myself wishing we hadn't already picked a book to have people sign for Elise to give her at her high school graduation.
- Robyn Boid: Architect by Maree Coote- This was such a cute story about a bird who starts getting creative with the design of birds' nests. It was a great story about how it's okay to be different. It would also be the perfect present for an architect at a baby shower. So I'm keeping this one filed away for that purpose.
- Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller- This was a great book to read at the beginning of the school year. I loved how it showed the way one act of kindness can snowball into more kind actions.
- The Little Old Lad Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams- Elise adored this book and we read it over and over and over. I thought she mostly liked the rhythm of the book when we read it because it was almost like a song.
No comments:
Post a Comment