Summer Reading

Carter starts preschool tomorrow so I guess it's time to call our summer book list a wrap. We read some really good books this summer and enjoyed completing the summer reading program. Carter completed it for the 4th time and Elise completed it for the 2nd time! I love that the library encourages children of all ages to participate in the summer reading program. Carter was so proud to tell everyone he got another medal when he received his medal this year. Check out our summer reading list from last year here, 2014 here, and our list from 2013 here. I looked back at the pictures from each year's post and I almost cried seeing chubby baby Carter with his roly poly thighs reading board books while sitting on the floor. I sure do love babies!

 

 

 

Our Top Reading Choices From This Summer:

• Where Is the Cake? by T. T. Khing, This was a wordless picture book and Carter adored it. He read it for the first time with Ty and just giggled over all the words Ty added to the story. Wordless books are so wonderful for children. They help them read the pictures when they are not yet reading words. It is also great for them to start inferring and working through plots. I definitely get the purpose of wordless picture books and think they are absolutely necessary and incredibly wonderful, but they just aren't my thing as a reader. I would much rather read a book with words and rhyme. So Carter's love for wordless books challenges me as a reader, especially reading aloud and I love that. Ty on the other hand loves wordless books and is a natural for telling the story and getting Carter excited about the book. What we enjoyed the most about this book was that each time we read it, we noticed new things in the pictures and new parts to the storyline as well as new characters. We read it every night before bed until it was turned in at the library.
• Goldilocks and Just One Bear by Leigh Hodgkinson, This book was so cute. I'd love to read it to the kids again during a fairy tale learning theme. We could read all the different versions of Goldilocks. It also made me think back to the first few weeks of school. We usually read a version of Goldilocks when we were talking about picking the perfect book nook spot for read to self. Then I would read another version when we started talking about text-to-text connections and the kids would make the connections between the different books. I think it would be a great activity with Carter to talk about how the books were the same, how they were different, and then introduce the term text-to-text connections. Weeks after we returned this book to the library, Carter was talking about it again.
• Poem in Your Pocket by Margaret McNamara and G. Brian Karas, This book is on here for me. I loved it and kept thinking of all the lessons and ways to link into a poetry writing unit. I want to remember it for class and also for learning themes with Carter. It said April is national poetry month so I would love to do a learning theme on poetry with Carter during that month or even just bring in poetry to our learning themes more during that month.
• The Treasure by Uri Shulevitz, Carter loved this book and wanted me to read it to him "over and over until bedtime." I think he mostly liked it because the main character's name is Isaac and his best friend right now is named Isaac. It was a neat story with a good reminder that sometimes we think what we want or need is far away, but often times it's right where we are!
• The Stray Dog by Marc Simont, This was another one that Carter requested to read over and over. It was so cute! I think he liked that the family found a dog and got to keep it. I also liked the illustrations and that there were words, but not very many. There was so much of the story to be read in the illustrations.
• Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins, My mom found this book at a book store and purchased it for Carter. There was so much about it that was just darn adorable! We read it over and over and over and even took it in the car multiple times so Carter could read it again as I drove. His favorite part was that the goslings saw Bruce and thought he was their mom and then a turtle hatched and saw one of the geese and thought the goose was it's mommy. He remembered so many little aspects of this book and continues to talk about it and want to read it.
• Oh So Brave Dragon by David Kirk, Carter loved this book. I think part of it was that the dragon and his friends worked together to overcome their fear and part of it was that the dragon didn't realize he was scared of his own roar. Carter is easy to scare so he tends to like books where the main character is scared of something. I think he likes it because he can relate to it and because it makes him feel better about himself. This was a cute book and I enjoyed the picture of all the animals roaring together. 

Spring Reading

Reading continues to be a favorite activity around our house. I love that Carter will pick reading a book over most things. He gets to watch a little tv at night after he's done his chores and if given the choice between watching more tv or turning it off to read bedtime books, he almost always chooses books. If he does choose tv he usually changes his mind a few minutes later and wants to read books instead. Elise has picked up the reading habit and will sit on the floor working so hard to open board books and flip through them on her own. Carter likes to read to her and my favorite thing is walking in on him reading to her. It never fails to melt my heart. We found some more wonderful books at the library this spring. Read last year's list here and our list from 2014 here. We just signed up for the summer reading program and I'm so excited to get started on it!

 

 

Our Top Reading Choices From This Spring:

• A Place to Call Home by Alexis Deacon, The main characters in this book were hamsters or some sort of rodent and Carter immediately loved that. It was written with the text all in speech bubbles which would be great for first introducing a child to adding dialogue to their writing. It was really funny and Carter wanted it read over and over. During the time we had it checked out from the library he was constantly carrying it in for someone to read to him. Even though he had read it so many times, he still laughed each time we read it. Any book that makes him laugh is a winner with me. I love hearing his sweet laugh! I also like the ending and how the book can be used to discuss that if we stay where we are comfortable, we may never discover something better that is waiting out there for us.
• Scooter in the Outside by Anne Bowen, I'm not sure what exactly it was about this book, but Carter loved it and wanted to read it over and over and over. When my mom read it to him there were 2 small dogs in the story and she changed them to Benny and Bobbie. The next time I read it to him when I read the dogs' names as they were written he corrected me. It was so funny! This was one that I enjoyed the first few times but got tired of toward the end and was ready to return to the library. Carter on the other hand, did not get tired of it.
• Circus Ship by Chris Van Dusen, Carter and I both loved this book. Every time he saw it, he wanted me to read it to him. One time we were walking out the door and he saw it as he was putting on his shoes and had to have it read to him right then. It had such a great flow to it and rhymed and it was a very cute story. One page showed all the circus animals hiding. Carter loved pointing them all out and counting them to make sure he had found them all. This is one I'd like to get him as a present because we both liked it so much!
• Little Tree by Lorn Long, I loved the way this book went through the seasons multiple times. It was about a tree who was afraid to let go of it's leaves. Since it held onto it's leaves, it didn't grow big like the other trees. Then when it finally let go it was cold without the leaves, but not for long and it was able to grow. I loved the message that sometimes we hold onto things when we shouldn't and even though it's scary, letting go can help us grow. I want to remember this book for times when Carter's older and it could be used as a teaching text. Carter loved that the tree held onto it's leaves. He thought it was funny and each time we got to the end of the season and it still had it's leaves he would say, it's holding onto it's leaves!
• Mr Super Poopy Pants by Rebecca Elliott, One day at the library I looked over and saw this book displayed on top of the shelves. I read the title out loud and Carter had to read it right then and there. The book was hilarious and would be a funny way to talk about becoming a big brother or sister. I loved that it talked about different kinds of poops babies do, like the submarine poop which meant pooping in the bathtub. I was cracking up so hard at that one!
• The Chase by Beatrice Tanaka, We were at a special storytime at the art museum and the librarian read this book. Carter liked it so much, he searched our library bag for it when we got home. I told him we didn't have it, but that didn't stop him. He would ask for me to tell him the story in the car. I put the book on hold at the library and we got it within a few days. Carter was so excited when he saw me pull it off the hold shelf. He for some reason was convinced it was titled, Out for a Chase. Every time I read the book he would correct me when I said the title. It was a cute story with a good message that you can't just blindly follow, it's important to know why.
• Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein, Carter thought this book was hilarious. He liked that the dinosaur kept accidentally hurting things. It kind of sounded like someone I know! He also liked the predictable text and I caught him in the living room sitting on the floor reading this book to himself so many times. He'd be flipping through the books saying, "I'll kiss you..." and then "Whoops!" I loved it!

Winter Reading

We still go to the library at least once a week and the librarians all know us. One time I had two bags with me and they were shocked when they saw me only turn in 10 books, saying normally you all have way more than that! I assured them we had a whole other bag under the stroller. When we go we usually check out 20-50 books. The limit is 50 and sometimes we have to put books back. If we only make it to the library once a week we end up reading our books 3-4 times over! Favorite books are read more than that and each set of books means a new favorite book for Carter! I'm so excited that Elise has started crawling over to grab books and will sit turning the pages like she's reading (with board and bath books). Check out our reading list from last winter here and our list from 2014 here.

Our Top Reading Choices From This Fall:

• The Cow Loves Cookies by Karma Wilson, This book was so cute! Carter cracked me up as we read it because he said, "Why's the cow eating cookies? Them are for Santa!"
• Nose to Toes, You Are Yummy! by Tim Harrington, This book was a song with actions for different body parts. We always enjoy books that are songs and Carter loved doing the actions along with the book.
• Take Me to Your BBQ by Kathy Duval and Adam McCauley, This was the last book Jeremy read to Carter before his accident and Carter loved it. He had us read it over and over and over. The book had a great rhyme and rhythm to it and Carter really enjoyed the aliens in the book.
• Ruby in Her Own Time by Jonathan Emmett, This book was so great. Ruby is slower to do things than her siblings but then at the end she can fly higher and farther than any of them. I loved the message that it really doesn't matter if it takes someone a little longer to start doing something. This would be a great book to read to a child who is feeling frustrated that they aren't keeping up with their peers.
• Soon by Timothy Knapman, This book initially got my attention because it had elephants as the main character and the artwork was beautiful. Then we read it and Carter loved it. It was so much fun to act out the different animals the elephants encountered and mother elephant's reactions to them. Then we went on a hike later and walked to the top of a hill like the elephants did which was fun.
• Hiccupotamus by Steve Smallman, This book was almost like a song because it had such a great rhythm to it! Carter loved talking about the different sounds each animal contributed to the song and he absolutely loved the page where the hippo emerged from the water!
• Honey I Love by Eloise Greenfield, This is a poem I used to read in my class each year when we did our writing unit on poetry. I used it from a book of poems and had no idea it had been made into a picture book! The poem has a lot of figurative language which Carter enjoyed and thought was funny, especially when she said "a flying pool" when talking about a hose. He also loved that the poem had such a nice rhythm and was almost like singing a song.
• Bravery Soup by Maryann Cocca Leffler, This book would be great for discussing bravery in a classroom or to help a child who is afraid of something. It has a great message that being brave doesn't mean you aren't scared, it means that you tried anyway! I loved this book and Carter really liked it too. He loves talking about being brave and was mentioning the other day how a boy on the playground was brave for climbing up the ladder.

Fall Reading List

I know it's not quite officially winter yet but I figured since we are into December I'd go ahead and post our favorite books from the fall. We came across some really great books this fall. We kept up going to the library at least once a week. We discovered that the library right by our house had revamped their storytime with a stay and play time after books and songs so we started going to it every week. Carter loved it and Elise did too! Every once in a while we'd stop by a different library for storytime or just to check out books. I love that when we've read all the books in our bag Carter starts requesting to go to the library! Check out our reading list from last fall here and our list from 2013 here.

Our Top Reading Choices From This Fall:

• Baby Bedtime by Mem Fox & Emma Quay, I immediately loved this book. The characters were adorable elephants. There were actions on each page that as I read the words I would do to both Elise and Carter. Little mister loved it and would turn his head and ask me to whisper in his ear again when we got to that page. I would whisper "I love you," then he'd turn and whisper, "I love you too." It was the sweetest. This would be a great book for Elise's book shelf.
• No Matter What by Emma Dodd, This book reminded me of one of Dodd's other books, I Am Small. It was so sweet and I loved that the message was that the adult elephant loves the baby no matter what. It is such an important thing for our children to understand. Of course, I loved that the animals she chose for the book were elephants. I'm thinking this is a perfect first birthday present for Elise since Carter got I Am Small as a first birthday present! I also wrote it down as a book to read when we are talking about opposites since each set of pages shows opposite actions or feelings for the baby elephant.
• Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems, As always when it comes to Mo Willems books, this one was very witty and had me laughing along as we read it. I liked how it poked fun at the original Goldilocks story. Carter absolutely loved it and had me read it so many times I couldn't even guess the count. On one of the last pages the small dinosaur is crying because Goldilocks got away. Carter would always have me stop there and would talk about how the baby dino was sad and why was he crying?! It cracked me up because he was worried about the dinosaur crying rather than feeling relieved that Goldilocks got away.
• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, This was a book I had in my classroom but I didn't remember much about it. In the story dragons don't like spicy foods and if they eat something spicy they breathe fire. Carter enjoyed the book and would ask for the dragon book as one of his book choices each night before going to bed. This book makes the list mostly because Ty liked it so much. He read it over and over to Carter and enjoyed the fact that dragons breathe fire because of spicy food.
• Daisy Gets Lost by Chris Raschka, Carter has really gotten into wordless picture books. He really enjoys looking at the pictures and telling me the story. This one was a favorite because it had a dog and a squirrel as main characters. I would make the animals make sounds showing surprise, frustration, or fear and Carter thought it was hilarious. He asked for this book to be read over and over.
• Splat! starring the Vole Brothers by Roslyn Schwartz, This book was so funny. It had both Carter and me laughing. I liked that the book was mostly comprised of sound words with most of the story being left to the reader to interpret the pictures. We used the book to talk about emotions as well as how the characters could have reacted differently. It was a very cute book which lends itself to multiple teaching points
• That Pup! by Lindsay Barrett George, This one was a favorite of Carter's because it showcased a dog and a squirrel, two of his favorites! I loved the simple text and how well it lended itself to making predictions. We enjoyed looking for the squirrel on each page and finding her watching the dog. One page showed all the acorns, some green and some brown. We counted them and talked about the colors. It would be a great book to read and then have acorns for kids to practice addition, subtraction, and patterns looking at the book to make up their own problems. I would love to use this book in the fall in math tubs when I'm back in the classroom. I also liked that at the end it showed the dog and squirrel putting the acorns back which was a perfect way to help readers retell the story.
• Vincent and the Night by Adele Enersen,Carter initially didn't want to read this book because he called it a baby book and said he wanted to leave it for daddy to read to sissy. When we got through all of our library books he decided to go ahead and read it and he absolutely loved it! I'm not sure exactly what it was about the book, but I think it may have had a little bit to do with Vincent being naughty and that he wasn't going to bed. Carter loved to read the page where Vincent was described as naughty. We read the book 4 times in a row the first time we read it and then he wanted to read it multiple times after that. I even found him sitting in a chair reading it to himself and was shocked how close he was to reading it word for word. It would also be a great book for babies since there are photographs of a baby and the pictures are mostly black and white. I'm excited to read it to Elise when she can have time to really look closely at the pictures!
• Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rowlinson, This book is so sweet. We read it last year during our fall theme but Carter didn't make it through the whole book. This year it was his absolute favorite during that library haul and asked for it over and over. He'd say he wanted to read the fox book and then once he remembered the fox's name after multiple readings, he'd ask for Fletcher. The last page of the book shows the tree in winter and you can touch raised up icicles which he also loved.
• Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton, One thing we've been working on as we read books is predicting what will happen next. Carter loved this book because he was able to easily predict what would happen. He also loved that George was naughty even though he wanted to be good. I think he really connected with the character!

Summer Reading List

Carter's love of reading has really taken off! This summer we read every morning and often times multiple other times during the day. Every night we'd read 2 books before bed and often times went through over 30 books in one day! It was hard to keep up with new library books to feed Carter's growing appetite for reading. We went to the library at least once a week, sometimes 2 or 3 times. Carter has his favorite libraries to visit and if we go to the one closest to our house he will request to go to a different library. Unfortunately I have it set for all of our requested items to go to that library since it is only a quarter-mile from our house so he just has to suck it up at times! It was so much fun to read with both kids and to see Elise go from only looking at pictures in books that were black and white to focusing on all books. Of course her favorite books are ones with simple pictures that have large shapes in one color. Both kids completed the summer reading program. It was Elise's first medal and award, but it was Carter's 3rd! He did the reading program for the first time when he was 6 months old. We started our summer reading list during the second summer of the reading program 2 years ago. Read our reading list from our second year of the summer reading program here and our list from last summer here.

Reading with my 2 favorite reading buddies!

Our Top Reading Choices From This Summer:

• Guess What?-Fruit by Yusuke Yonezu, This book was so cute.  It showed what appeared to be a fruit on each page but then you'd open the flap to see what animal it really was.  Carter loved opening the flap to tell me what animal was shown.  This was one of his favorites to read to me or to his sister.  It was a board book so the flaps were nice and sturdy!
• ZooZical by Judy Sierra, Not only did I get to read this book over and over, but Carter wanted to keep it for so long that I had to re-check it.  We get to keep books for 2 weeks so that normally doesn't happen.  This summer we've been going to the library multiple times a week.  Each time I tried to turn this book in, Carter would see it and stick it back in our bag.  Normally when he finds a book he likes that much I get tired of reading it toward the end, but I didn't with this one.  It was so cute and it was also fun to sing the little snippets of songs in the book.  We've read Wild About Books which is set in the same zoo as this book but didn't like it nearly as much.  I even heard Ty chuckle from another room when he was listening to me read this book to Carter.  It's that cute!
• Kisses for Daddy by Frances Watts & David Legge, I picked this book out for our fathers learning theme the week before Father's Day.  Ty read the book with Carter and tried out all the different kinds of kisses listed in the book.  Carter absolutely loved it!
• Babyberry Pie by Heather Vogel Frederick, This book was so cute with the steps they did to get ready for bed being compared to preparing a pie.  Carter loved it when I acted the book out on him and even suggested I add sugar to his knees.
• Around the World: A Follow-The-Trail Book by Katie Haworth, This book was so cool. Carter loved putting his finger in the cut out trail and sliding it along. It was great for some practice with fine motor skills. Each page showed a different habitat such as ocean, desert, and mountain and would be great for discussing different kinds of animal homes as well as introducing geography. I thought it would be fun to make copies of the pages and then have Carter cut along the trails to practice using scissors.
• Up Close by Gay Wegerif, This book was great for both kids. Carter really enjoyed guessing what animal was going to be on the next page and Elise liked the simple pictures with a solid background and just one or two colors. She would stare at the illustrations. I really liked that the pictures were all made of shapes. We talked about what shapes we saw and counted the number of certain shapes on a page. It would be a great book for older kids to give them pattern blocks or shapes cut out of paper and have them try to recreate the pictures. It would also be a great book to use as an introduction to observation. Showing the differences between looking at the whole picture and looking closely at just part of the picture. Then you could try it with different objects using a magnifying glass to see what more you notice when you look at something up close.
• All In A Day by Cynthia Rylant, I absolutely loved this book. The message was perfect. It would be a perfect book when your little one is feeling down in the dumps, is going through a tough time, or just because. It's a great reminder to make the most of what we have and I want to buy it just to read every once in a while to really remind myself to treasure each day.
• This Little Chick by John Lawrence,Carter loved this book. The chick went to see different animals and then would talk like them. It would tell what animal the chick saw before it told what he said. Carter loved guessing what the chick said before we turned the page.
• Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton, You have to love Sandra Boynton. She writes the cutest children's books! This is arguably my favorite book of hers. Carter and I were downright belly laughing as we saw how the turkey was wearing the clothing incorrectly. Another great thing about this book was that it was simple with most of the words obvious from the pictures so Carter could read it. He was so proud reading the book to his uncies!
• A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza, This book was so sweet and opened a dialogue for us to talk about why some children don't look like their parents. When we got to the end of the book where mother bear took Choco home to be her son, Carter said, "She's not his mommy, she's a bear." So we talked about what she'd done for Choco on each page and I asked him if that was being a good mommy. He said yes so we talked about how bear was a good mommy for Choco even though they didn't look alike. Carter was the sweetest and said, "You're a good mommy, too!" Then he asked where Choco's mommy was and we were able to talk about why sometimes mommies can't take care of their babies. It was such a great teaching point and I will definitely read it to him again to help him be open to differences in other families. 
• Round Like a Ball! by Lisa Campbell Ernst, As we read this book I started getting that excited feeling that bubbles up into my chest when I'm thinking of teaching point after teaching point the book could be used to introduce. Moments like that are when I miss teaching. Before I would've taken the book straight to class the next day to read and use as an introduction into thinking skills. Luckily I have this blog to record great books like that so I can remember them when I am back in the classroom. The book could be used to discuss ways to describe an object. Students could use an object of their own to create a similar book, seeing how many different ways they could describe their object. It could also be used to discuss how background knowledge causes people to come to different conclusions. For example, the cat guessed it was a fish bowl while the boy guessed it was a gumball. The book is also most obviously a great one for Earth Day. You could read it and then discuss different facts about the Earth mentioned in the book.

Spring Reading List

Now that the rain has finally stopped and the sun is out it is starting to feel like summer.  My old co-workers are out of school for the summer and the reading program is underway.  Although it's not officially summer quite yet, it sure seems like it around here so I figured it was time to post our spring reading list.  It's been fun to not just read books with Carter, but also Elise and more often than not both of them together!  Read last year's spring reading list here.

Our Top Reading Choices From This Spring:

• More by I. C. Springman, I loved all the possibilities of this book.  It could be used to start so many different discussions.  The bird has a tag on it's leg which could spark a conversation of why and what it would be used for.  On each page there are words that describe amounts which would be good for talking with younger children about what they mean.  The book could also be used when it's time for your child to get rid of some toys.  You could read the book and talk about the problem the bird had, relating it to your child. 
• Happy by Miles van Hout, This book was really simple.  Each page had a feeling word with a fish showing that emotion on the opposite page.  Carter loved the book and frequently asked for the "fishy book".  It would be a great read with older children as well.  You could look at the picture of the fish and have them tell you what emotion they think the fish is displaying.  It would also be a great way to talk about more colorful words you could use to describe emotions such as happy, sad, and mad.  In that sense it would be a great mentor text for writer's workshop.  You could also use the book to talk about colors and even stretch it further into art and why we use certain colors to depict different emotions.  This book provides so many opportunities for teaching!
• Use Your Words, Sophie! by Rosemary Wells, Carter loved this book and asked to read it over and over.  I think he liked it so much because he related to Sophie since she was newly a big sister.  The book would be great for starting a conversation with an older child who is struggling with a new sibling.  I wished I'd found this book for our new baby theme, it would have been perfect!
• Baby, Come Away by Victoria Adler, Carter wanted to read this one over and over.  He liked that it had different animals and a baby and that the baby played with the animals.  He also tends to really like books that rhyme. 
• Hickory Dickory Dock by Keith Baker, This adaptation of the traditional nursery rhyme thrilled Carter.  He loved all the different animals and his favorite page was when the donkey kicked and broke the gate.  He would flip back to that page and laugh.  He liked it so much we'd read it multiple times in a row.  Then he'd ask me to go through and look at the animals, making up words for what they might be saying.  We had way too much fun with that and belly laughed like crazy.
• Mommy's Best Kisses by Margaret Anastas, This was a favorite of mine.  Each page had a different animal mother kissing her baby on a different body part.  Of course I kissed Carter on the same place as it said in the book.  There were some that were his favorites.  Each time I got to the page where the giraffe mother was kissing her baby on the neck he would start giggling because he knew I was going to kiss his neck.  I loved it!  It was a perfect book to have around for Mother's Day and a great excuse to kiss my baby over and over!
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star by Jane Cabrera, Another adaptation to a classic nursery rhyme that Carter adored.  We read it over and over.  The only problem was then in the car he would ask me to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and when I'd start singing he'd say, "No, the sparkle sparkle one."  I didn't know the words so I couldn't sing it!
• Baby ABC by Deborah Donenfeld, I loved this book.  It was so simple.  Each page had a letter of the alphabet and then a baby pictured with something that started with that letter.  What I really loved about it was that the picture was all in black and white except for the item that started with the letter for the page, it was in color.  It was fun to point to the letter and tell Carter it's name and sound, then ask him what started with that letter.  I'd help him figure it out at first and then he caught on that the only thing in color on the page was the answer.
• Little Burro by Jim Arnosky, This book is one of my picks.  I really enjoyed it and loved all the teaching points it lended itself to.  The baby burro in the book behaves just as a toddler would and leaves us with the start to a conversation about behavior.  It would also be great to talk about how sometimes it's scary to try something new, but you might actually really like it.  In the book the burro doesn't want to leave his favorite place and go to the river, but once there he loves it and it becomes his other favorite place.  Carter also enjoyed the book due to all the hee-hawing going on! It ended up being one he asked me to read over and over.
• White Is For Blueberry by George Shannon,  This was a great book to get children to think about things in a different way.  I'd love to read this to Carter when he's older and then have him think of other objects that could be described with a different color than what we'd normally think.  It would also be a good book for practicing with colors.
• One by Kathryn Otoshi, I'm definitely buying this book for my classroom before I go back to teaching.  I'd also like to get it for Carter.  There are so many great lessons in this book.  The most obvious is bullying and how you can stand up to a bully and how important it is for friends to stand up for others who are being bullied.  It could also be used to talk about how everyone is important and how important it is to do your best.  It would even be a good read during Earth Day because you could talk about how one person can make a difference.  This book could be an opener to a conversation about how one person could make a difference and then list out different things we can do to make a difference.  I loved this book so many times over!  It was probably my favorite children's book I've read in a while! 

Winter Reading List

I was scrolling through posts to see what I had in the way of drafts and came across this post, whoops!  I think it's the last post I wrote before Elise was born and forgot about, so there shouldn't be any more super late posts!  It's definitely way past time to post Carter and my list of our favorite reads from this winter.  This winter we found some really great books at the library.  With our weekly learning themes I like to get as many books on the topic as I can, so we end up with fewer random books than we did before we started our learning themes, but I'm still impressed with how many great books we discover.  Read last year's winter reading list here.

 

 

Our Top Reading Choices From This Winter:

• Who Can Jump? by Sebastien Braun, Carter absolutely loved this book!  Not only did it have flaps for him to lift, but it also was one he could "read" the words on.  I would read the words, who can jump.  Then Carter would look at the picture and say the animal and jump for example, "Frog jump!"  Then he'd lift the flap and I'd read the full sentence so he could hear how it would sound as a full sentence.  We read this one so many times!
• Global Baby GIRLS, I absolutely loved this book and can't wait to read it to Elise!  I know she'll love seeing pictures of other babies.  It was so neat how they included photographs of babies from different countries around the world.  I also loved the message saying girls can change the world!  It was also fun to read it with Carter and look through to see which baby Elise might look the most like considering that Carter has blonde hair and blue eyes.  We also used it as an opportunity to talk about how Carter has light skin.  He then went through the list, "Mommy light skin, Daddy light skin, Caca light skin".
• Global Baby BOYS by Maya Ajmera, We read the Global Baby GIRLS book first and then found this one on our next trip at the library.  I loved it for the same reasons I liked the book about girls.  After reading it we again looked through and talked about how the boys looked the same or different compared to Carter.
• Moo Moo Brown Cow by Jakki Wood, Carter really enjoyed this book because I sang it to the tune of "Baa Baa Black Sheep".  It was a great book for practicing lots of skills.  I liked that each animal was a different color so I could ask Carter what color the animal was.  I also liked that each animal had a different number of children so we could practice counting.  The book could also be used to practice animal names as well as the sounds they make.  I absolutely love books with multiple teaching points!  
• Early Rider by William Wegman, Carter picked this book out at the library and it was an obvious favorite because each page had an actual photo of a dog with the background drawn in around it.  The book showed different forms of transportation and we found it the week after we'd just done a learning theme on transportation.  When I read the book I would stop in the sentence where it said the form of transportation shown on the page and Carter would shout it out.  He loved getting to "read" along with me!  We also used the book to practice counting by counting the number of dogs shown on each page.
• Very Hairy Bear by Alice Schertle, This book was adorable.  Carter laughed throughout the book and enjoyed the ending.  I wished we read it before our winter themed learning week because it would have been perfect during that week!  I love Alice Schertle mostly because of Little Blue Truck.  Her books are too cute!
• Go, Shapes, Go! by Denise Fleming, I grabbed this book thinking it might be a good review on shapes.  Carter loved it and thought it was so funny when the shapes made a cat to go after the mouse.  We then made our own pictures using shapes.

Fall Reading List

Read last year's fall reading list here.  Looking back at that list there are a few books we ended up buying and are still favorites of Carter.  Of course I melt a little bit seeing the pictures because he was soooo tiny!  I remember taking the picture of him holding a book on his own for the first time and being so excited.  Now it's not unusual to walk into a room to find him sitting in a chair flipping through a book all by himself!  Sometimes he's even repeating the words that go along with the story due to continuous readings of the same books!  With our weekly learning themes we spent much of the fall reading books within the chosen theme.  I would get on the library website and request books I wanted on the topic the week before our theme began.  I was a little bummed we weren't finding as many of the stand out amazing books like we had before so I made sure to also pick up a few books unrelated to the theme each week.  It's neat that the books listed have switched from my favorite books to the books that Carter liked the most.  But of course I have to add my side notes and teaching ideas the books brought up!

Reading while I was cleaning.

Sometimes I even try to read to him only to have him tell me no because he wants to read to himself!

Our Top Reading Choices From This Fall:

• All Aboard! by Mary Lyn Ray, I picked this book up during our traveling weekly learning theme.  Carter absolutely loved it and would hand it back to me each time I closed the back cover when we finished reading it.  We read it so many times!  I loved that the book had lots of rhythm and sound words in it.  It would be a great book to read to a class when discussing how to add details to a story.  There were some sections of the book that I felt like I was singing to Carter because they had such nice rhythm.  I made sure to copy this book down so we could read it again during train week.
• Little Bear's Little Boat by Eve Bunting, This was another book Carter wanted to immediately read over and over again.  It was a very cute book and I loved the message it conveyed.  It would be a great book to read to a child when they are outgrowing their clothes and you are giving them away or to a younger sibling or when they are too big for a toy.  It could start the conversation and you could relay how they are like the bear in the story.  
• Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin by Tad Hills, Carter loved reading this book and requested it often!  On each page one of the characters would ask if their pumpkin was in a certain place and the other would respond with "no".  Carter started responding to the questions with "no" while I was reading.  It was so cute!  I love books that can be interactive like the Pigeon books and Pete the Cat.  Carter loves to answer questions posed by the books, especially if the answer is no!
• I'm Fast! by Kate and Jim McMullan, When Carter spotted this book in our library bag he instantly reached for it and wanted to read it.  We read it 4 times in a row the first time we read it.  I loved it for the same reasons I loved All Aboard!, the sound words and rhythm to it.  Carter loved that the main characters were a train and a car!
• Row, Row, Row Your Boat by Jane Cabrera, This book was so cute and a fun change up to the song "Row, Row, Row Your Boat".  Carter loved it and we read it so many times!  He loved making the animal noises on each page and he also enjoyed that I sang the words.  He loves books that I sing to him! 
• Bears on Chairs by Shirley Parenteau, This book was so adorable Ty even mentioned how much he liked it.  It's rare for him to tell me he liked one of Carter's library books.  There are so many teaching points with this book: friendship, sharing, problem solving, colors, even and odd, addition, counting.  It's the kind of book I am always looking for, one that can be read over and over to teach multiple different lessons.  Those are the best mentor texts!   
• Walk the Dog: A Parade of Pooches from A to Z by Bob Barner, Carter loved this book so much that by the evening of the day we checked it out I was starting to get tired of reading it.  He would immediately flip back to the front upon finishing the book so we could read it again.  It was a very cute book though.  I think he enjoyed the repetition and all the different kinds of dogs.  I added the book to a list for when we do a weekly learning theme on the alphabet.
• Guess Who? by La Coccinella, This was another one Carter loved so much I started to get tired of it.  I think he loved that the mouths of each animal were cut out of the page so he could grab the page there to turn it.  He also liked saying the animal's name and making it's noise on each page.  It was a cute book and it was so much fun to listen to him make the noises!
• Whose Hat Is That? by Anita Bijsterbosch, I couldn't tell you how many times we read this book.  Carter loved it so much!  It was pretty cute and he loved that I would use different voices to read what each of the animals said.  It would be a great book for beginning readers as there is a lot of repetition and predictable animal noises.
• Sheila Rae's Peppermint Stick by Kevin Henkes, I'm mentioned before that Kevin Henkes is one of my favorite children's book authors.  His books have great messages and the mice he typically uses to illustrate them are adorable.  Plus, the way he writes includes so many great techniques to teach in an author as mentor study.  Surprisingly I had never read this gem before.  Mostly because it is a board book and I don't typically use board books in my classroom.  When I saw it in the board book section at the library I instantly grabbed it.  Carter loved it and asked for it multiple times.  It also had a great message about sharing which is timely for him as he will soon be a big brother!  It would be a great book to give to an older sibling when sending presents to a newborn.

Summer Reading List

Read last year's summer reading list here.  Looking back at last year's post Carter was so tiny and sweet!  It's amazing that he's gone from just barely sitting on his own, mostly just looking at pictures, and sometimes touching the pages of touch and feel books to full on sitting on his own (or walking with a book for that matter), turning the pages, pointing at animals on the pages and making their sound or saying their name, and pretending to read by saying words as he turns the pages.  It makes me so happy to see him entering the early early stages of beginning reading!  The need to learn and do of babies, toddlers, and young children never ceases to amaze me!

 

 

Baby's First Laugh by Beverly Blacksheep, Carter LOVED this book!  It was a board book so he was able to turn the pages easily and we didn't have that issue of wanting to rip the pages like he does with paper books.  The words were written in both English and Navajo.  I read it to him in English first and he was pretty indifferent to the book although he did like pointing to the baby on the pages and exclaiming "Baby!".  But then I read it to him (the best I could) in Navajo and he loved it!  He would turn and stare at me as I read the words, smile, and laugh.  In a way I felt like he was laughing at my sorry attempt to read in Navajo, but I know it was really that he loved hearing a different language.  I read and speak to him in Spanish frequently, but that's the only other language he's heard on a regular basis.  He sure enjoyed hearing Navajo which makes me think I need to do a better job of exposing him to other languages, especially because at his age he is such a sponge for language!

Rain! by Linda Ashman, This little book features a little boy who rejoices in the rain and an older man who is grumpy about the rain.  I love that the book shows it's not what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you.  It would be a great book to pull out when your child or class is being grumpy about something.  Even kids sometimes need a reminder to not let one bad thing ruin their day.  It was also a fun book to read on a rainy day.  Carter and I went out and splashed in puddles after we read the book.  This would be a great buddy book with "A Good Day" by Kevin Henkes.

Andrew Drew and Drew by Barney Saltzberg, Carter loved the flaps of this book that opened to reveal more of the picture.  I love the idea of talking through the book with kids and having them guess what the picture will be before opening the flap to discover the full picture.  It would also be a good book to read at the beginning of the year in kindergarten or first grade to discuss with students how pictures can inspire stories.

One Two That's My Shoe! by Alison Murray, This was another one that Carter absolutely loved.  The cover had a dog on it and he picked the book out at the library exclaiming "doggy!"  While reading the book he would excitedly point at the doggy and say "doggy" and then he'd point at the chicks and chickens and say "bird!"  It was so cute.  The book was a great counting book with each number page having that number of an object on it.  It would be great for a younger child to try to figure out what on the page represented that number and count them to see if they were correct.  It would also be a great book to read and then read the rhyme "1, 2, Buckle My Shoe" and have children discuss how they are alike and different.

Art by Patrick McDonnell, I loved the idea of using this book to talk about different kinds of lines and pictures you can make.  It shows lines, zig zags, squiggles, dots, etc.  When Carter's a little older I'd like to read him this book and have some paper and markers available next to us so he could try each of the different things as we read.  The book also deals mostly with primary colors until toward the end when some of the colors get mixed together.  It would be a great resource to use when talking about primary and secondary colors.  I could show Carter the mixed colors and say "Oh my goodness, what happened?"  Then we could even try it with finger paint or water colors.  At the end of the book it says "A picture is worth a thousand words" and then you turn to a full 2-page picture.  It would be great to stop here and allow older children (I'm thinking of my first grade students or even a bit younger or older) write a story about the picture or even just turn and talk to share out what they notice in the picture and what story they think the picture is showing.  Carter also enjoyed this book and would point at the dog that was on a few pages and exclaim, "doggy!"

Ribbit! by Rodrigo Folgueira, This book was so cute.  It is a great book to read and then discuss how to make friends.  The pig in the book goes to the pond and says "ribbit" in an attempt to make friends.  Then the pig gets up in a tree and says "tweet" to make friends.  It would be good to discuss how the pig should've been him/herself to make friends and how the other animals shouldn't have judged the pig.  It would be a great read aloud at the beginning of the year which would lead to a discussion and then creation of a student led anchor chart on how to make or be a friend.

Red Sled by Lita Judge, Carter absolutely loved this book.  He would laugh so hard each time we read it and would carry it to us to read.  The pictures were beautiful and there were lots of animals.  Each page had just a few words which kept Carter's attention span.  All of the words were sounds which he also loved.  Since the only words were sound words it would be a great book for beginning readers who can't read words yet or are working on reading the pictures.  Children could tell the story by reading the pictures.  It would also be a good book to practice inferring.  Children could infer what would happen after the book ends. 

Diggers Go by Steve Light, This book had 3 of Carter's favorite things: noise words, diggers, and board book pages he can turn easily.  He enjoyed reading this book to me as well as me reading it to him.  He would even copy some of the sounds after I read them.

Tumford the Terrible by Nancy Tillman and Tumford's Rude Noises by Nancy Tillman, Carter picked both of these books out during one trip to the library.  Tumford the Terrible was displayed on top of a shelf.  He immediately spied it, yelled "kitty", and pointed at it until I got it down for him.  He had to have that kitty book!  Later he pulled Tumford's Rude Noises off a shelf.  I'm not a big fan of her other books I've read, so I was pleasantly surprised with these books.  They were both books that could be used to start a conversation with children about appropriate behavior.  In Tumford the Terrible, he doesn't like to apologize and in Tumford's Rude Noises, I bet you could guess, he makes rude noises!  They would both be great beginning of the year books to read in the classroom and then revisit when needed.  I hope she writes more Tumford books because they were adorable.  Carter got so excited spying the "kitty" on each page and even spied him when he was hiding in a sack and you could barely see his ears!

Pottytime Chickies by Janee Trasler, This book will be great to read with Carter before potty training.  It would be good to simply just spark his interest in the potty.  It could also be used later to remind him what the potty is for.  I thought it was a cute book and they even had a free song download that went with the book.   

Dog Wants to Play by Christine McDonell, Carter loved this book!  He would grab the book and bring it to me saying, "Doggy!"  The doggy tried to play with various different animals.  I made the noise of each of the animals when they were on the page and Carter would laugh.

My Very First Book of Motion by Eric Carle, This was another one Carter loved.  The book pages were 2 separate flaps to turn.  The top half showed an animal and the bottom half had a word for a kind of movement.  Carter loved turning the flaps and I could see him really liking to match the movement word to the animal that moves that way in the future.

Strawberries are Red by Petr Horacek, This book was so cute and had fun flaps/pages for Carter to turn.  I liked that it showed different colors of fruits and I also liked that the colors were put in the same order as the rainbow.  It would be a cute book to use when teaching Carter about colors.

Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Myers, In math we talk a lot about different names for numbers.  We introduce name collection boxes by making name collection boxes for ourselves listing different names we go by.  This book would be a great one to read before hand as the author lists all the different things he is.  It would also be a good mentor text for writing not just during a poetry unit, but also at the beginning of the year when getting students to think of themselves as writers.

Play by Elizabeth Verdick & Marjorie Lisovskis, Carter loved this book and wanted to read it over and over.  It was one of those books that once we finished, he passed it back to me to read again.  I loved the actual photographs of babies.  I also loved that each page was interactive in that I could make the noise or movement along with the baby in the picture and Carter could as well.  I went back and added this book to our list of books to read about babies because it's a great way to remind Carter of ways we can play with babies.

123 Zoo by Puck, Carter loved this book just as much as the other book we've read by Puck, 123 Beach.  It was another one that he handed to me right after we finished reading it so I could read it again.  I love that the pages are so simple and really focus on the correspondence between a number and a set of objects that the number represents, such an important foundational skill in math to understand that 3 means a set of 3 objects, etc.  I also like that the simple pages leave the book up for us to discuss and interpret in many different ways and we never read the book the exact same way.

Mommy, Look What I Can Do! by Mack, This was another book we finished reading and Carter immediately picked back up.  I liked that it was a combination of photographs and cartoon illustrations.  It gives a perfect opportunity to discuss fiction vs nonfiction along with their features.  Carter loved the book because it was a lift the flap book.  On the outside of the flap the baby animal was just sitting.  Once you lifted the flap the baby animal was showing off it's skill.  The book was so cute!

Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert and Color Farm by Lois Ehlert,  I'm lumping these two books together because they are extremely similar and we couldn't decide which one we liked better.  I picked the books up for our color weekly learning theme and was pleasantly surprised that they were great shape books.  Carter loved grabbing onto the cut out shapes to turn the pages and I had to read quickly!  I also loved that at the end of the book it showed each of the animals' whole bodies.  The books would be great to put in a geometry math tub.  Students could attempt to re-create the animals using pattern blocks, pattern block templates, or by free handing shapes.  I got really excited thinking of the possibilities and wished I read the books before! 

My favorite children's book authors as a first grade teacher were Mo Willems, Kevin Henkes, and Eric Carle.  I still love them and enjoy reading Mo Willems and Eric Carle to Carter, although Kevin Henkes' books are a bit long and involved for Carter.  Now I have my favorite early childhood authors from reading books with Carter.  I've always enjoyed Nancy Tafuri and Lois Ehlert and they are definitely my favorite authors to read to Carter.  I also enjoy Sandra Boynton books, but who doesn't?!  It's so much fun to learn and discover a whole new genre of children's books now that I'm focused on toddler/pre-school level!