Must Read Monday or Wednesday

Ok so it's not Monday but I am still linking up with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection with their super fun Must Read Monday linky party!!

This week's theme is Just For Fun! If you are like me and you LOVE books then as soon as you read the theme funny books are probably popping into your mind! 

Here are a few of my favorite "Just for Fun" books to read to my sweet little students:

Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox is such a funny book, I ❤ it! Of course it is a fractured fairytale but what makes it so funny is the way Ranpunzel misunderstands everything the prince says to her. One example is when he asks her to throw down her golden locks, she throws him her dirty socks! My kids always crack up when I read this story!!

Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes is a hilarious look at sibling rivalry when ✿ Lilly ✿ has a new brother that she does not like! She can't stand anything about him - until someone else doesn't like him and then in her true spirit she champions and defends him! 

Chester by Melanie Watt is a book that I read because I love Scaredy Squirrel and decided to try another one of her books! OMG is it funny! Chester is a cat who thinks the story show be all about him so he hijacks the book and with his red marker ✎, he rewrites the story the way he thinks it should be told! Melanie and Chester go back and forth in a super cute story that has a really funny ending! 

The Monster at the End of This Book is one of my all time favorite ☻ books! I remember reading this book when I was a kid!! Grover is so funny in this story and it is great how he talks to the readers directly, my class always enjoys it! I loved it so much, and even though I knew the ending I would beg my grandmother to read it to me again and again! 

I am off to jump over the this fun linky party that Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection have put together so I can find some new books to add to my class library this year!! 

Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!!!!

Author Visit & Free Books!

The coolest thing happened at my school this week; we had 2 different authors come and visit us!  My awesome reading specialist found out about this great organization called, An Open Book.  They are an organization committed to bringing books to disadvantaged children and teens in the Washington, DC area.  Through the organization our school was able to have 2 authors visit with 3 different grades.

Uma Krishnaswami is one of authors who came to our school, and she was great!  She read her book, Out of the Way! Out of the Way!, to the whole 1st grade.  The story is a sweet tale about a tree growing up amidst a very busy and growing village.  I can see using this as a mentor text for a few different topics like change over time or natural made vs. man made features.  

After she read to us, she worked with them to create a whole group list poem.  The kids loved the book and had so much fun creating the poem with her!

The best part for my students was finding out that they were going receive a free copy of the book, and that the author was going to sign it for them!  They were so excited and just couldn't believe that they were getting their own book to take home and keep!  It was so cute!

After one of my cutie pies got her book signed, she went right over and put it safely in her desk.   Then she went back to sit on the carpet to listen to another one of Umi Krishnaswami's books being read aloud.  After a few minutes she quietly got up and went back to her desk to retrieve the book, as she walked pasted me she leaned over and whispered, "I just want to hold onto my book, is that ok?"

What a wonderful experience for my students!  I think this organization is just great and would encourage you to go and check them out!

I wasn't involved in coordinating the event, but I was told that it was pretty easy to set up and the whole experience was just so meaningful!

Read Aloud Websites

Who doesn’t love a read aloud?  In the past few years one of the coolest things I’ve seen is the increase in websites offering read alouds.  I thought it might be fun to share a few of my favorite read aloud websites.

Storyline Online is a collection of 25 books read aloud by famous actors.  Some of the stories read aloud are Stellaluna, A Bad Case of Strips,  Enemy Pie, and My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother!  

Fallsmead Storytime is a collection of 13 books read by teachers at Fallsmead Elementary School.  I am featured reading My Many Colored Days and Falling for Rapunzel, which are 2 of my favorite books.  This website was created by my friend and former teammate, Jessica Shevitz.  I don’t work at Fallsmead anymore and have been trying to encourage my current school to do the same thing.  Students LOVE going to Fallsmead Storytime during their center time to hear their favorite teacher read them a story.  Try it out at your school and let me know how it goes!!

Barnes and Nobel has an online reading feature too called Online Storytime. There are 16 books featuring some great books like, Where the Wild Things Are, Olivia, The Kissing Hand and Strega Nona.

Pinterest and You Tube are also great resources for finding read alouds.   One More Story and Tumble Books are 2 greats sites that are full of wonderful books too.  These 2 sites require subscriptions, but many school districts have subscriptions so check with your media specialists to see if your school subscribes to either of them.  I have also found that some public library systems have subscriptions to them so you can access them through the public library’s website.  

I’d love to hear back from you, especially if you have some other great read aloud websites to share with us.  

Happy Read Across America Day everyone!