4 Followers
3 Following
mwiygul

Maggie Wiygul ED511

Have You Filled A Bucket Today?

Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids - Carol McCloud

Lexile Level: AD710L

 

This book by Carol McCloud would be amazing to read aloud to elementary students of all ages because of its wonderful message about kindness. The book describes how everyone has an invisible bucket and our actions and words can either fill or dip each others' buckets. This book would be perfect to teach younger elementary students about the concept of empathy. Students could easily connect to the text and create writing responses reflecting on how they can fill someone's bucket. Teachers could make each student a literal 'bucket' and students could write positive notes to their classmates to fill their buckets. This would be great to introduce students to at the beginning of the year in order to create a theme out of its message that would encourage a positive classroom environment. This book is inspirational to people of all ages and can even help teachers to remember to be intentional in their actions and words. 

A Bad Case of The Stripes

A Bad Case of Stripes - David Shannon

Lexile Level: AD610L

 

This picture book by David Shannon tells the story of a girl named Camilla who is preoccupied with others' opinions. She is so worried about fitting in she ends up covered in colored stripes. As she becomes more concerned, her appearance changes even more. Doctors are unable to help her and the only way she can get back to her normal appearance is to be herself. This book would be great to read out loud to a class because of its message about being who you are. All students could relate to Camilla's worries and teachers could facilitate discussions in which students could connect to the main character and think of what makes them special or unique. Students could share their connections to the text orally or through writing. 

Knuffle Bunny

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale - Mo Willems

 Lexile Level: AD460L

 

 Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems tells the story of a young girl named Trixie and her stuffed animal named Knuffle Bunny. Trixie loses her stuffed animal and she and her father must look for it all over the city. When they finally find the stuffed animal, Trixie speaks her first real words, "Knuffle Bunny!". As with all of Mo Willems' writing, this book is loved by young children because it is playfully written and the story can be related to the lives of all students. This book would be great to use in writing exercises in which students could related the story to their lives and create original responses. The book could also be used to teach sequencing as it involves a problem and a resolution. The story could also be used when introducing students to silent letters as the stuffed animal's name features a 'silent k'. Teachers can read this book aloud to model fluency or may choose to use animated videos of the book being narrated. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lexile Level: AD460L

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! - Mo Willems

Lexile Level: 280L

 

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems is a great book to read aloud in an early elementary classroom. Young students enjoy the characters Mo Willems creates and the silly nature of his stories. This book naturally engages students with its playful structure that encourages students to respond to the characters. Teachers can easily use this book to model and teach fluency skills by voicing each character differently and using emotion when reading aloud. Young readers can explore this text individually after it has been introduced to the class to develop their literacy skills.Teachers could also use free videos of this book being narrated to introduce students to this book and to examples of fluency.