Did you know that reading fiction to children develops empathy? You will find an article about this at the end of this blog. How do you not fall in love with this book? It is a 2011 Caldecott Medal winner. Beatrix has snuck into yet another book: Kindness! Our vocabulary word this week was “concern”:… More A SICK DAY FOR AMOS MCGEE, by Philip Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead
During this past week of Preschool Christmas performances and parties, I thought a quiet, sweet book about the stable and birth of Jesus would be a nice choice for the week. For the younger children, a book with animals is always popular. The older children love the Christmas Story in any form. After the story,… More WHO IS COMING TO OUR HOUSE? By Joseph Slate, illustrated by Ashley Wolff
This story starts out with lots of giggles, “underwear” will do it…. Our students have been practicing for our Christmas Program. All of the children will be singing Jingle Bells, so they were already familiar with the song. They were surprised and delighted by Santa Duck’s version: Our vocabulary word from this book was eggnog.… More SANTA DUCK by David Milgrim
I love any rendition of this classic story. There is so much here to use for preschool education. There is rhyme, repetitive text, prediction, farm animals, math, science (what would happen if a cookie goes into the water?) and movement if they play “gingerbread boy/man” tag. In this version, of course “boy” does not rhyme… More THE GINGERBREAD BOY by Paul Galdone
Since it seems like Halloween was a few days ago, I thought this book was perfect for a Thanksgiving read! Bean casserole with sticks of boogey butter and mashed potatoes with eyeballs? Yum! What a lovely Thanksgiving… I think almost every dog owner I know, has had a dog that has eaten something on Thanksgiving.… More FANGSGIVING by Ethan Long
Who doesn’t love fall leaves?! This story is so imaginative and certainly piques the imagination of the children. We made some leaf men of our own: A leaf man is so easy, and I think the kids would be happy to make them all day. Try it in your own back yard! A beautiful fall… More LEAF MAN by Lois Ehlert
A monster book with movement! What could be more perfect for the week of Halloween? I make a beautiful monster don’t I? This book is actually lyrics to a very catchy song, with very cute illustration. So much fun dancing around the library! The children loved it. Our monster claws: Monsters dancing to “Monster Mash”… More MONSTER BOOGIE by Laurie Berkner, illustrated by Ben Clanton
We are still talking about community helpers this month. This book is a great one to use, to talk about firefighters in general and to remind our children about fire safety. On this page, we talked about fire hoses, masks and the helmets the firefighters wear. We were lucky enough to be able to see… More FIRE STATIONS IN ACTION by Mari Schuh
I really love an interactive book where the students can get involved. (And from a teacher perspective- this book helps them with their listening skills and verbal skills). This is a cute, fun, colorful book. Perfect for October and Halloween. Magic fingers! The Witch left behind some green slime! A lovely bubbling cauldron on the… More THERE’S A WITCH IN YOUR BOOK by Tom Fletcher, illustrated Greg Abbott
It is community helper month at our school! Uniform! Badge! Radio! Police officers getting ready to go! “When people need help, we rock and roll!” These police officers helped direct traffic, found a lost child, and went after bank robbers. Practicing 911. I cannot find my source for this phone, sorry – you can try… More POLICE OFFICERS ON PATROL by Kersten Hamilton, illustrated by R.W.Alley
This classic fable is meant to show children the importance of work and helping others. Find these cute printable puppets for the story here: Before the story, each child received a character puppet to hold. They had to listen and hold up their character when they heard it in the story (a great exercise to… More THE LITTLE RED HEN by Paul Galdone
This week we went on a safari to Africa. On the projector: How do you not love this book? Beautifully illustrated with lots of emotion and fun. We tried some dancing too: we tried waltzing, rock and rolling, the tango, the cha cha cha, “a splendid Scottish reel”, and of course just some fun dancing.… More GIRAFFES CAN’T DANCE by Giles Andreae, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees
We celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at our preschool! It is really fun. This book weaves all of these Spanish words into the story seamlessly. The children can follow along easily: Instead off butting the troll of the bridge, in this story the biggest billy goat helps the troll. A sweet, nice twist on the story.… More THE THREE BILLY GOATS BUENOS by Susan Middleton Elya, Illustrated by Miguel Ordonez
On the projector with sound (I love frogs!): Before our story, we turn ourselves into frogs. We practiced catching flies for our snack! Who doesn’t love Froggy, just trying the best he can…. OOPS… What a relief! It was just a dream… Yummy! A bowl of flies for breakfast? Well, yes! We are frogs after… More FROGGY GOES TO SCHOOL by Jonathan London, illustrated by Frank Remiewicz
I suppose as long as I have “Jack” trying to escape the “Giant” in the library, I will have to find another version of this story! But, it never fails to enthrall! So here we are again, just another version! 🙂 This version is retold by Mara Alperin, and illustrated by Mark Chambers. Look at… More JACK AND THE BEANSTALK…AGAIN!
We are back at school! I really love summer, but I am excited for a new school year. This year, we are going to have lots of adventures in the library. After all, each book is really an adventure, right? We had fun by putting on safari/explorer hats and adding binoculars. What will we find… More READ IT, DON’T EAT IT! By Ian Schoenherr
This is always a big “crowd pleaser”, the children love this book. Most children love pizza, but did you know they might prefer to be made into one? We had just as much fun as Pete. We kneaded the dough: And stretched it this way and that: Hahahah, we did NOT whirl and twirl! But… More PETE’S A PIZZA by William Steig
This book was introduced to me by my “neighbor” at school, Miss Maker Space aka Miss Liz. It is so cute, colorful and funny – how could you not love it? The children certainly did! #makelearningfun! My personal favorite: After the story, we listened to this song. It is a wonderful song for the children… More THE VERY IMPATIENT CATERPILLAR by Ross Burach
WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT by Micheal Rosen, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury The first video of the story above is from 3 years ago during Covid(filmed at my house)!! I have not read the story in person since the year before that! It is an absolute favorite. The children will ask about it the… More LET’S GO ON A BEAR HUNT!
We have a spring science table at our school. It is wonderful for hands on learning. The children can watch the caterpillars turn into butterflies, tadpoles turn into frogs, dig for worms, watch the ladybugs, and count the days until the baby chicks hatch. What a wonderful way to show the children the science and… More FIRST THE EGG by Laura Vacarro Seeger WAKE UP, IT’S SPRING! by Lisa Campbell Ernst
Spring is always an exciting time. Everywhere you look there is new growth, beautiful blooms, birds singing and frogs croaking. This book is funny and so well illustrated. The children love it. The perfect book to segue way into talking about spring, nests and eggs. We just put seven chicken eggs into our incubator too!… More THE BEST NEST by P.D. Eastman
Told and sung by The Good Fairy, Illustrated by Paul Brett Johnson There is a reason this is a classic. When you can take a story, and combine it with a song and movements, the children have no idea how much they are learning. It is just pure fun! We wondered what a Good would… More LITTLE BUNNY FOO FOO
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” ― Albert Einstein This book is a simple reminder that books can take us anywhere and teach us. I love thinking about the… More I LOVE MY LITTLE STORYBOOK by Anita Jeram
Reading from her favorite book Mother Goose and Friends by Ruth Sanderson Yes, Mother Goose rode her goose to school! Her Elf fairy snuck in her pocket and now is missing! Did he sneak into someone’s backpack and go home with them? Mother Goose lives in a tree. Beautiful isn’t it? The children “played” London… More MOTHER GOOSE IS BACK AGAIN!
It was pirate week in the library. Children love to be pirates, and I love to see them using their imaginations . How fun is it to imagine being a pirate on a pirate ship, and then going on a treasure hunt? It is even better with a sweet book like this one. Did someone… More “I’M BRAVE! I’M QUICK! I’M INDEPENDENT! AND I’M FUN! By Isaac Fitzgerald, illustrated Brigette Barrager
GREEN EGGS AND HAM by Dr. Seuss We had another really fun Dr. Seuss week! We had a parade on Monday with a large cake for Dr. Seuss: Tuesday was stripes and favorite hat day, Wednesday was “Wacky Wednesday”, Thursday “Green Eggs and Ham” day, and Friday was crazy socks day (Fox in Sox): The… More I DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND HAM. I DO NOT LIKE THEM, SAM-I-AM
“Caps! Caps for sale! Fifty cents a cap!” I love this book because it is full of teaching treasures. There is a reason that this book is a classic, not to mention it is fun! Vocabulary: what is a peddler? I also had a child ask me what “refreshed” meant. Money: How much is fifty… More CAPS FOR SALE by Esphyr Slobodkina
The library was filled with love, hearts and kindness this week: Children understand kindness, even the 2 year olds understand that it is not kind to laugh at someone like this: How can we be kind? What if all of our acts of kindnesses spread across the world? After the story we talked about how… More BE KIND by Pat Zietlow Miller, illustrated Jen Hill
You can never go wrong with a classic. I like to read the story first, because the recording can be a little scary for young children. Usually once we have talked about it, and acted it out (especially the wolf), it seems to diffuse the scariness of it. The children love being the wolf, and… More PROKOFIEV’S PETER AND THE WOLF Retold by Ian Beck
If you know me, you know I love The Three Billy Goats Gruff. I love it because the children love it. No matter what version I read (see two links below of the others), they are always entranced, and eager to act the story out. It is a simple story, and easy for them to… More THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF, retold by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen