I recently visited an all-boys private school and shared some stories with the grade 1 and 3 boys. I decided to stick with picture books, because I just love sharing picture books with older children. They really seem to enjoy the experience of being read aloud to, and you can have some pretty awesome discussions with kids about the stories and the images in the different picture books.
Here’s what I shared with the Grade 3 boys:
I adore this book, I absolutely adore it. The listener response to this story was fantastic. Without any prompting the kids all joined in with me as a I read, and we became an enthusiastic chorus of mooing cows. It was a really neat experience as a librarian to see the kids join in so confidently and naturally.
Warning: Do Not Open This Book / Adam Lehrhaupt
Who doesn’t love ignoring directions and going against the rules? The kids loved this one too, though I think I startled them half-to-death when I accidentally slammed the book closed at the end with considerably more force than I’d meant to…..
Silly rhymes make this another hilarious title for sharing with a group. Lots of opportunities to ham it up, though you have to be a bit creative with your pronunciation at times to make the rhymes work – sofas and gophers and lions and irons!
Here’s what I shared with the Grade 1 boys:
Open Very Carefully / Nicola O’Byrne
This title’s similar to Do Not Open This Book in that the narrator speaks directly to the reader, who then has to participate in fixing the story and saving the book. Cute, funny, and not too scary, this is a great read-aloud for younger audiences.
Dinosaurs! Rhyming text! Six/seven-year-old boys! Yeah, sometimes I go for the low-hanging fruit and take the path of least resistance, what can I say.
Great list of fun books for booktalking and reading aloud. Thanks for sharing on the #LMMLinkup this week.