Fantastic Read Alouds for First Graders

 

(Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links, so if you click through and make a purchase, I will receive compensation at no additional cost to you.)

(UPDATE 08/12/24: To freshen up this post, I have switched up some of the books from the original list to include some of the favorite titles of my 2023-24 students!).

Reading aloud to my students is one of my favorite parts of being a school librarian. I love trying out funny voices and dramatic faces and making the kids laugh. As a result, I typically pick light and fun books to share with my students. While I admit that some of my read alouds might not be great literature, I think that one of my primary goals of reading aloud is to sell reading as something that can rival video games and Netflix in terms of entertainment value. And based on the enthusiasm I saw with some of these read alouds, I think I’m on the right track!

Over the years, I have asked the first graders to name their favorite picture books that we had read together in library class, and the zany, silly ones were well-represented among the ones they chose, although there are some beautiful, gentle ones in the mix as well. Here are their picks.

Enemy Pie by Derek Munson

This book CAPTIVATES the first graders every year! Suspense builds as they wait to find out what will happen when Jeremy Ross eats the enemy pie, and the story shares a wonderful lesson about friendship.

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! by Mo Willems

The Pigeon Wants a Puppy shows the quirky genius of Mo Willems at its best with his version of the classic story of “be careful what you wish for.”

Little Pea by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

This book could not be more adorable! With super cute illustrations by Jen Corace, I needed to set up a looooong waiting list for this one after I read it to the first grade class last spring!

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson

This is a lovely book with gorgeous illustrations and a simple story that promotes kindness. The students absolutely loved the pictures by Kadir Nelson!

Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast by Josh Funk

I have read this book with the first graders for years and it is always a hit. I love (attempting) to do different character voices and accents. In my version of the read aloud, I decided that Lady Pancake speaks with a bit of a Southern drawl, while Sir French Toast obviously has a French accent (my rendition sounds kind of like Lumiere from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast…well, at least, that is what I’m going for). It’s one of those situations where I’m not quite sure if they are laughing at me or with me, but the kids like the accents and love this book!

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Mr. Wiggle’s Book by Paula M. Craig and Carol L. Thompson

I read this book with kindergarten, first grade, and second grade every year as the first read aloud of the year in order to get kids thinking about how they should treat the library books they are about to check out. You would think I’d get groans from the kids who have already heard it, but actually, nope. The kids look forward to hearing this story at the beginning of each school year, even in second grade when it’s their third listen. It’s out of print, so if you can get your hands on a copy, hang on to it!

Pumpkin Trouble by Jan Thomas

This story is perfect for fall. The kids find it hilarious, and it’s a very short book, which works well for a library class since us librarian-folks are usually trying to squeeze a read aloud, a lesson, an activity, and book checkout into a short amount of time.

Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown

Warning: Do not read this one to the kids unless you are okay with A LOT of laughter. It’s the story of a bear who finds a little boy and decides to keep him as a pet, and ever since I discovered it a few years ago, it has definitely been a fave every time I read it.

Principal Fred Won’t Go to Bed by Carolyn Crimi

The first graders loved this silly rhyming book. Maybe it’s because kids love to think about what their teachers (and principal) are like outside of school, and it’s always fun to think of grownups acting like kids. It’s another fun read.

Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel

This is the story of two best friends, a caterpillar and earthworm, and how their lives change as the caterpillar does his thing and becomes a butterfly. I read this book to the first graders in the spring when the class was learning about butterflies in science, and they loved this sweet book.

Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook by Michael Garland

Michael Garland’s illustrations are always gorgeous, and this book is no exception. It’s the story of a teacher who loves to read aloud from a special book, and the characters in this book always jump out of the book and become real as she reads. One day, someone else reads the book, and chaos ensues! It’s fun, and the kids love to think about story characters that they would like to see in real life.

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What are your first graders’ favorites? Feel free to shout out other fabulous first grade read aloud ideas in the comments!

Freebies for Your School Library on Teachers Pay Teachers!

(UPDATE 07/13/24: I noticed that over the years since I originally wrote this post, some of the products I listed in this blog post have switched from FREE products to resources that cost money.😒 Well, I’ve finally gotten around to replacing those resources with newer resources THAT ARE ACTUALLY STILL FREE!😊 So, as of this update, everything linked in this post is really, truly, a free resource! If you first saw this post years ago, there might be some new goodies for you…so check it out!)

 


My last post was about my #1 suggestion for the new school year, which is to join Teachers Pay Teachers. I talked about my decision to become a buyer (and soon afterward, a seller!) during the last year, and how thrilled I am to be able to get awesome resources for my students for cheap – or often, free!

No matter what you teach, there are most likely a ton of freebies available on Teachers Pay Teachers that will be useful to you. But I’m a library girl, so today I am going to bring you on a little shopping spree to get some cool FREE products that you can use if you are a school librarian (or a library/media specialist, library teacher, teacher-librarian, library superhero rock star diva, or whatever you call yourself these days.) 🙂

YOU DON’T NEED ANY MONEY FOR THIS SHOPPING SPREE! If you want to download any of this fabulous free-ness, you just need an account on Teachers Pay Teachers (and joining, is, of course, also free). I have organized this freebie-for-all into different library-related subjects to make your shopping trip free AND easy!

Let’s grab our imaginary reusable shopping bags and go! (Get ready for a LOT of exclamation points! But really, who isn’t excited about a freebie shopping spree?!?!?!)

Parts of a Book/Text Features

Let’s start with a free Bingo activity by The LibraryFox to review text features!

Why not turn identifying text features into a scavenger hunt? Download iHeartLiteracy’s free product to get it started!

Here is a printable poster by Create-Abilities you can display or distribute to remind your kids about everything they have learned about text features!

Library Behavior & Etiquette

You can display these free signs by Leah the Librarian to remind your kids about how to behave in the library!

Ooh ooh! This one’s mine! 🙂 Print out these free worksheets (by me!) to reinforce your lessons on library behavior and etiquette at the beginning of the school year (or any time the kiddos need a refresher!).

Reference Materials

When your students are learning about reference materials, try this ABC Research resource by The Library Patch!

And Sunny Side of Reading’s Hunting for Information is another cute resource that your kids can use to practice using books from the reference section!

Taking Care of Books

This resource by Phyllis Haley has several great ideas and printables that you can use when you teach your students about how to care for their library books!

Here is a simple printable by Night Owl Librarian that you can use with your primary students during back-to-school in your library!

And Staying Cool in the Library’s adorable book care product includes a coloring page and bookmarks to reinforce your lessons on book care! (I literally just used this product with my new kindergarteners earlier this week!) 🙂

Dewey Decimal System

These cute bookmarks by Staying Cool in the Library can help your students learn the categories of the Dewey Decimal System!

Using Call Numbers

This free resource by Summer Pittman gets students up and moving around the library by asking them to locate books with different call numbers!

Photo by Molly Coulter
Book Fair

Download, print, and display this free banner, designed by ATBOT the Book Bug, OR this free banner, designed by Bright Steps, to advertise your Book Fair!

This is a cute little freebie by the Artsy Techy to help book fair shoppers identify teacher requests at your Book Fair!

Support your colleagues who teach math by making your Book Fair into a math lesson! Try the Trapped Librarian’s Book Fair Math product!

Genres

Please try my Genre Easter Egg Hunt as a fun activity to reinforce the characteristics of several genres!

Coding

Need some suggestions on how to introduce coding to your library students? Download this free resource by the Trapped Librarian that includes ideas for Hour of Code!

Bookmarks

Here are some beautiful fall-themed bookmarks by Social Studies Spotlight that you can print for your students!

And some bookmarks especially for the 100th day of school by Library Learners!

This winter, you can make your kids laugh as they decorate these joke bookmarks created by LittleRed!

When it’s springtime, how about some Peeps bookmarks? Here are Elementary Library Mama’s Peeps bookmarks to color!

And…for any time of the year…some cute animal bookmarks by Mrs. Molly’s Menagerie!

End of the School Year

Do you remember that process-and-a-half of getting all the books back to the library at the end of the school year? Here are some free award certificates by Elementary Library Mama that will be great incentives for your kids!

When book checkout is over for the year, but you need a few activities to get your littlest library students through the last class or two, try these activities (in this resource by…me!).

And if you are looking for a fun way to encourage your library students to keep reading over the summer, just download Summer Reading Bingo by Primary Playground!

Library Decor

Now, here we have a set of reading-themed posters by My First Grade Gems!

And here is a resource by Loquacious Learning that includes gorgeous pictures of famous children’s book characters that you can use to decorate your library space!

Clip Art

More of a DIY-er, are ya? If you want to make your own educational resources for your school library, TpT has you covered there too.

Here is some book clip art by Elementary Lesson Plans!

And here is a set of free clip art from DarraKadisha that includes books and other school supplies!

The next freebie is from Optimistic Kids and Families Art, and as the artist says in her description of the resource, they are, in fact, “free bees.” (Bee clip art, of course! And one of them is reading – perfect for library resources! A cute product and a cute pun.) 🙂

Here is some free clip art by Kari Bolt Clip Art that would be perfect for your library newsletters, signs, and other creations!

And let’s end with some adorable reading owl clip art by Clipartino!

And There is So Much More!

We could seriously chow down on this all-you-can-eat buffet of free stuff all day. My list is just a little sample of all the great resources that are available on Teachers Pay Teachers, but I hope our free spree today got you set up with a bunch of printables and other freebies that will help you throughout this new school year!

(UPDATE 07/13/24: If you loved these freebies, check out four more recent posts with lists to MORE free products for your school library: here, here, here, and here!)

*A huge “thank you!” to the Teachers Pay Teachers teacher-authors who gave me permission to include their resources in this list!*


Disclosure: The banner below is an affiliate link. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support of my blog!


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Throw a Book Tasting Party in Your School Library!

I had seen them for years – those awesome blog posts and Google images showing adorable book tasting parties in school libraries and classrooms. A book tasting looked like a great activity, but I was afraid it would be a lot of prep for a short event.

Then, this past May, I finally got my act together and joined in the fun!

And…it WAS fun!

And really not that much work after all.  Here is what I did.

First Things First

First, I decided on the details of how I would run my book tasting, since there are lots of ideas floating out there. My school has preschool through eighth grade with only one class per grade level, so for my very first attempt at a book tasting, I just planned on one sitting for my fourth grade class and one sitting for my fifth grade class. I decided to put one book at each seat, give students a chance to browse through that book for a few minutes, and then have the students write briefly about the book on a record sheet. Then, they’d pass the book to the right and repeat.

For the inevitable “I already read that book!” comments, I would place a pile of books in the center of the table so the kids could swap them out as needed.

The Prep Process

So I wandered around my library looking for books that my fourth and fifth graders might like but that are usually overlooked. I made sure to get enough for each student in each class and a bunch of extras for the middle of the table.

Next, I made up the handouts I would use. I made a record sheet for students to fill out with info about each book (and printed them out on red paper to add a little more color to the tables).  I also typed out the directions for the activity so I could put a copy on each table as a reminder. (And…those handouts are available below for FREE! Just keep on reading!)

The weekend before my book tasting party, I hit up my local public library to get some CDs of easy listening / jazz music to play in the background during the event, and then it was time to go shopping! I purchased tablecloths, circle placemats, snazzy glasses, and battery operated candles at the dollar store, and I also picked up some lollipops to make the event a little more exciting for the kiddos. (I figured lollipops were a non-messy, allergy-friendly treat, and that if the kids had lollipops in their mouths, they might focus on reading instead of chatting!) 🙂

On the day of the party, the setup was pretty quick and easy since I had the help of a fabulous library volunteer. Each table got a tablecloth, a circular placemat in the middle, two battery operated candles, a fancy dollar store glass full of lollipops, a little cup with pencils in it, a stack of books, and a sheet with directions. Every place setting got a record sheet and one book.

The Big Par-tay!

At party time, it was so cool to watch the kids’ faces as they came in and saw how I had decorated the library. I had the kids sit on the rug first so I could explain everything before they got to the tables. I gave them procedures for what to do during “tasting time,” “rating time,” and “switching time.”  Once the kids knew the plan, I sent them to their seats and they began the browsing/writing/passing process, which went quite smoothly. The pile of books in the middle of the table was definitely helpful because it seemed like each table did tap into those at least once.

As for the lollipops…I had mixed feelings about them. I had made them the centerpiece of each table by placing a bunch of lollipops inside one of my fun dollar store glasses. All the kids seemed excited that they were there, and one class did pretty well with them, but they did cause a distraction for the other class. I haven’t decided whether I would use them again…and if so, I might ditch the centerpiece plan and just place one at each seat.

Ultimately, the book tasting party did what I had hoped it would…it added a new energy to library class for the day, and it gave kids a chance to try out books that they normally would not have tried.

And now that I have all the materials made up and the supplies purchased, I plan to throw a book tasting party at least once a year, and maybe involve some of my older and younger students too.

Thanks for the Inspiration!

I want to take a sec to thank other teacher bloggers who have shared their fabulous book tastings. I have read numerous posts about book tasting parties over the last few years, and these are the ones I consulted when putting together my book tasting party:

A Wrinkle in Tech; Expect the Miraculous: Barrow Media Center; Teaching with a Mountain View; Sassy, Savvy, Simple Teaching; The Book Bug; Miss Liberry Teacher; Where the Magic Happens Teaching; and Three Ring Library. Check out those posts for some more fun book tasting ideas.

And Now…a Freebie for You!

Ready to party it up at your first book tasting? Let me take one step out of the prep process for you. Click here to download the record sheet and directions sheet that I made for this event.

Have you held a book tasting in your classroom or library already? Share the details of your book tasting party in the comments below!

 

 


Disclosure: The banner below is an affiliate link. If you click through and make a purchase, I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you.