Read-Alouds

Post a list of read-alouds that you (or your students) particularly enjoyed. How did you incorporate the read-aloud with your curriculum? What kind of reading strategies did you model during the read aloud? Not having time for Read Alouds is one of the things I miss the most about not having my own classroom anymore. One book that we studied is first grade was Where the Wild Things Are. I did this during Halloween. We learned about describing words and wrote sentences describing the wild things. We also story problems using wild things as the subjects. Students also created a class wild thing book but what they liked most of all was actually creating their own wild thing costume and writing about it. Allison

**I am working on the theme of mittens in my room right now. One book we use, of course, is __The Mitten__. The kids love the story plus we just saw the fabulous show the older kids just did. The first day we read __The Mitten__ and then the next day we read __The Hat__, from Jan Brett, as well. Today we did a double bubble map comparing the 2 stories. The kids got it! They understood the concept of the double bubble because of all the comparing and contrasting we did with the 2 stories. I could see light bulbs going on!! I guess my next step would be to do something 21st centruy with it, huh?**

I just finished reading The City of Ember. The kids loved it - I made a copy of the letter from the book to see if we could fill in the letters. Then we met on a Saturday, for whoever could come, and saw the movie. Then, I gave in and read the second one (The People of Sparks). I don't normally like to read sequels but I did it this time. The kids loved it - we have a lot of interactive commenting and connections during reading that help them identify with the story. Laura Bonham

Most of my read alouds are based around focus lessons or holidays/science and social studies curriculum. With focus lessons, we read the book and discuss whatever it is we're focusing on (though every year my classes seem to get better at side-tracking me in our conversations, and we tend to delve a bit deeper). Story elements, CROPQVS, fluency/expression. . . these are the basic areas we focus on. My students really love when I read to them - ""No, David!" is definitely a favorite, as are any of "The Black Lagoon" books. We recently read "Tight Times", and with everything happening in the economy right now, connections and sharing of their own family situations came pouring out. I've asked a few of my students what book we've read that they've enjoyed the most, and every one has mentioned "Letters to Felix", a story about a stuffed bunny who travels the world and mails his owner (Sofie) letters from each location. There are real letters in the book (along with some photos and pictures), and the students get soooo excited when we open them up. There's also a Christmas version, which gets into some of the holiday traditions from around the world. I'm thinking next year I might take this, and try and expand it with technology - maybe utilizing blogs with the author or creating some on-line penpals from some of the countries Felix has visited. . . hmmm .. . maybe "Wikipedia" can help us with some research on each country. :) Jessica G  Right before tracking out we were reading Dr. Seuss books for Dr. Seuss' birthday. I would read the books aloud and pause at the end of some of the lines to have the students try to come up with the rhyming word (since many of Dr. Seuss' books are rhymes). We practiced sounding out while reading by looking at the beginning letter sounds and word families that we knew (ex: c-at, h-at, etc.). We also used some more rhyming words to make more lists of word families (ex: r-ain, tr-ain, etc.). Later in the week after reading several Dr. Seuss books, we practiced writing our own Dr. Seuss story as a whole group and the students practiced writing rhyming sentences in their journals. Lisa F.

My class seems to love the Click, Clack Moo books (Giggle, Giggle Quack, Duck for President, and the latest one Thump, Quack, Moo). These books are usually read just for class read out and discussion. LWilson

Every year I read aloud to my students The Tales of Despereaux. I don't know what it is about the story but I love it, and the students always love it. With the movie out now, I would like to do a compare/contrast project with the movie and story. I always think it is a great when children can see the story come to life in a movie. I have a unit that I use for The Polar Express that has letter writing, venn diagrams, and math story problems that go along with it.

My class has really enjoyed reading Junie B. this year! We finished the whole series before tracking out at the end of the 3rd quarter. The students are excited to start Cam Jansen when we track back in. Ben

My students enjoyed reading A Bad Case of Stripes by: Shannon David. After reading the story students wanted to go on a hunt around the school searching for as many things as they could they had stripes. They were so excited to find stripes in students artwork, around the classroom, in the office, library, etc. They even went as far as asking if on the following day they could wear clothing that had stripes. Multiple subject areas were included in the stripes activity. Math (tallying, graphing), writing (using venn diagrams and flow maps to compare/contrast items,to write about our Stripe Day,what items found had stripes and even about clothing), science (mixing colors) were all subjects that were incorporated into this activity. Students had a great time! Davida

I love to read the Lois Lowry- 3 book science fiction series with my class. They are the Giver, Gather Blue and the Messenger. Most students don't read science fiction books and these books give them another take on how science fiction is presented.. I have done this since I started teaching and every class has loved. We then do several activities with each book.~Jessie H