The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

A Few of my Favorite Picture Books

So, true confessions – I buy a lot of books. How do I acquire these books?? Well, that’s a story for another post (one coming soon…I promise) to the tune of Scholastic, Bonus Points, 25 for $25 deals, coupons, Half-Price books, and Donors Choose. With all this book buying, it’s pretty evident that I LOVE books and I want to share this love with my 5th graders.

Today I’m  joining with Primary Chalkboard to share with you three trade (picture) books that I love reading with my kids during class (to help facilitate a lesson) or as a just-for-fun read aloud after lunch. 🙂

The first is a perfect book for teaching about narrative writing, using description, and the development of a character. I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll is a sweet, sweet book overflowing with fantastic illustrations and verbose language. Everyone knows that children need their under-the-bed monster to keep them safe at night! This book is told from first-person point of view and explores what happens when a little boy’s monster is on vacation…replacement monsters are sent…and everyone knows that replacement monsters are NO good. 😉

A second is a fun-filled book riddled with fantastic grammar puns entitled Exclamation Mark by Amy Rosenthal. As an exclamation point learns that being different can be very exciting, each page is filled with a few fantastic puns that escape the 1st grader but make the 5th grader (or teacher) giggle. 🙂

For a ridiculously hilarious narrative, I also love using Memoirs of a Goldfish by Devin Scillian. I’ve used this book as a just-for-fun read aloud, and then, used it a second time to talk about how an author can use sentence structure to help build suspense and set a tone for a book. Regardless, the opening lines always get me…and yes, I have them memorized. 🙂

Day 1: I swam around my bowl. 
Day 2: I swam around my bowl. Twice.
Day 3: I swam around my bowl. I thought about taking a nap, but fish don’t nap. So, I swam around the bowl. Again.
Well, I really could spend all day telling you about books I love…especially picture books.Thank you to Primary Chalkboard for hosting “Read Across America”  for giving me a chance to share. 🙂 Make sure to stop by their collaborative blog is all of the other book favorites out there! So now, tell me, what’s your favorite children’s book to share with your kids????

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Comments

    • Kate says

      March 4, 2014 at 8:18 pm

      Hi Julie! It's a newer book (just came out last Spring), but it is sure to be a class mentor text. The punctuation puns are perfect and endless! 😉

      Reply

  6. Gail Tanner says

    March 8, 2014 at 2:49 pm

    Zach's Lunch by Margie Palatini is a rollicking story about a boy who doesn't like the lunch his mom made for him. We probably read this book 3-4 times a year in fifth grade. It's a great example of "writing big about something small" and is a wonderful example of elaboration and word choice. My kids cheer every time I bring it out.

    Reply

    • Kate says

      March 9, 2014 at 12:44 am

      Thank you so much, Gail! I just added it to my Amazon cart, and will check out sometime this week. I cannot wait to read it. 🙂

      Reply

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