Monday, June 11, 2012

Favorite Chapter Books

One of my most favorite times of the day and my firsties favorite times of the day, has to be chapter book read aloud time. At 2:00 my kiddos stop whatever they are doing and start to clean-up. Our Early Birds, (I have staggered start times, so half my class comes from 8:00-2:15, while the other half comes from 9:15-3:30) pack up while the Later Gators have a bathroom break. This takes all of about 2-3 minutes. Then everyone meets on the kiva (my benches) where we become engrossed in our latest chapter book. We read until the bell rings signaling that it's time for the Early Birds to go home. Almost daily there are moans and groans because no one wants to leave especially when we are at the most exciting part of the book! Why do we LOVE this so much? I think it's because we learn to love reading! We laugh, we cry, we get nervous, excited, and sometimes even scared. We learn that books and reading can REALLY be enjoyable. We gain a LOVE for reading.

Here are some of our favorites:
I like to introduce many of the book series by reading at least the first book in the series. Hopefully, by the end of the year many of my kiddos will be able to read these on their own.


Of course, there are some books that I just HAVE to read EVERY year even though I've read them a bazillion times. I don't want any of my kids to miss out on these great books:

I know there are tons of great books out there. What are some of your kiddos favorites? I'd love to hear from you. Just leave me a comment. I'd love to add to my collection.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you've found something you can use in your classroom.
Have a great day!

3 comments:

Barbara said...

What an awesome ritual! I used to do this and got out of the habit ... there's always SOO much to do. I'm going to try harder next year to read the kids chapter books (I remember LOVING Clementine:))

BTW, why do you have a staggered start? That sounds VERY difficult.


❀Barbara❀
Grade ONEderful
Ruby Slippers Blog Designs

Miss Foote said...

We love Toys Go Out by Emily Jenkins Poppi, bu Avi, and the Ramona books.

Laurie
Chickadee Jubilee

Carol said...

My kids really enjoyed our chapter book time, too! I think their favorite this year was My Father's Dragon and the other 2 books in the series. It is an old book, but they love it!
I am a new follower and look forward to catching up on your old posts.
Carol
Still Teaching After All These Years