Friday, May 7, 2010

End of the Year Read-Alouds

Can it be that we only have ONE month of school left? That means I'll only see my classes FOUR more times - or less depending on field trips, assemblies, and end-of-the-year festivities. Which doesn't leave me a whole lot of time for read-alouds! I need short novels! Less than 100 pages. Make it 80! Here's what I'm thinking about reading to the little ones...

Kindergarten
We'll end the year with a Mo Willems author study. Mo makes me happy, even if the students make me a little crazy. We'll read some Pigeon books, Edwina, the Knuffle Bunny stories, and hopefully some Elephant and Piggie. They're all so much fun. :)


First Grade
I have SO many books I want to read to first grade. Do I have to just choose one? I think I will end up reading Miss Daisy is Crazy by Dan Gutman, the first in the My Weird School series. But I also really want to read Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osbourne, the first Magic Tree House book. Decisions, decisions.


Second Grade
I am definitely reading The Dream Stealer by Sid Fleischman. When I read it during the Dewey Read-a-thon, I knew instantly that it would lend itself very well to a read-aloud. It's such a magical story!





Third Grade
I'm leaning towards Frindle by Andrew Clements, but I'm worried that they'll know it. Will they, won't they? My back-up is The Chocolate Touch by Patrick Skene Catling, which I don't think I've ever read. Yeah, I need to read or re-read all these books this weekend!


Fourth Grade
This grade has me stumped. Are there not any short, uplifting novels for this age group? My options at the moment are Bird by Angela Johnson (which looks to be a bit too long) or The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman. But I'd rather have a short, funny book. Any ideas?



Fifth Grade
They also have me wondering... So far, all I have is Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson. Hmm, maybe I should look into getting the audiobook - I don't know that I have the voice for this one.




So, those are my ideas. But I'm still open to suggestions! Please, suggest away! I've consulted quite a few sources already, but it's really hard to find books less than 100 pages for the upper grades.


Natalie

3 comments:

Jennifer said...

I recently gave Pamela Service's My Cousin is an Alien to a 3rd grade teacher - they LOVED it! It might be a little young for 4th grade, but depends on your kids...and it's definitely the right length, with sequels the kids can follow up later! I personally would love to get ahold of some older kids to read Ursula Vernon's Dragonbreath or Nurk aloud to...

NatalieSap said...

I was drawn to Dragonbreath too, but I'm worried about length. Though, there are quite a few comic panels. I'll have to give it a read and see if I can pull it off!

Lawral the Librarian said...

I realize I'm way too late to help with suggestions, but I have to say that I read The Chocolate Touch roughly a million times in elementary school. :)

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