Picture books Archives

8 Field Day Activities for a Book Inspired Field Day

As the school year winds down, schools everywhere host their annual field day. The day is filled with games, relays, and lots of laughs and memories! Let’s ramp up the fun and connect field day with reading and books! It’s a great way to tie together two things that kids love and make field day extra special. Here are 8 book-themed field day activities that your students will talk about for years to come! A book or literacy-themed field day is a great way to bring books to life for our kids. We can give them a chance to “jump into the action” of some of their favorite books. In the weeks leading up to field day, you can even give teachers a list of the books that they can read to their class to help build excitement and anticipation. Then on the big day, students will love connecting

Library Book Display Ideas for Every Month of the Year

As librarians, we are always looking for new ways and opportunities to get students reading (and enjoying it!). Having a monthly book display is a great way to bring awareness to different topics, seasons, and celebrations for each month. Plus, you can get students interested in brand-new books that might have been hidden on the shelves and out of sight. I know that coming up with library book displays can take some time (especially when you start running out of creativity mid-year).I put together a list of book library book display ideas for the entire year. You can use one of these ideas or use this list to get your creative juices flowing. January Not only is January the first month of the year, but it also includes New Year’s day, Martin Luther King Jr Day, and is a part of winter. Here are a few more creative library

Caldecott Medal 2023 Predictions

The 2023 Caldecott Medal award winner will be announced January 30, 2023, which means it’s time for my predictions on which book will take home the top prize and who will be runner-up. The ALA awards will be given out sometime in mid-January. Members of the Caldecott committee work hard all year to choose the book they think is deserving of this distinguished award. Members of the committee read thousands of picture books throughout the year. Then they must narrow their choices down to 7 titles each. Once they have this much smaller list, they spend hours debating about which book should receive the top honor. Every year I always come up with my own list of titles that I believe will be contenders. This year I have come up with 15 books that I believe should be on the list (although I have not read nearly as many

How to Teach Text Features in NonFiction

When you think of reading, charts and graphs probably aren’t the first things to come to mind. But when reading nonfiction texts, these elements play a role in understanding the text. Many times I’ve asked students to read a caption or refer to information from a chart, only to get a blank stare back. This just tells me how important it is to directly teach text features in nonfiction. What are nonfiction text features? Text features are the elements of an informational text not found within the main body of the text. This includes elements that come before and after the text (such as the table of contents or glossary) and the elements surrounding the text (such as labels and graphs). To help students understand the importance of text features, I like to give them a few examples. In one example, I will have them read directions to another

10 Picture Books for Teaching Visualizing

If there is one thing that makes people fall in love with reading, I believe it is the ability to visualize. The ability to take the words on a page and turn them into a mental movie. It’s visualizing that allows you to immerse yourself into a book and escape the here and now. While this skill comes naturally for some, it is a skill that often needs to be taught and practiced for many. Today I am sharing my favorite picture books for teaching visualizing. How to Teach Visualizing Teaching students to visualize is such a fun activity that students really love. Why? I believe it is because it connects two of their favorite things – being read to and drawing. Over the years I have found that the best way to focus on this skill is by reading to the students and having them listen. This takes

What is a Book Walk and How To Create One

Have you thought about creating a book walk, but not exactly sure what it is or how to create one? The good news is that running a book walk in your classroom or library is pretty simple (and if you set it up just right, you can reuse your book walk materials for years to come). What is a Book Walk? A book walk is like a gallery walk, but for books! It works best with picture books or books with lots of graphics, like a graphic novel. During a book walk, students will move around the room and look at each page of the book. This is a great way to incorporate movement into reading. If you have students who just can’t seem to sit still in their seats, this can be a great solution. It’s also just a nice way to change up your reading routine and

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8 Field Day Activities for a Book Inspired Field Day

Library Book Display Ideas for Every Month of the Year

Caldecott Medal 2023 Predictions

How to Teach Text Features in NonFiction

10 Picture Books for Teaching Visualizing

What is a Book Walk and How To Create One

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