PICTURE BOOKS
When you're reading a picture book with a class or with a group of children, you can use these lesson ideas as guidelines for discussion and activities. They work with most picture books.
Before reading:
After Reading:
Activities:
Before reading:
- look at the cover together. What do the children see? What do they think the story might be about? Who might the characters be?
After Reading:
- discuss any new or tricky words or phrases together. Write them on the class whiteboard.
- discuss the feelings of the main character(s) at different points in the story. How do you think XX felt when XX? Can you remember a time when you felt like that?
- discuss the characteristics demonstrated by the main characters. How would you describe XX? What does she do or say that makes you think and say that?
Activities:
- create a wordsearch using words from the story. The children (or fast finishers) can complete the wordsearch to consolidate the new words they have learnt (especially good for EAL/D students).
- the children can write a response to the text. This can be in the form of a book review or recommendation or it can be about when the child had a similar experience to the one had by the character(s) in the story. Allow as much choice as possible.
- art! Either get the children to draw a response to the story or find a related art activity. There are many online or make up your own. Children love art and it provides many benefits to their brains, bodies and emotions.
Click on the links to find activities to go with the books.
A Day to Remember A Family is a Family is a Family Alison Lester's ABC An Awesome Book of Thanks! Each Peach Pear Plum Ellie Jelly and the Massive Mum Meltdown I'm Australian Too Imagine It's Okay to Be Different Magic Beach Me ... Jane How Many Jelly Beans? Mr Huff My Farm My Granny Went to Market Newton and Me On Monday When It Rained Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley Pog Puppy Mind Reading Makes You Feel Good Rosie Revere, Engineer Sometimes I'm Bombaloo Sorry Sorry The Black Book of Colours The Day We Built the Bridge The Feelings Book The Foot Book The Golden Rule The Heart and the Bottle The Peace Book This is a Ball Tom Tom Tough Guys Have Feelings Too We All Went on Safari |
This is my list of what I think are the best rhyming picture books. Many children will know these stories and will enjoy hearing them again.
Read them aloud to K-1 students and to EAL/D students, both for fun and to help them build phonological awareness. Read slowly and emphasise the rhythm and rhyme as you read. Dr Seuss's ABC Each Peach Pear Plum Green Eggs and Ham Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy My Granny Went to Market We All Went on Safari Where is the Green Sheep? After reading and talking about the book, children can draw their favourite character, event or part of the story and write some words or sentences about it, depending on ability. |