Book Talk Thursday ~ Seusstastic Books

It's another edition of Book Talk Thursday!
Wow!  Dr. Seuss' birthday sure did sneak up on me!  This week I am focusing on some great Dr. Seuss books that can be used in various grade levels. Usually I focus on one book, but this week, I am focusing on several books.  Here goes!

I don't work with preschoolers, but I do have a toddler at home.  We LOVE to read Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?  Ginny Beth loves to make the sounds.  This book is perfect for helping young children hear sounds in the world, an important phonemic awareness skill!



Next week I am actually going to do this with kindergarten.  I have two lovely groups of kindergarteners.  One group still struggles with rhyming and various phonemic awareness skills.  The other is ready to read!  As a matter of fact, they can blend letters into words.  I am just working with them now, so I won't have to see them later!

So, with my lower group, I am going to read Green Eggs and Ham to them.  We are going to match up rhyming words.  I know this seems like what everyone does, but it will be great for the students.  I am also going to read some other great books like Fox in Socks with them to find rhyming words.

With my other group of kindergarteners, I am going to read In a People House.  The book is full of everyday objects found in a house that a bird and mouse show the reader.  I am going to have the students match the every day objects to the pictures.  This may be a challenge, but they are ready!

Again in first grade, I have two distinctive groups.  I have one group that struggles with reading words, and another group that tries to read the book before I even have time to preview it with them.  But, they all have different needs.

For my struggling group, I am going to read There's a Wocket in my Pocket.  Since they still struggle with rhyme, this will be our focus.  We are going to focus on the rhyming words and nonsense words in the book.  After reading it, we are going to work on decoding CVC nonsense words.  This has been a struggle for many of these students, but it will help them to decode real words when they need it.





My other group, I am going to focus on color words again.  I noticed today that they struggled with these a little in an activity we were doing.  A perfect book for this is My Many Colored Days.  I love this book and would read it to Zack a lot when he was having a kind of rough day.  The book goes through the colors and associates them with moods.  I love it!  Not your typical Dr. Seuss, but great for "those kind of days".  Anyway, we are going to use the colors to color and label various hats.  We are also going to rebuild scrambled sentences with the color words.

The rest of the groups will be focusing on nonfiction since that is the BIG push now.  I am quite enjoying it myself!  I am not going to use any Seuss books with them, as they will be reading the nonfiction.
Speaking of nonfiction, there is a great series of "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That" books about nonfiction!  They are written by Tish Rabe and illustrated by Aristides Ruiz.  In the books the Cat in the Hat takes the kids on journeys to see the time or place he wants to show.  The books even include text features like captions and diagrams to help children learn about the subject matter.  It is kind of like The Magic School Bus in rhyme.  These are wonderful for helping students understand various concepts in the curriculum.

This was one of my son's favorites.


There are so many great Dr. Seuss books to use to teach various concepts!  When I was a classroom teacher, I used them to teach everything from matter in science to economics in social studies!  What fun the kids have when books of any kind are involved!

What are some of the books you will use for Read Across America or Dr. Seuss' birthday?

Also, don't forget that if you suggest a book to review {picture, chapter, or professional}, and I use it, you can choose any one item from my TPT store as a "thank you"!  I have several on my list!  Thank you to Susan Fletcher for reminding me that Dr. Seuss' birthday is next week!  She gets to choose any item from my store!
Just leave a comment below or send me an email with your ideas!  Don't forget your email address!!

Until next time!

4 comments

  1. I don't know if I have any great ideas- but I love your book reviews!

    Irene

    Learning With Mrs. Leeby

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  2. I love your ideas - I'm definitely going to borrow some of them when I commence reading with them next week (here in Australia, they're about to start their 4th week and reading groups now that we've completed our entry assessments!).

    As for book suggestions, I don't know if you've seen or read Aaron Blabey's The Very Cranky Bear (and subsequent books The Very Itchy Bear and The Very Hungry Bear) but they're fabulous to read with Kinder and First Grade students - all about friendship, with a great rhyming, lyrical tone.

    Anyway, thanks again for the great ideas!

    Stef @ Miss Galvin Learns

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for the suggestions! I will definitely look into those! Good luck with reading groups! Such fun times!

      Andrea

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  3. Thanks for mentioning my name in your blog. I feel famous!! Thanks. Thanks also for the free item. I will enjoy it!
    susanlulu@yahoo.com

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