Books, Books, Books.

Oh, I love books. I cannot get enough of them. I buy books at every chance I get. With discussion of movies last night surrounding ‘Finding Nemo’ I ended up in a conversation with the lovely Kirrily about children’s books. I then said I would write up a list of my favourite children’s books on here.

So here are some of my favourites. [Note: Some have appeared here before.]

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss.

This is a great book for children around three years and up. I love this book as this was the book I remember reading when I was younger. As I was reading before five this was always a favourite.

The easy rhythm that is created by the rhyme makes it a favourite and I often have children asking me to read as fast as I can.

It teaches children the need to try foods before they say they are yucky.

As a follow on there are a number of activities which you could do with the children. Including having green play dough to make green eggs and ham; have discussions about foods; make food pyramids; talk about trying foods before we say we don’t like them; and draw pictures for each of the scenes and make your own book.

The book is available in hardback and paperback from Angus and Robertson.

The Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French.

I purchased this book early last year for an assignment and have used it since with a year two class in writing a recount. I had the children recount as a group what the wombat did each day [as the book is in the format of a diary it was simple but we needed to extend the words that were given].

They loved reading the book and I found that children around three also love this book.

As an extension of this book you could have the children write recounts of what their pets/imaginary pets do; have them write a recount of their own day each day of the week; start a pet diary of the class pet; begin a take home ‘toy’ [using a stuffed animal each child takes him home over the weekend and writes what they did - can include photos too - and then brings him into school/preschool and gives a brief talk to the class about what happened on the weekend]; make wombats; and have the children extend on Jackie French’s writing to make longer sentences.

This book is also available at Angus and Robertson in paperback and hardback.

Where is The Green Sheep? by Mem Fox and Judy Horacek.

This is a fantastic book. I recommend this book for children at any age. I have read this to young one year olds and using facial and voice expressions they really love it.

This could be used as a felt board story also.

To extend from the book you could make a green sheep using paper and laminate or make on using fabric and stuffing and hide the sheep and have the children find the sheep; for older ones you could give them a map in small groups and have them search for all different coloured sheep; with the same idea of taking a toy home over the weekend you could use the green sheep and have children recount in a diary format what happened; as the book looks at some opposites you could further work in more opposites.

This book is available from Angus and Robertson in paperback and hardback.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle.

This book is great with young children as well as five year olds. The book also works well as a felt board story and once the children have been read this book once or twice they become able to tell you which animal is coming next.

This is a great book for those beginning to distinguish colours and animals.

To further extend after the book having out a felt board with the pieces from the story for the children to act out their own story; have a play [with one child being the brown bear and the others each of the other animals]; and hide the other animals [either felt pieces or make the animals i.e. stuffed animals] and have the children be the brown bear and go on a hunt to find them.

This book is also available from Angus and Robertson.

The Magic Rabbit by Annette Leblanc Cate.

I stumbled upon this book when I was on prac last semester and as the children were in the process of writing using more adjectives and pronouns this was a great book for showing the use of them within the text.

The pictures are beautiful. Most of the book is in black and white with bits of yellow here and there.

The story is magnificently written and the children were entranced and intrigued from the start. I would use this text with children as young as two or three and up to age eight.

Extensions from the book include: having the children write character descriptions and incorporate the use of adjectives and pronouns within the descriptions; draw a picture in pencil first then add bits of yellow using oil pastels or crayons and then go over the pencil drawn lines with charcoal for a really eye catching picture – this could also be done for each picture within the book and having the children draw their own and making your own book.

This book is available from Angus and Robertson.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

As seen here on my blog for the felt board pieces.

This is a great book and I used this text in conjunction with ‘The Diary of the Wombat’ with the year two children when they were re-writing the recounts.

This text uses days of the week and numbers to tell the story and is a great introduction for children.

The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson.

I featured on my blog and showed some resources that can be used in conjunction with the book.

Smidge by Beth Shosan and Jenny Arthur.

Which I also had on my blog giving out some great ideas to use with the book.

Wombat Stew by Marcia K. Vaughan.

Is a great book for children and can be used for story time with ages two and up.

This book can be used to act out the story or just read and simply enjoyed.

You could later extend on the book by making soup/stew with the children; and asking them to create a recipe of wombat stew or of a made up stew.

Angus and Roberston have the book available in hardback and paperback.

Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae.

I love this book and teaches children to never underestimate themselves just maybe they need a different song.

To extend after being read you could have the children draw/paint/model pictures of a giraffe; take a trip to the zoo and see giraffes; make a giraffe from left over carboard and paint; or make a stuffed animal giraffe; talk about using song and music to create dances and art.

Angus and Robertson have this book available.

They are ten of my favourite and I recommend every collection to have these books. They are a must.

I know there are some other great books out there that I haven’t included but if I wanted I could go for pages and pages with the children’s books I love.

Angus and Robertson have created a Top Ten Picture Books and they are all great books too! Some I have mentioned too.

If there are any that I haven’t mentioned and that you would love to share with myself and everyone who reads, please leave a comment below with the book.

Thanks xx

Tagged as: books, top ten