Recently, I spent some time with kindergarten teachers talking about the role of shared reading in reading workshop. As part of our time together, I provided the teachers with several different picture books that they could consider using as shared reading texts. It was interesting to watch as the teachers read through a text and thought about how they would share it with their students. When I share books, I always am asked for additional titles that can be used. While I read through a stack of picture books this weekend, I added a few books to my list of picture books that I would use as mentor text or shared reading text with kindergarten and first graders.
Here are the titles that jumped out of the pile...
Firefighter Duckies! by Frank W. Dormer (Atheneum Books for Young Readers 2017)
Bold, simple illustrations and text are featured in Firefighter Duckies!
This makes for a fun read aloud or a text that can be read in a shared reading format with beginning readers.
Shake a Leg, Egg! by Kurt Cyrus (Beach Lane Books 2017)
The illustrations in this book are gorgeous. The one above almost makes it seem like you can touch the shells or the feathers of the duck.
The text is just enough of a challenge for beginning readers that it makes for a nice option to use in a read aloud.
Watersong by Tim McCanna, Illustrated by Richard Smythe (Simon & Schuster 2017)
This book won my heart on several levels. The illustrations are beautiful and the use of onomatopoeia words makes this a book that can be used as a mentor text with young readers.
In addition to a mentor text, this would make for a lively shared reading text.
Look for these books at your local indie bookstore or public library.
All journeys have a starting place.
This is a weekly place to find books and tools
that you may use with readers at the start of their reading journey.
Join in the conversation at #road2reading.
Each week, Michele Knott and I post about new early readers and transitional chapter books.