Each month one of my weekly posts will feature some of my favorite picture books for each month. Books that I have read within my classroom walls over the last few years and books that even though I'm outside of the classroom now, I am still thrilled about reading, with kids... or confession time, sometimes on my own. Who doesn't love a good picture book?
Take a look at my favorite books for the season below, of course this isn't an exhaustive list but some of my favorites. With each book you'll see I link or write about an activity you can do with your students or children at home to compliment the book, or you can skip the activities all together and just enjoy reading together with the laughter, questions, and wonder of children (or yourself... hehe)
Leila the Perfect Witch by Flavia Z. Drago
Leila the Perfect Witch is perfect at everything. She can fly the fastest and conjure spells like no one else but when Leila wants to back in the Magnificent Witchy Bake off she realizes she may need some help. Her sisters step into the help Leila become a magnificent witchy baker. -- Great for children 4 and up.
Activity: Check out my TpT product for Leila and the Perfect which that focuses on Predicting, Growth Mindset, and Writing while creating a bulletin board and display for your classroom during spooky season.
Stumpkin by Lucy Ruth Cummins
A halloween classic, Stumpkin is the most beautiful pumpkin in the patch, he is perfectly round, bright orange, and will make a perfect jack-o-lantern, but he doesn't have a stem, he has a stump. As Halloween nears Stumpkin watches his other pumpkin friends all be chosen for a jack-o-lantern in someones window. He begins to worry if someone will ever choose him to be their fiery jack-o-lantern. -- Great for children 3 and up.
Activity: Use play dough or clay to have children create and design their own Jack-o-lantern, or use a real pumpkin if you have
access to them or check out my persuasive
writing activity for Stumpkin!
Creepy Carrots by Aaron Renyolds
Jasper Rabbit loves his carrots. He eats them every day, all day long but one day the carrots start following him. Join Jasper Rabbit on the quest to find out why the carrots are following him or..... are they really following him? -- Great for children 3 and up.
Activity: Eat some delicious carrots for a snack with your favorite dipping sauce/hummus. Enjoy the carrots with your kiddos. Another option is to use a paper towel roll, cover it in orange paper, use green tissue paper or streamers to create the leaves by gluing the one side of the tissue or streamers to the inside top of the paper towel tube. Allow children to draw on their favorite face to make their
own creepy carrot.
Fletcher and the Falling Leaves by Julia Rawlinson
As summer turns to fall, Fletcher worries about his beloved tree. The leaves are falling and he is worried something is wrong with his favorite tree. Fletcher tries to find the cause of the falling leaves and finds out about changing seasons and the cycles of nature. -- Great for children 4 and up.
Activity: In fall take a nature walk with children. Have them view the leaves and talk about the changing colors and what is different outside now that it is autumn. Allow students to pick up fallen leaves and observe them. You could even make it a nature scavenger hunt with specific items students need to find or an i-spy game.
Stellalunna by Janell Cannon
As a young bat, Stellalunna is knocked out of her home by an attacking owl and finds herself in a birds nest. Stellalunna is raised by birds and quickly catches onto bird habits. The birds accept and love Stellalunna and include her in all they do. -- Great for children 3 and up.
Activity: One of my favorite activities I have done with students is created a 'fake' bat cave out of brown butcher/kraft paper with bats hanging down and watching the movie stellaluna that you can find online on most streaming sites. I also have used the bat cave to read the book to students with flashlights to create an immersive experience for students. I often would kick off a deeper learning unit on bats with a week long Stellaluna unit found in Amy Lemons Rooted in Reading Units that you can find on Teachers pay teachers.
Crankenstine by Samantha Berger
When a young boy is faced with many challenges throughout his day such as a melting popsicle, a rainy day or early bed time his Crankenstine mood comes out, but when he meets a fellow Crankenstine the mumbling, grumbling mood melts away into a beautiful friendship. -- Great for Children 2 and up.
Activity: Frankenstein Handprints, paint children's palm green and their fingers black to make a frankenstein face and hair. Once the paint has dried draw eyes, nose, mouth and stitches as well as bolts onto the hand print or use fun craft supplies to create those pieces. You also can check out my reading comprehension, social emotional learning and bulletin board unit on teachers pay teachers with resources for your classroom and beyond to help student identify their feelings, practice their writing, and identify character traits of characters in the story.
The Leaf Thief by Alice Hemming
Squirrel loves counting leaves in the forrest and looking at their beautiful red, gold, orange, brown and green colors. But one day some of his leaves are missing! So squirrel along with his other forest friends go on an adventure to try and find who the leaf thief might be... could it be one of their forrest friends? -- A great book for children 4 and up discussing colors, counting, and changing seasons.
Activity: Have a snack with your favorite little friends. Use pretzel sticks to create a tree with bare branches. Add fruit loops as leaves to the branches to create a colorful
tree just like squirrel loved to look at.
How to Catch a Monster by Adam Wallace
Ninja Head has been scared night after night by a monster but after a good day at school he feels extra brave and decides he is going to scare the monster today. But when he goes to scare the monster he finds something else, maybe the monster isn't scary at all and a new friend has been found. -- Written in a series of seasonal books on how to catch seasonal and holiday related characters. Great for children 4 and up.
Activity: A great STEM/STEAM activity for children. Have children use resources in your classroom or house such as recyclables, craft sticks, scissors, tape, glue, staplers, paper, etc. to create a monster trap. Have students work through the design process to create their trap and let them be creative! I always love seeing what children come up with that I never would have thought of. Their imaginations are amazing!
The Good, The Bad, and The Spooky by Jory John
The Bad seed is back for his favorite season, Halloween. The Bad seed is looking for the perfect costume for trick or treat night but what if he can't find the perfect costume? Will he postpone trick or treat night and cause trouble? -- Written in the Bad Seed series. Great for Children 4 and up.
Activity: Have children design their dream costume by drawing it on a piece of paper. Make sure to have children draw as much detail as possible. If students are able have them write about the costume they drew and have them practice writing by showing not telling with all of the details about their costume. Another activity I've done with students that isn't overly related to the book but a great learning experience is have students try pumpkin seeds, many children have never tried them and some of my students found a new food they loved!
Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell
A story I grew up reading, Follow Tim as he carves his first pumpkin ever. His pumpkin is named Jack and is a humerous and fiery character. Tim watches Jack change from his beautiful jack-o-lantern into a whole new pumpkin as he watches the life cycle of a pumpkin take place in his garden. -- Great for children 4 and up.
Activity: One of the first activity that comes to mind for me is doing exactly what Tim did, when Halloween is over place your pumpkin in a space in your yard where children can watch it decompose and see what happens, the pumpkin life cycle in motion. However if you are in a classroom or a place where a yard isn't available another way I have discussed and built on Pumpkin Jack is by watching you tube videos on the pumpkin life cycle and even creating a drawing of the pumpkin life cycle with students. One way I always enjoyed doing this was printing out the pumpkin life cycle and glueing it in to a circle to make the life cycle look just like a pumpkin!
These are just a few of my favorite stories and follow up activities, feel free to explore the books listed or books of your own. Happy Reading!
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