Category Archives: Read-alouds

Sunday, June 21, 2020 is National Indigenous People’s Day in Canada!  It is a day to celebrate Canada’s 1.4 million Indigenous people.

This week’s story is written by a local Gitxsan nation author.  It is a personal story from her childhood and the stories that she was told by her grandmother.

While you are listening to the story, think about ways that Mother Nature has blessed you and your family.  Also, think about you might use the “knowledge” in this story in your life when dealing with stress, anger or sadness.

This is another one of new personal favourite pictures by the one and only Peter H. Reynold’s!  The illustratrations are gorgeous and change as the reader experiences the travels of Rose.  This is a story with many themes and messages – in it are glimpses of resilience, perseverance, and hope – ideals that we should all be striving toward in our ever-changing, unpredictable world…

Sometimes, books fall into our hands at just the right moment!  While in the library last week, I came across this beautifully illustrated book about the gift of wonderment…

In these uncertain, ever-changing times in which we are currently living, Annaka Harris urges all of us to allow ourselves to and teach our children that it is okay to “wonder” about things that are unsure….what a powerful concept!

Please listen carefully to the last page of our book – it gives all of us permission to be curious and that it is okay not to have all of the answers!!

This week, we are so lucky to have a guest reader on our library blog!  Mrs. Lusignan is an educational assistant at Montecito Elementary and will be sharing a book written and illustrated by her extraordinarily talented niece, Janice Stouffer.  This is a story about acceptance, tolerance and being kind to ourselves and others.  Please enjoy the reading of this newly released children’s book and its gorgeous illustrations!

Spring and summer are times for planting!  This story shows what can happen when you plant something unusual – something unusual grows!  The simple text in this book lets the reader explore how bliss can be shared with others!  Our book’s illustrator is an author too.  Peter H. Reynolds has written and illustrated numerous of his own books including:  Ish, The Dot, The Word Collector, The North Star, Sky Colour and many more.  If you are familiar with any of these titles, you will surely recognize his unique style of illustration.

Click on the picture of my garden to hear our story…

This week’s “read-alouds” is more of a “read-at-home”!

Candlewick Press has published a story for children about Coronavirus.  It is written by Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson, and Nia Roberts and is illustrated by Axel Scheffler.

I include it here as a way for parents and children to examine this virus together.  Parents, you can choose to read some of the book or all of it to your child(ren) depending on the age of your child(ren) and on how extensively you wish to cover the topic.  CLICK HERE to view the book.

This read-aloud is for the intermediate students in Division 1 and 2 as it is specific to a lesson I am doing with those students.

Click on the picture to listen to the story!

This week, I am taking a risk!  As teachers always encourage students to take risks, I challenged myself to take a risk with this week’s read-aloud…This story was first a song – a well-known song by one of the most famous groups of all time – The Beatles!  The lyrics of this song (which are also the words in this book) were written by two members of the band:  John Lennon and Paul McCartney.  Our illustrator, Henry Cole works with black and white and adds little pops of colour on each page.

First, I introduce the book here!  After you listen to the introduction, click on the picture below to hear the story-song!

Hi again!

For our second read-a-loud, I have a chosen an older title!  Little Beaver and The Echo is 20 years old!!  Our story focuses on the feeling of loneliness – something that we are all feeling right now as we are away from our classmates, friends and teachers.  Listen and watch to see how the little beaver deals with this feeling…

Click on my picture to watch!

Hi Parkcrest Readers!

I hope you all are well and that your families are safe and healthy!  I miss seeing you at school and particularly, in the library!

Each week, I will be reading a book for you to watch and read with me!  This week, we will be reading Kevin Henkes’ beautiful book about our new season.  It’s called When Spring Comes.  The illustrator, Laura Dronzek uses acrylic paints to show us the colours and textures of spring – in the blossoms, flowers and the newly born animal babies’ fur.  It’s a lovely story and the pictures are gorgeous!

Click the book below!