Top 10 Books for Making Connections:
When I Googled books on making connections these are a few of them that popped up. These books help students to make connections to characters in the book. We all go through similar situations, scenarios, and have many things in common with one another ( although it may not always feel that way ). As you read through my list, you will see that the situations that the books focus on are all something we have at one time dealt with as a kid or young adult. We have all had bad days, dreams that seemed out of reach, memories that we can reminisce about with family and friends, and we have all been selfish a time or two... each of these books could be used with different age groups since most are not relatable to students in say the 2nd grade. We could read the book together as a class, and make connections with the main character(s). If we are reading Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, we could talk about the things that have happened to Alexander and discuss whether or not some of those "horrible" things have happened to us, and how it made us feel. Then we could talk about the crazy things that happened to Alexander and how we would have handled that. Perhaps, if Alexander handled a particular situation poorly, the students could write a different way that Alexander could have handled it. There are a lot of ideas that could get the student's creative minds flowing.
Allie’s Basketball Dream by Barbara E. Barber : It takes hard work to accomplish a goal, or a dream, there will always be ups and downs.
Birthday Presents by Cynthia Rylant: We enjoy reminiscing about stories from our past
Dolphin’s First Day: The Story of a Bottlenose Dolphin by Kathleen Zoehfeld: Even dolphins have to grow up and learn how to take care of themselves. Children see that we all must depend on someone to teach us when we are young.
It’s Mine! by Leo Lionni: A story of three selfish frogs, who eventually learn how much fun sharing can be. ( One of my favorites from childhood )
In My Momma’s Kitchen by Jerdine Nolen: Good times and stories are made and shared in the kitchen
Hey World, Here I Am by Jean Little: In the middle school and teenage years, students all deal with finding their true meaning in life, learning to take care of themselves independently and dealing with heartbreaks.
Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco: overcoming your fears.
Janaye,
ReplyDeleteI like the books that you came up with for this blog post! Some of the books are books that I've never heard up and need to read or recommend these books to the former teachers I used to work with. They could use these books for read alouds.
I've actually read a couple of these! Great choices!
ReplyDeleteJanaye,
ReplyDeleteA lot of these books look familiar to me and are great! I never thought about how important it is to have books about kindness, making connections, etc.
My daughter loves Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Even though it is kind of long for a 2 year old, she connects to it through the pictures and the things that Alexander interacts with throughout the book. She recognizes things she has herself and she asks about new things that she doesn't recognize or notice from previous readings.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your list because I only knew one book on it! This is a good resource for other teachers to use in order to get ideas on different books outside their own preference books. I like the idea of being able to have such a big variety of books to read to my future students. Great list!
ReplyDelete