I Heart Books

Books are one of my most favorite things in the world. I love to curl up with a great book and get lost in the plot. I love finding books that are too good to put down and I hope to show that enthusiasm to my kids during the school year. I think it is so important to allow our students to see how much we as teachers love reading, so I always stick the book I'm reading in my purse and have it causally laying on my desk. My kids always want to know what I'm reading and what it's about so I've used this trick to get my students to recognize some of my all time favorites. 

Since this is Life in First Grade, I'll share some of my favorite books that I always used in my first grade classroom. If you want to see some of the upper grade books that I discovered after my first year of teaching fifth, head over to Life in Fifth Grade (Those make fantastic read alouds for younger grades!)

**Click each picture to find out more about the book and to purchase!**

{1} A Pet for Petunia by Paul Schmid

I adore this book and sweet little, confused Petunia. Petunia thinks she needs a skunk for a pet and promises to be a responsible pet owner. After failing to convince her parents, Petunia runs away into the woods and amazingly finds a skunk. Petunia is thrilled...until the skunk sprays her. I used the book every year during the Reading Street unit on pets. It ties in perfectly with Sam, Come Back! It was always a class favorite and my last year in first, we made our own skunks. You can read about them here. Click the pic to find out more about the book and purchase

{2} The Elephant and Piggie Series by Mo Willems 

I swear by this series when trying to find books for struggling readers. The characters, Elephant and Piggie are precious and the kids always fell in love with the plot of each story. The books are made up of sight words, so struggling readers can use these for practice. The books even made my reluctant readers want to read! I LOVE this series!! 

{3} The My Weird School Series by Dan Gutman
I discovered these this past year while teaching 5th grade. I have them in my classroom for some of my kids that are still reading on a 3rd grade level, but I wish I had known about them when I taught first. They would make the perfect read aloud! I always read Sideways Stories from Wayside School, but some of the kids never really got a lot of the storylines because they were a little over their heads, but this series is perfect! The titles all rhyme and feature a teacher at the school. Some of my favorites include Miss Daisy is Crazy, Ms Small is Off the Wall, Ms Todd is Odd, and Ms Hannah is Bananas


{4} Unique Monique by Maria Rousaki
I always liked to read this one at the beginning of the year when we are getting to know each other. Monique is also a great character to do activities with when discussing character traits. She wants to be unique and stand out, so she tries to do different things each day, but everything she does, everyone else ends up copying her.It's a sweet story that the kids always enjoy.



{5} I Dare You Not to Yawn by Helene Boudreau
My kids LOVED this book! It's so funny watching them trying to fight the urge to yawn and we always barely got through the book in a fit of giggles. This one is such a FUN read aloud!

Want to share your favorite books? Be sure and link up over at Deanna's blog!