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Kindergarten: See You Later, Alligator by Sally Hopgood

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Kindergarten: See You Later, Alligator by Sally Hopgood

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See You Later, Alligator was published in 2016 and is about a tortoise who is leaving on a new adventure but has to say goodbye to each of his animal friends on his way out. With fun, bright illustrations and funny, rhyming text, kindergarteners will especially enjoy reading this book. Teachers can conduct a matching game where you have cutouts of different objects (i.e. dog, frog, cat, hat, etc.) and students will work together in groups to correctly match up the pictures that rhyme. (Aligned to K.FFL.PA.2a: Recognize and begin producing rhyme sounds.)

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Kindergarten: Every Little Letter by Deborah Underwood

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Kindergarten: Every Little Letter by Deborah Underwood

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Every Little Letter follows little h and his journey to find his new little letter friends. The big H's tell little h the walls around their city are there to keep them safe, but after meeting little i through a hole in the wall, they come together to create a small word, "hi." This story looks at the concepts of unity, division, and diversity, while also helping children familiarize themselves with big and little letters. The cute letters, easy text, and fun story line will be perfect for the kindergarten level. Activities should focus on identifying both uppercase and lowercase letters as well as how these letters can come together to produce words. (Aligned to K.FL.PC.1d: Recognize and name all upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet in isolation and in connected text.)

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Third Grade: The Power of One by Trudy Ludwig

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Third Grade: The Power of One by Trudy Ludwig

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The Power of One touches on the subject of bullying and how one person can start a chain reaction of kindness. This would be a great book for children of any age to see the impacts that they can have just by being kind to one another. Reading this book if classrooms are having trouble with kindness or bullying might be something that could benefit all students. Third graders will be able to look at this and be able to see how the actions of the characters in the book affected the sequence of events. An activity teachers could do is have students fill out cause and effect charts. (Aligned to 3.RL.KID.3: Describe characters in a story and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.)

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Third Grade: Kindness Rocks by Sonica Ellis

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Third Grade: Kindness Rocks by Sonica Ellis

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Kindness Rocks is another book about the power of kindness and how one act of kindness, no matter how small, can turn someones entire day around. "Kindness rocks" is a play on words, which can be taken either literally or metaphorically. In the book, Clara is literally painting kindness rocks, but the message behind the book is that kindness rocks! This would be a great book for third graders to read and to look deeper into the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases. An activity that a class could do is to look at some different sentences and decide if the context of the sentence is meaning for the words to be taken literally or not. (Aligned to 3.FL.VA.7b: Demonstrate understanding of word relationships and nuances in word meanings- i. Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context.)

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Fourth Grade: Brown Sugar Babe by Charlotte Watson Sherman

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Fourth Grade: Brown Sugar Babe by Charlotte Watson Sherman

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Brown Sugar Babe uses beautiful illustrations and powerful similes and metaphors to show a young girl that being brown is not bad, but a blessing. Her mother shows her all of the beautiful things that brown can be by relating to all five senses. Fourth graders would do really well with this book because of the season of life that they will be in. They will be able to relate t the "self-love" theme and hopefully even benefit from it. This book would not only be great to show children how we should love and accept ourselves, but also is great for learning about similes and metaphors. As a class, I think a teacher may want to go through and look at each of the different metaphors and similes too begin. Later, students can be let loose to create some of their own positive metaphors and similes about themselves. For example, I may want to write a simile that says, "my eyes are like the ocean." Each student can write their own down and then share with their groups. (Aligned to 4.FL.VA.7b: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.)

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Kindergarten: Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

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Kindergarten: Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw

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Same, Same but Different is about two boys, Elliot who lives in America and Kailash who lives in India, and they are pen pals who realize that they are actually not all that different despite being on opposite sides of the world. This is a great book for Kindergarten to talk about and incorporate different cultures into lessons. Teachers can work with students with an anchor chart to create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two characters. (Aligned to K.RL.KID.1: With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.)

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Kindergarten: Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Anna Dewdney

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Kindergarten: Llama Llama Mad at Mama by Anna Dewdney

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This book is part of a classic series that uses rhyming to follow Llama Llama and his many adventures. In this particular book, Llama and Mama are at the Shop-O-Rama. After Llama gets mad and starts throwing a tantrum, Mama decides to try and make shopping fun for the both of them. Mama validates Llama Llama's feelings and helps him to calm down which a lot of children may be able to relate to (especially kinders). Students will enjoy the easy to understand narrative that Dewdney puts this book in as well as the big text and fun illustrations. Teachers may find that they want to focus on rhyming with their students after reading this book. (Aligned to K.FFL.PA.2a: Recognize and begin producing rhyme sounds.)

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Fifth Grade: The Bear and the Fern by Jay Miletsky

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Fifth Grade: The Bear and the Fern by Jay Miletsky

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This is a super cute book about a stuffed bear and a fern who form a very unlikely friendship. This book has some challenging vocabulary that would be good for fifth graders as well as shows a great lesson of how you can do anything as long as you are willing to try. Having two completely different characters, fifth graders will be able to compare and contrast these characters using a Venn diagram. The beautiful illustrations and the sweet friendship make this book a great read for all ages.  (Aligned to 5.RL.KID.3: Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in a text.)

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Second Grade: Happy Endings: A Story About Suffixes by Robin Pulver

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Second Grade: Happy Endings: A Story About Suffixes by Robin Pulver

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Happy Endings is a book about suffixes and their importance in the english language. This book has all of the word endings, or suffixes, highlighted throughout the entire book, so it is very easy for kids to see what the suffixes actually are. Second graders would specifically enjoy this book because of the personification of the word endings and being able to relate to the students in the book also learning about what they are. For an activity for this book, teachers can give students a word bank and allow them to create their own sentences with the words that have suffixes. (Aligned to 2.FL.PWR.3: Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills when decoding isolated words and in connected text.)

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First Grade: Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman

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First Grade: Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman

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Heather is a little girl who loves the number two. Everything she has is in multiples of two- two arms, two legs, two dogs, and even two mommies. Heather goes to school and realizes that everyone has completely different families, not one is the same. This book would be great for a first grade classroom and really helps to expand students' horizons and expose them to something they have potentially never seen before. First graders will be able to look at the different characters in the story and create a graphic organizer of their own family trees.  (Aligned to 1.RL.KID.3: Using graphic organizers or including written details and illustrations when developmentally appropriate, describe characters, settings, and major events in a story using key details.)

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Fifth Grade: The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

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Fifth Grade: The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

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This is a poetic book about inclusivity and encouraging children to embrace their own uniqueness and share it with the world. It dives into the deeper message of how being yourself will allow you to live your best life with true friends. Fifth graders can analyze how the different stanzas in this book all work together to create the story and will be able to understand the depth of meaning in it. Students can work on trying to create their own poems after reading and seeing this example. (Aligned to 5.RL.CS.5: Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fit together to provide the overall structure of particular texts.)

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Third Grade: Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue 

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Third Grade: Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue 

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This book is about the curious little girl asks, "does everything go to sleep?" and what actually happens when animals go to sleep. With beautiful paintings, children can examine this book and see all the details the book has to offer. This will be good for third graders because they will be able to look at the illustrations and see how they are able to contribute and further explain the story. Students who are not as strong of readers will really enjoy this book since it is very image heavy. Additionally, there are some complex vocabulary words, such as luminous, enchanting, etc. Activities for this book should include looking at these vocabulary words and how they correlate to the illustrations. (Aligned to 3.RL.IKI.7: Explain how illustrations in a text contribute to what is conveyed by the words.)

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Second Grade: A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschku

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Second Grade: A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschku

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A Ball for Daisy is about a dog who loves her red ball and sadly it gets popped at the dog park. Daisy gets so sad and does not want to do anything until eventually the dog who popped the ball brings her a new one. This would be good for second graders to see a story of loss and the challenges that Daisy faces throughout the book. An  activity for this book could be for second graders to have group discussion about the different ways Daisy could have responded to the situation. (Aligned to 2.RL.KID.3: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.)

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First Grade: The Day Punctuation Came to Town by Kimberlee Gard

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First Grade: The Day Punctuation Came to Town by Kimberlee Gard

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The Day Punctuation Came to Town is a fun book for first graders to work on learning the punctuations and their purposes. This story focuses mainly on comma and him finding his purpose or if he even has one. Allowing students to personify the punctuations may help them to understand their purposes better. In a first grade classroom, teachers can let students create sentences using each of the punctuations in the book and also draw pictures to go with their sentences. (Aligned to 1.FL.PC.1a: Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print- Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence, such as first word,

capitalization, and ending punctuation.)

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First Grade: Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev

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First Grade: Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev

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This sweet story about a little boy who has a pet elephant focuses on friendship and inclusion. First graders will love this book, especially if they have pets of their own. They will be able to relate to it in some ways. An activity for this book could be to do a Think, Pair, Share. Each of the groups of students could think about why would they exclude elephants? Why might it be important to make everyone feel included? How would it make someone feel to be excluded or made to feel like they do not belong? The students could come up with some things and try to make connections with the story. (Aligned to 1.SL.PKI.4: Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly.)

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Fourth Grade: All My Stripes by Shaina Rudolph

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Fourth Grade: All My Stripes by Shaina Rudolph

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This is a book about Zane the zebra and his "autism stripe." Zane worries about judgement and not being accepted by his classmates. Eventually, he learns how to love his stripes and more importantly how his autism makes him unique and special. This book would be great for an inclusion classroom with students who may have autism spectrum disorders. This book would help students to understand one another's feelings and insecurities and how we can all learn to love our stripes. An activity that could be done with this book is to make a graphic organizer of all of the feelings that Zane is having throughout the book and why he feels these ways.  (Aligned to 4.RL.KID.3: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story, drawing on specific details in a text, such as a character’s thoughts, words, or actions)

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Second Grade: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

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Second Grade: The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

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This book about a little girl who decides she is going to make the most magnificent thing. After failing repeatedly, she decides to give up. But her dog, who is her best friend, convinces her to go on a walk and she comes back ready and excited to try again. She tries and gets it right, showing how powerful perseverance can be. In this book, there is ample verb vocabulary, allowing students to be exposed to words that are synonyms to one another and expand their own vocabulary. This will be great for students to look and see how this unnamed girl overcame her challenge. An activity for students could be that they tell their own story of a time that they overcame a challenge. (Aligned to 2.RL.KID.3: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.)

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Third Grade: Trouble Gum by Matthew Cordell

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Third Grade: Trouble Gum by Matthew Cordell

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In this story, pig brothers, Rueben and Julius, are bored on a rainy day stuck indoors. Their grammy gives them some gum and their mother gives them rules to follow with the gum, but they cannot resist and make tons of trouble (and plenty of messes). This would be fun for a third grade class, as they probably will enjoy the cute illustrations and funny story line of all the messes they are making. For this book, students can make a graphic organizer and try to look further than the book, trying to imagine some things that they may do in the future when they are bored. (Aligned to 3.RL.KID.3: Describe characters in a story and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.)

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Kindergarten: One of These Is Not Like the Others by Barney Saltzberg

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Kindergarten: One of These Is Not Like the Others by Barney Saltzberg

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One of These Is Not Like the Others is a book about inclusivity and unity despite diversity. This would be a great book for kindergarten because of its simple text and fun illustrations. It is very straight forward with one animal being different than the others, and that being okay for them. For an activity for this book, teachers can read the book aloud and have students shout out which animal is not alike. (Aligned to K.RL.IKI.7: With prompting and support, orally describe the relationship between illustrations and the story in which they appear.)

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First Grade: They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel

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First Grade: They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel

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They All Saw A Cat is a book told from the different perspectives of different animals. Students will be able to see how each different character sees the cat. This would be great for first graders because of its simple, yet very exciting illustrations. For an activity for this book, students can each draw their own cat from their own perspective, how they see cats, and we can hang them up and compare how all of the drawing are different, but they are all the same animal- a cat. (Aligned to 1.RL.CS.6: Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.)