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Primary story elements

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Sing along with little ladybugs and learn the 5 W's: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. Great for teaching story writing, storytelling, ESL, and the English language in general! This video is part of our new 30-minute compilation: https://youtu.be/3yXlvkpov1c Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/scratchgarden?sub_confirmation=1 ************************ OUR FIRST BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE!

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Story Starters: Creative Writing Prompts for Kids | Scholastic.com

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Scholastic’s Story Starters kids’ writing activity generates creative writing prompts, from general fiction to adventure, fantasy, and science fiction.

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How to cast a spell in your story

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How to write descriptively - Nalo Hopkinson

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How does this world you created shape the individuals who live in it?

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How to build a fictional world - Kate Messner

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Explains 4 genres: intermediate

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Types of Fiction - A Short Tutorial for Students

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Explains what a genre is & describes sci-fi: intermediate

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Fiction Book Genres - What Is Science Fiction

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Explains what a genre is & describes fantasy: intermediate

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12 steps in hero's story cycle

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Ingredients to find the funny

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How to make your writing funnier - Cheri Steinkellner

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Suspense = fear of unknown

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How to make your writing suspenseful - Victoria Smith

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8 point story arc

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How to Write a Great Short Story - The 8-Point Story Arc

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"school library" "children's books" "ya books"

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School Library Journal aspires to be an accelerator for innovation in schools and public libraries that serve the information, literacy, and technology needs...

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Storylineonline.net - Actors read favourite picture books; includes teaching resources for each book

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Welcome to The Teacher's Library, I'm Ms. S! This YouTube channel features beloved and diverse children's books read aloud, as well as children's books recommendations! The channel was created to assist readers of all ages, teachers, and parents! As a former elementary school teacher, and now School Psychologist, I know that exposure to literature has INFINITE benefits for growing minds!

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"school libraries" "library centers" elementary

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At the center of twenty-first century learning are school libraries, using makerspaces and work stations to reach every student! Follow me at LibraryLearners.com! If you love to collaborate about #libraries, #schoollibraries, #growthmindset, #makers, #makerspaces, and #librarycenters, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and check out my blog!

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Librarians make a difference

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School Libraries Matter: The Changing Role of the School Librarian

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Support over 50,000 school librarians making a difference every day in our schools. Join the conversation. #SchoolLibrariesMatter

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Elementary definition of fiction VS non-fiction (catchy song)

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Why get kids reading genres?

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Reading comprehension can be a touch skill to teach, but with picture books, things come alive! Teaching with picture books has been one of my favorite things about firs grade! I love to pull out a great book, read it for pleasure, then get back into the juicy stuff I need to actually teach with my kids.

Here are some of my favorite read aloud books that assist in teaching comprehension skills.
Figurative Language
An incredibly tough skill, but here's a SUPER fun book to help teach similes!

It is important for students and understand figurative language (especially our ELs). This book uses real life pictures to spark similes about her family.
Inferencing
Who doesn't love MO WILLEMS? Kids go ga-ga for him and his silly elephant and piggie. Here's a great one for inferences.

Piggie pretends he's a frog! Use evidence from the text and from the pictures to figure out if he's a frog or a pig 🙂
Central Message
The Empty Pot is a fantastic read. It's about a king who needs a successor.

He asks every kid in the kingdom to plant a special seed, then he will pick the kid with the most beautiful flower to be his success. There's only one problem: Ping's plant doesn't grow. What will he do?
Problem & Solution/Cause & Effect
Another FABULOUS author David Shannon gives us a great read for problem and solution/cause & effect.

Someone gets a bad case of the stripes! What caused it??
Retelling
In the lower grades, k-2, there is a strong push for retelling. Students need to be able to retell a story in the right sequence in their own words.

Frog & Toad is a great series that is easy to read, fun, and GREAT for retelling! Using puppets or this AMAZING APP (Sock Puppets), students can act as Frog or Toad to retell their silly tales.
Beginning Middle End
Another huge standard in K-2 is knowing beginning, middle, and end of a story.

Corduroy is a great read aloud that has a fluid sequence of events to help with BME. It's such a classic!
Character
Kevin Henkes is incredible about providing great character development.

If you don't know Chrysanthemum then you must not be a teacher 😉 I'll admit, I just bought my first copy of it this year, so I can say I'm officially a first grade teacher. This is a great story that develops the character of Chrysanthemum from beginning to end.
Setting
As usual, Patricia Polacco creates a beautiful story with beautiful illustrations.

I love reading this book! It is so gorgeous. This has a great steady setting that can help for basic teaching of what setting is and how it helps develop a story.

Want to remember this for later? Pin it now!

Make sure to check out all our other book suggestions:
March Read Alouds April Read Alouds May Read Alouds End of Year Read Alouds Back to School Read Alouds History Read Alouds Grammar Read Alouds Science Read Alouds Writing Read Alouds Math Read Alouds
Want more suggestions? Hop on over to Courtney's blog!
This post contains affiliate links.

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Picture Books to Teach Reading Comprehension Skills

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Reading comprehension can be a touch skill to teach, but with picture books, things come alive! Teaching with picture books has been one of my favorite things about firs grade! I love to pull out a great book, read it for pleasure, then get back into the juicy stuff I need to actually teach with my kids.

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Modeling comprehension strategies is KEY for readers of ALL ages. That's why reading TO and WITH your child is vital, even if they are in upper elementary school! So much of comprehension is silent, meaning our readers never hear or see it. As I mention in our Reading Comprehension Series, we need to be explicit in thinking out loud to SHOW readers how we comprehend and monitor our comprehension when reading.

*This post contains affiliate links.

Modeling our comprehension out loud may seem quite unnatural to some of us. I know it did for me when I first started teaching. That's why I've compiled these book lists as they can help facilitate modeling comprehension strategies with your child. They are written in a way that you can't help but ask questions, or predict what will come next, just to mention a couple. These books are some favorites that I've used over and over again in the classroom, as a reading tutor, and now as a homeschooling mama.

Even if you don't feel your child needs to work on comprehension, these are HIGH quality texts than can be read and enjoyed together any time.

Books for Teaching Reading Comprehension

If you're new to the teaching of reading comprehension, I highly recommend that you get your hands on some of these books you see below {click here or on the image below} and read the seriously amazing ideas inside. If you are a classroom teacher, most of these books are geared towards you, but homeschooling parents can definitely glean from them, too.

My number one recommendation for homeschooling parents or parents in general is 7 Keys to Comprehension by Susan Zimmermann because it is written without as much teacher jargon. If you're struggling to model your comprehension out loud and wondering where to start, Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies by Jeffrey Wilhelm is a great read that explains the reasons behind it and steps you can take to make your think alouds ROCK!

And if you're unsure what comprehension strategies are to begin with, you'll find a quick overview of the different comprehension strategies kids need to understand in our post, Comprehension Strategies: Reading Equals Thinking.

50+ Texts for Modeling Comprehension

In the lists below, find our suggested books for each comprehension strategy!

Now you can take these book lists to the library or book store ~
Just download our printable comprehension book list!

Enjoy!
~Becky

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50+ Books for Modeling Comprehension Strategies

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Modeling comprehension strategies is KEY for readers of ALL ages. That's why reading TO and WITH your child is vital, even if they are in upper elementary school! So much of comprehension is silent, meaning our readers never hear or see it.

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+ more for MS & HS: http://guides.library.duq.edu/CurriculumCenter/mathliterature

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(This post contains affiliate links.)
By now, y'all know that I LOVE living math - and especially math that involves living literature. So many people think math and literature connections only make sense for the elementary years, but I'm here to tell you middle school students still benefit from the connection!

Below is a list of math-related literature perfect for the middle school years.

Living Books for Middle School Math

Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone is just one of an entire series of Sir Cumference math stories. While some of the books are appropriate for older elementary, many of them cover more in-depth middle school topics - like finding the volume of cones or the area of circles. I can't speak highly enough of this series.

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is mostly historical fiction with a geometry twist. It takes place in Japan after the bombing of Hiroshima. Get your tissues ready! After you wipe your tears away, have some fun with this origami lesson.

Holes was a book I was skeptical about allowing my children to read at first. I had the impression it handled issues that were too big, but after previewing, I felt very comfortable handing it over to my kiddos. It has since become one of Caleb's very favorite books ever (and that's saying a lot since very few books even make the "it was okay" list.) Many math lessons can be drawn from this book including percentages, ratios, proportions and more.

A Million Fish...More or Less is a book that I disliked the first time I read it. I found the tall tales to be silly and hard for my children to grasp. Then I started looking at this book from the perspective of math potential for older children and the book earned a spot in my top 10! Set in Louisiana and using traditional Bayou language, the characters tales about events tend to grow. This lesson idea covers bar graphs, statistics, tables, averages, scatterplots and more. (Since I wrote this post a week ago, the lesson link seems to be broken. I'm going to leave it here in hopes that the webpage comes back up because the lesson ideas are awesome.)

Do you have any middle school math favorites to share?

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You'll love the other posts in this Living Literature Top 10 Series. If you're interested in living math, be sure to also check out my Living Math Matters Series full of practical living math lessons!

And, don't miss my living math Pinterest board...

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This post has been linked to:

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10 Living Books for Middle School Math - Our Journey Westward

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(This post contains affiliate links.) By now, y'all know that I LOVE living math - and especially math that involves living literature. So many people think math and literature connections only make sense for the elementary years, but I'm here to tell you middle school students still benefit from the connection!

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Research & guidelines for selecting fiction to teach Science: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/what-research-says-about-literature-based-teaching-and-science

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The books listed include some I have read, some that were shared by the science teacher who asked me for the list, and books shared with me through Twitter when I asked for some help -Thank you to @mselke01 @thebrainlair @Hannahlily & @Loveofxena!
I had someone ask for some recommendations of books that have science content within them and as well as books with math content. These requests has made me realize that there may be other teachers out there that may want some of these same recommendations. Today I will share with you the science books I recommended and next week I'll share the math books.
This list contains books I recommended to an 8th grade science teacher and mostly has books that are middle school and high school level. He wanted books that weren't directly "science" books but that had science elements within them. Next to each book I've included how the book connects with the content. Also, many of these books are one of a series, so their sequels or companions would have science content as well.

Archimedes, Physics, Autopsy

Space exploration, Space science

Meteorology

Meteorology

Geology, Yellowstone eruption

Meteorology

Technology

Technology, Game simulation

Chiroptologist (Study of bats)

Alchemy, Medical

Ornithology (Study of birds)

Zoology, Airships

Robotics

Medical, Typhoid Epidemic

Genetic engineering, Mechanics

Everglades

Subsea settlement

Global warming, Oil

Cloning

Sharks

Oceanography

Climbing Mt. Everest

Meteorology

Space race

Space Race

Teenager climbing Mt. Everest

Quantum physics, Philosophy

Natural History, Evolution

Botany

Dinosaurs

Astronomy

Physics, Mechanics, Inventing

Geology
Hope this list is helpful!
What books would you add to the list?

Androids, Cyborgs

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Novels with Science Content - Unleashing Readers

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I had someone ask for some recommendations of books that have science content within them and as well as books with math content. These requests has made me realize that there may be other teachers out there that may want some of these same recommendations. Today I will [...]

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Dewey Decimal Rap

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explains plagiarism for gr 4-6

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Don't Plagiarizzle - a rap song about plagiarism

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book-Maker connections

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School librarian Laura Gardner offers best practices to stay connected with students and keep the fun factor high.

I never wanted to be an online librarian, and I bet you didn't, either. I don't even like ebooks.

I miss my library. I miss the books. Most importantly, I miss my students.

Now that COVID-19 has forced us all to become online school librarians, we need to find ways to deliver virtual content, stay connected with our students, and help them continue reading. One way that I'm doing that is through online book clubs via Zoom. Our two daily meetups are now an established part of my day.

Getting online book clubs off the ground wasn't too difficult for me. It helps that we already had established book clubs at my school library, but that isn't a prerequisite. I've been running three "Lunch Bunch" book clubs (one per grade) almost every day for over three years. We read aloud books from the Global Read Aloud or Project Lit book lists, and every Friday, I do First Chapter Friday to get more books in kids' hands. We cap our in-person Lunch Bunch at 30 students per group. We max out, and we have a wait list! But the online lunch bunch can include far more students, and there's no cleanup necessary at the end of the session.
Tips and Tricks for an Online Book Club Everyone is invited
I got the word out about our new virtual Lunch Bunch via email, social media, and Google Classroom. I first sent all our regular Lunch Bunch kiddos invitations to our new Google Classroom and encouraged them to get chatting with a welcome/introduce yourself post. Then I sent an email to every student in the school, as well as all the parent contacts, via our student management platform ( Aspen) and posted the event on the PTO Facebook page.

Most of one day was spent helping parents and students troubleshoot the Google Classroom codes and Zoom meeting code over email and Facebook. Parents and students also helped one another out and invited one another to join. A lot of our "regulars" sign up for our virtual meetings, as well as new students who never came to our in-person events. So far, we're averaging between 10 and 15 students per session, but I'm hopeful for more in the coming weeks.
Live meetings are a fun way to connect
We're using Zoom for our daily meetups, one for sixth graders at noon and one for seventh/eighth graders at 1 p.m. Zoom has been very easy to use: It works on any phone, tablet, or computer, and students have been helping each other troubleshoot. I love the functionality it offers the host. I can mute everyone and unmute one by one, and I can also record the meeting if I want to.

The first 10 minutes of our sessions are designated hang out time. We chat about the daily challenge (more on that later), as well as how everyone's feeling and what they're up to. I'm loving the social interaction, as well as seeing everyone's house, siblings, and pets. Our connection may be virtual, but it's still meaningful. My primary goal is to give students a sense of normalcy and routine in a time of uncertainty.

Read: 5 Podcasts on Kids & Tech Use Your Patrons Could Use Right Now
Asynchronous participation is important, too!
Not everyone will be able to make the live meetups. To keep kids engaged between our Zoom sessions, I'm posting a daily challenge in our Google Classroom. Examples include posting a picture of a student reading to a sibling, pet or plant; signing up for Sora, our ebook/audiobook platform; and finding a previously abandoned book in the house and reading 10 pages to give it one more chance. Google Classroom is also the best place for me to answer any questions about how to access library resources.
Give students choice
I've always read aloud to my middle schoolers. English language arts teachers in our school sometimes run book clubs where kids have physical copies of their own books, but that's not my preferred format. Given resource limitations, this may be a good time for you to try out a read aloud format, too. That said, I'm also a big proponent of student choice. We always have one set read aloud for the year, the Global Read Aloud pick. But for the rest of the year, students get to pick our read aloud from a list of choices that I booktalk. For our sixth grade virtual read aloud, we first finished up our previous book, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson, and then voted on Google Classroom to see what students wanted to read next from the selections I snagged from the library. We've settled onThe Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry for sixth grade and Small Spaces by Katherine Arden for seventh and eighth grade. So far both are going great!
Follow publisher rules
SLJ posted a great article about how to do this. Almost any book you will pick will be covered by one of the publishers listed. One quick email about each book and my read alouds are all set. I'm finding it easiest to read live and not record. We recap what has happened in the book at the start of each session by taking turns sharing what we remember, which helps increase participation, too.

I'm excited to see how our virtual book clubs evolve over time. I certainly miss seeing students in person, but given the situation, this is a nice consolation.
Laura Gardner is a teacher librarian at Dartmouth (MA) Middle School and a 2016 SLJ School Librarian of the Year finalist.

Read: Professional Development Opportunities from Home

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How To Run a Virtual Book Club with Middle Schoolers

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School librarian Laura Gardner offers best practices to stay connected with students and keep the fun factor high. I never wanted to be an online librarian, and I bet you didn't, either. I don't even like ebooks. I miss my library. I miss the books. Most importantly, I miss my students.

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Be inspired and discover your child’s next favourite book with the BookTrust Bookfinder: search by theme and age, from babies and toddlers all the way up to teenagers.

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What does a scientist do? Whether your curriculum includes investigations of weather, plants, space, forces and motion, or other key topics, instilling in children the wonder and care of a scientist's mindset is key. Books can help explain and give compelling examples of how scientists ask questions, hypothesize, design experiments, overcome obstacles, and communicate scientific findings. Reading about real and fictional scientists helps children envision themselves in those roles. To inspire scientific attitudes and behaviors in your classroom, share these titles with students:

What books do you use to introduce your students to the habits of scientists? Share your favorites in the comments section below! For more lesson plans, book recommendations, and reading tips for your classroom or library, check out our Teach Brightly page!

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8 Books to Teach Children About the Habits of Scientists | Brightly

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What does a scientist do? Whether your curriculum includes investigations of weather, plants, space, forces and motion, or other key topics, instilling in children the wonder and care of a scientist's mindset is key. Books can help explain and give compelling examples of how scientists ask questions, hypothesize, design experiments, overcome obstacles, and communicate scientific findings.

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"More Reading" (8 mins. video)

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More Reading: Kelly Corrigan at TEDxSonomaCounty

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Why a good book is a secret door (16 mins. video)

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Mac Barnett: Why a good book is a secret door

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Childhood is surreal. Why shouldn't children's books be? In this whimsical talk, award-winning author Mac Barnett speaks about writing that escapes the page, art as a doorway to wonder -- and what real kids say to a fictional whale.

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Diigo - Better reading and research with annotation, highlighter, sticky notes, archiving, bookmarking & more.

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Diigo is a powerful research tool and a knowledge-sharing community