Thank you Cathy Mere at Reflect & Refine: Building a Learning Community and Mandy Robek at Enjoy and Embrace Learning for organizing such a great virtual event (#pb10for10)!
It is so hard to narrow down a stack like this to just TEN books...
But I did it! Below are my top ten picture books I can't wait to share with my new second graders!
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to School... by Davide Cali
This will be a fun read that we'll come back to as a mentor text for temporal words. The kids will love all the wild stories as to why the little boy in the story is late to school.
Yard Sale by Eve Bunting
A sad story about a little girl and her parents who are selling all of their belongings and moving from their home to a small apartment.
The Night World by Mordicai Gerstein
A little boy is awaken by his cat in the middle of the night. They head outside to the night world, where everything is black. All of the animals keep telling the boy "it's coming." As dawn begins to creep in, colors gradually appear on the pages.
Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett
What child hasn't dreamed of digging a big hole to find a treasure? I can't wait to hear all the theories students have as to where the boys went when they were digging their hole.
I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
On the first day of school we always read the poem Sky Wish by Rebbeca Kai Dotlich and talk about our wishes for second grade. This will be a wonderful text to pair with the poem. I'm thinking about using it at our parent information night to have parents write wishes to their children. It will be a great way to tie in how we use mentor text for our writing in second grade, if parents use the book as their mentor text.
We keep a worm terrarium in second grade. This will be a wonderful resource, so students can see what's going on down below the ground. We will also take a closer look at Kate's word choices and the images her words help us create.
Sidewalk Flowers by Jon Arno Lawson and Sydney Smith
This is a wordless picture book (in black and white with limited color-which will be a conversation as to why the illustrated did this) about a little girl who collects wild flowers and gives them to random people. This will be a super book to talk about doing nice deeds for others (random acts of kindness).
Red: A Crayon's Story by Michael Hall
This is a fun story about a blue crayon that was labeled as red and the trials it suffers. I'm sure this book will spark lots of conversation.
Mama Built a Little Nest by Jennifer Ward
I'm a bird lover and love sharing random facts I've learned about birds throughout the year. I can't wait to share this book and discuss the different nests that mamma birds make.
The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
My class last year enjoyed this book and we came back to it many times throughout the year. It's a great example of how if you stick with something and not give up, you can succeed.
