I chose to put myself in the role of a Kindergarten teacher. I have selected three high quality books that this age would find appealing.
The first book I picked was “I Ain’t Gonna Paint No More”. This book was written by Karen Beaumont. This book can be used in many ways to support intellectual growth. It can be used to support prediction. You can encourage the children to predict by asking open ended questions like “how do you think Mom will feel when she see’s that she painted on the walls” or “where do you think she will paint next”? This book is also great for working on rhyming words and rhythm.
The second book I picked is “Wemberly Worried” written by Kevin Henkes. I picked this book for the many activities and conversations you can have within the subject. Two of the ways this book will support their intellectual growth would be in feelings, communication and self-regulation. Most children can relate to being worried. In kindergarten many children are still working on describing and recognizing feelings beyond the basic happy, sad and mad.
The third book I would use is “Countdown to Kindergarten” by Alison Mcghee. This book would be wonderful all year but also in the fall when children can relate to counting down to starting Kindergarten. As with the previously mentioned books this book will also support intellectual growth in many ways. With this book you can work on counting and comparing, among other things.
Common Core standards that these books could all support were comprehension, collaboration, presentation, knowledge and ideas. This is true for each and every one of the books I chose.
I picked three pictures books that promote prosocial behavior. These were all written by Julia Cook. I recently attended a conference where I had the wonderful opportunity to hear her talk about her books and read a few aloud. This was a prime example that the voice you choose to use, the tone and the emotion you reflect can all have a huge impact on the engagement of a story. I picked “Soda Pop Head” because it was about a boy who had a short fuse which many children can relate to. I also chose “It’s Hard to be a Verb”. This book was about a boy who was hyperactive. We have more and more children in school now at an early age being diagnosed with ADHD who would be able to relate to this story. The last book I picked was “But It’s Just a Game”. This book is about a little boy who is obsessed with video games. This is another thing that many children today can relate to. It talks about ways to switch you game controller for a “life controller”.
I chose three picture books lending themselves to interpretation through music or movement. I found this to be the most difficult part of this assignment. I picked “The Snowman” by Raymond Briggs. In this book a boy builds a snowman. He invites the snowman to come inside and they explore the house. The snowman then takes the boy on a journey through the countryside and into the city. A movement activity I would use would be to actually build a snowman. If snow wasn’t available we would imagine that we are building a snowman and act out the movements. I would also bring in different size balls that children could try stacking and problem solve ways to keep them together. In another activity I would play music and ask the children to describe where they think the snowman would be flying over and have them dance to the rhythm if it’s fast or slow. The music would be jungle music, ocean waves, sounds of nature, etc.
The second book I chose is “The Lion and the Bird” by Marianne Dubac. This is a wonderful heartfelt story of a Lion who finds a Bird in his garden. The bird is left behind by his flock so Lion cares for him through the winter. The Bird ends up Leaving with her flock in the spring. The Lion misses her terribly as he goes back to his solitary life. When Autum returns so does Bird. Activities for this book that promote music would be to play music of various tempos promoting different feelings. I would also give the children scarves to add extra interest in the body’s movements.
The last book that I selected was “Orion and the Dark” by Emma Yarlett. This was a book about a little boy named Orion who was scared of a lot of things, especially the dark. One night dark takes orion on an adventure. I love that Dark is depicted as a soft friendly being. For this book I would have the children turn off the lights and follow glowing stars on the floor through an obstacle course. This may have to start out with one light on depending on how comfortable the children are with both lights out. I would add to this activity by playing music and having the children freeze when the music stops.
I enjoyed exploring many books to select the books I would use for this assignment. There are so many ways that you can use a single book to build on various areas of instruction.