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My Favorite/Must Have Picture Books

The Teacher Wife
Lindsey is hosting a Must Have Picture Books linky over at her blog, The Teacher Wife.  I love picture books and I love Ms. Lindsey, so here I am linking up with my top five 🙂
1. First, I agree with Lindsey, Enemy Pie is an awesome book.  I love the message and the twist.  You have to read this to your students.  Mine love it.
 Enemy Pie 
2.  The Little Green Goose –  Mr. Goose longs to be a parent, but he does not have a Mrs. Goose, so he adopts an egg.  This egg hatches into a little dinosaur.  The book shows that love is not blood, love is a family and that families come in all different combinations.   This is also a great book to use for a visualizing activity.  While reading, hide the pictures.  Have your students draw what they think hatches out of the egg. 
3.  Help Me, Mr. Mutt! –  In this letter writing book, Mr. Mutt is an advice columnist for dogs.  The problems and Mr. Mutt’s solutions are hysterical.  A cantankerous cat adds her two cents, too.   This book is a perfect example of letter writing and a great example of “voice.”  Click here to see the follow up activities I do with this book.  
4.  Wemberly Worried –  I was Wemberly as a child!  I worried about everything.  I would get in trouble at sleepovers because before going to bed, I would have to go over our escape plans, for let’s say there was a fire or an intruder.  Thus freaking out my friends.  So, if you cannot guess already, I use this book for “Text to Self” connections and “Prediction.”

5.  Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus –  Sarah Cooley introduced me to this adorable book in her Pigeon Perfect posts.  My students were hooked, as was I.  Pigeon has the personality of a demanding and persistent six year old – my first graders instantly related to him! I bought every pigeon book out there!  I also bought the DVD’s and every other book I could find by Mo Willems.  Click here to see my students’ Pigeon Perfect work.  They wrote persuasive letters to the bus driver pretending to be pigeon.  My favorite was a little girl who wrote: “I know all the traffic laws: green means go, red means stop, and yellow means go faster.”  

Um…I could really go on and on!  Please, check out Clever School Teacher for books listed by writing trait or click the covers above to hop over to Amazon.com.  

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Meredith F.

    July 20, 2012 at 1:48 am

    Enemy Pie is my favorite too! Great minds think alike! And I love Mo Willems. My kids made their own "Don't let the Pigeon" stories… everything from don't let the pigeon eat candy or play video games to don't let the pigeon roll sushi or make wontons! So great!

    fromafirstyearteacher.blogspot.com

  2. Lisa R.

    July 20, 2012 at 1:50 am

    Wemberly Worried is a great book!! I love anything by Kevin Henkes!! Also anything by Mo Willems is great too. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is always a hit with my students. Great book choices!! I don't think I've read Enemy Pie yet. I'm going to have to add that to my new list of books to buy! 🙂
    Lisa
    Learning Is Something to Treasure

  3. S. Simpson

    July 20, 2012 at 1:56 am

    I love finding out about new books, I'm going to have to check out the first three on your list. Thanks so much for linking up the follow up activities that you do with your books . . . I would love to see one for Wemberly Worried ~ hint, hint : )
    ✰ Stacy

    Simpson Superstars

  4. Lindsey (The Teacher Wife)

    July 20, 2012 at 2:29 am

    Thanks for linking up, Erica! You are sure to add a lot more links!! 🙂

  5. Katie

    July 20, 2012 at 3:10 am

    I need to read Wemberly Worried! I have heard SO many good things about this book.

    Katie
    Dirty Hands and Lesson Plans

  6. Traci

    July 20, 2012 at 4:33 am

    Help Me Mr. Mutt looks adorable. I LOVE Kevin Henkes and cannot resist Don't Let the Penguin Drive the Bus!
    Great books. I've got to go grab The Little Green Goose…how cute is that!!!???!!!
    ❤Dragonflies in First ❤

  7. Kelley Dolling

    July 20, 2012 at 5:52 am

    Going to have to check out Enemy Pie . . . haven't seen this one before and there's gotta be a sliver of space left in one of my bookshelves 🙂 Loved getting to read up on your faves!

    Kelley Dolling
    Teacher Idea Factory

  8. Courtney Long

    July 20, 2012 at 6:54 pm

    I will have to check out "Enemy Pie" and add it to my list! 🙂

    Make sure to stop by and enter my giveaway
    -Courtney
    2ndgradesnapshots.blogspot.com

  9. Deedee Wills

    July 20, 2012 at 8:30 pm

    I love, love, love Enemy Pie!

    Mrs. Wills Kindergarten

  10. 4321Teach

    July 21, 2012 at 9:18 pm

    I love "Help Me Mr. Mutt." I like to read the list of "things in the book" and see if the kids can find them. So cute!
    Thanks for sharing your list!

    EmilyK

  11. susanlulu

    October 29, 2012 at 9:07 pm

    Did you know Enemy Pie is on http://www.storylineonline.net?
    susanlulu@yahoo.com

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