Author: Judy Smith

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

The Book of Shadow Boxes, A Story of the ABC’s            Written and Illustrated by:  Laura L. Seeley

Ages:  Preschool through First Grade

 

 

What a book of surprises!  Each letter of the alphabet has a poem of its own with pictures displayed in the shadow box.  There are many additional items with the letter on each page that supports vocabulary development.  The vibrant illustrations and musical verses delight and reinforce the child’s letter recognition as well as letter sounds.  The author provides a guide to each shadow box at the end of the book.

 

Continue reading The Book of Shadow Boxes, A Story of the ABC’s

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime?

Illustrated by :  Nadine Bernard Westcott                                         Ages:  Toddlers through Kindergarten

 

 

Children need to hear the sounds of language.  Reading rhymes to children exposes them to sounds and reinforces phonemic awareness, a vital component for the reading process.  Peanut Butter and Jelly is a favorite play rhyme that children will want to hear and read over and over again.

Continue reading Peanut Butter and Jelly, A Play Rhyme

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar            By:  Eric Carle                       Age Range:  Pre-school through Kindergarten

Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a timeless classic that teaches children the days of the week, counting, and the life cycle of a butterfly.  It is also great for vocabulary development with new words such as “caterpillar” and “cocoon”.  What a surprise it is for children to see that the caterpillar has changed into a beautiful butterfly.  The book has repetitive text, so that children can share in the reading.  This delightful book has bright and colorful illustrations that children will enjoy.

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*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

By:  Amy Krouse Rosenthal                  Illustrated by:  Jane Dyer                       Ages:  Preschool through First Grade

All parents and grandparents want to teach their children and grandchildren “life lessons” such as cooperation, honesty, and respect.  Cookies, Bite-Size Life Lessons accomplishes this task in a very understandable way for young children.  It does this through the process of making and enjoying cookies.  This book is exceptional for vocabulary development and teaching values and social skills.

Continue reading Cookies, Bite-Size Life Lessons

 

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime.

Ages:  Toddlers through Kindergarten

Written by:  Danica McKellar                Illustrated by:  Alicia Padron

 

Goodnight, Numbers is one of the best counting books that we have seen.  It is a wonderful book about numbers and counting.  Each page displays the number and number word and provides many opportunities to count objects related to bedtime.  At the end of the book, the author, Danica McKellar, gives a list of math activities to use after you have read this delightful book.

Even though math is the focus of this book,  it also has rhyming words on each page, which is a very important literacy component.   It is so important to read rhyming books to children early and often.  We will list some literacy activities to incorporate with this book.

(You may recognize author and actress, Danica McKellar, from her work in a number of television rolls, including The Wonder Years and in many Hallmark Movies.)

Continue reading Goodnight, Numbers

 

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Ages:  Pre-school through Kindergarten

By:  Don and Audrey Wood         Illustrated by:  Don Wood

This delightfully illustrated book is one of our favorites.  The illustrations will keep the readers wondering what will happen to the big red strawberry.  Will the Big Hungry Bear end up with the tasty treat?  The little mouse in this story is faced with the dilemma of protecting the strawberry from the bear.  In the end, sharing wins out, but with whom does the mouse share the juicy red strawberry?  Using the pictures in books to help understand the text is a very important early literacy skill.  The pictures in this book are amazing.

 

Continue reading The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

 

*Read to the children in your life every day.  You are giving them a gift that will last a lifetime!

Ages:  Preschool through First Grade

 

 

This classic children’s book was written by Bill Martin, Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle over 50 years ago and is a perfect read-aloud for preschool children through first grade.  It is important that children become exposed to books with repetitive text at a young age.  The repetition of text allows the child to share the reading with you.  It also is an excellent book for reviewing color recognition. This is a book that should be read over and over again.

 

Continue reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

This blog is the culmination of a 50 year journey working in the public schools.  Here is my story which will shed a light on what led me to promoting the importance of reading to the children in our lives.  I was born into a hard working farm family with parents who had 8th grade educations and no opportunity to even attend high school.  The only reading materials in our home were the Farm Journal and the Bible.  I can never remember my mother or father sitting down with me to enjoy a good book and I rarely saw them reading.  Though my parents had limited educational backgrounds, they knew the importance of expanding opportunities for their children, so going to college was a requirement.  After changing schools and majors a couple of times, I finally landed on elementary education as a major.  Due to a shortage of teachers at the time, I was hired to teach second grade at my home school with only two years of college and a provisional certificate.  I had 33 second graders and not a clue.  It was like on the job training while attending college at night to finish my degree.  I survived through the support of other teachers and teacher manuals.  The turning point for me came when I took a course called “Children’s Literature” in college.  Our professor was a lover of children’s books and an expert on the relevancy of reading to children.  She read to us some of the most amazing books ever written for children.  As adults, we were mesmerized as she took us to places we had never been.  It was magic!  I finished my Bachelor’s degree and received a Masters in Reading.  Over the years I taught first and second grade, Title I Reading and Reading Recovery and served as an Elementary School Principal.  The importance of teachers, parents, grandparents, and caretakers reading to children became the theme of my career.  My friend Patty and I worked together for years in the school setting.  Patty has an amazing background in early literacy and I continue to learn from her.  We decided to develop information for parents and caregivers on the best books that all children need to hear and ideas for presenting these wonderful stories.  Literacy starts at birth and needs to be developed by exposing children to books early and every day.

Continue reading My Story