What are kids reading these days?

When I taught 3rd and 4th grade I was always trying to read the books my students were reading. This is an important aspect in getting students to read. Students will read based upon book recommendations! Student recs, teacher recs, librarian recs, and even parent recs are vital to exposing students to different genres of books. Elementary students are still figuring out who they are as a reader. This is why I highly recommend to my teachers Donalyn Miller’s 40 book challenge. She challenges students to read 40 books in all different genres during that current academic school year. Students will be dipping their feet in many different types a books. Eventually, they will gravitate towards a genre they enjoy most. But, in order for educators to foster students reading different types of books we need to have our noses in books too!

Colby Sharp is a 5th grade teacher and he sets the best example of introducing students to new books and passing them out like candy! Check out the video he posted about what his kids are reading now!

What are you recommending others to read?

La Princesa and the Pea

Fairytales are always a favorite with kids! I love that one of our Mockingbird books this year is about The Princess and the Pea. I was not as familiar with this fairytale which probably means a lot of students aren’t either. La Princesa and the Pea has a Spanish twist and has Spanish words trickled throughout it. Students can do ALL kinds of inferring and context clue hunts to find the meaning of the Spanish words. Thankfully a glossary was provided in the beginning pages of the book to help with definition and pronunciation. As a read aloud, pronunciation is important in this book. My two years of Spanish has helped me ONLY with pronunciation. But, that is about it. I remember NOTHING else! After reading this book to the students I add in a digital teaching tool by reminding our students about our digital library which has changed this year to Sora. We use Sora to read a classic version of The Princess and the Pea. Students were able to see how the stories are similar. The kids loved this book and if you get a chance to read it, you’ve got to check out la reina’s cat! So hilarious! I hope you enjoy it as much as us!