When I think about May in the classroom, it brings along warm feelings of sunshine and the HOME STRETCH to Summer Vacation!
Here are some of my favorite read alouds to enjoy all month long, and some ways I incorporate them into different lessons.
I bow down to Gail Gibbons as the expert of all things nonfiction.
We utilize her books a lot for examining nonfiction text features. Quite often, the texts are lengthy and full of amazing information. This one is no exception! It's perfect for breaking up over the course of a few days.
Students always love examining the diagrams, charts, and detailed illustrations to learn more about monarch butterflies grow throughout their life cycle.
This beautiful story takes the reader on a journey through the Spring season. All the while, we're encouraged to observe how new life begins in the Spring. The illustrations are gorgeous, and perfect for tapping into the five senses to create mental images.
We're usually wrapping up our comprehensive poetry unit of study around May, and this story is great for writing poems using descriptive language. Acrostic Poems (Write a poem based on the letters in SPRING!) or Spring-based Color Poems (Think, "Yellow is a buzzing bee." or "Blue is the clear, cloudless sky.") are some of my favorites!
I like to revisit how to build a strong classroom community and cultivate a sense of belonging as the year begins to wind down.
If you're familiar with bucket filling, you'll love The Big Umbrella. Just like we can fill each other's buckets with kind words and thoughtful actions, we can use an infinitely big enough umbrella to shelter each other from the rain.
This story can lend itself to amazing discussions about the importance of kindness, empathy, inclusion, and community.
Warm and fuzzy feelings guaranteed.
One of my very favorite things to do is integrate math and literacy! We explore our unit on measurement in the Spring, and this book is a perfect companion.
The main character, a small green inchworm, is the perfect representation for just what an inch looks like in real life. He also knows just how long other things (a toucan's beak, a robin's tail, etc.) are, because he is one inch long!
This story is the perfect partner for introducing how to use different units and objects to measure the length of other objects. Your students will also love the Caldecott Award Winning illustrations, and following the inchworm's story as he uses measurement to problem solve!
This one is so fun.
We dive into opinion writing during the Spring, and this story serves as a perfect springboard.
Is it a duck? Is it a rabbit? The world may never know for sure. That being said, your students will develop some pretty strong opinions and back them up with reasoning based on the observations they make from the story's illustrations and setting. I also love the embedded message that there's no one "right" answer, and that it all depends on our diverse points of view.
Are you team duck or team rabbit?
In the spirit of Spring and new life, this story is a must-read.
Eric Carle takes us on the journey of a seed with dazzling illustrations, simple text, and the perfect child-friendly explanation of a flower's life cycle.
I love to use this book as a mentor text to refer back to as we label parts of a flower, think about 5W questions (Where should we plant seeds? What do seeds need to grow?), and plant seeds of our own!
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You can encourage your readers to enjoy books all month long with this FREE May Reading Log.
Happy reading!
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