No childhood is complete without this super-fun book.  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is an adorable rhyming story about letters of the alphabet climbing a tree.  Intended for children in kindergarten and 1st grades, This book is great for when learning about the alphabet.  I would read this story aloud to assist in teaching letters of the alphabet and their sounds.

No childhood is complete without this super-fun book.  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is an adorable rhyming story about letters of the alphabet climbing a tree.  Intended for children in kindergarten and 1st grades, This book is great for when learning about the alphabet.  I would read this story aloud to assist in teaching letters of the alphabet and their sounds.

This book is so cute!  It follows a family of frogs living in Alabama.  Readers learn about all the family members living all over the state.  Not just a few, the book mentions over 360 Alabama cities, towns, and communities.  All Over Alabama is perfect for teaching 3rd through 5th graders social studies lessons specifically about their state.  i would give students a large state map to fill in throughout the story.  I would read a page or two each day, stopping so that students can fill in the places mentioned.  This book is a fun way to integrate reading and social studies.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is an absolute MUST for all children.  I have always loved this book!  Bright and beautiful illustrations animate the story of a caterpillar that eats his way right through the book on its way to becoming a butterfly.  This book is perfect for students in kindergarten up to 2nd grade.  It could be used as a stand-alone read aloud for the whole class, or to help introduce numbers and simple math.  I would have my students make and color their own caterpillars.  I would like to make these caterpillars into flip-books, with each segment of the body opening up to show each of the foods and amounts the caterpillar in the book ate (one apple, two pears, three plums, and so on).  The book and an activity like this one would be a great tool for teaching young children about numbers and counting.

"And soon something  ABSOLUTELY, BRILLIANTLY, CHEERFUL started to happen..."

This book is a work of art.  It is gorgeous from cover to cover.  The story starts in a world of only numbers.  Its orderly, there's no color, only black and white numbers.  Then the five heroes wanted something different, and began putting numbers together and changing them into letters.  This brings about color and flavor and fun unto the world, and the full-page illustrations express that beautifully.  I also love that after you open the book, you realize that most of the text and illustrations are arranged so that the book is held vertically or horizontally, changing back and forth randomly.  This book beautifully conveys the importance of letters and words and books and reading in making the world wonderful.  I also love the underlying theme that being different is good, and to "be happy!" This book is perfect for kindergarten and 1st grade classes, when students are beginning to learn letters and words and reading.  I would read this book aloud to my class, taking time to show the artwork.  I would make copies of the pages where the letters become present.  I would hand these pages out after the read aloud.  For a kindergarten class, I would have them use crayons to trace every occurance of specific letters, and for 1st graders, I would have them make as many words as possible from the letters on the pages.  This book could possibly be read aloud to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders to show deeper themes of being different and being happy.