What Do You Do With an Idea? is a very encouraging book! This book is about a young boy who has an idea and is afraid to share it. The boy is worried no one will like his idea, and he is scared it is a bad idea. The boy grows more and more confident with his idea, and he eventually realizes that ideas are always great and should be shared! The boys idea ends up changing the world. This book is so wonderful because it can inspire our perfect shy students to share with the class more, and it would help students know that we love hearing their thoughts and ideas. What Do You Do With an Idea? would be best as a read aloud to grades 2nd-5th.This book would ignite a wonderful class discussion about why it is important to share our ideas. The teacher could have the students write and illustrate a way they could make the world a better place, or write about the feelings the felt during and after the book.  

Lexile Level: AD340L

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is such a perfect book to include science in your ELA lesson! This book focuses on a hungry caterpillar that turns into a butterfly. This would be an awesome book to mix some science into your lesson and learn about caterpillars and butterflies. A teacher could use this book to look into these insects and possibly a sequencing lesson. For example, the class could go back and list what he ate on Monday, then on Tuesday, and so on. For the younger grades, they could practice sequencing with pictures of the food he ate. I believe this book would make a great read aloud with K-2nd grade.

Lexile Level: AD460L 

How to Catch a Leprechaun is a new book about a mischievous leprechaun! This book takes the reader down the road of mischief for the Leprechaun. The book would be so cute to do a read aloud with grades K-4th. There are so many activities and lessons that could go along with this book during the week of St. Patrick's Day. Since the book challenges children to make an invention to stop the Leprechaun, the students could be put into groups to make the invention.  Technology could be integrated into this lesson by having the older grades type out their invention, or they could write a narrate their own story about a leprechaun. This book could also be studied with sequencing. Overall, this is such a fun book! I recommend this book for all teachers.

Lexile Level: AD320L

Charlotte's Web is a fun chapter book for grades 3rd-4th. This book is perfect to begin discussing characters, themes, settings, and other literary elements for a chapter book. One way you could teach this lesson is by preparing it for a small group! Before reading, one way to have the students have a hands-on experience with this book is by having the vocabulary words written on a laminated index card for them to touch and review as we are going over the vocab in the story/that specific chapter. Another option is to pass out the index cards, review the vocabulary together, re-read the vocab words, and then instruct the students hold up the index card which matches the correct definition! After reading, the students could do a creative writing piece on what they think will happen next.

Lexile Level: 680L

This is an adorable book! It is a classical Dr. Seuss book that shows and encourages imagination and creativity! It can be used as a fun read aloud for 1st-4th grade! After reading this fun Dr. Seuss book, the students can get out a draw what they would have seen on Mulberry Street! The students could also write a paragraph or narrative story about what they would have seen on Mulberry Street! This book allows for a lot of creativity for both teachers and students!

(This would be a fun activity for Dr. Seuss Week!)

Lexile Level: Beginning Reader