Awesome Read Alouds

Recently as we began to study Making Connections as a reading strategy I came across some super fun read-alouds that lend themselves to endless connections.

The first is Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown. I saw this at Barnes & Noble, browsed through it, and was immediately hooked. I knew that my kids would think it was hilarious! When I saw it in our school library I checked it out pronto. The whole premise is about a bear who wants a child for a pet. The kids loved the funny plot and were giggling the whole time.

Then we read Not Norman: A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett. The little boy wanted any pet except Norman. Norman didn't do anything like all of his friends cool pets. What a sweet, yet fun story about pets. The text was predictable and I found the kids reading along at the end of every page with the "Not Norman" part.

Last we read Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst. Oh my goodness, I'm in love with this one. Lulu is a spoiled, rotten brat. She absolutely wanted a brontosaurus as a pet. She even sings a song about it. As I read it aloud in a sing song voice the kids cringed at Lulu's antics and tantrums. They laughed at her crazy adventure in the woods and the way the author talked to the reader in the middle of the book. What a fun read! The kids couldn't wait for me to read a couple chapters each day to them!

As we read all 3 of these, we practiced making text-to-self and text-to-text connections. Most of the kids had connections to wanting their own pet or something their pet could do. They also made connections between the 3 books.

What are some of your favorite books for teaching connections?

I'm linking up to the Favorite Read Alouds Linky Party at Swimming Into Second. Go check it out!