Yesterday a new student wandered into our classroom with his parent and younger siblings; locker drop off was happening in preparation for the first day of school. As I looked up something for him, I heard them excitedly talk about the books in our room. “Here’s that one that you wanted to read…Oh, do you remember this series….” And then they saw the picture books. After all, they are hard to miss. Right away the comments came, “Oh, I loved this one…” “Have you seen this one, that looks fun…” And so forth and I smiled ever so wide, because picture books once again have proven to be a way to connect in our classroom.
But how do you pick the right ones for your classroom? How do you know which ones to get? I make lists, as do many others, but how do I even know which to put on the list? I thought a few helpful tips may be in order.
I am connected. I am a proud member of the Nerdy Book Club and through Twitter I am connected to many picture book loving people; teachers, librarians, parents, and all of the other amazing people out there. I follow hashtags like #Titletalk, #pb10for10 and #nerdybookclub to stay in the know. And I tweet out asking for recommendations all of the time.
Read more.
cross-posted at pernillesripp.com.
Pernille Ripp is the creator of Global Read Aloud Project, co-founder of EdCamp MadWI and the author of Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners and Passionate Learners – Giving Our Classrooms Back to OurStudents, She teaches seventh grade in Verona, Wisconsin, and blogs at http://pernillesripp.com. Follow her on Twitter @PernilleRipp.
