Twelve Hats For Lena

This book is a great way to introduce the months of the year. I used a straw hat from a craft store and glued holiday items onto it. As you can see in the photo, the children wore the hat as they retold the story. Since my classroom is so diverse, a fun activity for the children would be for them to create their own hat of their favorite holiday.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat

This book is a fun way to learn about things that are associated with the month of October. I covered a box with orange paper and glued a color copy of the front cover on the top of the box. I included props that I found around my classroom such as a wizard toy, a stuffed cat and an owl, bones, a ghost, and a picture of a goblin. I also included words on sentence strips from the objects so that after reading the story the children could match the item with the word. You can also play a memory game and see how many objects they can recall from the story read.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books

This is a great story to read in the beginning of the school year and also a good way to introduce rhyming words. I used a shoebox and covered it in paper. I attached a color copy of the front cover of the book to the top of the box and added the props inside. I found these items from just around the house. I included a pen, pencil case, ruler, chalk, folder, small backpack, and a musical bus from an old board game.

The Lady With the Alligator Purse

This is a classic book that has a sing song nature. I used an old green handbag and glued a stuffed alligator on the front. Inside the purse contains the small board book, a small toy bathtub and baby, a bar of soap, and all the characters. The characters are made from a website listed on the resources page. I colored, laminated, and glued them onto craft sticks. 

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow

This book by Lucille Colandro is a great way to experience the first snow of the season. I took a shoe box and covered it with wrapping paper and included a color copy of the front cover of the book. Inside the box I keep the different props as mentioned in the story. On the back cover of the book it includes all of the objects needed. 

There Was An Old Monkey Who Swallowed A Frog

This book has a sing song nature to it and is very engaging since it contains so many different animals. I simply took a shoe box and glued a color copy of the front cover of the book. I used different beanie babies of animals discussed in the story. After reading the story, the children can recall all of the animals by playing a memory game. The teacher can also add certain facts about each animal on index cards for the students to learn.

Fancy Nancy

Fancy Nancy's collection of books help build vocabulary, word recognition, and reading comprehension. I included a glittery pink suitcase which contains fancy words such as lepidopterist, overjoyed, gallery, zany, and improvised etc. These fancy words are written on sentence strips with their definition on the back. By adding this fun glittery suitcase, the students are much more motivated to enhance their writing skills as well as to build their vocabulary. If you cannot find a suitcase you can always use a cardboard box and let the children make it fancy themselves. Each student could create their own suitcase to hold their fancy words in.

The House on East 88th Street

As a young child I can still remember being read this book and it is still one of my favorites to use today. In order to engage the children when reading the story I gathered some props. I simply just found an old bathtub from one of my daughter's dolls and a small stuffed crocodile. Just by adding these two props, the students were much more motivated to pick the book up again to read on their own.