PJ Storytime: Read Aloud

This week’s storytime was inspired by The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak. I have been waiting to read this book ever since it came out. It is exactly the high energy, silly book that I LOVE to read and I’d been talking about it a lot in the discussion groups for the CLEL Bell Picture Book Award (if you’re not familiar with this book award, check it out!)

I’m a bit of a theme junky, and this title does not lend itself to a traditional theme. It does, however, tie perfectly into the ECRR skill of Read, demonstrating how to not only have fun reading with your child, but models dialogic reading and how to ask questions and have a conversation while you read. So I brought in some other fun read aloud books that break the fourth wall, and Voila! A theme is born:

We read:

The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

This book was just as much fun as I had hoped it would be! The kids were cracking up and it was great modeling for pointing out words as you read. My favorite was this page:

I dragged my finger along the page, making sure to make every hysterical sound.

Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett and Kevin Cornell

This one seemed like more fun for the older kids, though it kept everyone engaged. Afterwards, a parent gave me a great idea that I will have to use next time. On the final page when there are zero monkeys to count, look around the room and discover the monkeys have been here all along! Let’s count them, and count all the kids. Genius!

That is Not a Good Idea! by Mo Willems

I was glad to end on a short book since many kids were getting antsy. They had fun reading along and shouting “That is NOT a good idea!”

Literacy Tips:

This storytime was all about having fun and engaging children when reading, so there was lots of opportunities to talk to the parents about how to make the most of time spent reading together.

All of these books also have bold words that stand out, so I modeled pointing out words on the page as we read the books and encouraged parents to do the same:

Point out the words as you read together with your child.
Young children may not yet realize that you are reading written words, and older children can recognize words and read along.

What We Sang:

• Put Your Hands Up High
• Ram Sam Sam (There was a huge spread in ages this week, but even the youngest had fun with the energy of the chant and tried taping and rolling their arms)
• Five Little Monkeys Swinging From the Tree (this actually got vetoed by the kids and we sang 5 Monkeys Jumping on the Bed)
• Jump Up, Turn Around by Jim Gill from Moving Rhymes for Modern Times

I also brought in my Song Cube. There are all over the internet right now, over here, and there, and here too. We are all storytime bandits 🙂 The kids figured out Twinkle Twinkle from the star image, no problem but needed some more clues when we rolled the head (can you guess the song?).

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