Story time is going much better lately. We haven't had story time on the stepped area with the bean bags in a while, and I sometimes wish I had that rug back. It didn't take long for me to realize that I needed to make very careful choices about what books to read during story time. I turned to my SCASL tribe for advice on selections. Here are some of the titles they suggested for K-2 story time.

Jennifer Falvey, of Heathwood Hall, suggested books that were silly with lots of repetition for  Kindergarten through first grade. Here are some of her favorites. 

Warning, Do Now Open This Book by Adam Lehrhaupt
My Truck is Stuck by Kevin Lewis
Rattletrap Car by Phyllis Root
Pete the Cat Books - especially the ones by Eric Litwin
Mo Willems books - especially That is Not a Good Idea
Max and Ruby books by Rosemary Wells
Bubble Gum, Bubble Gum by Lisa Wheeler
Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesel ( I already have the voice for him in my head)
1 Zany Zoo by Lori Degman
The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
Where's My Teddy by Jez Alborough  

Falvey's all time favorite story time book is The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak. 

The book That is Not a Good Idea was a huge hit for story time. The students loved shouting "That is NOT a good idea!" at the right places. I purchased a copy of The Book With No Pictures and laughed out loud while I was reading it for the first time. I am saving this one. What a gem. It will be like a secret weapon. I will keep it at the ready, but I can't wait to read it. 

Karen Hoover, a retired school librarian, suggested The Little Old Lady Who was not Afraid of Anything by Linda  Williams. Since we already had this title in the library, and it is fall, I read this one right away. I gave the students simple items from our makerspace to use to make the clomp, wiggle and shake sounds in the book and assigned each table a specific sound. It worked really well. 

Carla Nash recommended Maple by Lori Nichols, Press Here and Mix It Up by Herve Tullet.  Tap the Magic Tree by Christie Matheson was recommended by several folks. I read Tap the Magic Tree for story time, the kids liked it.

Angela Durham recommended I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont, How I Became A Pirate  by Melinda Long, and Precious and the Boo Hag by Jean Moss and Patricia McKissack.  One of Janet Deavor's favorites is  We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen.

Lea Barrett added Robert Munsch: More Pies, MMM Cookies and Jump Frog Jump by Robert Kalan to my list of go to titles. 

Groovy Joe books by Eric Litwin were suggested by Darla Scruggs. Lee Grayson said that "Any book with action and movement works well." She also shared this link to a website that incorporates creative drama exercises http://www.childdrama.com/picturebook.html  I am going to give Groovy Joe and that website a try for sure. 

I started to read Stellaluna by Janell Cannon today for story time. These beloved classics keep calling to me. Stellaluna is a wonderful book, but it wasn't meant to be for my story time reading. It's probably better with a small group of students. Since Stellaluna wasn't working for me , I switched to I Yam Not a Donkey! by Cece Bell.  I absolutely love seeing the children's eyes light up the moment they get the humor of this book, and I must say I do a pretty good donkey voice. 

The only down side to this recent streak of awesome story times I have had lately, thanks to the helpful suggestions of my colleagues, is that now, I have to keep it up. It's so great when they actually applaud at the end of the book and I am such a sucker for it.  I don't know if we will ever be able to have story time on the steps with the bean bags like I pictured. For now, I am going to focus on finding more great books to get me through the rest of the year. 


Images from Titlewave