Teaching Tips: NEW BOOKS

Hello Everyone! 

I recently went to Ilkley for a day out with my friend Adeline. It was only meant to be cake, tea and a chat, however I soon started wandering into charity shops and I began to purchase books. I spent just under £10 on books that day here's what I bought. 

Where My Wellies Take Me by Claire and Michael Morpurgo

This was an amazing find! RRP was £17.99, but I got it for £1.00. This is such a beautifully presented book full of poems and pictures. It is designed like a scrapbook and I am so lucky to have found this hidden away in a charity shop. It's still in fab condition and looks brand new!   

I was definitely taken by the design inside the book. The drawings are beautiful and with the contents page there is a map to show the journey the girl in the story had taken. The poems are focused on outdoor things that she will have seen/heard/encountered. I love finding gems like this and when I saw it I simply could not leave it behind. I don't think it is suitable for early years simply because of the language used would be hard to understand but KS2 would benefit from this. I would still share some of these poems with a high Y1/Y2 class because they need to be exposed to language like this to fully appreciate poems to then be able to create their own. Not just that but the pictures and drawings are simply beautiful and I think children would love to see how beautiful this book is inside and out!

My Surprise Book of Seasons - Oxford

Yet another lucky find and a steal at 50p (RRP £6.99). A really good book to have if you're in Nursery, Reception and Year 1. It's really interactive and allows the reader to learn independently or with a partner. It's bright and colourful and just a good staple to have I think for Early Years classrooms.

Where Is Home, Little Pip? By Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman

£1.99 RRP £6.99
A good book for a winter topic. I would use this to help support learning about animals in cold places as well as maybe adopting a penguin? This would be really interesting for a class so that they could learn about something personal to their class. It's obviously important to ensure that the books in your book corner match the topic as well as having other general books to satisfy other interests. This would definitely be one to include and also has lovely illustrations that would engage children during story time.

Hungry Harry By Joanne Partis 

£1.49 RRP £6.99
I saw this in my Reception class when they had tadpoles. The children really liked this book and enjoyed reading it at home time. It was also another topic book that fit into our spring theme. When I saw this in the charity shop I couldn't leave it behind. It's bright, colourful illustrations allow children to still be engaged even if they aren't able to read yet. These provoke such lovely conversations which are just as important and allow children to further develop their love of books.

- These next 3 books I didn't find in a charity shop. They are brand new but were discounted! I got all 3 for £5.00 from 'Just Books'. I could've bought more but I don't need them right now. -

I Am An Artist by Marta Altès

This is probably my favourite book I have bought. It's funny and explains the typical parent child relationship where they constantly run around trying to stop children drawing everywhere! Really this little boy just wants to show his mum how he sees art and makes his own (very abstract art). It's a wonderfully clever book and one that I am excited to use with my own class to show them that not everyone sees art in the same way. Some may not even realise that something is art, or that art can be made through many different mediums. I think this is also something that many children can relate to seeing household objects they see everyday turned into works of art by one little boy. 

Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School By Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds

When I was in Reception I noticed how interested boys were in dinosaurs and that they didn't have any books they could read. When I saw this book I wanted to buy it because I loved the inner pages that phonetically sounded out the names of the dinosaurs, which would be so helpful to those children that wanted to know how to say the names of the dinosaurs. They can do this independently rather than a worried teacher trying to ensure they'd said the name correctly. I'll be honest it's hard to pronounce some of them so books like this are a god send! I chose the school story as I thought it would be lovely to have as a first book for the start of the year for a new class. If there was a new person understanding how they may be feeling and what we could do as a class to make them feel reassured and included. I've seen this book used in my placement school and I think it would be one my future classes will enjoy.

A Squash and a Squeeze By Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

I love Julia Donaldson I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of her books. I love the rhymes and rhythm in her books and children really enjoy it too. There is humour in the book which I hope children would pick up on as well as having lovely illustrations to allow children to understand what is happening in the story. It also allows for discussion at the end of the book about the message the wise old man was trying to teach the woman. Books like this are versatile and also allow children to be exposed to another author in the book corner.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it! Please let me know what you think and click on the links below to get in contact with me further.

"The rest is still unwritten"

Megan 

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