Must Read Monday (on a Tuesday): Beginning of the Year Books

I know it's Tuesday, but it's the very last Must Read Monday linky party of the summer!! I HAD to link up!! Yesterday was my first official day back to work since the accident in January, so when I finally got home I was exhausted and in pain. I took my happy self right to bed at 8:00!!

Today I am linking up with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection for their Must Read Monday link up! Today is the last one of the summer and I couldn't miss it!!

Each week we were given a topic and asked to share our favorite books that went with that topic. This week, this very last week, we are sharing our favorite Beginning of the Year/Back to School books. Here are four of my very favorites!!

Adventure Annie Goes to Kindergarten by Tony Buzzeo is a really great book to use during the beginning of the year. Adventure Annie is a very energetic, very independent young lady. She insists on having her way, even when what she's doing goes against the rules. At first, Annie has a hard time following the kindergarten rules. However, at the end of the story Annie becomes quite the hero and earns the trust of her teacher!

DJ Steinberg's Kindergarten, Here I Come! is another favorite to read during the beginning of the year. This book begins with the first-day jitters every kindergarten has and travels through the kindergarten year. Many different kindergarten milestones are discussed, including the 100th day and the last day of school. It's a great book to help kindergarteners understand what to expect from their year in kindergarten.

Kindergarten Rocks! by Katie Davis is a good book to help address the fears kindergarteners have during the beginning of the year. Before school even begins, Dexter is a kindergarten expert. His older sister told him all about it. 

Dexter isn't scared to start school, but his stuffed dog Rufus is TERRIFIED of starting kindergarten. Dexter-I mean Rufus-is very scared of what kindergarten will bring, but he soon learns that kindergarten actually rocks!

One of my all time favorites would have to be First Day Jitters by Julie Dannenberg. I love this story because there is such a twist at the ending, the kindergarteners are always amazed at the ending. Sarah Jane Hartwell is starting a new year at a new school and doesn't know anyone there or anything about the school. She just knows it's going to be awful, and she doesn't want to go at all. With much prodding and prompting from Mr. Hartwell, Sarah Jane eventually pulls herself together and goes to school. Once there she is befriended by Mrs. Burton, who is a huge help with Sarah Jane's transition to the new school. There is such a twist at the ending that the kinders always get such a huge kick out of it!!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my favorite beginning of the year books! I have had such an amazingly wonderful time with this link up, I am really sad to see it end!! I hope it comes back next summer, because I just love to talk about books! If you want to read about more beginning of the year books, make sure to hop on over and see who else has linked up!

Must Read Monday: Modern Fairy Tale Books

Happy Monday!! Many of you have your first week of kiddos and I wish you well this week! I have a few weeks left before the kiddos return!

Why yes Ryan, I would definitely like your help setting up my classroom this week!! Got the best email ever, the one that says we're allowed to get into our classrooms to start setting things up! I'm not yet sure how I'm going to manage my classroom set up, since I still have a broken ankle and can't lift things or move things or climb up on things.... I'm sure it will all work out the way it needs too, so I'm trying not to freak out too much.....

Anyway, since it's still a Monday in the summer time my favorite link up of all time is happening. My sweet friends from Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection are hosting Must Read Monday!

This incredibly wonderful linky party is all about us getting to share our favorite children's literature. Each week we have a topic to talk about, and we get to discuss our favorite books that address that topic. 

This week it's all about Modern Fairy Tales. How fun!! 

Each year I seem to have a large group of students who are obsessed with ninjas and all things martial arts. I was lucky enough to find some awesome fairy tales to feed their ninja obsessions!

Corey Rosen Schwartz is definitely one of the go-to authors for a modern spin on classic fairy tales. In The Three Ninja Pigs, two pig brothers are sick and tired of hearing about this Big Bad Wolf who is going to come and blow all their houses down. The first little pig learns akido and the second little pig learns jujitsu, and they feel they are ready to face the wolf. However, when the Wolf actually shows up the brothers realize they may not be quite ready after all. Luckily for them, their sister has been working on her moves. Will the three ninja pigs be able to save the village from the Big Bad Wolf??

Another awesome gem from Ms. Schwartz is Ninja Red Riding Hood. Wolf just can't seem to catch a break, ever since those troublesome pigs began teaching everyone around their karate moves! He hasn't been able to huff up a decent meal in weeks. Unwilling to give up, Wolf visits a local dojo to improve his skills. He decides that a little girl and her frail old granny will be the perfect targets. Little does he know he is in for quite a surprise!!

Sticking with my ninja theme, The Boy Who Cried Ninja by Alex Latimer is based off of one of my all-time favorite fairy tales. I can remember my parents using the tale 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf' to teach me many a lesson as I was growing up, and it's so fun to use these more modern version with my kinders!

Tim is witness to some incredibly strange and unusual things that happen around his house. He tries to tell his parents about what he sees, but they never believe him. Not only do they never believe him, but every time he tries to tell them about what he sees they punish him by giving him chores!! Not a fan of chores, Tim devises a pretty clever scheme to expose the truth to his parents. Will it work, or will he forever be sweeping and mowing and raking??

Another modern fairy tale by Corey Rosen Schwartz is Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears.

Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear definitely know how to rock. Papa is the drummer, Mama is on bass, and Baby tickles the ivories. However, they are missing a lead singer. In their pursuit to find the singer who fits them just right, they audition the Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and everyone else who lives in their little corner of the world. However, none of them seemed to fit. They were about to give up their search when they found a little girl sleeping in Baby Bear's bed....

One of my personal favorites appeals to most of the boys in my class each year! The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist is such an adorable spin on an old favorite!

"Little fish, little fish, let me come in!"

"Not by the skin of my finny, fin, fin!"

"Then I'll munch, and I'll crunch, and I'll smash your house in!"

When Mama fish tells her three little fish that it's time for them to move out and make their own homes, each little fish chooses a different building material. Jim builds his house out of seaweed, Tim makes his home out of sand, and Kim sets up house in an old sunken ship. Who do you think was successful in keeping out the Big Bad Shark?

I hope you really enjoyed reading about my Modern Fairy Tale book choices! I had a great time sharing them with you! Make sure to swing back over to Must Read Monday and see who else has linked up. If you want to share your favorite books you can link up too!

Here are my prior Must Read Monday Posts, if you want to learn about more of my favorite books!!

Must Read Monday Friendship Books

Must Read Monday Math Books

Must Read Monday Cooperation Books

Must Read Monday Compassion Books

Must Read Monday Rhyming Books

Must Read Monday Just For Fun Books

Must Read Monday Holiday Books

Also, it's not too late to link up for Spotlight Saturday! It's a Teacher's Show and Tell to share our favorite products, activities, resources, ideas, tips, lesson, tricks, and anything else that makes our classroom lives easier and more awesome!

Must Read Monday: Holiday Books

Happy Monday everyone! I know many of you have headed back to school or today is your first official day back, and I wish you an incredible start to the new school year! I have a few more weeks of summer left, and I hope to make the most of it!

It's Monday, and that means I am linking up with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection for my favorite linky, Must Read Monday. This link up is almost over, WAAAHHHH!!!! I'm really going to miss this link up!!

In case you didn't know, Must Read Monday is a weekly link up where we get to share our favorite children's literature books based on a given topic.

This week's topic is Holiday Books! One of the things I love most about children't literature is that there is a book for every situation and every holiday/special occasion out there! I have chosen a book from several of the main holidays we celebrate in kindergarten!

Let's start in January, with the holiday of New Year's. This story, Squirrel's New Year's Resolution, is a great story to try and help little minds grasp the concept of a resolution.

Squirrel knows that he needs to make a New Year's Resolution, but the trouble is he doesn't really know what a resolution is. He wanders through his forest home, coming upon animal friends who have already made their resolutions, witch they share with Squirrel.

You are really going to like the ending, where you find out what Squirrel's resolution is!

This is a great lead-in to a lesson on having students make their own New Year's Resolutions.

Moving on to February, let's take a look at a favorite Valentine's book, Love, Splat. Most kindergarten teachers and their students are familiar with Splat and have a fond relationship with him!

Our lovable black cat finds himself making a special Valentine's card for someone very special to him, Kitten. however, Spike also likes Kitten and doesn't want to share. This story shows the lengths Splat is willing to go to make Kitten his Valentine.

This story is a great lead-in for a Valentine writing craftivity, or as a discussion about being able to have more than one best friend.

Next comes March and St. Patrick's Day, my very favorite holiday!

This is a book we read every single year in March. That's What Leprechauns Do is a story that chronicles the journey of some leprechauns racing to get to the end of the rainbow before anyone else. along they way they stop and complete some tricks on the people who live around them. For instance, they convince a hen to lay on a tennis ball as if it were an egg. This behavior continues all the way to the end of the rainbow.

This is one of my very favorite books, and we always read this book before that sneaky leprechaun comes to our classroom and does all sorts of naughty things. Plus, this is a great book to practice cause and effect. You can talk about what mischief the leprechauns make on their journey and how that effects those around them. It's also a good one for retell!

After March comes April, and the holiday of Easter. The Easter Bunny's Assistant is a hilarious story about the Easter Bunny and his new assistant.

The Easter Bunny's assistant is incredibly excited that it is Easter and all he wants to do is help. However, when the assistant gets too excited, he makes quite a big stink! It's fun to watch the two characters interact.

This story uses bright, bold illustrations and simple text. It also uses many speech bubbles, which is a great way to introduce the concept to your kiddos!

Also in the month of April usually falls Earth Day. Earth Day is a big deal at our school, and we usually celebrate it as an entire school, planting flowers and cleaning up trash.

This is a great story to introduce the concept and importance of Earth Day. Little Critter takes us through Earth Day and how he helps take care of the Earth. Students can learn the importance of cleaning up trash, recycling, and working together to make the Earth a better place.

This book is great to explain Earth Day to your kiddos, and on each page there is something important to stop and discuss.

In October we get to celebrate the holiday of Halloween. The 13 Nights of Halloween is a spoof off of The 12 Days of Christmas.

This counting story takes us through a Halloween night and introduces us to all sorts of Halloween creatures.

This is a fun book to help practice counting as well as to compare to The 12 Days of Christmas. There are many parts to this story that crack me up every year!!

This might be my favorite holiday book of all time. Perfect for Thanksgiving, Turkey Trouble tells the tale of a turkey who is desperate to keep himself off of the dinner menu.

Turkey creates all sorts of disguises to try and trick the farmer into not eating him for Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey almost runs out of time before he finds the perfect disguise!

We read this story right before we introduce a take-home project where they must find a way to disguise a turkey so the farmer doesn't eat him for dinner!! I love to see how creative they get with disguising their turkeys.

Finally, I'm going to share a Christmas favorite with you all! Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight? is the hilarious tale of Santa trying out different animals pulling his sleigh.

Each animal has a certain characteristic or two that make them not quite suitable for pulling Santa's sleigh, and the illustrations really take the cake in helping to tell the story. The details in the illustrations are incredible, and every time I read this book I notice something new.

This is a great book to use with predicting which animals Santa will try out, and there is some great verb practice in here as we describe how each animal moves when it pulls the sled. Kiddos are going to LOVE this book, especially since they will get a peek at Santa's underwear, and what kindergartener doesn't crack up at the mere mention of underwear??

I thank you for reading through all of my choices, I know there were a lot this week! I hope you were able to learn about a new book or two! Make sure to go back to the link up and see what other holiday books made the cut!

Don't forget that IT'S NOT TOO LATE to link up for Spotlight Saturday! This link up is a Teacher's Show and Tell to share our favorite products, activities, resources, tips, tricks, and ideas with each other. It's all about #2getherwearebetter and gives you a chance to shout out a favorite seller!

Must Read Monday: Just For Fun Books

Today is Monday, and I know that many of you are back for your first day today! I hope you are able to get some work done in your classroom while you're attending your PD sessions and staff meetings!

I have a few more weeks left before I have to head back. Don't hate, there are teachers that go back even later than I do!! :-)

I am linking up today with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection for their incredibly awesome Must Read Monday linky party!!

This incredibly awesome weekly link up allows us to share our favorite books based on a given topic! At the end of this post you can find links to my other Must Read Monday posts to check out more of my favorites!
This week the topic is Just For Fun Books!!! I had a lot of tun going through the inventory I am working on of my class library. Whenever I came to a title that made me smile I added to my list! Then, of course, I had to narrow that rather extensive list down some for this post!! There's no such thing as having too many books, right?? :-) These are some of my favorite books that are guaranteed to make my kinders laugh!!

Aliens Love Underpants is ALWAYS a huge hit in my classroom. I can't even read the title or show the cover without causing a serious case of giggles in my kinders!
This silly story starts off with aliens on their home planet expressing their love for underpants. They love all shapes, sizes, colors, and styles. When the aliens invade Earth, they aren't here for world domination! Oh no, they just want our underwear!! The aliens love underpants so much that they happily steal several pairs and wear them on their hands, heads, feet, and everywhere else they can fit them! This story is so much fun, right up until the aliens head back to their home!
This story can lead to fun writing activities, as well as patterns, colors, and sorting.

Another book that starts the giggles off just by reading the title is Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed by Mo Willems. This book is a huge hit in my classroom, and let's be honest. Is there a Mo Willems book that isn't awesome???
In this story Wilbur the Naked Mole Rat is unlike any member of his colony. He actually WANTS to wear clothes! He LOVES clothes!! Like, walk-in-closets full of clothes loves them!! He has clothes for every occasion, from going to the beach to going skiing to visiting the moon! However, wearing clothes is just not okay in Wilbur's family. Everyone in his family and his colony attempt to talk some sense into Wilbur, he was supposed to be naked. After all, it was in their name! No matter what anyone said, Wilbur couldn't stop wearing clothes. Things get interested when Grandpah, the oldest, wisest, and most naked Naked Mole Rat ever, finds out Wilbur's secret!
This book can lead to very interesting conversations about family and how it feels not to fit in. Wilbur was different than everyone in his family and they all wanted him to change, but Wilbur sticks to his guns. This can also lead to a discussion about how important it is to be yourself, not who other people want you to be.

Waking Dragons is one of my all-time favorite books. With my obsession being what it is, I compulsively snatch up every book with the word 'dragon' in the title. This one I was even more excited about because I got it from Scholastic accompanied by the CD. That means I get to put it out at my Listening Center and my kinders can enjoy listening to it!
In this story, a young knight is responsible for waking up two young dragons and helping them get ready for school. Most of the humor comes from the incredible size difference between the knight and his young charges. The knight is smaller than each dragon's head, so he has to get creative when helping them to get ready for school. From catapulting waffles into their mouths to using a fire extinguisher to cover their toothbrush with tooth paste, the laughter continues as the pages turn. 
This is a great book to talk about the importance of schedules and routines, and can lead into a discussion or activity about how your kiddos get ready for school each morning. 

The Monster Who Lost His Mean is such a cute story about a young monster who doesn't know where he fits in!
In his world, Monsters were supposed to be Mean. It was your one-of-a-kind-M, and without it you're just an Onster. But this little monster doesn't want to be mean and scary. He wants to help others, cook fun meals, water flowers, and do all sorts of things real Monsters aren't supposed to do. The other Monsters make fun of him so much that he is determined to find his M and be a real monster. His attempts are hilarious, and the lesson he learns about being yourself comes from a very unlikely source!
This book is great for discussions about staying true to who you are and not allowing the thoughts, actions, and opinions of others to influence your own actions. Great lesson in such a funny story!!

Little Pea is such a sweet story! I love getting the chance to read it to my kinders each year!
There is a strict rule in Little Pea's family. If you don't eat all your candy and sweets for dinner, than you are not allowed to have your dessert of vegetables. All of the Peas eat cakes, cookies, candies, and every other sort of sweet and yummy dessert items. Little Pea, though, isn't like all of the other Peas. He isn't crazy about all that sugar. In fact, he'd rather eat fruits and vegetables all day long instead. It is quite the ordeal to get Little Pea to eat his sweets. There is much complaining, arguing, and whining. Little Pea takes the teeniest bites possible from his cookies and cakes and tries not to gag as his parents make him eat more. Will Little Pea ever get to eat the yummy vegetables and fruits that he craves??
This story is so funny! It's such a great twist on kiddos who have a hard time eating their vegetables! Many kids can relate to how Pea feels at dinner when he is given something he doesn't like. It's a great way to start talking about food preferences and the importance of healthy eating!

I could go on and on and on talking about my favorite Just for Fun books!! I hope you've been able to learn about a new book! Here are the links to my previous Must Read Monday posts.
Must Read Monday Friendship Books
Must Read Monday Math Books
Must Read Monday Cooperation Books
Must Read Monday Compassion Books
Must Read Monday Rhyming Books

 I can't wait to read everyone else's book choices, and you can too by clicking on the image below to head back to the link up!

It's not too late to link up with me for Spotlight Saturday! This is a Teacher's Show and Tell of our favorite products, activities, tips, tricks, resources, ideas, or anything else about classroom life that you want to share!

Must Read Monday: Rhyming Books

Monday!! While it is my least favorite day of the week, it does mean I get to link up for my most favorite linky party Must Read Monday!! I'm so grateful to The Kindergarten Connection and Kindergarten Planet for hosting such an incredibly fun link up each week!!

Each week we are given a different topic to find books for. We get to showcase some of our favorite children's literature, and boy am I passionate about children'd literature!! I love books and I love talking about them!!

This week is all about Rhyming Books!! Talk about a huge selection to choose from!! One of the things I like the most about rhyming books, besides the fact that they teach such an important phonics skill, is that most rhyming books have a moral or a lesson in them and they are pretty easy to sequence too. There are so many more books to choose from than just Dr. Seuss, although his books are an amazing tool to teach about rhyming as well as nonsense words.

Here are some of my most favorite rhyming books!!

Dinosaur Roar by Henrietta Stickland is such an incredibly cute story! Not only does it follow a predictable rhyme, but it helps teach some other important concepts too! With this book you can talk about antonyms and what they are, like weak/strong and above/below. Also, once the dinosaurs sit down to lunch, you could use that to lead a discussion on cafeteria behavior. 

Not only does this book rhyme but helps you teach some great lessons too!! And what kindergartener doesn't LOVE all things dinosaur??

Pugs in a Bug by Carolyn Crimi is a little gem of a book that ended up in my library the year my special education teaching partner was obsessed with all things pug. I bought one for each of us, and have enjoyed reading this with my kinders each year!

Not only is this a super cute rhyming book, but it is also a great counting story as well. A groovy pug picks up his six friends in his new Bug and they travel all over, from city to park to beach. Along the way there are several repetitive predictable rhyming texts where students can chant in while reading, and you can also do all sorts of counting. From poodles in a convertible to greyhounds on a bus, there are pups for counting all throughout the story! My kinders love reading this is a funny voice!!

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker is a HUGE hit with the boys in my room! This book begins as the sun sets behind a huge construction site. One by one each of the heavy machinery trucks finishes up their work and begins to get ready for a hard earned rest. Crane Truck, Cement Mixer, Dump Truck, Bulldozer, and Excavator all spend time saying goodnight to their friends and prepare for another hard day of work. I love the illustrations in this book, and the kinders love finding the neat details that show what is going on and the rhyming text keeps them engaged! A great choice for your classroom library!!

Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreas is such a sweet story. Gerald the giraffe wants nothing more in life than to dance. However, his thin legs and knobby knees make it hard to show off all his cool moves. Some of the animals in the jungle are not very nice to Gerald, and many say unkind words and are not encouraging. Gerald gets down on himself and begins to believe that he was never meant to dance. However, he gets some encouraging words from an unlikely friend and Gerald lets his dance moves take over! He dances throughout the jungle, surprising those who told him he couldn't.

Not only does this book have rhyming text, but it helps to create a discussion on how to use our words to help others and not hurt them. It is also a great discussion on the importance of being yourself, no matter what!!

llama llama mad at mama by Anna Dewdney might be my favorite book of hers. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE all of her llama llama books and all of them follow a rhyming pattern. Plus, all of them teach a lesson or provoke a discussion. In this book, llama llama and his mama have to go to the grocery store. However, llama is NOT happy about the excursion! He keeps trying to drop clues to his mama about how unhappy he is, but she is too busy shopping. Finally he throws a full-blown temper tantrum and Mama definitely notices! She realizes that she needs to make grocery shopping fun for both of them, and when llama calms down he learns that shopping with Mama isn't the worst way to spend his day!

Another book that leads to great discussions, like how we should react when our feelings get all built up inside of us. We talk about whether or not it's okay to throw a tantrum and how that works out. Many of my kinders will talk about how their parent would react in that situation, and we talk about what llama should have done. If this book ins't in your collection, you should really think about adding it!!

I'm so glad you tuned in for my rhyming book choices! I have such a great time talking about them, and I hope you learn about at least one new book each time!! Don't forget to swing back over to the Must Read Monday link up and see who else is sharing their favorite rhyming books!

If you liked reading about my Rhyming Book choices, check out my other Must Read Monday choices!!

Must Read Monday Friendship Books

Must Read Monday Math Books

Must Read Monday Cooperation Books

Must Read Monday Compassion Books

You can also still link up for Spotlight Saturday! It's a Teacher's Show and Tell link up, where you can showcase your favorite activities, products, tips, tricks, resources, ideas, and whatever else is awesome in your classroom that you want to share with us! It is so much fun learning each week about so many different amazing resources out there!! This week I Spotlighted Tweets from Kindergarten, come check it out!!

Must Read Monday: Compassion Books

I LOVE this linky!! Monday means I get to link up with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection for Must Read Monday!!

I know I've mentioned this before, but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this link up!! I get to talk about one of my all time favorite topics, literature! Even more awesome, I get to learn all about some incredible books from other educators! I'm so excited for this link up each week!! Each week we are given a topic of books and asked to share our favorites! (At the bottom of this post I've included links to my other Must Read Mondays so you can add some awesome books to your Wish List!) This week's topic is an incredibly important one for everyone, especially for young children.

Such a simplified definition for such an incredibly important concept! Compassion is a very important social emotional skill that our kiddos need to develop, and many of them come to us with little to no social emotional skills. However, children are naturally kind and supportive of each other so compassion is definitely something we can teach them. Many of them exhibit signs of compassion without even realizing it, just asking someone if they're okay or helping someone up when they fall. Talking about how to be kind and compassionate to each other are some of my favorite classroom discussions, and there are so many wonderful books to help with this topic. I have chosen four of my favorites to share with you, and I hope I'm able to introduce you to a new book or two!!

First up is Hey, Little Ant by Phillip M. Hoose. This book starts off with a young boy not being exactly nice to a colony of ants. Suddenly the boy decides he's going to squish one of the ants, and to his great surprise the ant begins to talk to him. The little ant asks the giant boy how he would feel to be so small that others tried to squish him. A conversation between the two ensues, and the reader is left with the unanswered question of 'to squish or not to squish'.

This is a GREAT book for student discussion, and since the book has quite the cliff-hanger ending it can also lead to some really great writing prompts. It is interesting to hear the students argue for both sides, the boy and the ant. If this book isn't part of your library, you should really think about adding it!

A Sick Day for Amos McGee b Phillip Stead is such a wonderful story!! Amos McGee is a HUGE fan of the zoo and the animals who live there. He visits them every single day, and interacts differently with each one. Running races, keeping them company, even reading them bedtime stories. Not a day goes by that Amos doesn't visit the zoo and do something kind for his animal friends. However, one day Amos becomes too sick to visit the zoo. When the worried animals find out why, they decide it is time to return the kindness Amos has shown them. The animals decide to take care of their sick friend, and the kiddos get quite a kick out of everything they do. 

This is another great book for student discussions, including talking about how we can help other people when they're feeling down. Love this book!!!

Another classic favorite of mine is A Chair for My Mother by Vera Williams. In this sweet story, a young girl lives with her mother and grandmother. The girl's mother is a waitress at the local diner, always on her feet and working late. Tragically, the family's home is destroyed in a fire. Luckily they are able to find an apartment to live in, and all of their friends and neighbors come together to give the family the furnishings they lost in the fire. The young girl wants to do something nice for her family, so they decide to save up all their coins in a large glass jar so that they can buy a big, comfy chair. A chair where her mother can put her feet up and relax after a long day, and a chair where they can cuddle and read a story or watch a movie. Everyone on the family finds a way to contribute coins to the jar, until they fill it to the brim.

This is such a great story about how a community comes together to help a family in need, and how the family works together to get something they can all enjoy together. Another wonderful book to start some really great discussions with your kiddos!!

One of my favorite books of all time, Smoky Night by Eve Bunting, is a great way to talk about how communities can come together after a tragedy. The illustrations by David Diaz are really incredible, made from so many different mediums like textured paper and corrugated cardboard. This story addresses the Los Angeles riots through the eyes of a child living in the barrio. The young boy and his family must flee their apartment in the middle of the night as the rioting gets closer and closer. Many of the neighbors in the apartment building had spent so much time avoiding each other, but now that fires and looting sweep through their neighborhood they must come together to help each other and find their missing pets. This story is remarkable as it shows how neighbors who are virtually strangers are able to work together towards a common goal when disaster strikes. It's a really incredible story with such a powerful message. Even though this story was written about the Los Angeles riots, I found it a useful story to discuss the rioting that happened in Baltimore, a city just an hour's drive away from my school. I really love this book, and would recommend it to every teacher!!

Well, those are my picks for this week's Must Read Monday. I hope I was able to do their descriptions justice! I can't wait to read all of the other posts that have linked up this week! Make sure to swing back over to Kindergarten Planet or The Kindergarten Connection to see who else linked up, and you can link up too! I'm always excited to read about new books!!

Here are my previous Must Read Monday posts, in case you wanted to learn about some other awesome books!!

Must Read Monday Friendship Books

Must Read Monday Math Books

Must Read Monday Cooperation Books

Also, PLEASE come and link up for Spotlight Saturday! It's a weekly link up that is basically a Teacher Show and Tell, where educators from all over can showcase their favorite products, activities, resources, ideas, or anything else that happens in their classroom that they want to show off!! The link up is open all week, so make sure to come over and shine your Spotlight!