Books for First Graders: The Owly Series by Andy Runton

The Owly Series is absolutely great for teaching reading, and there's not a word to be found in the books.

What?

In Owly comic pro Andy Runton has created a character that first graders instantly identify with. Along with his friend and sidekick Wormy, Owly has a series of adventures in the woods he calls home. If I had to pick one word to describe the books, I'd say sweet--these are nice, caring stories about friendship and perseverence, and the lessons really lend themselves well to the classroom.

In my room I have a projector/document camera setup, and the kids absolutely love it when I put the books up on the screen for all to see. This might sound like a simple read-aloud, but through his use of pictographs Runton has given us teachers a perfect tool to reinforce the idea of using pictures to make predictions and picking details out of the text. I find that a lot of the comprehension and cause/effect activities in our reading program are rather artificial; Owly is authentic, and that's what helps the kids connect.

You can purchase the Owly books through their publisher, Top Shelf Comix, or from Amazon.com.

Read more here, if any.

Books for First Graders: Junie B. Jones

(This is the first in what I’m hoping will be a semi-regular series over the summer, sharing books with you that I love reading with the kids.)

I’ve talked a little bit about the Junie B. series of books before (How Junie B. Jones Ruined America), and the main reason I bring them up again is because of the ample opportunities for good classroom conversations that can come out of the books.

Junie’s a brat. Junie makes some terrible, terrible choices. Junie has a lot to learn about sharing and relating to the world, and that’s what makes them such a good read—a lot of the first graders are right on her level. The icing on the cake is that Junie is a kindergarten student for the first 16 books in the series, which is a great way to drive home the lesson with first grade kids:

Kindly Teacher: “Oh dear, guys, it looks like Junie’s gotten herself into trouble again. But we wouldn’t act like that, would we?”

Wide-eyed Students: “Nooooooooooooooooo!”

Kindly Teacher: “Good kids. Let’s go to recess.”

Sure, the language isn’t perfect. Stupid is one of her favorite words, and the way that she mangles grammar sometimes makes them hard to read aloud. Again, these are the teachable moments, and if you pre-read and know they’re coming you can do a world of good with them.

That, and they're hilarious. I have a hard time not cracking up myself when I read them out loud, and that's a nice feeling to have to deal with.

Some great Junie resources on the web:
The Official Random House website, with promotional video.
The New York Times article that inspired my earlier post above.
A sample lesson plan from the International Reading Association that might help give you some ideas on how to use the books in your room.

You can find all the Junie B. books at Amazon, here, or through your Scholastic book orders.

Read more here, if any.