Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “book recommendations”
Enemy Pie is a sweet story of friendship where a boy finds out that his enemy is not really an enemy after all, but a friend. This theme of friendship makes it a great book to read aloud at the beginning of the school year to help you set a positive classroom culture in your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans On last week’s exit ticket, I asked my students what they enjoy most in class. The majority of them said, “Reading my Choice book.” That makes this reading teacher want to jump for joy. Now in my twenty-fourth year of teaching, I’ve finally arrived at what I believe to be a winning formula for …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Hope. Right now, we need it more than ever. 2020 was hard. We are all, to some degree, the walking wounded here. We are all a bit weary of pep talks, we are all feeling the strain of social distancing and wearing these (insert expletive here) masks…ready to throw up our hands, crawl into …
One of the first steps to getting your reluctant readers excited about reading is getting to know what interests them as readers. A reading interest survey is a great way to do this. Written by guest blogger Cindy KoopmansReading Interest Surveys – Through Conversation, Paper, or DigitalYou can get to know what sorts of books interest your 3rd, 4th, and …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Let’s start with something familiar: the story of Cinderella. Then let’s take a trip around the world and transport this classic tale to many different settings and cultures. Let’s use the story of Cinderella to teach point of view, theme, compare and contrast, and summarizing. Doesn’t this sound like a fun reading unit? …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans It can be a challenge to stock your classroom library with quality literature, especially if you are living on a teacher’s salary – with no additional side hustle or supportive spouse and no one is offering to give you money to buy books. I’ve been in your shoes and here is how you solve …
Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans Reluctant readers don’t have to stay reluctant. They just need the right book to motivate and engage them. Choosing the “right for me” book is a critical piece of crafting a competent student reader. Honestly, so often as students they don’t even know what they don’t know! And who will explain all that to …
3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students don’t often automatically grab biographies and autobiographies off the classroom library shelf. But the inspiring biographies below will have your upper elementary students begging for more! Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans In my classroom I’ve often found that biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs are a bit of a hard sell. Besides selecting only the …
Helping children learn to become more resilient and be able to overcoming any obstacles or challenges that might come their way is an important job for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers. The book list below will help you add multicultural, inspiring books to your classroom library and read alouds. Written by guest blogger Amanda Bletsh From a very early …
Do you have a 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th grade student that loved the Harry Potter series and is now wondering what to read next? The book list below is a great place to start. Written by guest blogger Cindy Koopmans It’s the perfect time to escape into the pages of a good book. Set down the remote, get off …