Celebrate National Children's Picture Book Day April 2nd

Fun facts and a list of books to get you started

Did you know that if you read to your preschooler five times a day, they’ll hear close to 1.5 million words by the time they’re five years old?

Ohio State University says so.

Here’s what they’ll gain from all those reading sessions:

·    To value books and stories
·    A stronger imagination
·    Greater curiosity
·    More ability to focus and concentrate
·    Social and communication skills

Source: https://raisingchildren.net.au

Who would have thought stories could make children stronger in so many ways?

How National Children’s Picture Book Day Got Started

Jenna Lepman, a German journalist and author, founded Switzerland’s International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) in 1953. They came together to encourage children to fall in love with the written word.

In 1967, the rest of the world got involved in the celebration.

Each year IBBY chooses one country to host. That country chooses a theme and hires an illustrator to create a poster. They also have reading, writing, and drawing competitions – with some pretty cool prizes!

Why did they choose April 2^nd? It’s Hans Christian Andersen’s birthday. Chances are you’ve read one or more of his stories or seen one adapted into a movie! Here are a few:

·         The Little Mermaid
·         The Ugly Duckling
·         Thumbelina
·         The Emperor’s New Clothes
·         The Princess and the Pea
·         The Snow Queen (Disney’s Frozen)

A Brief History of Children’s Picture Books

Jan Komensky published the first picture book for children under 6, Visible World in Pictures, in 1658.

John Newberry published the first Children’s Picture Storybook in 1744, titled A Little Pretty Pocket-Book.

By the 1830s, children’s picture books were selling like crazy. One of the classics from this era is Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

In 1922 the American Library Association awarded the first Newberry Medal to The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon.

Is Writing a Children’s Picture Book Easy?

The best children’s picture books come with more than engaging stories and captivating artwork. They have timeless life lessons embedded in them as well.

If you’ve ever wondered whether writing a children’s book is easy, here are a few things the author must do:

·        Choose the book’s genre
·         Research to make the story work
·         Develop and choose the characters
·         Build the setting for the story
·         Decide how the artwork will look, and choose an artist
·         Edit the book down to the absolute essentials

Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon, said, “I finish the rough draft in 20 minutes and then I spend two years polishing.” Some say she polished as many as 23 books at a time!

Now that you see the work that can go into a children’s picture book, let’s look at ten of the most popular picture books of all time. 

Where the Wild Things Are

Mischievous Max feels misunderstood at school and home. So, he goes to the land of Wild Things, where majestic—and sometimes fierce—creatures roam. Soon they allow Max to become their leader. He promises them a kingdom where everyone will be happy. But as fun as this new life is, he realizes something is missing.

Get your copy here. 

Goodnight Moon

In a great green room, a little bunny is tucked in bed. He also says good night to everything familiar: three bears sitting in chairs, the clocks and the socks, and the mittens and the kittens. Goodnight room, goodnight moon. This book has helped children everywhere fall asleep peacefully since 1947.

Get your copy here. 

Green Eggs and Ham

"Do you like green eggs and ham," asks the main character Sam-I-am. He's very convinced green eggs and ham are something you can enjoy in many places with a variety of friends. Follow the rhyme as the list gets longer and longer.

Get your copy here.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

How would you feel if food fell like rain? It might be marvelous! But then again, it might not. See what happens when people fill their plates and their stomachs with food from the heavens.

Get your copy here.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Follow a tiny green caterpillar as he eats his way through the book. Soon he transforms into something totally different.  Author and Artist Eric Carle wanted this book to be a literary cocoon for children getting ready for kindergarten. And it has - since 1969.

Get your copy here.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Help your child learn to associate color to different animals in this easy-to-read book from Bill Martin, Jr., and Eric Carle. Encourage them to read along and soon they'll read it to you!

Get your copy here. 

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Animated alphabet letters climb a coconut tree in this crazy story! The rollicking rhyme and bold, cheerful art will have your child wanting to read this book again and again.

Get your copy here. 

Corduroy

Corduroy sits on the department store shelf, wondering when someone will buy him. Then one day a girl named Lisa comes into the store. Will she be able to take him home?

Get your copy here. 

Are You My Mother?

A young bird hatches while his mother is away, looking for food. He goes looking for her, asking everyone and everything he meets, "Are you my mother?" How many will he ask before he finds her?

The Little Engine That Could

A small train filled with toys breaks down before it reaches the children. She asks several bigger trains to help, but they all say offer reasons why they can’t. What will she do? Can she make it over the mountain alone?

Get your copy here.

Look at our other books right here.

Fun fact: April is National Decorating Month. Why not brighten up your room with a new bookshelf? See our selection here. 

Encourage Healthy Eating: With a Book!

 

Learn new things and try new foods! Incorporating snacks into your class lessons and activities is a great way to introduce new foods while teaching important early learning concepts. Why not combine snack time with story time? Students will enjoy eating the same foods as their favorite book characters, and introducing foods through these characters will lend familiarity to foods children may be reluctant to try. Check out these neat examples below!

Jamberry by Bruce Degen

In this 'berry' wonderful tale, a little boy and his bear friend discover all kinds of delicious berries when they go exploring. The melodious rhyming sounds in this book roll off the tongue like berries into a bucket, easily engaging young listeners. Read with an assortment of berries, have some toast and jam, or try these berry recipes below!

Berry Popsicles
Creamy Frozen Fruit Pops
Triple Berry Popsicles
Berries & Cream Popsicles
Fruit & Veggie Popsicles

Berry Smoothies
Three Fruit Yogurt Shake
Berry Blast Smoothie
Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Berry Muffins/Cookies
Baked Blueberry Oatmeal Cups
Banana Berry Buttons 
Lemon Blueberry Muffins 
Healthy Raspberry Muffins

 Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert

In this classic, a father and child grow vegetables and make their own soup together! Ehlert simplifies the gardening process for young minds with easy-to-understand, straightforward diction and brightly colored, labeled illustrations of vegetables and the tools used to grow them. For the soup-making process, she explains the utensils and other kitchenware used.

When you read this story aloud to your classroom, bring in examples of different vegetables for your students to examine texture and smell.

Make an assorted platter of vegetables for your students to try as you talk about these vegetables in the book.

Read this book on a day you will be serving vegetable soup to facilitate a discussion on how those vegetables are grown.

You may also want your kids to grow their own mini vegetable garden!

If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Joffe Numeroff 

If you give a moose a muffin, he might want a whole bunch of things to go with it! Filled with humorous illustrations and lovable characters, this classic children's book is sure to leave your kids craving more...muffins!

Try these healthy whole wheat muffin recipes at the links below:
Sweet Spinach Muffins
Healthy Cinnamon Peach Muffins
Healthy Apple Muffins
Healthy Lemon Blueberry Muffins

For more healthy and kid-friendly muffin recipes, check out these listings:
Super Healthy Kids--Muffins
Babble--23 Wholesome Muffin Recipes
KidSpot--19 Healthy Muffin Recipes

2nd Look Book Box

 

This new product is worth a second look! Each box features a collection of previously loved children's books that are looking for a new set of little hands to pick them up for story time! Perfect for preschools, daycare centers and childcares, our book boxes include stories for children ages 5 and below. Each box, measuring 18x12x10'', comes packed full so you are guaranteed to receive a good variety and quantity of children’s books in each box. Due to the various sizes of each book, the quantity per book box will vary between 40 and 60.

Books come in a mixture of hard covers and soft covers and may include some seasonal or holiday related titles. All books come in fair to like-new condition and can easily be passed on to the next classroom or donated when students are ready for a set of new stories.

Click HERE to get yours today at our introductory price of $29.99!

We also have yearly subscriptions available in both quarterly and monthly arrivals. For more information, click here.

Fun Foods – Cafeteria Caterpillars

These little critters are the perfect healthy snack to make in your classroom or even to add to your student’s lunchbox. It only takes a few minutes to create each caterpillar and students can easily get in on the fun.

 

You will need: wooden skewers, grapes, vanilla frosting and mini chocolate chips.

Start by sliding the grapes onto the skewer one by one. When you have the skewer filled you can add a small dot of vanilla frosting on the end grape. This will act as “glue” for the eyes. Lastly, stick a mini chocolate chip on top of the glue.

Try adding the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar along with this idea. All you need is a purple grape or baby tomato for the head. That’s a lesson, a craft, and a snack all in one! 

Indoor Kids Fort Idea for Preschools

Need a fun way to turn a bad weather day into a fun filled day of indoor activity? We have a great idea to share with you! Let’s build a classroom fort!

There are several ways to make a fort. Materials such as blankets, tables, cardboard boxes, chairs and other furniture are perfect for fort building. If you need some help with the design plans, just ask your students! They are practically professionals at making forts. Forts can be made large enough to fit the whole class, a small group or each student could create their own.

Larger Forts might be created by hanging sheets from the ceiling or draping them over tall cabinets. The same could be done for a fort to fit a smaller group.  Another quick and easy fort is to simply put a sheet over a table and let students crawl in underneath the table.

If large cardboard boxes are available to you, they are a great addition to any fort! The cardboard allows you to construct any shape you would like. It also gives the ability to cut out windows, doors, and the children can color and decorate it. 

If students have individual desks, you can have everyone bring a towel or a blanket to drape over their desk. Now you have mini forts for each student to read or do class work in!

For even more fort fun, plan a Reading Day! Send out a preparation list for parents a few days ahead. You can ask students to bring their favorite books, snacks, a blanket or towel, and even wear some comfy pajamas. Students will enjoy having a relaxing day of reading and won’t think twice about playground time or the weather!

Share your fort ideas with us by commenting below, on Facebook, or even by sending us a tweet. We would love to hear your ideas!

daycare reading skills

Need help getting your little ones excited about reading? Try out this wonderful book series that is correlated with Guided Reading Level A and designed just for new readers. It is called First Little Readers and is written by Deborah Schecter.

This set comes inside of a sturdy storage box. Inside you will find 100 full color books along with a teaching guide to help you along the way. The teaching guide is packed with tips, lessons, and literacy-boosting reproducibles and measures 8 x 10 7/8.

In the set of 100 you will find 5 kid-pleasing little books for 20 different Titles! This makes it a perfect group read for 5 students at a time. Each book is 8 pages long and measures 5.5 x 5.5. The First Little Readers set is sure to have your little ones reading in no time! They will be begging for the next story in the series as they learn to read.

Stories Include:

1. HELLO, BEACH                           11. BUBBLES
2. WHAT CAN I SEE?                       12. WHAT DO I NEED?
3. COLD ROSE                                13. WHERE IS PETEY?
4. BIRTHDAY SURPRISE                   14. HIDE AND SEEK
5. FUN WITH MUD                          15. HATS, HATS, HATS
6. I LIKE SCHOOL!                          16. SHAPES FOR LUNCH
7. WHAT IS FOR SUPPER?               17. WINTER IS HERE
8. FUN AT THE PLAYGROUND          18. WHAT IS READ
9. LOOK WHAT I FOUND!                19. I LIKE STRIPES
10.WHAT SHINES?                          20.WHEN NIGHT COMES

This set really has it all! Get your First Little Readers set today and get your students excited about learning to read!