Favorite Books For Second Grade

Are you always on the lookout for great read-alouds for your class? My favorite time of day is when the kiddos gather ’round the rocking chair for story time. This is the one precious chunk of time when I feel connected to my students on a different level. Our schedule is so full, but I make it a point to include a read-aloud EVERY SINGLE DAY. In fact, I always plan a reading mini-lesson with our story of the day.

My newest favorite book is a hilarious story that the class absolutely loves! 

It’s The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt! 

Have you read it? If not, you MUST put it on your wish list!

In the story, Duncan finds a stack of letters that have been written by his crayons. Some are happy, some are tired, some are unused, some are stubby, some are arguing and oh boy… peach crayon has been peeled and has to go to school naked! 🙂 It is a riot!

I made this letter writing page to go along with the story. The students choose their favorite crayon color and write their own letters to Duncan just like the ones in the book!

 It’s a great activity for a mini-lesson on VOICE if you teach 6+1 Traits. 

How cute would it be to have the students draw a face, arms and legs on this crayon clipart, like the book cover, before they color it? Next to the crayon they can add some more pictures!

You can grab this freebie {here} if you think your students might enjoy this!

Another all-time favorite is by an author who came to visit our school once. It is so cleverly written and is more like a very long poem. It is fantastic for teaching lessons on author’s craft because there is great rhythm in this book. The best part is… the teacher gets to model all sorts of character voices-of sick farm animals that is! It goes something like this: 

Buzz,’CHOO   Mew, SNIFF   Cock-a-SQUAWK!-le-doo,

Oink, SQUEAL   Baa, SNORT   Moo, A-H-H-H-H-CHOO!

 During cold and flu season or prior to a farm field trip, this is a great story to read!

The book is called Barnyard Song by Rhonda Gowler Greene!

It is available at Amazon!

I could go on all day with more on favorite read-alouds, but my third and final favorite and one that I adore because it takes place at the beautiful Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes here in Michigan is Petoskey Stone Soup. It is written and illustrated by two local women.

The book is a twist on the original story. It’s about two children who lose their way while exploring the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. Exhausted and hungry, they discover a tiny village but the entire town is empty. The book shows how, when everyone gives just a little, magical things can happen.

It’s perfect as a mentor text for teaching moral of the story and central theme lessons. This would also be a great story to use to compare texts or to work into a rocks and minerals unit. You may even have some Petoskey stones to show the class. 

Read Across America Bulletin Boards

During the month of March, for Read Across America, our school promotes reading with lots of neat activities and incentives. One fun thing we do is to select an author for each grade level to study. Our team has chosen Tomie dePaola. Every grade creates fantastic bulletin boards in their author theme! Here is Second Grade’s display for Strega Nona from last year:

 My fabulous teamie Pam enlarged Strega Nona and the pot under the document camera and colored it in chalk for us. We used yellow yarn for the pasta and then gave her a wooden spoon to hold. The book covers were made from images taken from the internet. 

On both sides of our Nona centerpiece is a photo of every student reading their favorite Tomie book! This student loves The Baby Sister!

 I would love to get a top read-alouds list going here at Creative Lesson Cafe! 

What is your favorite?

We’d love to hear about it!

 Add your favorite to the comments below!

You can grab a cute poster sign for your door or reading area for Read Across America here! 

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