Book Recommendations for Children

Reading aloud to my students was one of my favorite things to do as a teacher. It is also important for you parents to read aloud to your children every day, especially if you are going to be teaching your children at home when school starts. Reading aloud to children provides them with a model of fluent reading, expands their vocabulary, builds their listening comprehension, and helps them gain an understanding of reading for pleasure. The following is a list of some read-alouds perfect for children in grades kindergarten through fourth or fifth grade.

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Classic Children’s Books

Help kindergartners with letter recognition by reading aloud alphabet books. There are many available, however, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is a classic. My kindergartens also really enjoyed Little Critter Books. They could relate to the problems he faced in each story and these books are perfect to discuss story elements by asking children to name the characters, setting, problem and solution. My students also had a lot of fun trying to recall details so these books are also great for practicing comprehension skills. At the end of a book, I would say something like:

“There were seven things Little Critter was so mad about. Who can tell me one?”

Then I would challenge them to remember each one without looking back in the book. This was super exciting for them and encouraged them to pay close attention to the next story because they knew I would be asking them questions at the end.

Reading aloud to children is also an opportunity to help them practice other comprehension skills such as making predictions. Stop while reading and ask what they think will happen next. Have them explain why and discuss clues in the pictures. At the end of the book, you can review the main character’s problem and solution and then ask your children how they would have solved the problem differently. Older children can even write a new ending.

After reading aloud to your children, you will want them to practice retelling the story to you, another important comprehension skill. To help your children not leave out anything important, ask what happened at the beginning of the story. Then ask what happened in the middle of the story, which is the part children usually skip over in retellings. And then ask what happened at the end.

Older children like learning about the world around them, so read aloud to them books about science (like animals and their habitats), about places (like Egypt), and biographies of famous historical figures. You can also read aloud and discuss a chapter or two of a chapter book to them a day. Some good chapter books and biographies include:

Reading aloud should take about 15 to 30 minutes of the 90 minutes of English Language Arts instruction that I mentioned elementary children should have each day in a previous post.

See Related: Back to School Support for Parents.

In a future post, I will give some tips about what to do with the other 60 minutes.

Until then, have fun choosing books together!

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