Summer Book Stash Blog Hop - Seasonal Books

I am back this week with the Book Stash Blog Hop! It was so much fun last Wednesday hopping around and seeing all the different books that other teachers use to teach character education. I even picked up a few new book ideas myself.

This week we are talking about our favorite seasonal books. The two holidays I picked, just happen to be my favorite – Halloween and Christmas! So, keep reading to pick up a  Halloween FREEBIE!

I am sure you have heard of The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything, by Linda Williams. It is a cute story about a little old lady walking through the forest and pieces of clothing follow her, but she isn’t afraid. They follow her home and assemble to make a “scarecrow” with a pumpkin head. She ends up putting him in her garden to scare away the birds. I love reading this story with my kids because of the onomatopoeia that is woven throughout. Each piece of clothing makes an appropriate sound, "the boots went clomp, clomp". My students love to get up and act these out! After reading the story we usually do a sequencing activity and then a fun craftivity of making the scarecrow, in which the kids glue their own faces on the pumpkin! A quick Pinterest search pulls up hundreds of activities to do with this story. 

My second Halloween story is Halloween Sky Ride, by Elizabeth Spurr. This is a cute rhyming story about a witch on her way to a party, and along the way picks up some friends who need help. This is great for a sequencing activity or you could do a writing activity and change the characters that Witch Mildred picks up. Now click the link below, to pick up a worksheet to go along with it!

Now on to my other favorite holiday, Christmas! I love using this gingerbread man unit the last couple weeks before Christmas vacation because both the kids and I need a fun break. These still align with curriculum, and now because you did something academic, you can do something crazy - like make a gingerbread man, or frost and eat one!

I like how the books mostly stay true to the original story, but each take their own little twists. In The Gingerbread Girl, the main character is obviously a girl, while in The Gingerbread Cowboy, he is a cowboy. The only story out of the pictured versions that is really different and doesn’t really follow with the original story is The Gingerbread Pirates. But who doesn’t love doing pirate voices!? The Gingerbread Baby and The Gingerbread Friends, do follow the basic outline of the story, with little changes. These stories lend themselves so well to comparing and contrasting, because there are a lot of similarities, but still some differences. Click the picture below to check out my 2 week long gingerbread man theme unit – You’ll Never Catch Me.

Now seeing that this is a hop, bounce on over to the next blog and see what great seasonal books they have in store for you at Inside and Out with Karen and Kelie!

I hope you are enjoying your day!

Great adventures await you!

           ~Kari

Shout out to Minute Mommy for organizing this hop!

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