Happy Monday, friends! Today is the first post in a new little mini series that I’ll be sharing on my blog called “Picture Books for Teaching Skills.” The first skill in this series is….theme!
Since I started incorporating more picture books into my classroom this past school year, I realized how much easier it made teaching the concept of the central message or a story (theme) Since we had already read and discussed so many different lessons (themes) from all the picture books that we had been reading, it made it easy for the kids to recognize want the theme was and how to state it. Year after year, I run into the problem of kids stating the theme as something that happened in the story. For example, one possible theme of the story The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is don’t judge someone based on their looks, but the students would say something along the lines of “The prince didn’t want the princess because she was dirty!” They didn’t understand how to state the theme as something that could apply to other situations. Picture books are a game changer!
Now, almost all of these picture books are below grade level, so they make great texts to introduce theme and then for individual practice. I use more complex text once we have gotten into the lesson, but picture books make for the perfect introduction!
Today, I’m going to share my top 20 picture books for teaching theme. If you want a free printable list of these books to use as a reference sheet, you can grab it here. 🙂 Let me know what other skills you want to see picture book pairings for. 🙂
Yay! Many of these books are new to me. I'm excited to learn more this week!
Do you have a list of books for Character Traits? Do you buy most of your picture books? Also, I teach 5th grade in FL and we have an end of the year test. Do you test at the end of the year too? If you do, do you notice a change in your scores based on picture books related to skills?
How fun are these?! I love using picture books to teach because no matter how old these students get, being read to is a favorite of theirs. Plus, using real life examples of authorship is so important!
I would love to see what books you pair with any and all skills. Your blog is fantastic. Thank you so much.
Thank you! I would love to see lists of other skills you pair with books!
I would love to see lists for all skills, especially cause and effect. Main idea, sequence would be great as well
Thanks for posting these great books!!
I'd love to see your bulletin boards about today's picture book…and the one with they picture books for the week.
Thank you so much for this post!