Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the read aloud classroom podcast. Picture this, your students just came in from recess. Lunch, trays are cleared or maybe it’s those last precious minutes before dismissal. Instead of feeling those moments with busy work or just watching chaos and SU. What if we could transform them into engaging reading experiences. Today, we’re talking about how to make the most of those five to seven minute pockets of time with real ads that are all about the enjoyment of reading. Now on this podcast, I really am going to be talking a lot about how to use picture books and read aloud to teach different. Parts of your curriculum throughout the day, how we can use picture books to have those meaningful lessons and help students make connections between the books and what they’re learning and their own lives. But I also am going to be incorporating how to read for enjoyment, how to show students that reading is not just something we do in school, but that we’ll do for the rest of our lives. Just as a way to enjoy the words and the pictures that are on the page. And I think that those small moments of time, like I said, when there’s kids running around the classroom, trying to rush and pack up at the end of the day, We can use those small moments of time to incorporate more books into our day.
So let’s talk about different ways that we can do that.
So the first thing I want you to do is think about your day. Where are those little pockets of time? That maybe you could incorporate a book. It might not necessarily be when all of your students are in the classroom and that’s okay. But let’s think about those natural transition times throughout your schedule. For example, when your students are entering the classroom in the morning, When you are getting ready to go to music class or right.
When you get back from music class. When your lesson ends a few minutes early. And it’s not quite time for lunch yet. Or at the end of the day, When students are getting packed up, but the buses haven’t been called yet. These are those sweet spots. Where you can add in a read aloud, you can share books with your students. And not only are you sharing additional read aloud, but you’re keeping a calm presence in the classroom.
I know that was one thing that I always aim for in the classroom is not those chaotic moments where kids are rushing around, but. At the end of the day, students would quietly get their backpacks as they listen to the story. So the students are moving around, but they’re hearing that magic of that picture book. While they are doing it.
There’s less yelling. There’s less running because they are focused on the book. So we’re going to talk about ways that we can turn that waiting time, those unexpected moments into reading time. The first thing that you should do is. Create, maybe a bucket of pocket sized stories. We’re going to call them these short books that can be read quickly. Because when we have these 3, 4, 5 minute time periods, we don’t want to be reading a really long book. We want to make sure we have a collection of short books.
And at the end of this episode, I’ll share five of my favorite short books with you to help you start that collection. Now you want to keep these books handy. So these short books you want to create maybe a bucket in your classroom, , where. You can easily grab those books out of, because you have all of a sudden, you have those five minutes.
You don’t want to waste three of them looking for the book. You want to have those books ready to go? And you’ll refresh this throughout the year. As you read some of the books. But having them ready to go means it’s easy for you to just grab it and to start reading.
You want to select books that really like. Pack a punch that students can enjoy, but again is short under maybe 30 pages or so. And you want to have a mixture of books. We want different genres. We want some laugh out loud ones. Those are ones that are really engaging and students are really going to want to listen to. As well as some calming books that will help settle the classroom.
That will help settle the classroom again, during those usually more chaotic times. You want to choose books that don’t require a lot of background knowledge, ones that you don’t have to prep your students for ahead of time, maybe it’s a familiar author or familiar characters. That way again, you can just pick up the book and start reading.
You don’t need to give your students any background knowledge on the topic or the author or the characters ahead of time. And also if we’re using one. The students are familiar with it. We’ll definitely pull them in more quickly. And allow them to pay more attention during those small moments of time.
And to go along with this, you’re probably going on to watt fiction books.
This is not a great time to incorporate the nonfiction books, because that was, that requires that background knowledge. So we’ll save those for science or social studies time, but we want to incorporate those fiction books into these small moments of time. Ones that students will really be interested in.
Now, this is something that you want to do consistently every day.
For example, as students are packing up at the end of the day, and you want to kind of create almost a short routine around it. Maybe come up with a quick signal that read aloud time has happening.
Maybe want to create a spot where they come on the rug. For example, if they are packing up their bag for the end of the day. Once they’re all packed up, they come and sit on the rug in front of you to continue to listen to the story, having that routine, that they know what to do will again, maximize the most of that short amount of time that you have. This is also a time where we’re going to focus on the enjoyment of the book. Not the instruction. We’re going to read the title of the author and just read the book through.
We’re not going to stop for discussion or questions maybe at the end, if you have extra time, that’s when you can talk about the books with your students. But this is not a time to be pointing out different. , skills and strategies as you’re reading, it’s just for the pure fun and enjoyment of it.
If you have this routine and you do it again at the end of the day, then. Build up that anticipation Maybe a share at the beginning of the day, share the book that you’re planning to read so that students are looking forward to it. If it’s something to do when you just have those unexpected, short periods of time. If you consistently do it, maybe it’s not necessarily every day, but maybe. Once a week, if you have extra time and the lunch bell is hasn’t run yet. Students will know.
Oh, go ahead. This is the time she reads a book aloud. I want to sit and listen. They are going to look forward to that. So even if it’s not something that’s every single day, they’ll still be looking forward to that.
So by finding these really short parts of your day, where you can add in read alouds. Really shows students that reading is for enjoyment. That way we can had in more read alouds, they hear more stories being told. And you are not wasting those little bits of time. You’re getting in more read alouds. Your class is calm and listening and paying attention to the book that you want to share.
And the more engaged and excited that you are. The more that they’ll be paying attention and looking forward to this read aloud. Depending on what part of the day you are able to fit it in. So again, these short reload moments, aren’t about meeting standards or teaching skills. They’re about nurturing that love of reading, creating connections, and making that school day more joyful for them.
Sometimes as you all know, the most impactful teaching moments happen. When we’re not trying to teach at all. Now, here are a few books, short books that I enjoy. So at the end of each episode, I like to share my books of the week. So I thought this week’s theme to go along with this episode would be. Short quick books that your students will enjoy. The first one is called the big umbrella by Amy June Bates. In this book, there is an umbrella by the door and it is big. It’s so big that when it starts to rain there’s room for everyone underneath. It doesn’t matter if you are tall or plaid or hairy, it doesn’t matter how many legs you have
students will notice as the book goes on, the umbrella gets bigger and bigger so that everyone is included and everybody fits underneath.
Another short book you could read is I am enough by Grace Byers. This is a great book. , that shows self esteem, acceptance kindness, and really helps the reader build their own confidence.
Another book is say something by Peter H. Reynolds. This book explores many ways that their single voice can make a difference. And that each of us have the chance to say something with our actions, our words, our voices. And there are so many word.
There are so many ways to tell the world who you are, what you’re thinking and what you believe and how you can make it better just by saying something.
Another favorite of mine is a drama dream girl by margarita angle. In this book on an island, girls cannot be drummers, but there is a young girl who really wants to become a dreamer. So she perseveres, she practices and secrets until she’s able to share her gift with the world. And a fun, silly one that your students will definitely love. Is duck rabbit by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.
This is a fun story based on the classic duck rabbit visual puzzle. If you’ve ever seen it. Um, just look up the book and you’ll see the image on the front cover. Students will need to decide if it’s a picture of a duck or a rabbit and all the reasons for each one. And it’s a great way to see the different points of view, but also a silly one for students to enjoy as well.
So I hope that you are able to find some little bits of time throughout your day to had in these shorter books and have more read alouds in your classroom. To celebrate the relaunch of this podcast. I’m doing a giveaway. Two winners will receive a $25 gift card to Amazon to enter. All you have to do is screenshot your favorite episode so far. At that screenshot to your Instagram stories and tag me at the colorful apple so that I can see it. Winners will be announced on Valentine’s day, February 14th. Have a great week.
