One of my favorite things about teaching little ones is reading out loud. I have an obsession with children's literature and even if I stopped teaching, I would still wander through the Children's section.
My students love to sit on the rug & be read to. They lean forward & listen intently. It's the best part of my day: sharing my love for reading & books and the deep & often hilarious discussions we have afterwards. When I taught 2nd grade, not only did we have multiple picture book read alouds during the day, but I also read a chapter book to them (often to calm them down after lunch or before dismissal). Once my 1st graders became good at sitting sort of still during shorter picture books, I whipped out one of my favorite children's authors: Roald Dahl.
We started with a shorter chapter book, Fantastic Mr. Fox
The kiddos LOVED Dahl's flair for describing the most disgusting things. They giggled endlessly when I read about Bean's difficulty hearing because of all the wax in his ears & how Fox's tail got shot clean off. I really wanted to have them compare & contrast the book to the movie, but I decided against it while previewing the movie version at home. It does follow the basic concept of the book but was a little to "adult" for my liking.
We are currently reading The Witches.
Wow, these kids REALLY have gotten into this one! Daily, I have a student bring the book up to me, demanding that I read it. I am sure that it's a mixture of how this book is about REAL witches & my lovely interpretation of the Grand High Witch (she rolls all her Rs & pronounces Ws as Vs). According to Dahl, REAL witches look like ordinary women. They could even be the teacher who is currently reading aloud to you (gasps around the room, lol). There are a few signs to look out for if you suspect a kind woman is a witch:
- Real witches always wear gloves. Their hands are really claws.
- Real witches always wear wigs & scratch at their heads b/c they're bald.
- Real witches have HUGE noseholes to sniff children out.
- Real witches have blue spit.
- Real witches don't have toes. Their feet are square.
Well, I had children ask me to let my hair out & take my shoes off, JUST in case I was wearing gloves that looked like hands, lol. Unlike, Fantastic Mr. Fox, the movie version of this book is PHENOMENAL (& creepy, lol). I can't wait for my kids to see Angelica Houston as The Grand High Witch. Think 6 year olds can handle it? *shudders*
