My Favorite Books For Fall - a blog hop with the #KinderFriends

I think every teacher has favorite children's books - maybe a whole lot of favorites!  Still, even knowing there are some books I will absolutely read with my students doesn't stop me from wanting to find more favorites.  I'm a bibliophile through and through, and for all the other bibliophiles out there, the #KinderFriends are sharing our favorite fall books.  Take a look, see what you discover, and if there's something amazing we're missing, leave it in the comments!

 To me fall means leaves, apples, pumpkins, and animals getting ready for winter, so I focused on books about those topics.  

Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert is a classic for a reason; it's a beautiful read aloud, full of gorgeous illustrations and information about maple trees.  I can't imagine teaching and learning about leaves without it!  While you're learning about leaves, you have to also check out Leaf Man, also by Lois Ehlert.  This story is illustrated with pictures made from a variety of beautiful fall leaves, of every shape, size and color imaginable.  It lends itself to follow up activities like a leaf collecting walk, and creating images with those leaves.  

I've written about my favorite apple books before, but still had to include 2 on my list this time around:  Ten Red Apples, by Pat Hutchins, and How Do Apples Grow?, by Betsy Maestro.  I like Ten Red Apples for the memorable refrain, and for the math element of counting down.  I love everything about How Do Apples Grow?, especially all the science learning that's included and made understandable for young children.  

When I think of my favorite books about animals in fall, Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming tops the list!  Her illustrations are phenomenal, and each page of this lovely story features a different animal noticing different signs of fall.  There's a surprise at the end when the story comes full circle, but the tone of the book is one of calm, slowing down, preparing to sleep.  If you have a group of children who need to unwind a little, a gentle reading of this book will help them settle down, just like the animals in the story.

I've included one more book that doesn't, at first glance, seem to be related to fall: The Dot, by Peter Reynolds.  This is the story of Vashti, a little girl who doesn't believe she can draw.  When her wise teacher values her mark making, Vashti learns to value it too.  This book has inspired a movement, all about making our marks, and seeing where they'll take us.  You can learn more at http://www.thedotclub.org/dotday/.  International Dot Day is celebrated each year on September 15th-ish, so it's not too late to grab a copy of the book, and make your mark - with or without children.  Follow up by reading Ish, also by Peter Reynolds.  

I hope you enjoy these fall favorites, and I'd love to hear which books you'd recommend to me!  If there's an indispensable fall book missing from my list, please let me know, otherwise, I hope you'll continue our blog hop and check out more favorites!  Hop on over to Pamela at Pocket Full of Centers! 

International Dot Day

Do you know this book?

It's the lovely tale of Vashti, a child who doesn't think she can draw.  At her teacher's urging, she makes a mark on her paper, a simple dot.  When the teacher frames it in a swirly gold frame and displays it, Vashti begins to believe she can draw, at least a dot.

This simple tale speaks to me as a teacher - for surely, how we react to our students influences what they believe about themselves  - and also as an artist.  A very imperfect artist, but like Vashti, I can try.

I thought I'd share some of the pictures of how my preschoolers celebrated International Dot Day last year, and encourage you to join in the fun.  We draw and do art projects all the time, so my kiddos, like most 3-5 year olds, already knew they were artists.  :-)  I decided to talk about dots, and the dot Vashti made with negative space, and of course, we got out the dot paints, aka bingo dabbers.  Everyone made several dot paintings, just enjoying the medium.

It's important to let the children have time with new materials, so they can explore and be comfortable with it.  Until then, they're not likely to be interested in someone else's suggestions.

Once the kiddos had explored the dabbers, I put some cardboard circles out on the table.  I placed one in the center of my blank paper, and joined in on the dabbing, mostly avoiding the cardboard circle.  You can see from the circles on the table, once we started using them, a lot of the kiddos wanted to dab only on the cardboard.  That works too!

Most of the children joined in with using the cardboard circles, although not everyone wanted to do that, which, again, is fine.  They were fascinated by the negative space left when they lifted the cardboard - and several of them made the connection to the book, and Vashti's dot that wasn't a dot painting.

The children helped me choose two pictures each to display on the wall in our lunch area - enough to fill the wall.  I didn't have them make swirly gold frames like Vashti's teacher, but that would be an awesome touch!  I've seen that done here.

There's actually an International Dot Day, on September 15th-ish, and as of this writing, people in 107 countries have signed up to participate - 2,900,000 people!  There are official posters and an educator's handbook availabe on their website.  If you'd like to join in, follow this link!

I've also started collecting ideas on my pinterest board: International Dot Day. 

I'd love to hear your ideas, and to pin them there too - please let me know how you celebrate in the comments!