Choosing a Picture Book to Explore With Your Classroom

You’d like to take an in-depth look at some picture books in your classroom, but you’ve got no idea where to start! Here’s some things to keep in mind when you’re trying to choose the best picture book to explore with your students.

1. What books are available?

Unless you have an amazing budget, you’re best to start off with books which are available to you. This might mean books you own, books which are available in the school or local library or books you can (carefully) borrow from teacher friends. 

This is especially important to keep in mind when you might need multiple copies of the same book. If you’re going to have more than one group working on the book at the same time or if you want to have a book for you to hold and another one for the students to look through, you’ll need multiple copies. 

Unsure where to find books? This blog post has a few ideas.

2. What topics are you exploring?

One of the easiest ways to narrow down the picture book search is to consider which topics you are covering in the classroom. This might be English topics - if you want to look at rhyme, then choose a beautifully rhyming book like a Julia Donaldson book; if you’re exploring onomatopoeia, think about a book which is rich with it, like Sally Sutton’s Roadwork, Demolition or Construction.

But you can also look at topics you’re exploring outside of English. There are many science themed picture books to suit a wide variety of science topics, and a growing number of fabulous historical books which give a different perspective to important historical topics. There’s even books related to government like Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea and If I Was Prime Minister!

3. What skills are you looking to teach?

Are you exploring vocabulary? Looking at character development? Working on visual literacy? Look at the standards or curriculum outcomes you’re trying to achieve in English and find books which support the teaching of those standards. 

You may be working with young children who are learning to read - think about books with repeating words where children can practice their new literacy skills. Or if you’re working with older children examining how you can use illustrations to tell stories, you might look to the books by Shaun Tan. 

4. Are there other books you can link to?

Many curriculum standards and outcomes ask students to make comparisons between books with similar themes, similar structures or by the same author. By looking forward to including some comparative explorations, you get a better idea of what book to start with and you can extend the learning of your students.

You might look at fables, traditional stories from a range of different cultures or different retellings of fairy tales. Or you might like to pull together a range of books which explore what it means to be a friend or which tell a story of persistence and make your selection from there. Another interesting idea might be to explore an author’s early book and a book written years - or even decades - later. Or you could look at how the work of an illustrator might compare in different books and how they might use different art techniques to tell a story. 

5. What are your students interested in?

It’s definitely worthwhile checking in with your students and their current interests and favourite books when planning a picture book study. Often students will suggest books which you might not have thought of, books which are absolutely perfect once you take a closer look at them. Students may like to create a class list of books they’d like to take a closer look at. 

Student interests can also inform the books you choose in the classroom. Students who are interested in weather might like to take a closer look at picture books which explore the impact of weather on the characters, while students who are interested in inventions might like to examine picture book biographies of notable and interesting inventors.

How do you choose the picture books you explore in your classroom? Leave a comment below to share!

Related posts to read:

• Exploring Early Childhood Books in the Middle Grades

• Challenging Students to Find Connections Between Picture Books

• Asking Students to Create their Own Picture Book Questions

• Taking a Deep Dive Into Picture Book Illustrations in the Classroom

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Challenging Students to Find Connections Between Picture Books

When you’re focusing on a picture book unit study, it can be tempting to focus on that book alone. But don’t forget to help your students to step back and make the connections with other picture books - and to share those connections with others.

It’s important when we’re teaching reading that we help students to make text-to-text connections with other pieces of text. This is particularly important as students get older and begin to find references to other books in the novels they are reading or need to collect information from a range of sources to write an informational report, but it’s a skill which helps students learn and develop their schema from the youngest grades at school.

When students are reading picture books, you can start with the easiest connections. Students can identify some of the basic elements of the book - like it’s a book about school, a book about animals or a book about space. Students can identify other books they know which also have this element. This allows them to identify differences and similarities as well as identifying what those books tell them about that topic.

Easy connections can also be made when students are exploring texts in a series of books or picture books written by the same author. The Pig the Pug books, for example, all include the same two characters as well as similarities in what those characters do (Pug does the wrong thing, Trevor does the right thing). Students can connect the books easily through the characters and the similarities, then use that information to look deeper at the differences in the books - what does Pig do wrong in this book? How is it different to what he does wrong in that book?

Once students have developed the easy connections, they can start looking for more difficult connections. You can assist them in this by offering students two or more books which aren’t obviously related and asking them to find the similarities between the books. This can be even more fun to do if you haven’t found the connections yourself - you might be surprised what the students will present you with when you’re not guiding them in a certain direction.

Another way to do this is by asking students to look for certain themes or characteristics as they explore books over a period of time. You might ask them to look for lost things or characters who are anxious about something or books with surprise endings. When students begin to find these connections, they can look at how the author and illustrator has portrayed that particular element or theme, gaining a better understanding of how a book can be crafted to get a response from the reader.

How Can Students Share the Connections They Make?

The easiest way for students to share the connections between different texts is simply by talking about them with their peers or in student conferences. You can make this easier for students by providing prompts in the room - a question on the classroom wall which asks students how books connect to each other can help it become a normal part of conversation about books.

Students can also use graphic organizers to make connections between different book - either by using prepared ones or making their own. 

When you’re working as a class on a bigger project, you can work with your students to create a display showing the connections you’ve made as a class. This might be a bulletin board within the classroom, a display in the school library or office or even an online display which can be shared with parents and other students in the school. 

Students can also share their connections with their ‘future self’ by keeping a reader’s notebook. Taking some time to go back through old entries can remind students of the connections they made back then - and allow them to make new connections with books they’ve read since then.

How do you encourage students to make text-to-text connections? Share your experiences in the comments.

Related posts to read:

• What Does it Mean to Be Australian?: Using Picture Books in the Classroom to Explore Australian Identity

• Exploring Australian Picture Books About Weather

• 5 Reasons to Explore The House that Cleaned Itself in the Classroom

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Exploring Early Childhood Books in the Middle Grades

So, you know that picture books are great for students to read, no matter what grade level they’re in. But there’s different types of picture books, and you wouldn’t use the ones aimed at early childhood with older readers, right? Right?

Well . . . not necessarily.

While you wouldn’t use some of the very simple picture books - like the ones aimed at babies and young toddlers which simply match a word and image - any early childhood picture book with more of a story can be used in the middle grades classrooms. 

Here’s how you can do it.

The first thing you would want your older readers to do when they’re exploring a picture book aimed at preschoolers is to think about who the book is written for. Students will know that they are not the ideal audience, but this gives them some insight into the language and the pictures used in these books and allows them to start comparing them with other books aimed at a similar audience.

When students are thinking about the audience for a picture book, they are learning to assess the audience of other types of text - for example - who is that advertisement aimed at? Why does it make kids want to buy something and make adults shudder? Learning that authors use different styles for different audiences is important to know both as a reader and as a creator of texts.

Students might also question whether these books are really aimed at an early childhood audience alone. They might draw the connection with many kids movies and television shows which entertain (and sometimes teach) adults. Are these books just for young children, or can older children and adults learn from them as well?

Once students have assessed the audience of the book, they can start exploring the author’s intentions in writing the text. For example, Mem Fox’s Good Night, Sleep Tight introduces the reader to a range of nursery rhymes. Why has she chosen to do that? What does she want the audience to learn? Why has she put them into a story with characters rather than just editing a book of nursery rhymes?

Students can assess whether the author is aiming for the audience to learn something - many early childhood books are based around enhancing literacy or social and emotional skills - or whether they’re just written to entertain the audience (a lot of books about farts lean more towards entertainment).

Part of looking at the intention of the author is examining the word choice. Many early childhood books look like they’d be easy to write. Afterall, there’s not many words in them and the words aren’t very difficult. But when you hear the authors of these books talk about how they were written, you hear that they can spend serious time making sure that they’ve chosen the best possible words and that they’ve put them in the best order. Students can explore this by rearranging the words in the book to see how it changes the text or they can experiment with putting in their own words and seeing what happens.

When students have a really good understanding of picture books for younger students, they can be challenged to write their own early childhood picture books. From coming up with an idea for the book, to planning it out, to finding the best words and creating illustrations to go with them, this is a great activity for students to engage in to explore the challenges of picture books and looking at how picture book authors and illustrators meet them.

Have you explored early childhood picture books with older students? Share your experiences in the comments

Related posts to read:

• Using I'm Australian Too in Upper Primary Classrooms

• Exploring Three Galarious Goods Picture Book Studies for Upper Primary

• Five Reasons to Use Picture Books in Middle Grades Classrooms

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Asking Students to Create their Own Picture Book Questions

Do your students ask questions? 

Not the questions about going to the toilet or when is it lunchtime or “why did you do that to your hair, Miss?”. Questions about the topic they’re exploring, about the concept they’re learning about . . . or the picture book they’re reading?

And if they aren’t asking questions about the picture books . . . how can we get them to start asking?

The Value of Asking Questions

When we’re exploring a text we usually ask students to answer a range of comprehension questions. There’s the who, what, where style simple recall questions, but we also ask them to think more deeply about the text they’re reading.

But one skill we need students to develop as they are reading is learning to ask their own questions. Good readers ask questions all the time when they’re reading - questioning helps readers to monitor their own comprehension and to create connections within the text and outside of the text.

For example, I recently read Pink! By Margaret Wild. As I was reading the book, I found myself asking questions about the colours of dinosaurs (“Hasn’t there been research done on dinosaur colours recently?”), about where the story might go next (“I wonder if the author will make it easier for Pink to hide?”) and hide and seek (“They played hide and seek earlier, will that come back to that?”) Even with a text that is essentially easy for me to read, I can ask questions of connection, prediction and author choices.

Starting With a Brainstorm

There are many ways to teach students to ask questions when they are reading - from demonstrating questioning to talking about different types of questioning. But one way for students to think more about questioning is to ask them to brainstorm before, during and after their reading.

Provide students with a familiar picture book and ask them to brainstorm all the topics they might ask questions about before they read it. As you are reading the book to them, ask them to keep brainstorming, then provide them with more time when you finish. Students can share their brainstorm ideas, allowing the class to see that there are many different areas of questioning when it comes to a text. You can then repeat this with an unfamiliar text, asking students to engage in the same brainstorming process.

Who, What, Where, When, How: Recall Questions

Once students have a brainstorm, they can start formulating more formal questions. The easiest to start with are the recall questions - the who, what, where, when, how types of questions. These can sometimes be dismissed as too simple, but while we wouldn’t want to only ask these questions, they’re important when it comes to having a solid understanding of the characters, setting and plot of a picture book.

Asking Prediction Questions

Good readers are often asking - and answering - prediction questions as they read. One of the easiest to ask questions is ‘based on the cover and title, what do we think this book is about?’ Students might dismiss prediction questions because they find they’re answering them as soon as they ask them (What will come next? I think it’ll be . . . ) but it’s important that they know they are asking these questions and they do play a part in how they are reading.

If students are writing prediction questions for other people to answer, they might like to reflect on where the best places to ask those questions are. Should they ask them at the beginning of the book? During the book - and when during it? At the end? This is a great way at taking a closer look at how an author might have structured suspense or anticipation into a book 

The Things Which Aren’t Obvious

The inferring and author intention questions are the harder questions we ask ourselves when we are reading. Why did that character do that? Was that foreshadowed earlier in the book? Why did the author make that choice? Sometimes it can be hard to ask those questions because you need to go back to the text once you have the recall questions down. Other times it’s hard to ask those questions because you’re not sure if you’re overthinking it!

One thing we can let our students know is that it’s ok to ask ‘do you think’ questions - open-ended questions which different people might answer in different ways. Those might be the questions which get us to think the most about the book - even if the book looks simple on the first read. ‘Why . . .’ questions with many different possible answers are some of my favourite - every time I read Mem Fox’s Where is the Green Sheep I wonder why the slide sheep is wearing skis (it just doesn’t look safe!).

By modelling, encouraging exploration and explicitly teaching question asking when we’re reading picture books, we can help our students become better readers of these - and more complex texts.

Do you teach question asking? Share your experiences in the comments

Related posts to read:

• Exploring The Girl With a Mind For Math in the Classroom

• 8 Free Resources for Classrooms Reading Boy Overboard

• What Does it Mean to Be Australian?: Using Picture Books in the Classroom to Explore Australian Identity

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Taking a Deep Dive Into Picture Book Illustrations in the Classroom

One of the benefits of using picture books in the classroom, including middle grades classrooms, is developing visual literacy. But how can we make sure we’re doing this effectively?

The Importance of Visual Literacy

Visual literacy is the ability to understand and make meaning from information which is presented in the form of an image. We use simple visual literacy every day as adults - from the signs we use when we’re driving, to the icons on our phones. Visual literacy gets more complicated, however, when we look at artworks, media photography, social media images and advertising.

When we look at old newspapers, it’s not uncommon to see a full page of text. These days, front pages are more likely to be a combination of images and headlines, with very little news story text. Social media prioritises images over text, especially on those platforms built on images such as instagram. And advertising is using more and more complicated imagery to reach customers. Understanding what pictures are trying to say to us allows our students to be better readers and more thoughtful participants in the world as they grow older.

Telling the Story Through Illustrations

Picture books are a great way to teach visual literacy because they ask students to take a closer look at a text form which is already familiar to them. Most children are exposed to picture books before they learn to read, so they’re used to examining the pictures, ‘reading’ what is in them and using them to help them understand what the whole book is about.

Many picture book illustrations also tell us the story that isn’t in the words. In Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French, there are all sorts of things in Bruce Whatley’s illustrations which tell us the real story about Mothball’s opponent (the doormat) and the impact Mothball is having on her surroundings (it’s very, very bad). Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey makes a lot less sense without the illustrations, and make sure you keep an eye on what those mischievous monsters are up to in Nick Bland’s The Wrong Book!

When we start pointing this out to students, we’re letting them know that images have messages for us - that they’re telling us more information and that they can be as important as the words we read. It’s definitely worth the time investment to compare the text and the images when you’re reading picture books.

What Can We Tell From Pictures?

Have you read any books with Shaun Tan’s beautiful illustrations? I have spent a lot of time with Shaun Tan books because they are amazing, but one of my very favourite teaching memories was spending time exploring The Arrival with my students. This is a book with absolutely no words - or no words in a language we know. 

As the students read this with me, they found images they were familiar with - like photographs - and less familiar ones which we would have to dive into. Sometimes they would read the images better than me and we’d all learn from it together as we built the story out of the images.

Wordless picture books are amazing tools for developing both visual literacy and an understanding of how stories can be told. Jeannie Baker’s Window and Belonging are another example of these texts - and are a little easier to read - which students can spend ages looking over, pulling out all the little tales woven into the images.

Matching Pictures and Words

Another way to use children’s book illustrations to engage in visual literacy is by asking students to put the words and the pictures together. You should use a book the students aren’t so familiar with. You can use a photocopier or a photo and projector to share the page with the words removed. Offer the students a selection of words which could go into that space and ask them to choose the best one. Ask them to reflect on their choice and whether any of the other words might have worked.

Alternatively, you can present the students with the images and ‘incorrect’ text. Ask them if the pictures and words go together. Why? And if not, what should the words be.

By doing this, you’re asking the students to be more thoughtful when they see words and images together - this is something which can be reinforced by reading graphic novels - good visual literacy is definitely required there!

Do you explore visual literacy in your classroom? Share your experiences in the comments

Related posts to read:

• Five Reasons to Use Picture Books in Middle Grades Classrooms

• 5 Reasons to Explore The House that Cleaned Itself in the Classroom

• 5 Reasons We Love Macca (the Alpaca)

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Should You Read a Picture Book to Your Class Every Day?

We all know about the benefits of picture books in the classroom and how we can use them regularly to improve literacy and learning. But should we insist on reading them to our students every day? Should we be feeling guilty if we miss a day? Why are we reading picture books every day?

The Benefits

Picture books are a wonderful tool to use in the classroom. Many of them use thoughtful language, a range of text structures and clever writing. Others use beautiful and interesting illustrations which tell us as much as the words, helping us explore visual literacy. Picture books are easy to fit into smaller amounts of time and are easier to share with groups of students.

So if they’re this good, should we make sure we’re reading them every single day?

Why and How Are You Reading Them?

You really can’t answer the question of whether you should be reading picture books every day, unless you know why you’re reading them and how you approach reading in your classroom. Is it a goal for you or for your students? Is there other reading happening in your classroom or is it your primary reading? Do you only read at one time in the day, or do you pick up books at several times? 

As you’re reflecting on this, you may like to write yourself a little ‘mission statement’ - a short piece of text which explains why reading to your students is important to you and how you’re going to share that importance.

Taking the Pressure Off Yourself

Once you have a clear idea of why and how you’re sharing picture books with your students, step back a little and take some pressure off yourself. There are going to be some days where things just don’t work and you may not get to picture books. There’s going to be some days where time restraints stress you out or new things pop up unexpectedly. It’s ok to let things go - including reading every single day.

It’s worth remembering that reading should be a joyful thing in the classroom - a thing of delight. Your students will know if you’re stressed about fitting reading in - or stressed that reading is taking time you need for other classroom activities. 

But . . . don’t forget that reading a funny or comfortable book can be regulating and calming on those stressed out days. It’s also ok to stop and read when you and your class need it.

Should You Be the Only Person to Read to Them?

Who reads aloud in your classroom? Is it you and only you? And if so . . . could you change that up a bit?

Is there a student who enjoys reading aloud? Or if your students are pre-readers, have you got a student willing to retell a familiar book to their classmates? Have you got a teacher’s assistant who would like to read to the students, or a non-classroom teacher who would like to be an occasional reader? Can you have parent or community volunteers who read to the students, or readers from another grade level?

If you’re not the only one reading, you may be able to fit more books in without feeling the pressure to fit more books in!

It Doesn’t Have to Be a Number Game

Lots of classrooms like recording the number of books they read together - and this can be a great way to get students excited about books. But if it’s a stress to you, you don’t have to do it. 

Keeping record of the books you read as a class can be as simple as adding the title to a poster on your classroom wall (something your students can do). Or you can get a little more complicated by displaying an image of the cover in your classroom or keeping a record book of all the different books and what they’re about.

Do you try to read daily with your students? Share your experiences in the comments

Related posts to read:

• Five Reasons to Use Picture Books in Middle Grades Classrooms

• 5 Ways to Find Joy in Your Classroom and Teaching

• Helping Our Students With Goal Setting

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Exploring the Plots of Picture Books with Triptychs

One of the important skills you’re exploring picture books with your students is identifying what happens at the beginning, the middle and the end of the picture book. One art activity you can use to help with that is the triptych. Read on to learn more about this interesting way to demonstrate understanding.

What is a Triptych?

The word triptych is derived from a greek word meaning three-fold. Essentially it is an art work made up from three panels. Traditionally, these panels are connected by hinges, allowing the two side panels to fold in on top of the middle panel. They were first introduced in the middle ages as religious art work - their design allowed them to be folded and stored or carried to another place while being protected. They often tell a story and are intended to be read from the left to the right. 

How Can You Use a Triptych to Discuss Plot?

Because a triptych tells a story in three parts, it’s the perfect art medium to discuss the beginning, the middle and the end of a picture book. Students look into the picture book to consider how they might portray the beginning, what elements of the story would be most important to focus on when looking at the middle of the story and how the story ends.

What Kind of Picture Books Will Work?

This is actually a great question to pose to students! Because you need to portray the beginning, the middle and the end, you do want a picture book which has those things! Some of the early childhood picture books which focus on repetitive text (like Where is the Green Sheep? or Dear Zoo) probably won’t work so well (though, you could challenge some particularly creative students to try!). A very long picture book with a lot of events may also be too difficult. 

For younger students, you will probably want to concentrate on books with a clear beginning, middle and end. For example, the Pig the Pug books start with a set up, move into some form of disaster, then show us the conclusion. For older students, you may like to challenge them with more complex story structures, though they will probably also get a lot out of the clear beginning to end books as well.

What Do Students Need to Know When They’re Creating Their Triptych?

Like any art activity, students need to start by planning. They should think about what is important at the beginning, during the middle and at the end and then brainstorm ideas of how they can portray this.

Once they have planned this, students can begin drafting ideas for their triptych. How they do this will depend on the art medium they are using, but many students will begin by sketching their ideas before they start to work on their actual project.

Before students begin working on their good copy, they need to think about how they might be hinged together. Capturing ribbon between the artwork and a backing page is an easy way to create a flexible, but strong hinge, but you can always challenge students to create their own hinges using paper, cloth, ribbon or other materials.

Are you looking for teaching materials to scaffold a plot triptych? Sign up to the free resource library to get yours now.

Have you used art as your book related activities? Share your experiences in the comments.

Related posts to read:

• Explore the Pig the Pug Series with these Writing Tasks

• Five Ways to Explore Picture Books in the Classroom

• Exploring Three Galarious Goods Picture Book Studies for Upper Primary

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5 Places You Can Find Picture Books

So you want to add more picture books into your classroom. That’s great! But where are you going to find them? And how are you going to find them without spending every single cent you earn? Here’s some ideas for finding picture books for your classroom library collection!

1. Your favourite book shop (or other place to purchase books)

The first place you’ll probably look for picture books is your local bookshop. If you’re lucky enough to live near an independent bookstore, it’s definitely worth building a relationship (ie: visiting as much as you can to admire the prettiness) with the shop. Independent bookstores often have books you can’t find elsewhere and booksellers are often well informed about upcoming releases you might like to try out. 

Even if you have a book chain rather than an independent bookstore near you, it’s worth building relationships with the staff. My local QBD bookstore has staff who have been there so long they’ve helped nurture my kids into readers. And they always have good recommendations for me when I’m looking for something new.

For low cost books in Australia, Kmart, Target and Big W have smaller selections, but are usually good for the most common books and a few hidden gems. However, if you’re wanting something from another country or something more rare, you might need to look towards online bookshops. It’s worth shopping around a bit with these - sometimes it makes it easier to find a good deal. 

2. Second hand/op shops/thrift shops/ marketplaces/garage sales

When I first started teaching, I built my classroom library from local op shops (thrift shops). Then I went to the big Lifeline Book Sale which is usually held in Brisbane each year and left with armfuls of affordable second hand books.

These days, it’s worth checking online marketplaces like Facebook or Gumtree to find second hand picture books. And don’t forget the humble garage sale - my daughter’s kindy teacher is an expert at finding high quality second hand books at those.

3. School library

What if you have absolutely no money for picture books and you need them right away? Talk to your school librarian about some great books to borrow from the school library. Your librarian might have a system to make sure you can rotate books in and out of your classroom which suit what you’re teaching or which work for certain topics you want to cover. And if there’s a book you really want and the school library doesn’t own it, they might be willing to add it to their ‘to-buy’ list.

4. Public Library

Don’t forget your local public library! Mine is brilliant for new and interesting picture books - high quality books I haven’t seen anywhere else. Like school librarians, the librarians at your local library might be able to help you find the most appropriate books and some libraries also have special borrowing limits for teachers!

5. Organise buying with other teachers

If you’ve got teacher friends you’re willing to lend books to, organise it with them so you don’t double up the books you’re buying. Whether it’s just one other teacher or a small group, create a list of books you’d all like and let the other teachers know when you buy one of the books off the list. Then you’ve got borrowing rights to books from your teacher friends and they can borrow yours. It might be worth that little extra organising to get books at a lower price!

How do you build a classroom library without spending a fortune? Let us know in the comments.

Related posts to read:

• Exploring Three Galarious Goods Picture Book Studies for Upper Primary

• Five Reasons to Use Picture Books in Middle Grades Classrooms

• Five Ways to Explore Picture Books in the Classroom

Looking for more?

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5 Reasons to Explore Christmas Books in Your Classroom

As December looms nearer, Christmas is all around us. Decorations are being hung in public spaces, Christmas music is beginning to be heard, and the Christmas aisle suddenly appears in the shops. You also find Christmas picture books, especially written to bring Christmas into the literary word. These books are perfect to explore in your classroom at Christmas - bringing together the excitement of the holiday season and the real learning which comes with exploring picture books. Here's a few reasons why you should explore them in your classroom.

1. Christmas is a Time of Excitement in the Classroom

Christmas is a time of great excitement for many children and adults alike. In the classroom, it's often the lead up to holidays, either the long summer holidays in the Southern Hemisphere or shorter winter holidays in the Northern Hemisphere. This excitement around Christmas and holidays can make it difficult for students to focus on more traditional learning. Christmas books are a great way of harnessing that excitement and turning it into real authentic learning. While students are enjoying the stories of Christmas, they can also be looking at the choices the author and illustrator make, the meanings that come from the Christmas books and the text features they use in their work.

2. Christmas Books are Connected to Shared Experiences

Almost everyone has some experience of Christmas - whether it's their own family celebrations, the activities they participate in at school or the Christmas they see in media. This shared experience means that students are coming to Christmas books with a significant amount of background knowledge and understanding. This makes it possible to explore the books a little deeper, to compare and contrast them with the Christmas experiences we have, to create work inspired by the books with a greater knowledge. These books then become another shared experience for students - another part of their Christmas knowledge.

3. There Are Some Really Good Christmas Books

The idea of Christmas books doesn't always make you think of interesting story lines. But there's been some really interesting and fun concepts developing over the past few years. From exploring how Queen Victoria celebrated Christmas (in Queen Victoria's Christmas) to looking at drought at Christmas time (in the CBCA recognised All I Want for Christmas is Rain), authors and illustrators have been taking a whole range of approaches to Christmas stories and it's fascinating to compare and discuss these.

4. Christmas Books Often Have Beloved Characters in Them

Young readers can easily fall in love with characters who appear in more than one picture book. And when those characters appear in a Christmas book, there's an immediate anticipation of what that book might contain. When students see Pig the Elf by Aaron Blabey, they know they're probably going to read about some of the horrible behaviour of the selfish Pig. Or, if they look at Jackie French's Christmas Wombat, they know there's a pretty good chance that it will be written in diary format and may include carrots. This anticipation builds excitement into lessons using these books as well as offering opportunities to explore how well known characters react to the events of the Christmas season.

5. Picture Books are Easy to Use

Christmas time and the lead up to holidays are usually some of the busiest times in the school year. There isn't always a lot of time for sustained learning. This is where the Christmas picture books can be a huge assistance - they're quick and easy to read, but there's a lot of smaller activities you can do with them. They're portable, so you can take them with you if you're moving from one activity to another and need to fill in waiting time. You can get a complete text experience, without worrying that you're going to run out of time to read a novel. 

Click here to find a whole range of Christmas Books at Galarious Goods

Related posts to read:

• An Aussie Night Before Christmas in the Classroom

• Creating Lessons from Holiday Decorations - A Big List of Ideas

• Surviving Christmas in an Australian Classroom

• 12 Christmas Ideas for Your Classroom

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Five Ways to Explore Picture Books in the Classroom

Last week I looked at why we should use picture books in middle grades classrooms, but it's also important to look at some of the different ways we can use them. Picture books are great for flexibility - their length and size allow them to fit into smaller blocks of time and to be shared more easily. So what are some of the different ways you can utilise this flexibility?

1. Make Pictures A Daily Read

Picture books can be a great way to start a day, lesson or language block. It can serve as a transition for students, giving them time to be prepared to learn. Daily picture books allow your students to be exposed to a large range of books, allowing you to bring a wide range of diverse authors, illustrators and stories to your students. It creates a large shared vocabulary with stories that students can refer back to and talk about. Many picture books also contain themes, questions and social situations which are important to discuss with students.

Students can interact with the books through quick discussion questions, paired or small group discussion or through exit slips (you can download free exit slips here). Students may also like to keep journals exploring some of the books which are read in the classroom.

Although it's great to have students respond to the texts, they don't need to respond formally every day. Sometimes it's best to just let students sit with the text and insisting on a written response every day can reduce enthusiasm for the daily reading time. Mixing up the ways students respond (or don't respond) can help to keep the daily read fresh.

2. Connecting a Text to a Specific Lesson

Picture books are great to use as mentor texts - whether it's exploring a type of story or looking at a particular text element. Picture books can also be used as introductions to other subjects - as a way to look at a historical period or a scientific principal, or they can be used to expand ideas or raise questions about those subjects. 

In this way, picture books may be simply used as a prompt to get students thinking about a subject. They might follow it up with a brainstorm or ask questions to explore further. Students may refer back to the book later on when they have more understanding of the topic and may engage in a critique of how the picture book handles the subject.

Alternately, the picture book can become the basis of an entire unit of work. A book like I'm Australian Too by Mem Fox can become the centre of a unit on what it means to be Australian and how people travel to Australia. Students can refer back to the book at different times, connect the book to other texts or media and create pieces of work inspired by the book and other information they have learned.

3. Teacher Led Small Group Work

If you use literacy rotations or use a reader's workshop in your classroom, picture books are great for teacher-led small group work. Students can meet once or more a week with their teacher to explore a book, looking at themes, literary techniques, making comparisons or completing activities. The size of picture books make them perfect for a small group work - they're easy to pass around to examine pictures, and the smaller amounts of text on each page make it easier for students to find examples or read out quotes from the page.

These small group explorations can be a great way to support your curriculum goals and assist you in collecting evidence for assessment. With guidance, you can allow students to take on discussions themselves, allowing you to take notes on their understanding of the book and the elements you wish to explore.

4. Student Led Exploration

Also great for literacy rotations or in a reader's workshop, students can work independently on their own, in pairs or in small groups to explore the book. You may create a generic set of discussion questions or activities for students to work through with any book they choose, or you may have 'packs' of books, questions and activities for students to work through. You can also select themes or ideas for students to explore, choose picture books which will work with those themes or ideas and have questions or activities specifically created to link to those themes or ideas.

When students are being asked to work independently with picture books, it can be useful to model how they do this. When students are being asked to work in small groups, you may walk them through the process during the first few weeks and then offer a reminder card of the process for following sessions. If students are working on their own as part of a literacy rotation, you may like to outline the routine and expectations, then use a reminder card to help students keep on track.

5. Whole class close reading

Sometimes it can be useful for all the students in the class to take a deep look at one text at the same time. Students may follow with a large classroom copy of the book or work in smaller groups examining multiple copies of the text. It can be helpful to provide a range of activities when all the students are engaging with the same text - you may start by reading it aloud to the class, give them individual time to record their ideas and reflections (possibly with question prompts), bring them into small groups to discuss and look closer at the text and then ask them to work individually or in pairs to create their own work. There are many other options to use here including whole class discussion, students using sticky notes or exit slips to share their ideas with others or even a whole class response to the text.

Related posts to read:

• How to Use Book Talks to ‘Sell’ Books to Your Students

• What Does it Mean to Be Australian?: Using Picture Books in the Classroom to Explore Australian Identity

• Exploring Australian Picture Books About Weather

• Exploring Three Galarious Goods Picture Book Studies for Upper Primary

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