Perfect For October

I Love Circle Books...

... you know, the kind that brings you right back to the beginning at the end of the story. 

You can find that technique used in If You Give A Mouse A Cookie and all of the other books in Laura Joffe Numeroff's series, but my favorite circle book is by Arden Druce and it's called: 

Witch, Witch, Come to my Party. 

(Scroll down to see non-Halloween ideas too.)

Click the image to see the book.

Now, don't let the title scare you away. It's a fun book that includes Halloween costumes and Pat Ludlow's illustrations are beyond belief! AND... this is a GREAT way to introduce elements of print, such as characters and genre.  The concept of fantasy VS reality is alive and well in this book!

Young and Old:

This book is great to share with all elementary grade levels. Younger children will love the pattern of the literature and the graphic illustrations. Upper elementary grade students will also love the illustrations, and can be inspired to create their own version of the book to then share with primary grade students. 

Here are some great ideas from Amazon:

Just for fun in the first reading: "Can you guess who Owl might want to invite?" - cover the last word on the page if the child is reading print. For a child who is beginning to identify print, don't cover the word, but make a big deal that they're trying to read instead of guessing: "Hey! You read that. Come on, now, cut it out! I'm going to have to cover the word..." Then the child begs you to remove your hand and promises not to read, but is all the while sneaking peaks at the word. This kind of play is the best and most effective way for children to develop lifelong reading skills.
The predictable pattern and rhythm of the text combined with the find and relevance of the story line make this book an ideal reading development tool, inviting participation from children as young as three and promising success for beginning readers. 

Use the last page to play games: Observation and Memory: "Can you remember who Pirate wants to invite?" Math (order numbers): "Who is first, second, third in line on the last page." "Is that their order in the book?" Also, "Who is next?" "Who is before Unicorn?" "Who is after Shark?" "Who is last?" 

Encourage children to observe the rich detail in Pat Ludlow's art work. They will notice the veins, the warts, the broken teeth, the cobwebs and bugs in the witch's hair. They'll want to touch the points of Cat's fangs and claws to 'feel' how sharp they are! Just look at Shark's teeth. What kind of shark is that? Are his teeth like that in real life? (go to the encyclopedias, next time you're in the library) 

Play a game with children of inventing their own riddle story using the pattern of the text: 'Clown, clown, come and play.' - 'Thank you, I will, if you invite Magician.' - 'Magician, Magician, come and play.' - 'Thank you, I will, if you invite Juggler.'...Children can create their own riddle book. Don't forget to give it a surprise ending!

And here is my...

... template for creating a similar book with your students. 

Use this with your youngest students: As they illustrate the characters they would like to invite to their party, you write the name of the character and they copy it at the bottom of the page and again (twice) at the top of the next page. It's fun to use their classmates' names as the invited characters.

This is also a great collaboration activity to do with your upper-grade buddy class. Each kindergarten student can be buddied with an upper-grade student to complete the book. The kindergarten student illustrates while the older student writes.

Click the image above to see the book template.

Non-Halloween Ideas:

You don't have to use a Halloween theme, you can have students write about other storybook characters they might. You can even have them invite non-living things related to the science or social studies theme you are studying. For example, while studying landforms you might use:

"Mountain, Mountain, please come to my party." "Thank you, I will, if you invite Hill."

Click HERE for the book template.

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