If your child is like my 6 year old, for whom the novelty of home school wore off after 3 days, you know you need to find some creative solutions for getting some learning done. Both my girls love to cuddle up to read a story, so with the right book it’s a sneaky way to get some learning in. A lot of picture books have free, online Teacher Guides, which are all about educational activities that go with the themes of the book, so it’s a fun way to keep “playing” with a book while learning new concepts or skills.
Many authors are now sharing read-aloud videos of their books. Magination Press just posted one for my picture book, Lucy in the City: A Story About Developing Spatial Thinking Skills. Watch the 8-minute storytime video, then print out the 5 activity pages that promote spatial thinking skills. Peruse the pdf Teacher Guide, written by educator and children’s writer Marcie Colleen, which has age-appropriate activities for K-3 in the subjects of English language arts, math, science, and social studies. Pick one or two and have fun with them!
(The linked image and link above take you to the Magination Press blog post, which includes some additional activity ideas, with the video link and activity pages/teacher's guide link at the bottom of the page. To get directly to the video, click here).
Where to find Teacher Guides for other books?
- Marcie Colleen has written a ton of them -- all are listed on her website (scroll through and look for familiar book covers)
- try googling the name of your child’s favorite books plus “teacher guide”
- many publishers have a list of teacher’s guides, like Lee and Low
Where to find picture book read-alouds?
- #operationreadaloud is a Facebook group collecting and posting links to videos of picture book storytimes. - search for your favorite books on YouTube
- Storyline Online features celebrities reading popular picture books
Other sources of online picture books?
- check your local public library e-catalog for digital books. My local library has a new page dedicated to learning at home resources. There are a ton of sources for free, online picture books.
- Reading is Fundamental’s Literacy Central has many books available online in the Skybrary. It’s a subscription service but their 30-day free trial will get you through the next month.