An engaging reading book is often a saviour when you have a few minutes to kill, or a whole lesson to fill. Even if you only have a couple of these in your supply bag, you will be thankful.
Here are my all time favourite books for when I am Supply teaching.
My list comes with some accompanying activities that need NO printing or resources and there are links of where to purchase them. You can get a more comprehensive list with more in depth activities in this resource.
1. Beautiful Oops! by Barney Salzberg (All grades)
Countless art activities using this book as inspiration.
- Get students to draw an ‘Oops’ for another student which they will then create something from it.
2. Dusty’s Wonderbug by Joanna Becker (Lower Years)
This book has endless inspiration for healthy eating and gratitude for nature.
Literacy |
Numeracy |
Health |
| Cloze activity predicting rhyming words in the book. | Count and list all the different types of fruit and vegetables in the book. | Recall and draw food that is grown in the ground and on a vine. |
| Retell favourite part of the story | Sort the food into different categories, e.g colour, ground/vine/tree grown, favourite food. Choose one, tally/count amounts then graph findings. Discuss most, least same etc. | Write or draw your favourite food from the book. I like… |
| Create a new title page using yourself and a different magical creature. | Write why you belive it is important to eat healthy food and why we should be thankful. |
3. Windblown by Edouard Manceau (All grades)
A book inspired by rubbish.
- An art activity using a template (online or you can create your own) of the shapes used in the book; students can create their own pictures.
4. The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak (All grades)
The class will be shouting at you to see the next page. This book is always a hit.
- Get students to make up their own nonsense words and define them. Eg. Frimp means to walk sideways really fast.
- Get students to write their own page using sentence starters from the book.
Eg. My head is made of…
My best friend in the whole wide world is…
- Get students to draw illustrations for the book.
5. Do Not Open This Book- by Andy Lee (All grades)
A fun book that has the students calling out in anticipation.
- Get students to come up with a new ending as to what will happen if they get to the last page. Could it be an alien instead of a witch? What else could he turn into?
6. The Day The Crayons Quit- by Drew Daywalt (All grades)
A creative book written from the perspective of a boy’s crayons. It is thought provoking, fun and engaging with endless opportunities for activities.
- Get students to write a letter from the perspective of their favourite coloured crayon, to them.
- Draw a picture using unconventional colours to make the crayons happy. Draw a pink sun, purple grass and a blue pig!
- Discuss instances of persuasion throughout the book then get students to write a persuasive text.
Basic outline-
OPINION (I like __________ the best.)
REASON (because ________.)
EXAMPLE (I can use ______ to draw _______.)
CONCLUSION (____________ is the best crayon in the box.)
7. Exclamation Mark by Amy Krouse and Tom Lichtenheld (Lower Years)
A fun book on punctuation and a great introduction to a punctuation lesson.
- Write up sentences for students to edit focusing on exclamation marks, full stops and question marks.
8. Count the Monkeys by Mac Barnett (Lower Years)
An engaging, interactive counting book with fun actions and great illustrations.
- Add up all the characters in the book. Students can act it out, use counters or draw on the board as a class then if you have time, draw in their books with the matching numeral.
- Make a mini counting book. Get students to fold a sheet of A4 paper into 8 segments. Cut and then staple it into a booklet. Students can then do a Title page and draw pictures and numbers on each page, front and back.
Eg. 1 pig, 2 stars, 3 frogs etc.
9. Press Here by Herve Tullet (Lower Years)
A funny, interactive book that younger students love. Reading for enjoyment at it's best.
- Get students to create their own page with dots and an instruction. They can do this in pairs to have matching dot instructions. Compile the classes pages to create their own Press Here book.
10. Mix it Up by Herve Tullet- (Lower Years)
An interactive book about colours. Great to lead into an art lesson.
- If you have access to paints do a colour wheel activity mixing primary colours otherwise create the colour wheel using coloured pencils or crayons.
A new book can help change up your routine and spark a little more fun in your lessons. You can't go wrong with any of these recommendations, guaranteed!
Kelly
