You’ll love these 7 Kids Books about Imagination

I love kids picture books. There are SO many to choose from, it’s such a pleasure to browse the bookstore, online book titles and the local library. Great books are such a treat – beautifully written, gorgeous pictures  and great characters to fall in love with. A good book can also be a great way to explore ‘big ideas’ or concepts with kids. Kids happily relate to the stories and the characters in a book, and talk about the ideas within the book. As a teacher, a good book can help spark conversation and engagement about something we are studying in class. It can support and drive forward ideas and concepts that you are studying, and help kids understand it, as they relate to (often) imaginary characters and their adventures and ideas. I regularly spent many hours looking for the perfect books to read to my class, or add to the class library, that would help my kids understand or inspire my kids to talk about whatever we were learning about in class.

 

Here are 7 books that you are going to love about IMAGINATION. IF you are looking to spark imagination or conversation about curiosity with your kids, these books would be a definite bonus in your classroom.

1. Are We There Yet?

Hands up if you like long car journeys. This picture book really captures the mood of a long journey with an unhappy kid in the back of the car. I LOVE this book! It’s about the adventures that can happen once you get a little bit bored, and let your imagination take over!

This book would definitely spark conversations about long journeys, moments kids have been bored, and the ideas they have had or could have if they let their imaginations run free.

 

 

 

2. The Cow Who Climbed a Tree

Tina is a very curious cow. She is full of ideas and constantly want to try new things. Her sisters think her ideas are ‘nonsense’ and prefer to stay in the farm and eat grass. One day they go looking for Tina, and discovered just how exciting it can be when you try the impossible.

This is a gorgeous book that would be a great springboard for a conversation about curiosity, asking questions and trying something new!

 

 

 

3. This is Sadie

Sadie is a little girl who is full of imagination. This story takes us on a journey through Sadie’s imaginative day as she sails the sea, lives under the sea, visits wonderland and is a hero in fairytales. The book shows Sadie using a giant box and different things in her bedroom before setting off on her adventures.

 

 

4. Use Your Imagination

This is a super cute book. When Rabbit is bored, Wolf suggests he uses his imagination to create a story. At first Rabbit suggests the story should be about ‘space rockets…..big explosions! And bananas.’ Wolf talks Rabbit through how to make a story with a bad guy, hero, setting….and before Rabbit knows it he is in a story about a Rabbit trying to escape from a Wolf! But he uses his imagination to solve the problem.

 

 

 

5. Henry’s Amazing Imagination

This is one of my new favorite books, and I’ll tell you why. This is a story about a little mouse who has a fantastic imagination. He uses his imagination during show and tell, to share ‘news’ with his class about his neighbor’s pet dinosaur and how aliens landed on his lawn. This book made me laugh a lot, because when I was in school my younger brother did exactly this! In fact his ideas were so creative that the teacher temporarily suspended show and tell because the kids’ stories were become more and more creative! Anyways, Henry’s teacher encourages him to use his imagination to write stories, and a little mouse writer is born 🙂

 

 

 

6. Not a stick

This book is has  little text, simple line drawings, and yet the message of the book is SO strong. It has the reader eager to turn the page to see what the stick is. The stick ‘is not a stick’, but it’s a fishing rod, baton, paintbrush and horse! This is an adorable book, and is a great book to have in your classroom to spark conversation about imagination and creativity!

 

 

 

 

7. My Imagination Kit

 

On a wet morning, a little boy’s mother hands him a box of crayons and tells him it’s an Imagination Kit. The little boy sends the day drawing his way through a jungle, the ocean and a desert island. By calling the crayons an ‘Imagination Kit’ the box of crayons is transformed into a tool to have a fantastic adventure. I love that description. If you ever have a kid who says they’re bored, this is a great book to read to them, right before you hand them their very own imagination kit!

 

What other books do you read your to your class to spark conversation and ideas about imagination? I’d love to add to the list I have already.

 

Happy Reading!

Roisin

 

 

 

 

3 Free Online Storytelling Resources for Kids

 

Hands up if you like storytime! I know I do……and so do my kids! Who doesn’t enjoy the chance to just sit back and listen to a story being read to you, take some time out and use your imagination. Recently we have been listening to some great podcasts for kids while we are out an about in the car, or just home and relaxing, and the pure pleasure of just listening to a story, or watching as someone tells you something new you haven’t heard of before, just never grows old.

 

It’s always nice to find new ways to share stories and storytime with your kids, at home and in school. So I wanted to share a few FREE resources that I found, that could be a great addition to your storytime sessions.

 

 

Storyline Online

Fancy having storytime read to your kids by Christian Slater, Kevin Costner, Betty White or Elijah Woods? If you haven’t yet discovered Storyline Online yet, you really should check it out. It is a FREE resource online, and it is great! Imagine sitting down and listening to some great storybooks being read by some very well-known actors, while watching an illustrated version of the book. This website gives kids access to some great titles and storytelling.

I have used this for many years, both in the classroom, and also as a parent. And the kids always love it. It’s a great way to give kids a different storytelling experience, watching someone who clearly loves to read and tell stories.

 

 

Storynory

Storynory is another storytelling resource online that is FREE. I came across this resource recently and it is another great find! It has a large collection of audio stories for kids including poems and music, myths and world stories, classics, fairytales, educational and original stories. The stories are really enjoyable to listen to, and you can download the stories too! This is another great way to get kids listening to stories in class and at home in another medium. Audio books are great for improving listening skills, imagination, extending vocabulary and just giving the kids a great experience of listening to a story.

 

 

Magic Keys

Magic Keys is the final website I’m suggesting you should try. It also has a wide of books that are available for free. Not all of these books have audio, but you can click through the book page, by page on their site, and the books have some cute illustrations and stories. Another handy site to check out.

 

Happy reading with your class with these FREE online resources!

What other online resources do you use to share stories with your kids?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Power of Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes are a fantastic tool in the early years classroom. They give children exposure to rhyme and rhythm, and teach phonemic awareness in a fun and repetitive way. The Guardian paper in the UK polled 2,500 people and asked them what their all time favorite nursery rhymes were. The top ten nursery rhymes included: Hickory Dickory Dock, Little Miss Muffet, Incey Wincey Spider (Itsy Bitsy Spider), Baa Baa Black Sheep, Jack and Jill, Twinkle Twinkle and Humpty Dumpty. These nursery rhymes have been shared with young children by their parents for hundreds of years. What makes nursery rhymes such appealing rhymes for young children and why are they such a good learning tool in the early years?

Rhyme

As young children grow as language learners they become aware that some words sound the same even if they are spelt differently. Through nursery rhymes children are exposed to fun and memorable rhymes and word families like diddle/fiddle, stream/dream and dock/clock. Not all of the rhymes in the nursery rhymes make sense like ‘hickory dickory dock’ or ‘hey diddle diddle’, but I think this adds to the fun of nursery rhymes, and inspires the young creative mind to think of limitless rhyming words. From a very young age children can begin joining in with nursery rhymes. Even very young children can begin joining in the rhyming fun by finishing sentences ‘Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you ______?’

Rhythm and Phonics

I remember very clearly singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ with my daughter when she was a baby. To begin with she always sang ‘star’ at the end of every sentence, but even in the early days, her sense of rhythmic patterns and the structure of language were beginning to develop.  Nursery rhymes are full of fun rhythm which make it easy for children to join in and follow. Exposing children to this rich culture of words and rhythm in language is a fantastically enriching experience for them. The best thing is that nursery rhymes are so much fun, children don’t even realise they are learning such important elements as assonance, alliteration, rhythm, etc.

Fun with the printed text

Even before children can read they can have exposure to how a books work and engage with text on a page. As simple as looking at a page of a poem that is read by an adult, or ‘reading’ a book by themselves as they turn the pages and observe the pages filled with both text, and also visual prompts,  illustrations or key words in the rhyme.

There are several products in my store which you might find useful as you explore Nursery Rhymes with your class.