The best 2nd-grade read-aloud books come from Ryan T. Higgins with We Don’t Eat Your Classmates and We Will ROCK Our Classmates. (Amazon Affiliate Links)
If you haven’t made them a part of your class library yet, I’d suggest you do that right away. And trust me, you’ll want both books!
As a 2nd grade teacher, I want to get the biggest bang for my time. Higgins’ read-aloud books help make the most out of my little instructional time. Both books contain these elements which help progress my students towards grade-level standards.
Engaging 2nd Grade Read-Aloud Books
The main character of the two books is a dinosaur named Penelope, who attends school with children. Throughout the books, Higgins uses humor and wild scenarios to entertain and thrill his readers.
Since Penelope’s situation in school is unique, class discussions are abundant. You’ll have opportunities for visualizing, predicting, evaluating, and more.
Range of Vocabulary
I first was drawn to Higgins as a 2nd grade read-aloud because of the vocabulary presented throughout the books. For each book, there are 6-8 words to broaden and enrich student vocabulary. Best of all, the vocabulary presented are words students will hear by adults and use in their everyday language.
If you’d like students to deepen their vocabulary learned throughout the book, you can present some alternative vocabulary activities.
Strong Theme
A book with a strong message or theme is imperative. Not only is deriving the theme from picture books essential, but it also makes for the perfect pairing with writing. Higgin’s books provide multiple writing opportunities from each book. Now that’s what I call a win-win!
A few of the writing prompts I posed for my students were:
- I’m a Good Classmate
- The Child-Eating Dinosaur (Don’t worry, all children are safe!)
- My Most Delicious Lunch
- My Talent
- More Than Just A Child
- I’m An Encourager
- My Courageous Day
While we are on the subject of writing, make sure your students have a solid grasp on paragraph writing. Check out my FREE Structured Paragraph Handbook, which will guide you and your students through the steps needed to create the perfect paragraph.
Now, that’s a lot of writing without the tears. Students love these books so much; they are eager to share their thoughts and ideas in writing.
If you’d like, I have all the vocabulary activities, sentence writing mini-lessons, and the reading-writing prompts ready to go right here in Google Slides (perfect for Distance Learning) and PDF.
I’m sure your students are going to love Penelope as much as my students love her!
Melissa
