Contrary to popular belief, teachers do not have summers off. As
soon as that final bell rings on the last day, our wheels are already turning
about back to school. In my classroom, I have students in K-2, so I don’t like
reusing the same lessons year after year, because I don’t want to bore my
little buddies!
I love picture books; however, finding appropriate books for my students
can be tough. For this next year, I plan on having a plan waaay ahead of time.
This way, I can be sure that I have appropriate books and lessons ready for
story time instead of scurrying through hundreds of pictures on Pinterest
looking for something that might work, and then being 2 pages in a story and
having my students be totally unattached to what I’m reading them.
One of my favorite summer activities to do is to hit up the public
library. I know, what a dork! BUT – it’s seriously a gold mine, and the perfect
way to plan for the new school year without breaking the bank. If you are a new
teacher, the library is your new best friend. With the technology libraries use
today, checking out books is amazingly easy. In my town, I can go online and put
all the books I want to look at on hold. I get an e-mail when they are ready
and pick them up in a neat little bundle. I take the books home, read through
them, and then decide which ones I want to actually buy for the classroom. I
love that I am essentially “trying out” the product before I go through the
hassle of purchasing the book. Really, you might want to just try them out with
your students first to make sure they are a hit. In this teaching business,
every penny counts. This system works great for me, because I have so many
books I’ve purchased that never get read because they just aren’t appropriate
for my students.
I just got all my back to school books checked out, so I will be posting
a list soon! My goal is to do a monthly book list that I’ve researched myself,
so I can hopefully help others that teach similar populations find books that
will work for their students as well. I am hoping to help bring more literacy
into your autism classroom! 

4 Comments

Jennifer Weigand · June 25, 2015 at 4:39 pm

Love the monthly list. I am trying to get my co-workers to do the same so we can use each other's lists.

RTotty · June 26, 2015 at 1:16 am

I do the same thing! (My class is grades 1-4) in fact, the last time I went to the library I just sat on the floor in front of the picture books and looked through them shelf by shelf – only making it to the C's before I had a good stack to read through! After checking them out, reading them, and deciding which I would most like to use, I made a photocopy of the front covers to put in with my lesson planning materials.

    Gabrielle Dixon · June 26, 2015 at 2:56 pm

    I like the idea of photo copying the covers!! Smart!

Sarah Forst · June 26, 2015 at 5:49 pm

Can't wait to see that list!

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