Top Ten Books to Encourage Discussions around Social Justice by Jennifer Orr

March 26

As an elementary educator I know the power picture books hold. Such books speak to our hearts and evoke strong emotions. As a result, they are a wonderful tool for starting discussions around difficult topics. Here are ten titles for talking about some challenging but important issues in our world today.   While You Are […]

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Bedtime Reading at School by Jenny Orr

A few bits of background before we get to the really fun stuff:   I firmly believe in the power of bedtime reading. As a parent of two (ages 10 and 6), I love our bedtime reading routine. Years ago we read a couple of picture books before bed every night. These days, we’re always […]

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Nerdy in So Many Ways

Fourteen years ago, as a brand new teacher, the first book I read aloud to my fourth grade class was Charlotte’s Web. For the next ten years I read many of my all time favorites along with new discoveries to my fourth and fifth graders. When I moved to first grade my read aloud choices […]

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Supporting Pre-Nerdy Readers

As a first grade teacher I start the year with a group of mostly pre-readers. Every year I find that they love to listen to books but are uncertain about what to do with a book independently. Over the past several years I’ve found two ways to use their love of read alouds to support […]

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