One of the absolute delights of teaching Second Grade is re-connecting with my collection of classic children’s books.
On our first snow day I made it to Barnes & Noble to pick up a new copy of A Snowy Day by the inimitable Ezra Jack Keats. The reaction from children in our class and the First Grade, where I subbed on Friday, was priceless. Everyone reacted with joy when I told them I was going to read it and one child offered that he read it every night when he was a toddler.
I also read the Third Grade Chapter 1 from Ramona the Pest by the brilliant Beverly Cleary. Pesky Ramona, always getting into a jam, starts kindergarten and among other stellar moments, thinks she is going to get a gift when her teacher asks her to “sit here for the present,” and gets the whole class going when she wonders how Mike went to the bathroom in the classic Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.
The smiles and laughs on the children’s faces were magical, yet another example of the power of great storytelling from the Golden Age of Children’s Literature.
What was your favorite book when you were a child?