25 More Christmas Picture Books

A few years I did 25 days of Christmas picture books here on the blog. For 25 days I blogged about a different Christmas book (you can find all of those posts HERE). Well this year, I ain't got time for that, so I've decided to blog about 25 more Christmas picture books, but this time they'll all be in one post.

To keep this simple, I'm just going to list the titles and book covers with links to the books on Amazon in case there are any that you'd like to check out further.

1) Russell’s Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton

2) How to Catch an Elf by Adam Wallace

3) Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson

4) The Christmas Wish by Lori Evert

5) How to Catch Santa by Jean Reagan

6) Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

7) Merry Christmas, Stinky Face by Lisa McCourt

8) The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever by Steven Kroll

9) The Night Before the Night Before Christmas by Natasha Wing

10) Dream Snow by Eric Carle

11) Click, Clack Ho! Ho! Ho! by Doreen Cronin

12) The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray

13) When Santa Was a Baby by Linda Bailey

14) The Smallest Gift of Christmas by Peter H. Reynolds

15) Memoirs of an Elf by Devin Scillian

16) The Last Christmas Tree by Stephen Krensky

17) Home for Christmas by Jan Brett

18) The Knights Before Christmas by Joan Holub

19) Samurai Santa: A very ninja Christmas by Rubin Pingk

20) The Not Very Merry Pout-Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

21) Santa’s Underwear by Marty Rhodes Figley

22) A Pirate’s Night Before Christmas by Philip Yates

23) The Christmas Crocodile by Bonny Becker

24) Here Comes Santa Cat by Deborah Underwood

& finally

25) Monster Needs a Christmas Tree by Paul Czajak

If you're still in need of some December resources, the Teachers Pay Teachers Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale is still going on. You can click the image below to check out my Christmas resources.

Get ready, December will be here before you know it!

Making Predictions with Picture Books

I recently created a new unit of reading comprehension printables. It covers topics such as connecting, visualizing, inferring, and predicting and is meant to be used with picture books.

I cannot stop talking about how much I LOVE picture books. I think picture books are so essential to not only primary classrooms, but intermediate ones too. I blogged {HERE} about how I used picture books to teach genres and I'm back today to talk a little about predicting with picture books.

**Fonts by KG Fonts and Rowdy in Room 300

During read-alouds, stopping a book and asking several students to predict can be very enlightening. You'll find that some students make great predictions and some students may be a bit (or very far) off the mark. I think before you get to this stage, you have to model predicting to students. Stop the book and use your thinking voice out loud to tell students what is your prediction and what clues you are using to make that prediction.

When predicting, remind the students to use the clues in the text and pictures. I often use far-off ridiculous examples as a way to remind students that we need to predict from the evidence provided to us. If I'm reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, would it be a good idea to predict that suddenly a dinosaur will come along and step on the bears' home? Not unless I'm reading Mo Willems' Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs (which, by the way, would make a great story to compare to Goldilocks and the Three Bears during a fairy tale unit!).

If you're reading a book that has a semi-unpredictable ending, such as Mo Willems' That is Not a Good Idea (can you tell I'm a Mo Willems fan?), re-read the story with students, looking for possible clues to predict the ending.

So now onto a short list of some predicting favourites:

1) What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins - One of my favourite non-fiction authors, Steve Jenkins' books are always fantastic. Use this book to have students predict what each body part is used for, using appearance clues.

Via Amazon

2) Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch - Your students will love the hilarious hairstyles as all the students (and teachers) try to copy Stephanie. Will Stephanie really shave her hear, or will your students be able to predict an appropriate alternative?

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3) If You Give a . . . series by Laura Numeroff - You could do a book study on this series by Laura Numeroff, with students predicting the crazy shenanigans of the various animals.

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4) Knuffle Bunny Free by Mo Willems - Of course it wouldn't be a picture book list of mine if I didn't throw in a Mo Willems book! Have students predict whether Trixie will find Knuffle Bunny and what might she do with him if she does find him.

Via Amazon

4) Enemy Pie by Derek Munson - Not only is this a great book to talk about friendships and bullying, but take the time to have your students predict the outcome of the enemy pie.

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These are just a few of the many picture books that are great for teaching predicting. What are some of your favourites?

25 Days of Christmas Picture Books - Day 25

So here we are, the last day of my Christmas picture books countdown.

Of course, for Day 25, I had to choose 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore. A Christmas classic it truly is. There are so many versions and illustrations available for this book that you could read a new one each year to keep it interesting.

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Will you be reading this tonight? Whatever your plans for today, I'm wishing everyone a safe, happy holiday!

25 Days of Christmas Picture Books - Day 24 (& a freebie)

Well, it's the second to last day of my countdown - that sure went fast. I cannot believe that tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I am so not ready!

Today's pick is Merry Christmas, Splat by Rob Scotton. I love Scotton's illustrations and his Splat series is no exception.

Via Amazon

This is a sweet story but beware *spoiler alert*, the ending is left up to the reader. For kids this might be a problem, but I think it's a great idea to turn it into a creative writing lesson. I've provided two printable writing prompts. Have your students write about what they think Splat received as a present.

Click the pictures of {HERE} to download the freebie.