Read Across America Day is Wednesday, March 2nd.  In honor of Read Across America, I wanted to share a list of some of my favorite Children’s books and begin a series of posts on how to incorporate picture books in the world language classroom.

Here is a list of some of my favorite children’s books to use in the World Language classroom, My favorite Children’s books.  They are listed in Spanish, but I use many of the same books in French.  All picture books can be adapted to any language by covering up the words, just use the art work, and write or say the story in the target language.

What are you doing for Read Across America Day?  Try a Book Pass.  Pick out children’s books, they could be around a theme, you need one book for each student. Arrange the desks, or move the chairs in a circle, so that books can be passed every minute.  Have students read for one minute and then say pass.  The students pass their book to the student on their left, clock wise, and get a new book from the person on their right and continue the process.  If you have 30 kids in your room, it is a sneaky way to get them to read for 30 minutes.  Students can just read for pleasure, or be assigned a task; list all the cognates you can find, list vocabulary on any topic, or a grammar point like imperfect verb forms.  Have students vote on which book they liked best and why…in the target language of course!

Please share your favorite Children’s Book, in any language, in the comment section below to win a free picture book!  For a quick class warm up, do a whip around and have students say their favorite book from childhood.  What are common books children read growing up in the target culture?

Possibly have students search on line for their favorite Dr. Seuss quote? Search Google images for Dr. Seuss quotes in the target language. This one is my favorite.

And this one from Oh, the Places You’ll Go. Get the book in Spanish at Amazon.com.

Click on the books to purchase them at Amazon.com.