As Spring bloomed, and withered, and bloomed again in Washington, D.C., my school library learned into pastel colors, funny animals, and text for emerging readers with a deep dive into the work of Corey R. Tabor.
School librarians know that choosing the right read-aloud is critical, but choosing a book, or collection of books, that offers a chance for crafts, cross-curricular tie-ins, and movement makes every day run smoother.
This past month, I had two grade bands working on unit studies utilizing Corey R. Tabor’s books, and both showed me how amazing his books are in not only engaging the young reader but providing opportunities for crafts, usage of American Sign Language, and building reading fluency.
A Fox-y Craft
Being a former children’s librarian, I am always looking for a craft to do with every single read-aloud. That doesn’t always manifest in library class, when we’ve got time limits and book checkout to do too, but when my kindergarten and first graders read “Fox Has a Problem” we absolutely made time for these adorable fox head popsicle stick puppets that also make great bookmarks. I used a pre-designed fox head, some popsicle sticks, and let me kids use their imagination. This craft would also work perfectly for Tabor’s “Fox Is a Tiger” since some of them already wanted to disguise him as other things–including a tiger.
For my PreK students doing a full author study of Tabor, I utilized existing color sheets from the publisher to introduce some finer motor crafting into their lessons.
American Sign Language
My “Strong Start” in each and every library class teaches students five new signs using our recurring hello sound, so my students are accustomed to me picking signs that then appear in our weekly read-alouds. I was even more intentional with this when reading Corey Tabor’s books, re-teaching some animal signs we already know as well as introducing new signs.
Then, as we read, I’d ask students to show me the signs for animals we knew as they appear–FOX, TIGER, TURTLE, BEAR, RABBIT, etc.
We also worked on signing complete sentences, “Hi Rabbit, says Tiger” is something my students can read, sign, and feel confident about.
Signing works across multiple grade bands–even my littlest readers can do the sign for the animals as we read and anticipate what animal we’ll see next in ‘“Fox at Night” for example.
Reading Fluency
My kindergarten and first grade students read a few Corey Tabor books as part of our Geisel Medal Study, so they were already learning about how the Geisel Medal indicates a book is great for emerging readers. Therefore, it was a natural next step to have them help me read some of the book to their classmates. I took turns calling on students, letting them ask a friend for support if needed, and they all got very into taking turns reading–even students who usually don’t raise their hands to volunteer. Most kindergarten students were more successful reading one or two words at a time–so I would have them complete my sentence or answer my questions about who was doing what, etc. We also wrote about our favorite Geisel books–and many of them picked Fox books!
Most of my PreK friends aren’t readers yet, but they can tell me the letters they see on the cover of the book. We also worked on some letter fluency with a “FOX” handwriting page that helped them practice letter formation they were already doing during class time as well as celebrating our Corey R. Tabor author study.
Seeing 23 classes across 7 grade bands each week is tough, so finding an author like Corey R. Tabor who lets you span reading skills, interest, and age while still staying engaged is a win! What are your favorite Corey R. Tabor books to read aloud and utilize with kids?
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Aryssa Damron is a school librarian in Washington, D.C. She is the co-chair of the Children and Libraries Editorial Advisory Committee and her favorite Corey R. Tabor book is The Cranky Crabby Crow.