Ideas for Using Picture Books to Teach

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For the last ten days I've posted about some of the ways that I use picture books to prepare creative learning activities for my preschooler. I love using picture books as inspiration! Picture books tell stories that children relate to and enjoy. Parents can use picture books to teach. The stories in picture books can be compared to oneself, to the world, and to other books to teach about math, language, social studies, science and more. Here are some other ideas for using picture books to teach a preschooler.

• Use Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to review the alphabet and then make an ABC Tree to match uppercase and lowercase.
• Read Kipper's A to Z: An Alphabet Adventure. Kipper wants to put the things he finds for each letter in a box, although he runs into problems when the ant crawls away and the Elephant is too big. Make your own ABC box with an item (toy or otherwise) that begins with each letter.
• Read Ten Apples on Top. Use a my printable (or a photo of your child) and also small manipulatives to count 10 apples on top.
• Learn about the major landforms in the United States as you read Paul Bunyan by Steven Kellogg. See my previous post about learning from Paul Bunyan.
• Read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett and It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles Shaw to begin learning about clouds and weather. Track the weather for a week, or look for shapes in the clouds. Alternatively, help the preschooler(s) tell a story about food that they want (or don't want) to come from the sky. Make it rain in the kitchen.
• Read Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie de Paula and make your own pancakes. See my previous post for more ideas for a Pancake Picture Book Lesson.
• Learn about hermit crabs, shapes, ducks, poetry and more!
• I also used picture books for kindergarten math and science. Those ideas can be adapted for younger readers, too.

The more picture books you read, the more opportunities you will find to share learning moments with your preschooler!  Reading is about finding connections to the world or ourselves through the stories we read. You can begin finding those connections as you read stories with preschoolers. There is so much to learn and enjoy! Happy reading! This post is the last in the Homeschool Blogging Network's series, 10 Days of Tips for Homeschooling Moms. I hope that this series has been helpful to you as you consider ways to incorporate learning activities into picture book read aloud times.

This week, I've shared 10 days of Picture Book Preschool Lessons. 

Click over to the landing page to see the other posts I will be sharing. You can also see what tips the other homeschooling bloggers are sharing on their blogs.