Enhance Literacy with Read Aloud Books | The Magic Crayons

By IB International School Librarian & Teacher in Japan.

Read aloud books are a powerful tool for English teachers to engage their students and enhance their literacy skills. By reading aloud to their students, teachers can model fluent reading, build vocabulary, and promote critical thinking and comprehension skills. Read aloud books also provide an excellent opportunity for teachers to introduce their students to new literary genres, authors, and themes. With a wide variety of read aloud books available, teachers can select books that align with their curriculum, or simply choose books that will captivate their students' interests. Whether used for classroom instruction or leisure reading, read aloud books are a valuable resource for any English teacher.

Teaching in Japan? All these books I carried with me as a dispatch teacher to various school around Tokyo. All are highly engaging and readily lend themselves to additional activities such as crafts, songs and them based vocabulary classes. © The Magic Crayons

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Read Aloud to the Whole Class Books

Actual Size - Steve Jenkins
I learned a lot about animals myself from this book! All animals are drawn true to life size, or at least as much as will fit on a page. Students love to touch the real size hand of a gorilla or see sharks teeth.
Mr Tim
Actual Size (Amazon #Ad)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle
It’s a classic text and rightly so. There is a lot of vocabulary that can be practiced and learned beyond that included in this delightful and engaging book. I have a regular copy and a pop up version for special occasions.
Mr Tim
The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Amazon #Ad)
Have You Filled a Bucket Today - Carol McCloud
I read this book at the beginning of term as it helps establish my expectations of classroom behaviour. I have also read this to parents, and sen it read at a teachers PD. A classic book for teaching empathy and understanding. It is available in multiple languages too.
Mr Tim
Have You Filled a Bucket Today (Amazon #Ad)
Press Here. By Herve Tullet
A great class / crowd participation book. Practice reading this book before you do so with students for the first time so that you know where all the coloured dots get moved too. Students love to play along.
Mr Tim
No David by David Shannon
delightfully cheeky boy called David doing everything that he shouldn’t. For engagement substitute the word David for your own child’s name or those of your students. This was bought for me by none other than David from The Magic Crayons.
Mr Tim
Go Away Big Green Monster - Ed Emberley
This book was probably written to be read at halloween, and does a great job at those events. Over time I have begun to use it to teach young children what to do if they are approached by a bad person. Go away ! they shout.
Mr Tim
Eric Carle From Head to Toe
I could easily fill this list with Eric Carle books. Children here lean colors, animal names, and to stomp, thump and wiggle! I bought the giant book version to read at my tim sensei schools xmas party.
Mr Tim
Old Hat New Hat - Stan Berenstain
Great for expanding vocabulary. I often ask students to draw their own hat idea afterwards and describe it to me.
Mr Tim
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See - Bill Martin
An engaging and easily to follow book explained by the title. On each page there is a different animal of a different colour looking at me.
Mr Tim
Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow
… jumping on the bed! I’ve found the children get so excited by the images and characters they need a little extra encouragement to read with me, but it’s still a real favourite. You can sing the words or read them.
Mr Tim

Five Little Monkeys
Mr Tim reading Eileen Chriselow's book to middle school students in Japan.
Five Little Monkeys
Ensure that everyone in the room is able to see the book. Don't rush the reading. Give students time to absorb the images on the page for context before reading the text.