Notes for parents

Books I centered my first grade classes around were often from the Henry & Mudge and Mr. Putter books. In second grade I focused a lot on Magic Treehouse books by Mary Pope Osborne. If you are familiar with Paperbackswap.com , It’s a great place to swap books you no longer want and exchange them for books you do want. You pay to send your books to others that request them, you get credits and when you find a book you want, they send it to you free.

"These are some of the readers I used in my classroom because they carefully introduced one skill at a time. If you can find them at a library, used bookstore, or online, they make wonderful beginning readers—but don't worry if you can't. The important thing is choosing books with controlled vocabulary so your child experiences success."

Little Cat Feet, Good Fences, Maybe a Mile, (These are from the older Keys to Reading series — great controlled readers, but harder to find . You might check used bookstores or libraries for them as a bridge to first grade or even beginning First Grade. This is one of the best resources I used.)

• Yellow Fish, Blue Fish (Level PP1) by Laurene Krasny Brown, illustrated by Marc Brown.

• My Friends the Frogs (Level PP2) by James Marshall.

• Grab That Dog! (Level PP3) by Tomie dePaola (with Sherry Forman Litwack).

These are short, illustrated readers with simple stories, poems, and activities (like making a bookmark or hat) to build early reading skills, sight words, and phonics in a fun way.

These are out of print but still available used on several sites:

• Amazon, eBay, AbeBooks, ThriftBooks, and Etsy often have individual copies

Use market+Archives.org