Critters: Songs & Books
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by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder
Step Gently Out uses poetry and captivating photographs to teach about different critters. Children will be able to see the critters through a new lens with this book. The critters are not only magnified clearly, but also frozen on the page- giving children a new perspective.
This book will not only teach about the natural habitat of each critter through real images, but also teach children empathy as they see the critter as a living thing just like them!
After reading the book, give your child the opportunity to try to capture images of critters in the outdoors. (Use a camera, tablet, or phone) Look through their images together and see what interesting body parts are visible.
World’s Strangest Creepy Crawlies
by Lonely Planet Kids
As labelled, this book is filled with weird and wonderful hair-rising critters. This book uses real photographs and interesting facts to grip readers. This book will inspire curiosity to fuel young researchers!
After reading this book, have your child choose a favorite new critter and research all about it. Go to the library together to pick out resources or use the internet at home. Allow them to become an expert to share with your family or class!
by Kate Messner
This is an action-packed book filled with fun onomatopoeia and artful comic images. There are hilarious superhero and supervillain insects going head to head while simultaneously teaching the reader facts. This book teaches all about insect adaptations cleverly, portraying them as super powers.
After reading this book, you could take your child outside to sit and quietly observe insects and then create their own comic book from their observations!
Heads and Tails Insects is an interactive book that engages readers to guess what insect will be on the next page. Children use the factual text and beautiful water colored images to make their inferences. Children love being a part of the story telling and guessing.
After reading, have your child (or you, depending on age) make up new bug riddles for others to guess. (Perhaps a new insect they learned about from one of the other stories listed)
by Angela Diterlizzi
Some Bugs uses simple rhythmic language and whacky, yet beautiful images, to engage young readers. The pages are vibrant and introduce young readers to many different, adorably drawn bugs (& hopefully instills a love for bugs instead of fear).
After reading this book once through, challenge your young reader to find the silly ladybug hidden on each page. You can also bring the book outside and hunt for the various bugs together!
by Yuval Zommer
This is the all encompassing bug book. It breaks the bug world into an easy to read format dedicating pages to groups of critters like bees, worms, spiders, but also dedicates pages to themes like life cycles of bugs, or bugs that only come out at night, or bugs that may live in your home. This book is factual AND entertaining!
After reading this book, use their tips on becoming a young bug spotter and go on a bug hunt! Bring the book with you and see how many of the featured bugs you can find! (Perhaps even make a list together of bugs you’d like to find and check it off as you do!)
by Faith McNulty
The Lady and the Spider is the perfect book to teach children empathy for the natural world. Instead of killing the spider that was on her recently picked lettuce, the woman shows compassion and puts the spider back out in the garden. Critters are living their lives, just as us humans are living ours.
After reading this book, create a critter rescue kit to have handy in case you need to help a small creature. Learn how to make an easy critter rescue kit in our learning activities section. (Will be added this week!)
And of course- all of Eric Carle’s beautiful fictional books listed below:
These classic stories are books children love to reread over and over again, and that’s great!! Rereading a story is good for building vocabulary, word recognition, confidence, fluency, and comprehension.
There are classic bug songs like the Itsy Bitsy Spider, The Ants Go Marching, and Baby Bumble Bee- but here are some originals that will teach the children a little bit about bugs as they sing:
