Lauren Flaspohler's Favorite Children's Book

My favorite children’s book would have to be The Napping House by Audrey Wood. This book is about an old lady, her grandchild, a dog, a cat, a mouse, and a flea. They are all napping until the flea comes and bites the mouse. Then everyone jumps up, and they break the bed. It is repetitive with a comical ending.
The Napping House was my favorite book when I was little. I absolutely loved the pictures. Also I liked the repetitiveness of the book. This was one of the first books that I read all by myself. My parents would read it to me. There was also a tape that I would listen to over and over. The Napping House, along with The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, was read to me over and over that I memorized them and was able to go back and read them myself because I remembered what each page said. They were also very repetitive and I started to put the two and two together to figure out words.
There are a couple reasons why it would be good in the classroom. First of all, it is very repetitive. For a lot of students, including myself, repetition is a good tool to get kids to learn how to read. Most of my first books were books that had been read to me over and over and over again. By doing this, kids begin to memorize words, and then they follow along and put the words together with the sounds. Another reason that it is a great book is that it has a ton of adjectives. Although there are not many words, there is an amazing amount of vocabulary because of the adjectives that are used.
In the classroom, I would read The Napping House aloud to my students. I would have everyone who wants to join me in the reading that they remember. Next, I would explain or review adjectives. Then I would have them write down all of the adjectives that they can find. Finally, I would have them write a story with repetition and a lot of adjectives. It would be really interesting to see where kids go with those instructions.
I strongly recommend this book to teachers who have young students. The Napping House is one of the best books to show students adjectives and repetition.

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