A hardy YES! to this book!  In the line of "The Places you will Go" it talks about life's adventures!  5 thumbs up!

Why do I adore this book?  It is very lighthearted, but has depth.  This is a wonderful book to SPRING off of at the beginning of the year.  What is happiness for you?

This book is a wonderful way to build empathy for students who are new to your class and coming from a different country.  

This is a pattern book.  I am going to use it to get writing going at the beginning of the year.  Here is the pattern:
Here comes ___________ (nature).
Time to _______________ (action).
​I (verb) _______________.

This book goes through our "5" senses, but it is so much more!  The author writes, "Listen with your heart.  It is your ears, your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your hands.  Your heart can hear everything, see everything, smell everything, taste everything, touch everything..."

One of my self-chosen foci for this year is OBSERVING. This book fits into that theme personally and I will be using this at the beginning of the year.

This book would also lend itself to a discussion about sensory details.

This rhyming book talks about how we start with a small circle (being the individual) and how our circles grow as we get older and meet more people.

One thing I like about it is the author writes that it can be uncomfortable when we stretch our circle out to people who are different than us.  

​Writing idea: Students draw their circles, but then have some circles (people) outside of themselves that they want to learn about.

What a precious book!  Here's the video, because you really must watch it: 

I am totally going to link this to our daily gratitude lists.
"The small things are treasures.  True treasures.  There are no greater treasures than the little things. One is enough to enrich the moment.  Just one is enough to change the world."

This is a simple cause and effect book about what happens when bear came along!  

Writing idea: You could create your own book like this in the nature of the book, "Fortunately, Unfortunately". 

I absolutely ADORE this book!  It is so perfect for the beginning of the year when we are talking about our "schema" and background knowledge.  

I will read this book and as we think about our own remember balloons, we will brainstorm memories on flat paper balloons.

Then....we will take REAL balloons, press them into paint and on paper and create painted balloons to put our memories on.  Can't wait!