Visual Book Lists

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I was perusing Instagram last week, and stumbled (once again) onto Carisa from 1plus1plus1’s idea of creating a visual book list for her kids. All the credit for this idea definitely goes to her! She even created a super quick and very informative YouTube tutorial for how to make a visual book list of your own. So, I used her tutorial and my own list of books for each of my kiddos to create my own visual book lists for 1st, 2nd, and 4th grade for the 2020-2021 school year. She’s has lists for 3rd-7th on her blog!

You can find my visual book lists linked here:

1st grade Visual Book List

2nd grade Visual Book List

4th grade Visual Book List

Feel free to use mine, or Carisa’s, or even make your own with her easy to follow tutorial.

The Plan

I’ve ordered some two pocket, three prong, clear sleeve folders from Amazon, like these. Once they arrive, each child will put their visual book lists in the front sleeve and use the inside for a reading log and other reading response items that we work on throughout the school year. It will be nice to have a visual record of their reading.

From the visual list, I’m planning to sit down with each child and ask what books they’d like to start with this school year. We’ll focus on the first three for now. Some of the books are intended to be read aloud or read together with me, especially for my 1st grader. A few on my 4th grader’s list are books we have already read aloud and I know he’d enjoy reading through once again on his own.

I found many of them on Thriftbooks, Amazon, and from The Good and the Beautiful Library.

Audio Books Count

Yes they do!

I plan to use these a lot for my kids while encouraging them to follow along in their own print copies. Having their own built-in read aloud will help promote reading skills.

Library Visits (or, let’s be honest virtual reservations/pick ups)

Pre-COVID restrictions, I was a serial online book reserver. It is SO MUCH EASIER to go into the library and grab your hand selected books in a few minutes compared to searching for titles on shelves. I do love to go into the library with the kids, and typically would do that at least once a month for a big book pick up.

These visual book lists will make book selecting much easier throughout the school year. Also, if I find that we’ve gotten through our list, I can always make another for the second semester of school.

How do you choose books for your kids each school year? I’d love new ideas and fun things to do during and after reading! Tell me all the things…