Favorite Picture Books and Audios for Kindergarten :: On Xavier's Shelves

I've been wanting to put together something on this topic for ages but documenting Xavier's kindergarten shelves finally spurred me on!

Before this school year began, I pulled some of my very favorite picture books onto a couple special shelves for reading aloud to Xavier during his kindergarten year.  These are ones I read to my older three over and over, and I wanted to make sure I hit them all with him as well.  The nice thing about these is that of course they span a variety of ages.  So the Baby Girls (ages 4 and almost-3) happily join us too, as does my first-grader.  (And who am I kidding--my Big Kids eagerly listen in on most of these as well!)

This list is not meant to be exhaustive.  I'm sharing what is on Xavier's kindergarten shelves right now.  There are lots of other wonderful books that are not!

(I'm also not duplicating the AmblesideOnline Year 0 list.  The ones I have linked here are our family recommendations; the ones listed but not linked can be found on the AO Year 0 page.)

Picture Books

If I could only choose two fiction books for kindergarten, they would be:

The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter and The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh

But his shelves hold more than just those...

Eloise Wilkin Stories (THE most requested picture book in our home over the years)

Virginia Lee Burton - Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel, Katy and the Big Snow, The Little House, Calico the Wonder Horse, Choo Choo, Maybelle the Cable Car
Don Freeman - Corduroy, Dandelion
Robert McCloskey - Make Way for Ducklings, One Morning in Maine, Blueberries for Sal

Marjorie Flack - Wait for William, Ask Mr. Bear, the Angus books, The Story about Ping

Bemelmans' Madeline books (we have both Mad About Madeline, which collects the original six books, and the same books in individual copies just because we love them so!)

H.A. Ray's original Curious George books

Virginia Kahl - The Duchess Bakes a Cake, The Perfect Pancake

Patricia Thomas' Stand Back, Said the Elephant, I'm Going to Sneeze!

Barbara Cooney - Ox-Cart Man and Miss Rumphius (two all-time favorites of mine)

Beatrice de Regniers' May I Bring a Friend?  

Margaret Wise Brown - The Little Island, The Little Fireman

Elsa Beskow's Pelle's New Suit

Paul Galdone - The Owl and the Pussycat, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Henny Penny, The Little Red Hen, and other folk tales

Tony Johnston's Yonder

Mary Ann Hoberman - A House is a House for Me, The Seven Silly Eaters

Wanda Gag's Millions of Cats

Margaret Mahy's 17 Kings and 42 Elephants

Esphyr Slobodkina's Caps for Sale

John Vernon Lord's The Giant Jam Sandwich
Arlene Mosel's Tikki Tikki Tembo
Jean de Brunoff's original Babar books

Lois Lenski's "Small" and "Little" books - Cowboy Small, Policeman Small, The Little Train, and more

And a few more in specific genres...

Folk Songs (Xavier's personal favorite) - Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night, You're a Grand Old Flag, The Glorious American Songbook, The Star-Spangled Banner, Frog Went A Courtin, The Rooster Crows ... (I've documented well our love for folk song picture books if you're interested in more!)

Non-Fiction Picture Books - the Smithsonian backyard series (my oldest son particularly likes reading him these)

Poems and Rhymes collections that have as lovely illustrations as they do text - Lavender's Blue, The Glorious Mother Goose, The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems

Audiobooks

Cate and Xavier listen to a bit of an audiobook most days of the week.  Here are the ones we're hitting this year:

:: Beatrix Potter collection, read by Nadia May

:: Winnie-the-Pooh collection, read by Peter Dennis

:: A Bear Called Paddington and More About Paddington, both read by Stephen Fry

:: Little House collection, read by Cherry Jones (this is one AO free read that I don't save for the scheduled years--my littles have listened through several times along with the older kids)

:: a few Jim Weiss CDs: Uncle Wiggly's Storybook, Tell Me a Story, Animal Tales, Famously Funny, Arabian Nights, Giants!  (I avoid the ones that are retellings of books we'll be reading later on for AO, which is why I only have selected ones listed here)

:: records from Arts Reformation, including Mother Goose Songs, A Child's Introduction to the Orchestra, and more

:: Peter and the Wolf narrated by David Bowie, along with The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and The Carnival of the Animals
:: Catholic Children's Librivox (I'll admit I am not a huge Librivox fan, but it is nice to have these religious books available!)

Xavier's Kindergarten

Xavier is my kindergartener this year.  He's 5.5, all boy, very eager, and a lovable combination of silly and serious.  He's only 14 months younger than Cate, but I have no plans to combine the two now or in the future--we'll save his Year 1 for next year, when he'll be six.  This year, he's enjoying the riches and readings we do as a family as well as a little time carved out just for him.

He has three slots on my checklist each day:

:: 15 minutes of either math lesson (RightStart Level B) OR reading lesson (CM-style)
:: 5 minutes of either writing (learning letter strokes on a chalkboard) OR another fine motor activity (cutting, puzzle, lacing, etc -- these usually stretch longer than 5 minutes)
:: 15 minutes of a read-aloud from the Year 0 shelves (though Cate listens in too)

He also gets a bit of schoolish time in other ways over the course of the day:

:: He listens to about 20 minutes of an audiobook daily with Cate while I do school with the Big Kids.  Right now they're working through the Little House series again, and then we'll move on to Jim Weiss and some Year 1 free reads.
:: The Big Kids spend a few minutes reading either Beatrix Potter or Winnie-the-Pooh to him two afternoons a week while I get a little extra school time in with just Cate.
:: He joins us for our family work, including Morning Basket readings, picture study, music study, poetry, and Italian.
:: He listens in on Cate's daily religion readings as she prepares for First Communion.
:: He loves our nature study outings and keeps his own nature journal, which he takes quite seriously!  :: And obviously he joins the littles too when I sit down in the late morning with a short stack of picture books.

Basically, he occupies his "middle child" position in the family quite happily by being involved with everyone doing everything. ;)  The rest of his time he spends outdoors or in imaginative play, and he's also apprenticing under his big brother to take on some new chores later this year.

He doesn't have his own binder or pencil box yet (those are special privileges reserved for the Year-1-and-over crowd around here ;)), but he does have a couple spots where he keeps his things:

his small "kindergarten box," like Cate's last year...

...and the ottoman in our family room, which has during-naptime-only activities he can pull out while I'm working with the older kids, including puzzles, pattern blocks, lacing beads, and the like.

When I get a chance, I'll give a closer peek at his shelves, which include not just kindergarten-ish read-alouds but also my favorite picture books for the Year 0 crowd.