The Power of Read Aloud

One of my favorite new read alouds is a book called Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman. Katie's owner, Sara Ann, brings home 3 kittens, and Katie (the dog) wants desperately to play with them. Unfortunately her eagerness gets the best of her every time, and her howling and running about scare the kittens away. She learns that she has to be calm and have self-control if she is going to get the kittens to love her back.


The story line is excellent and is perfectly punctuated by illustrations that capture Katie's uncontrollable excitement (her wagging tail is my favorite). The kids love to hear it, I love to read it, and it is a great lesson about the importance - and difficulty-of having self control.

I read this book to first grade last week. We identified the problem-Katie wants the kittens to like her, but her behavior scares them and gets her in trouble with Sara Ann. We identified how Katie solved her problem-she had to be calm and quiet even though she was so excited. And we applied it to our own lives. But since the first graders were wiggling the entire time, I wasn't sure how much of an impact the lesson had.

Until today.

I was having my daily morning meeting with one of our "special" first grade friends. I meet with him every day to pump him up and remind him to behave. We were talking about how a kid in his class really bothers him and it makes him want to act out. I told him that no matter what this other boy did, he needed to hold his anger and frustration inside and just act calm and ignore him.

And he says, "Just like that story you read about the dog who wanted to play with the kittens?"

And after I pulled myself off the floor, I said, "Yes! It is exactly like Katie Loves the Kittens. You have to have self control!"

I love my job.

Now go read to a child.