October is such a fun month in kindergarten! Pumpkin investigations, learning about nocturnal animals, and fire safety awareness are just some of the engaging activities and topics my kinders love to learn about! These are my top 5 best read alouds for kindergarten in October!
“Pete the Cat: Firefighter Pete”
If you need a book to engage students in learning about fire safety or to prepare for a field trip or firefighter visit, this one is sure to engage your students! This made my list of best read alouds for kindergarten in October because author James Dean describes one of our favorite characters on another adventure in this Pete the Cat book.
Pete and his classmates are going on a field trip to visit the fire station. They get to look at the fire truck and try on all of the firefighter gear. Then an alarm bell rings and there is an actual fire! Pete must help save Grumpy Toad!
“Pumpkin Jack”
Will Hubbell’s story about a little boy’s decomposing jack-o-lantern is one of the best read alouds for kindergarten in October because it can inspire your pumpkin investigations! This book follows the life cycle of the discarded pumpkin as it gets left in the garden, buried and forgotten in winter snow, sprouts up in the spring, and becomes new pumpkins in time for the next Halloween season.
I love to read this book before we explore our class pumpkin and refer to it over the month as the pumpkin starts changing. If you are really brave you can start tracking the decomposition of your own “Pumpkin Jack” with your students!
“Stellaluna”
Stellaluna, created by Janell Cannon, follows baby bat Stellaluna as she gets lost from her mother and is raised in a family of birds. This book has gorgeous illustrations and is a great book for introducing nocturnal animals, teaching comparing and contrasting with the birds and bats, and also has some great lessons about friendship.
Stellaluna and her bird siblings are friends even though they each have their own strengths and skills. They are alike in some ways and very different in others, yet they still get along and enjoy each other’s company. This is a great lesson to teach in October when you are still fostering that classroom community.
“Creepy Carrots”
A list of best read alouds for kindergarten in October wouldn’t be complete without a fun spooky book! This book by Aaron Reynolds stars Jasper Rabbit as he is seemingly followed by these creepy carrots who won’t leave him alone. He knows they are there but nobody else can seem to see them and he can’t catch them! With just the smallest amount of spookiness and a surprise ending your class will love this!
This is one of my favorite books to teach about reading with expression because it leads itself naturally to reading with lots of pauses and a dramatic flair. More books in the series include “Creepy Crayon” and “Creepy Pair of Underwear.” I love books in a series to inspire kiddos to keep reading!
My October bulletin board is always full of creepy carrots. I don’t give my kiddos a model of what their carrots should look like but I pass out one color of paper at a time and just give them a verbal direction. For example I first pass out orange and tell them to cut out a carrot. Then I pass out black and tell them to cut out a mouth and glue it on their carrot, etc. At the end of the process there are a bunch of unique creepy carrots to display!
“How to Catch a Monster”
Written by Adam Wallace, this is another book which is part of a fabulous series. I like that this book uses rhyming words because that is something we usually teach and reinforce at the beginning of the year and it has lots of opportunities for students to hear or even predict the last word because they know it will be one that rhymes.
The “how to catch” series lends itself into many after reading activities such as designing monster traps! This would be a great activity when you have extra time such as if there is no special one day or a rainy inside day etc. I like to teach my students how to plan on paper by drawing their designs before trying to build them with any building or stem materials in the classroom. This is a great time to collaborate with a partner or small group. After building is completed I love to have students or teams share about their trap and then have everyone do a gallery walk around to view before clean up.
Best Read Alouds for Kindergarten in October
There are so many amazing picture books to read in kindergarten. October is full of interesting topics from fire safety, pumpkins, nocturnal animals, and more. You can check out more October kindergarten books here! If you see any you think I NEED to add please send me your suggestions at katie@littlecountrykindergarten.com I’m always ready to add to my library.
Keep Reading!
Check out my favorite read alouds for the other months of the year! I am constantly adding to my list so I can own all the best read alouds for kindergarten! And make sure you grab this freebie before you leave. Encourage families to read at home with their children with this fun coloring tracker to see how much they can read every month!
