This post is part of the series in Book Recommendations for Kids by Age and Month of the Year. It has May book recommendations for children who are 5 years old. Each book is paired up with additional resources that you can use to extend the story further.
My daughter is now 8 years old and a very fluent reader. Very often I hear the same question, What did you do with her when she was little? Well, we read a lot, and I maintained a diary of our reading activities in weekly What My Child Is Reading entries in my blog. I decided to make these reading diaries more useful and create a new series on my blog where I will share our best books for each month for ages 3, 4, 5, and 6. Moreover, I will pair each book with an extension activity – sometimes with ours and sometimes with activities from my creative friends from Kid Blogger Network. In this post I am featuring books that we read in 2011 when Smarty was 4 and a half years old.
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1. Bugs Are Insects
May is perfect time to observe bugs in nature. But what are bugs exactly? Bugs are Insects from Let’s Read and Find Out series answers this question and even explains a difference between insects and arachnids (i.e. spiders). If your children are interested, you can extend their reading by consulting this great list of books about insects and spiders from The Measured Mom. Kids Activities Blog has plenty of adorable bugs crafts and activities – I love these ladybug lollipops from Two-Daloo.
2. What Does Peace Feel Like?
By the age of 5 most children are experts on 5 senses. But what if they are asked to described a concept rather than an object? This is a premise of What Does Peace Feel Like by Vladimir Radunsky. Children from all over the world were interviewed for this book and their answers are illustrated with bright child-like drawings. My daughter really enjoyed this book and extended it into her own activity explaining me how she thinks love feels like. You could also pair up What Does Peace Feel Like? with games for 5 senses from Learn, Play, Imagine or explore a particular object with all 5 senses – check out how Fantastic Fun and Learning explored a marshmallow.
3. Postcards from Pluto
Postcards from Pluto by Loreen Leedy is our favorite book about the solar system. Smarty loved the idea of kids traveling the universe and sending postcards filled with facts back home. We have shared some of our ideas about studying space in Space Books and Activities for Elementary School post, but I still want to surprise Smarty with this clever solar system snack from Creative Kid Snacks
Soup Day
Many working parents find it hard to have time for special activities with their children, but this is where books with recipes can come very handy. In Soup Day by Melissa Iwai a young girl shops with her Mom for ingredients for a vegetable soup and then helps prepare it. While the soup cooks, Mom has time for playing with her daughter, and then an entire family has a meal together. There is a recipe in the end of the book, or you can create a “customized” vegetable soup from Nurture Store with your children.
5. Extra Yarn
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett is not necessarily a spring book, since events of the books unfold in winter, but we just happened to read it in May, and we both enjoyed the book. Jon Klassen masterfully captured the power of creativity by transforming a spare black-and-white world into a world of color by the end of the book. An obvious extension of the book would be making something with yarn, like this colorful string art project from Buggy and Buddy. 
6. Emma’s Rug
I think that Emma’s Rug by Allen Say will appeal both to children and adults for different reasons. Children will enjoy the story of a talented little artist who needs a help of a special object to tap into her imagination. Adults will ponder about sources of our creativity and contemplate their role in raising creative people. One of my favorite blogs Tinkerlab has a lot of ideas on fostering creativity – just see what you and your child can do with one minute drawing challenge. 
More May Book Recommendations
- May Books for 2 and 3 year olds
- May Books for 4 year olds
- May Books for kids age 6 and up - coming next week
More Booklists for Kids?
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2 comments:
I'd completely and totally forgotten about Postcards from Pluto. That is such a cute book.
I want to read "What Does Peace Feel Like?"
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