Free Books! :)

Okay, now that I have your attention (because what elementary teacher does not have an insane amount of books that could give hoarders a run for their money!).....have you heard of this great site called "We Give Books"? I was introduced to it this year for "Read for the Record," since our school did not have enough Llama books.


It has real books that are online that you can look at (as in flip pages) and read aloud.

A little backstory....Every Wednesday is second grade ice cream day where kids can purchase ice cream in the morning to eat after lunch. My kids know how fanatical I am about food on our carpet, so it used to be the ones with ice cream got to eat at their desks while the rest got to sprawl (usually a no-no) on the carpet. It was okay, but hard to make sure everyone got to see pictures, paying attention, etc. That's where We Give Books came in. After we read our book (and by the way, best part...each time you read a book, the website donates a book to a designated campaign), the kids feel soooo good we get to donate one to someone else, and they are always asking who's it going to (which is where we then pull up a map and find out...great cross-curricular activity!).

Anyhow, they have now started a campaign where your personal school can earn books! It's called "Read for My School." Of course, when we went to go do our story this past Wednesday, we couldn't even get on the site! (the campaign started that day, or the day before, I think). We then went to Storyline Online (the one where the actor's guild members read...very cool as well!) and got our book fix. I just checked the website and as of this post, it was working fine!

But I am getting myself (and most likely you) distracted....sorry, Friday brain drain.....All you need to do is sign up (you can do it thru a Facebook account, although I have mine thru my school email) and choose a campaign to participate! You can even create your own "library" of books...one of my favorites is "Good Night iPad" (a definite read for us bloggers!).

I hope if you haven't heard of this fabulous resource before, you'll check it out! :) I'm curious to know, though.....what are some of your favorite "animated/online storybook" sites? Those are two of my favorites, and I keep meaning to check out Tumblebooks (thru the local library) when I have time!