I love this time of year! November is like the yummy filling in the middle of an Oreo–squeezed between all things pumpkins in October and the magical joy of Christmas in December! And of course, there are SO many great books that you and your students will love, which is why I’ve put together this list of some of my favorite November Read Alouds for the primary classroom!
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Balloons Over Broadway
“Balloons Over Broadway” is one of my Thanksgiving favorites! I know that you and your kids will love it just as much! It’s the true story of a man named Tony Sarg that created the balloons for the Macy’s Day Parade! It’s an incredible story of ingenuity, creativity, and design. It’s also perfect to tie into your lesson on design process/STEM!
A Turkey For Thanksgiving
Will you be having turkey for Thanksgiving dinner?! That’s the question troubling turkey in this book! “A Turkey For Thanksgiving” is one of my all-time favorite November read alouds! I always pair this with my “If a Turkey Could Talk” craft!
Besides the fact that I adore Eve Bunting’s books, this book is adorable and is a perfect book for making predictions! Before reading the story we make a prediction about what they story is about. Then during reading, I stop after I read page 25 and have the students predict what the turkey would say if turkeys could talk. They write their answers on the “he would say” writing paper and then after the story they create the cute turkey craft!
What I love most about the book is that there is a great surprise at the ending! I won’t give it away though, you need to go read it for yourself!
These turkeys always turn out so great! The kids creative responses to what the turkey would say if he could talk are hilarious!! They make great hallway displays too!
Thankful
Being thankful and November always seem to go hand-in-hand! “Thankful” is an adorable read aloud that serves a beautiful reminder and celebration of the importance of being thankful every single day! There are blessings all around us all year long!
November is the perfect time to let your students know how thankful you are for them and how proud you are of them! You can use these encouragement notes that also come in an editable and digital version to help brighten their day!
The Turkey Series
I always get so excited for November because I can pull out ALL of the hilarious turkey books!!
I especially this series! It’s so much fun! One of my student’s moms read “The Great Turkey Race” when she was our secret reader and I got hooked on them! There’s also “The Silly Turkey Party” and “The Amazing Turkey Rescue” in this series by Steve Metzger. I got my copies from Scholastic Book Clubs, but you can also usually find them on Ebay for a great price too!
Run, Turkey, Run!
“Run, Turkey, Run!” is an absolutely adorable story about a turkey that is trying to find a place to hide from the farmer so that he doesn’t become Thanksgiving dinner! The saying “Run, Turkey, Run!” occurs throughout the book. Be sure to have the kids help you read this part!
This book is great for teaching and brainstorming verbs, but also works great with my “If a Turkey Could Talk” craft to have the kids try to convince the farmer why he shouldn’t eat turkey for Thanksgiving!
A Plump and Perky Turkey
When I got this book I immediately fell in love with it! A Plump and Perky Turkey is an adorable story with a fun twist (who’s more clever: the town or the turkey?) It can be used in so many ways: there is great vocabulary, the text rhymes, and it would be perfect for story structure! Plus, it’s just such a fun read aloud, which we all know is an important part of reading!
Turk And Runt
Have you read “Turk and Runt“?! It’s absolutely hilarious!! Turk and Runt are brothers. Turk is a big, strong turkey and his family just knows he is destined for big things! But Runt knows the truth—people visiting the turkey farm want his brother for Thanksgiving dinner! You and your students will laugh all the way through the story as Runt tries to protect his brother from being eaten! And there’s a fun twist at the end! It’s so good!!
One Is A Feast For A Mouse
“One Is A Feast For A Mouse” is a sweet Thanksgiving tale about a mouse who ventures out from his hole for a sampling of the leftover Thanksgiving feast! He finds a green pea and decides that one is a feast for a mouse, but then he keeps seeing more yummy food and ends up wanting more than he can handle! When the cat shows up mouse almost looses it all, but ends up learning an important lesson about being content and thankful, instead of always wanting more! It’s great for teaching students to summarize a story by using the “somebody, wanted, but, so, then” strategy!
It’s also a great book to read and discuss favorite Thanksgiving food and traditions! It ties in great to this pumpkin pie graphing and opinion craft!
Turkey Trouble
“Turkey Trouble” is another one of my favorite turkey books to read in November! It’s such a delightful story! In the book turkey attempts to dress up in different costumes to disguise himself as different animals in order to avoid being Thanksgiving dinner. Like a lot of turkey books, it has a great ending!! Have your students make their own turkey in disguise and write about how they disguised their turkey!
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Turkey!
“There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Turkey” is another book that the kids love reading around Thanksgiving! You can never go wrong with this series and I love that there’s a book for each holiday! There are so many ways that you can tie these books into your lessons. They are great for rhyming words (so important for our growing readers!), story sequence, retelling, verbs (there’s a new verb that explains why she swallowed each thing!), contractions, and they also have repeated text that is great for choral reading!
Bear Says Thanks
Karma Wilson’s Bear series is so good and always a hit with kids! I especially love the adorable mouse–it’s so fun to read his lines in a squeaky voice! And the repetitive lines are great for choral readings! I love reading “Bear Says Thanks” around Thanksgiving time!
10 Fat Turkeys
There are so many ways you can use “10 Fat Turkeys” in your classroom! It’s a super fun story to tie into a turkey themed math lesson! Use it for subtraction review as turkey disappears from the fence on each page. It’s great for choral reading as the line “Gooble Gobble Wibble Wobble” happens on each page as a turkey leaves the fence. The kids love saying the line together! It also rhymes, has great adjectives to describe the turkeys, and uses the -ing verb tense. I love books that can be used to teach so many things, don’t you?
The Very Stuffed Turkey
When we think of November we can’t help but think of all of the yummy food we will feast on for Thanksgiving! I’m always a fan of the mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie! Yum! Well, imagine going to lots of Friendsgiving meals? That’s exactly what this turkey does in The Very Stuffed Turkey, but you’ll have to read it to find out if he will be able to eat all of the food! This is a such cute Thanksgiving story about friends, family, good food, and being thankful!
November Read Alouds
There are so many great November read alouds to choose from! These are just some of my favorites! Did you favorite make the list? If not, let me know! I love learning about new books!
More November Fun!
If you’re looking for some more November fun, then you will love also hands-on November challenges! They’re great for indoor recess, but also can be used for morning work, or early finishers! Click HERE to read more about them!
These are great books! One of my favorite books for Thanksgiving is called Thanksgiving at the Tappletons. I read it every year!
Hi Dawn! Thanks so much for your note! I haven’t read “Thanksgiving At The Tappletons” yet, but will have to check it out! Thanks so much for the recommendation!!