As a primary teacher, story books are a vital tool to have! They hook children’s imagination, get them intrigued in new topics and sometimes most usefully can fill up some spare time. From my own experience, talking to other trainee teachers and working class teachers, I have gathered a list of valuable books to have access to, either in your own book collection or in your classroom. Hopefully, this list will help any trainee teachers or even mature students at university who have children of their own.
Key books for KS1 (children aged 4-7)
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
- Room on the Broom, Julia Donaldson
- The Smartest Giant in Town, Julia Donaldson
- The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson
- A Squash and a Squeeze, Julia Donaldson
- The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr
- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen
- The Huge Bag of Worries, Virginia Ironside
Key books for KS2 (children aged 7-11)
- The BFG, Roald Dahl
- The Witches, Roald Dahl
- The Sheep-Pig, Dick King-Smith
- The Queen’s Nose, Dick King-Smith
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Jeff Kinney
- Horrid Henry, Francesca Simon
- Mister Magnolia, Quentin Blake
- Mr Stink, David Walliams
- The Boy in the Dress, David Walliams
- Gangster Granny, David Walliams
- Stig of the Dump, Clive King
- Harry Potter, J K Rowling
As you can see, there is a HUGE range of books that you could have in your box of tricks and there are many books I haven’t even thought of on this list!
You’ve probably noticed that a lot of the books are written by the same author. There are some authors whose every book is worth its weight in gold, people like Julia Donaldson, Roald Dahl, David Walliams and J K Rowling. You know if you read a book to your class written by them, it will go down well every single time.
Any trainee teachers out there that have any other books to add to the list?
Worcester Student Life 