The Pout-Pout Fish ( I Love-Love This Book!)

The Colorado Children's Book Award program (sponsored by CCIRA) allows students all over the state of CO to cast their vote for their favorite nominated picture book and/or chapter book as long as they have heard at least three of them. As soon as the nominees were announced I started reading the picture books to my class, one per day. It was so fun to just read for pure enjoyment-with no real lesson in the back of my mind, although a lot of the nominees presented great opportunities for teachable moments which I took full advantage of (clarifying words for meaning, fluency, word choice)! I loved listening to my kids buzz about their favorite books and try to persuade others to "get on their team" and vote with them. BTW, have you seen this on tPt created by One Extra Degree? I bought it and I love it!

One of the nominees was Deborah Diesen's first book and New York Times bestseller The Pout-Pout Fish. This book holds a special place in my heart because earlier this year I happened to pick it up at my son's book fair to read to my boys at home. It quickly became a favorite as I

The sequel...also very cute!

watched my two year old stomp around the house imitating the pout-pout fish with his cute little pout-pout face! Of course my five year old adored it as well and often re-reads it (with his own additions when he can't read a word) to his brother all the time. The expression "pout-pout face" is often used in my house to refer to anyone who is being grouchy.

After I shared it with my class (I was sure to include the backstory of this book to draw them into it) it became one of their favorites too! My third graders often use the same expression "looks like so and so has a pout-pout face today..." just to be silly. So of course I ran out (or purchased from Amazon from the comfort of my home) and bought the sequel right away.

I maintain my own classroom website that my students use frequently. They spend a lot of time on the students page so I thought I would surprise them with this video which I posted at the bottom of the student page...turns out they loved it and it was a hit so I thought I would post it. I made it sitting in front of my mac using iSight. Sometimes it is the little things that bring us joy! Here it is, a reading of The Pout-Pout Fish with special guest...Dylan Randall (2.5 yrs.-). He was so excited to see himself on the computer that he kind of forgot about making his pout-pout face but never the less, still cute (no bias of course).