Texas Library Association
Children’s Round Table
2 x 2 Reading List
20 titles for children age two to grade two
Parent and Child Sharing Time Activities
Anastas, Margaret. Mommy’s Best Kisses.
 Name three animals in the story.
 Which animal in the story is your favorite? Why do you like that one?
 Who is a special person who gives you kisses?
Ashman, Linda. Babies on the Go.
 How does your mommy or daddy carry you?
 Can you think of different ways other animals carry their babies?
 Take one of your stuffed animals or dolls for a walk or ride.
Bryan, Ashley. Beautiful Blackbird.
 Beautiful Blackbird is a folktale from Africa. Find Africa on a map, a globe or in a
book.
 Act out the Show Claw Slide from the book.
 Pretend you are a bird. What color would you like to be?
Cooke,
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Trish. Full, Full, Full of Love.
Have a family cooking session- everyone gets to make a dish.
Talk about your favorite foods.
Have Sunday dinner with stuffed animals and dolls.
Cronin, Doreen. Diary of a Worm.
 Keep your own diary for a week, or ask your mom or dad to write your thoughts
down for you.
 Make your own macaroni necklace. (But don’t eat it!)
 Play the Hokey Pokey dance all the way through.
Dunrea, Olivier. Ollie.
 Ollie is a gosling. What other animals can you find in the book?
 Talk about a time when you had to wait and wait for something to happen.
 Think about other ways to make Ollie come out of his shell.
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Florian, Douglas. bow wow meow meow: it’s rhyming cats and dogs.
 How many poems are about dogs? How many are about cats?
 Which poem makes you laugh?
 Make up your own poem about a dog or a cat.
Hest, Amy. You Can Do It, Sam.
 Bake or make something to give to a neighbor or friend.
 Talk about a time when you accomplished something that you didn’t think you could
do. How did you feel afterwards?
 Find the playful mice in the book.
Hudson, Cheryl Willis. Hands Can.
 Talk about some other movements you can do with your hands.
 Imitate the hand movements shown as you read the book aloud.
 Play a game of “Peek-a-boo” or other similar finger plays like “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”
Jeffers, Susan. My Pony.
 If you had a pony, what would you name it?
 Draw a picture of your favorite pet.
 Talk about the kind of activities you would do with an imaginary pet.
. ¡Pio Peep! Traditional Spanish Nursery Rhymes.
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Learn one of the nursery rhymes from the book.
Make up movements to one of the nursery rhymes.
Recite other nursery rhymes and songs.
Schaefer, Lola M. Pick, Pull, Snap! Where Once A Flower Bloomed.
 Ask an adult to slice an apple or melon so you can look at the seeds. Talk about what
you see.
 Plant a bean or pea in dirt in a cup. Give it some water and sunshine and watch what
happens.
 Take a walk and look for flowers. Talk about the names of the flowers you see.
Schertle, Alice. When the Moon Is High.
 Name the animals Daddy and Baby see on their walk.
 If you and your parents went on a walk at night where you live, what animals do you
think you might see?
 Did you ever have a hard time going to sleep? Talk about why it was hard.
Shannon, George. Tippy-Toe Chick, GO!
 Act out the story and try different ways to get past the grumpy dog in the garden.
 Try growing “sweet itty bitty-beans”, but not potato bugs!
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Repeat the refrains “sweet itty-bitty beans and potato bugs” and “tippy-toe,
tippy-toe, tippy-toe” with the reader every time they appear in the book.
Sill, Cathryn. About Arachnids: A Guide for Children.
 Count the legs on the arachnids.
 Pretend you are an arachnid. How would you move?
 Draw a picture of an arachnid.
Steinberg, Laya. Thesaurus Rex.
 Pretend you are Thesaurus Rex. Act out some of the things he does.
 What are some other words you can use in place of look, hop or run?
 The next time you visit the library ask for a thesaurus and find out what it is.
Van Fleet, Matthew. Tails.
 Can you name all the animals in the story?
 Count the animals on each page.
 If you could have a tail, which one would you want?
Van Laan, Nancy. scrubba dub.
 Look for the toys Baby Rabbit takes into the bathtub. What kind of toys do you like
in your bathtub?
 Find the cat in the story.
 Make up a song to sing in the tub.
Wheeler, Lisa. One Dark Night.
 Mouse and Mole were afraid. Talk about a time when you were afraid.
 Why do you think Bear, Mouse and Mole are friends? Name two of your friends.
 Gather some of your favorite stuffed animals or toys and have a pretend feast with
these friends.
Wilson, Karma. A Frog in the Bog.
 Practice counting one to five and back again by counting the bugs in the story.
 Repeat the refrain “on the half-sunk log in the middle of the bog” as the story is
read aloud.
 Read the rhyming words like frog, log and bog. Talk about other words that rhyme
in the story.
Texas Library Association sponsors the 2X2 Reading List solely to encourage free voluntary reading.