Student book recommendations are a great way to get kids talking about the stories they read. Whether you’re working on an author study, need a book-themed bulletin board idea, or just want kids to reflect on books, this sheet is sure to do the trick!

Grab your copy below and then check out our Reading Comprehension Activities that can be used for all of these book recommendations!

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My first grade students and I just finished up an author study of Mo Willems.  We had TONS of fun reading Knuffle Bunny, The Pigeon Needs a Bath, Can I Play Too? and many of his other books.  Mo Willems’ silly and easy-to-read books quickly became some of my students’ favorites!

This student recommendation paper was the perfect way to play off of the Mo Willems excitement!

Getting Ready

To get started, I printed a book recommendation paper (below) for each child in my class, plus a few extras.  I went ahead and printed them in color so they would POP when we were done and I put them on display, but you could easily print in black and white instead.

Then, I made an example book recommendation to show my students.  I picked a Mo Willems book that I had read aloud to the whole class just a few days prior so my kiddos would have a clear example.

Student Book Recommendations

To introduce the writing activity, I started by gathering my first graders on our classroom carpet.  I asked, “What is your favorite book?”  Instantly hands shot up into the air!

Since we had just spent so much time reading Mo Willems books, many of my students mentioned his work, but several other titles were also voiced.

I shared a few of my favorites and then, to relate this activity to a real-world purpose, I told my students that I had no idea who Mo Willems was until the teacher down the hall told me to check out his books. (A a true story!)

They were surprised!

That led to a great class discussion about our purpose for recommending books to others in our school.

I showed them my example and the various information found on the student book recommendations sheet.

I had a student volunteer to grab the book I recommended.  We set both my paper and the book on display so that my students could refer back to it if needed.

Finally, I sent my kids on a hunt in our classroom library.  I encouraged them to find a few books they loved and to flip through each before deciding on one.

As my students found the book they wanted to review, I gave them a paper and sent them off to work.

In just a few minutes, my entire class was spread out writing about their favorite books.  I let my students work as long as they needed and a few days later, we started sharing our recommendations in front of the class.

It was a wonderful way for kids to find other books they wanted to read!

Grab Your Copy!

Ready to download?  Just click on the blue button below to grab your free copy and then hop over and snag our Reading Comprehension Activities kids will love!

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11 Comments

  1. I am trying to download some of your freebees and am having trouble. Will I be able to once I sign up for your blog? Love your ideas!!

  2. I am looking forward to using this book recommendation form with my families this year! Is there any chance you have a copy of the file with different colored borders? I thought we’d use a different color each month. Thanks for this awesome learning tool!

    1. Hello Anne,
      Thank you so much for your reaching out, we love to hear how folks are using our products. At this time we only have the one book recommendation form…maybe you could print it on different colored paper instead?
      Warmly,
      Kimberleigh // Community Manager, Playdough to Plato

  3. I love this template! but it’s a little too big for me to hang 30 of them in my classroom. Any chance you could put 2 on a page?

    1. Hello Chris,
      Thank you so much for reaching out. The book recommendations are one of my favorites as well. Currently, we do only have them in one size, but you might be able to modify the size as you print them.
      Hope this helps!
      Warmly,
      Kimberleigh

  4. Thank you for sharing this format
    I love it and I hope to use it with my students

    1. Thank you Ericka!
      I hope your classroom loves it as much as we do.
      Warmly,
      Kimberleigh

  5. It won’t let me download! Page not found! Help! I printed a copy for my son, and he loved it so much I went to get more, and I get this error message!

    1. Hi Bethany,
      Thanks for reaching out. I’m sorry you’re having trouble downloading. We never want that. Please check out our troubleshooting video HERE for help. You’ll also want to make sure you have the most recent version of Adobe Reader Other and that you’re allowing pop ups from our site. I hope that helps! If that still doesn’t work, you can email me at hello@www.playdoughtoplato.com
      Warmly,
      Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

  6. Hi. I am having trouble getting this download. It looks so great! I don’t know if we can get Adobe on our work computers. Would it be possible to email it?

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