genres galore.

Some kids have Bieber fever. Other kids think if it's not made out of Lego's, the construction can't be sound. My muffins? Genres are the bee's knees. For serious. In August, our librarian happened to mention the words "realistic fiction" in passing, and they were HOOKED. These kids find almighty joy in deciding on a story's genre. Unreal.

Our first grade standards don't require a very in-depth study of genre - we introduce elements of each genre, but we don't go as deep as second and third grade - so I wasn't exactly planning on some superb genre-lovin' during our time together. But with my kids' unexpected passion, I knew I had to do something! 

To encourage the nuggets' love of genres without smothering them, I decided to create a "genre board" where I would post covers of books we read as a class in categories.

Obviously, the last thing we educators need is one more "to-do" bullet on our list. Even though this bulletin board requires consistent updates, it requires very little additional time. Here's how I manage keeping our board up to date:

When planning for the upcoming week's lessons, I also pull any read-aloud books I will be using.

After selecting the next week's books, I quickly Google each title, and print off an image of each book's cover. I then paperclip the printed image to either the cover (for paperback books) or the title page (for hardback books).

This way, as soon as we finish reading the story, we can discuss the story's genre and I can post the book cover right away.

Clearly, if I posted the cover for every single book we have ever read, our genre board would be bursting! I really try to post the covers for those books we share that really embody the characteristics of each genre. 

• Our genre board encourages my kids' passion for genres without overwhelming them with the intricacies of each category - they simply get to have fun with them!
• By using bright, enticing colors, our board screams "LOOK AT ME!" The kids love coming over to the board and admiring all the books we have read together!
• Keeping our board updated and growing takes almost no additional time for me. Victory!

Do y'alls kids love genres as much as mine? How do you celebrate genres?