Unschooling Conversations

Picture Books with Patterned Writing, Repetitive Language and Predictable Text

Over the years, we’ve loved reading children’s picture books filled with patterned writing,  repetitive language, or predictable text.  These might include alphabet books, counting books, rhyming poetry, or predictable, repetitive stories.   These types of children’s books are great for reading together because children love to make predictions about what might come next in a poem or story based on following the patterns an author has chosen.  These books are often the ones they ask us to read again and again.  If we do, they’re likely to gain a love for beautiful language, and they’ll often internalize that language as their own.

Books like these are the ones you’ll hear children reading along with while you’re reading aloud, even before they’re independent readers.  They’re the books with text children remember and chant on their own even after you’ve finished reading.  In the same way, they might be inspired to mimic some of an author’s language, some of the rhyming scheme or patterned text, and make it their own by writing their own similar stories or poems.  Some children might enjoy doing this writing on their own, while others would be happy for you to transcribe their ideas for them.

The following children’s books are some that we enjoyed when Ben was younger, and a few of them inspired our own patterned writing, some of which I’ve included in other posts here.

I Like Bugs by Margaret Wise Brown

Fortunately by Remy Charlip

The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown

A House is a House for Me by Mary Ann Hoberman

A, My Name Is Alice by Jane Bayer

Autumn: An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur and Leslie Evans

Winter: An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur and Leslie Evans

Spring: An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur and Leslie Evans

Summer: An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur and Leslie Evans

Q is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing Game by Michael Folsom

O is for Orca: A Pacific Northwest Alphabet Book by Andrea Helman

123 Moose: A Pacific Northwest Counting Book by Andrea Helman

ABC’s of Washington State by Laurie Banks Somes

Hailstones and Halibut Bones: Adventures In Color by Mary O’Neill

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I hope you enjoy these wonderful books, and if you have any other favorites of your own, please share them with us in the comment section.  Happy reading and writing!