Press Here for Cause and Effect

True confessions . . . my name is Debbie and I'm a bookaholic. My three favorite past times are buying books, reading books, and organizing books for my classroom. In fact, when someone new comes into my room they always say, "You have a lot of books." And indeed I do. So it won't surprise you  to hear that last fall when I was blog stalking and somebody (I'm sorry I don't remember who) mentioned the book Press Here by Herve Tullet I hopped onto amazon and bought it. 

The person didn't even say much about but I knew from the description I had to have it. It has since sat in my classroom waiting for the right moment and that moment happened Friday. I was getting ready to introduce cause and effect, I scooped up the book on my way to the carpet, and magic happened! My kids LOVED the book. Now if you're unfamiliar with it let me summarize. It starts with one dot that you press. When you turn the page the dot has doubled. There are many actions for the reader to take from pressing, to shaking, to tilting the book. When the reader turns the page the dots have multiplied, changed, or shifted in some way. My kids were begging to do the actions - there was 100% engagement! They were also making predictions about what would happen next faster than I could call on them.  And all the while I was saying things like, "We caused the dots to go the the left hand side by tilting the book. The cause was tilting and the effect was the dots moving to the left." It was a great way to introduce cause and effect. Of course, my kids now want to make their own version and I certainly wouldn't want to prevent that! I can't wait to see what they come up with! So if you too are a bookaholic, I highly recommend this book. It was more engaging to my third graders than I would ever have thought! And thank you to the blogger who introduced the book to me! Happy reading!