Free Online reading books are readily available for pupils who have the use of tablets, or smartphones and it might be quite possible that these collections could make a useful addition to classroom collections.
Stories for Kids
Stories for Kids has sections for children aged: 3 to 5, 5 to 8, 8 to 10 and middle grade. “Our mission is to offer traditional, meaningful storytelling to every child, parent, or teacher around the globe with access to the internet, for free.” (Stories for Kids)
Stories for Kids’ latest addition is Gemma : “Gemma is a middle grade novel that follows a curious explorer and her ring-tailed lemur, Milo, as they hunt for the “most greatest treasure in the world”. Solving riddles, battling a bell-wearing jaguar, and traveling the Eight Seas, Gemma’s adventures take her from a young girl to a brave captain, whose only limits are the stars.” That sounds like fun!
Free Kids Books
Free Kids Books in an interesting site providing textbooks, as well as reading books. Instead of age, this collection is split into categories including: adventure, animals, biography, bullying, classic books, books for a cause, dinosaurs, dragons and many, many more! Books also have a helpful description such as Rhino Charge – is portrayed as Overcoming Shyness:
“Ringo the Rhinocerous is shy, Rhino Charge is a story about overcoming shyness. In Rhino Charge, Ringo learns to overcome his shyness by practicing to gain confidence. An endearing story for young children in kindergarten or early grades, and an important lesson, that more practice helps build confidence, and gaining confidence helps overcome shyness.” (Free Kids Books)
These books can be read online, so they could be shared on a whiteboard, or downloaded as PDFs for printing and using again.
Oxford Owl
Oxford Owl has a large collection of tablet friendly free e-books developed for children aged 3 – 11. Why not sign up for access, or join, for your whole class? “Help your young child learn to read, and love to read, with our range of over 100 free eBooks. If you’d like to learn more about how to support your child’s reading, visit our Reading and Phonics made easy pages. For information about our range of levelled books for schools, visit our Oxford Reading Tree page or explore our Read with Oxford pages to learn about our range of books designed to support reading practice at home. Not sure where to start? Check which level is right for your child with this simple test from Read with Oxford.” (Oxford Owl)
Free Online Storytime
Free Online Storytime has children’s stories from very young to aged eleven. ” If you like to read online, and even if you don’t, we think you’ll like these free stories! They’re a great way to spend a lazy afternoon, go ahead and listen online to a few of these free short stories!“(Free Online Storytime)
Free online reading books make a great and very useful addition to your classroom library, they are well worth investigating, even if only offered for reading at home.