As another school year gets underway, many of us are squeezing in a few last vacation days before heading in to set up this year's classroom. Some of us are trying to make sense of chaos as we get ready for Meet the Teacher Day. And some of us already have classrooms full of kids. With that in mind, I asked some veteran teachers to share their favorite first-day read-alouds. I got some great responses and I'm happy to pass them along.
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Let's start with my new favorite first day book.
The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson is a wonderful book about how we all feel like outsiders until we begin to share our stories. Once we are brave enough to do that, we discover that we are not so different after all. I'm looking forward to sharing it with my third graders this year as we build a classroom community where individual differences are appreciated, respected, and valued.
Veteran teachers Becky from Overheard in Kindergarten, Crystal from Primary on the Prowl, and Brianna Krebs rave about First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg. Crystal even wrote a blog post about how she makes Jitter Juice with her class. Such a fun way to start the year! Brianna says, "Always a "go to" for me! Teaches my kiddos that their teacher was just as "nervous" for the first day of school as they were!"
Becky's second recommendation is Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. She says, "I like to tell the class what I did to get ready for kindergarten. Then, have students practice taking turns to speak and share what they did to get ready for kindergarten."
Becky's third recommendation is a new favorite, The Pigeon HAS to Go to School by Mo Willems.
Kelli from Kelli C's First Grade recommends two books. The first is The Secret Shortcut by Mark Teague.
Yvonne from Journeyed Transformations recommends You're Finally Here! by Mélanie Watt. She pairs the book with some fun activities created by Linda Kamp.
Literary Sherri recommends The Teacher from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler. "It makes students laugh and puts them at ease. :)"
For our final recommendation, veteran teacher Pat McFadyen says, "As a math/science teacher, I loved reading Math Curse the first day! It's funny and I could share my love of math humor!" What a great way to help students see that learning math is fun!
What are your favorite first day read alouds? Post them in the comments below.
Have an awesome school year!
