Back-to-School Books
Posted by Debra Liverman on 20 Aug 2008 | Posted in: Grade 1, Holiday and Seasonal, Kindergarten, Preschool, Teacher's Helper, The Mailbox
My three-year-old son brought home an empty bag from preschool yesterday with the assignment of filling it with some favorite books to share with his classmates. So before bedtime last night we sat down in front of the bookshelf and started our selection process. And let me tell you, it was a process! Before I knew it we had a teetering stack of books that clearly would NOT all fit in that small tote bag! As we started narrowing down his selections, I was reminded just how much kids love books! He really had a tough time deciding just which books to share.
Then I thought of The Mailbox. Our editors share a love for books and have similar decisions to make with your magazines. They each have to handpick which books to share with teachers like YOU. So I scanned through the latest issues to see which books they selected to kick off the school year. Here are just a few of the books featured in the August/September magazines.
- The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall (The Mailbox Preschool)
- Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems (The Mailbox Preschool)
- Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London (The Mailbox Grades K-1)
- Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh (The Mailbox Grades K-1)
- Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes (Teacher’s Helper Kindergarten)
- Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes (Teacher’s Helper Grade 1)
- Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House) by Mary Pope Osborne (Bookbag)
- The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill (Bookbag)
- Being a Good Citizen by Mary Small (Bookbag)
- Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin (Bookbag)
Are any of these on your list of favorites? Which books do you reach for at the beginning of the school year?
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It is always fun to start the school year off in the library with a book that talks about the value of reading. For fun I read Book! Book! Book! by Deborah Bruss. This book describes how the animals are bored since the children have gone back to school so they head for the library. The librarian cannot understand any of them until the little hen clucks out “Book-book-Book!” Soon all the animals are back on the farm happily reading.
Another book titled Souperchicken by Mary Jane and Herm Aush is the hilarious story of a chicken who can read and discovers that her friends are being sent to the factory to be made into soup. The story continues as she saves her friends from this fate. We discuss the value of reading for when you go to the fast food restaurants, etc. Reading affects so many things we do!
I teach a 2/3 loop. In 2nd grade we begin with Poppy by Avi. It has been a well-loved read aloud by my 2nd graders and we continue to read the sequels throughout the year. When they return in the fall for third grade I begin with the read aloud, The Kid in the Red Jacket by Barbara Park. It is a story of new beginnings and friendship. It is hilarious at times but also brings in real life scenarios which make for great discussions at this level. Besides the well-known Junie B series, Barbara Park has some other great books for this level which deal with real life situations.
As part of our reading program, we start our year off by sharing the story “Chrysanthemum” . The children love the story and it teaches them an early lesson about teasing, jitters, and the power of a teacher.
“How I Spent My Summer Vacation” is written by Mark Teague. This is one of our reading selections in second grade.
“The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn now has another great beginning of the year book to use when teaching about feelings, good choices, and bullies, etc. It is called “Chester Raccoon and the Big Bully,” also by Audrey Penn. A wonderful book with beautiful pictures and a terrific message. My students love it.
This year, my class will be reading “Stepping Today Into Pre-K.”
I will be reading the Book (which is also an ELive audio book) during the home visits I make prior to our first day of school. We will be making footprints onto paper and our footprints will lead us into our classroom on the first day of school. “Stepping Today Into Pre-K” is a comforting story to share with children and families. Tips are given in the back of the book to help transition children into school for the very first time!
Jill J. Simmons-Stemple
Pre-K Teacher
Does anyone know of a company that sells music only cds? I love all the variations on traditional songs but would really enjoy having the background music to sing along to.
Does anyone relate to this?
I start the year with “The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn. The children each stamp their painted hand on construction paper and then stick a heart sticker in the center of it. They also color a picture of Chester at night with his friends. We then wash over it with black watercolor paint and glue punched out stars in the sky. At the end of the day, I relate the story to the parents and tell them to make sure they give their child a “kissing hand” before school the next day.
Diane Siniscalchi
O.L.Q.P. Pre-S& Pre-K
Hewitt, NJ
I will be reading “The Very Full Morning”. It is about a teacher who is nervous on the first day of school.
I don’t know if anyone can answer this question, but here it goes. I have used a mailbox place value game that has two strips the kids cut appart and attach to make a long (timeline) strip for the the place value chart. There are numbers to cut out in little rectangles. They can then build or deconstruct numbers etc. I am unable to find my white black line master and need to locate this game. If anyone uses this too, please let me know the volume and year so I can order it from the archives. Thanks a bunch.
I home school my children, and use “the Mailbox” magazine every day. I love how easily you can adjust the activities to one’s teaching needs.
Thank you “Mailbox” for being there.
Who is the author of “How I Spent My Summer Vacation”? I loved Amanda’s idea! I’m new to 5th grade and want to challenge them and enjoy them simultaneously. That sounds like a writing activity that will accomplish my purpose.
I teach 5th and we used the book How I Spent My Summer Vacation to get a beginning of the year narrative writing example out of them. We discussed how outrageous the story went and I challenge them to come up with an outrageous story of their own, but remind them that t story must end with them at school telling about their summer. We had some very interesting tales!
I like to read “The Important Book” by Margaret Wise, then we make a class book following the same format as the story and call it “The Important Things About Us”. I also read “How to Lose All Your Friends” then we make a big book listing all the ways we can make and keep friends.
I teach 1st Grade and begin the first day with “First Grade Jitters” written by Julie Danneberg. We then go into a cloze activity and create our first classroom book of the school year.
” I get the jitters when________________.
Each student completes the sentence and illustrates the sentence.
Your list is full of my favorites too. I love the Kevin Henkes books. almost every one of his books talks about how children in elementary feel about school, their friends, family. For Brenda, I taught fourth and still used these books for read alouds, responce to text, letter writing, many of the skills needed for the state standards. So many of your magizine ideas have helped my classes to get off to a great start and just keep right on rolling throughout the school year. Thank you.
We always start the pre-k year with a different theme, and this year’s is “Wild About Preschool” (Mailbox, Aug/Sept ‘08). We love all the wild animals, especially the monkeys. I plan on reading fun, interactive books like:
Five Little Monkeys (and the song too!)
Goodnight Gorilla
If I Ran the Zoo
Curious George Visits the Zoo
I can’t wait to get this year started! So many amazing ideas in Preschool edition of The Mailbox!
Hi,
My son will be four by September,which books do I start him with? I teach in a high school, do you also have materials that can be helpful to me and my students?
I am in Nigeria, But I am really interested in what mailbox is doing for both the teacher and the learner.
Stella
We start the year with The Kissing Hand in my preschool class. This year, I’ll ask Moms to send in their traced hand,(construction paper) with a picture and a note to their child. I’ll put a heart sticker in the palm of the hand and mount everything onto a sheet of cardstock placing it in the child’s binder. (Mailbox 8 & 9/06) I LOVE the idea about the Chester puppet!
Brenda - I have two favorite series that I start out with for 3rd Grade. One is series of autobiographical books by Tomie DePaola. They start out with him as a 4-year-old in “26 Fairmont Avenue”. Each subsequent book, he gets a year older. They are hilarious! My other favorite is the “Stories That Julian Tells” series by Ann Cameron. Again, hilarious, but also true to the life af a 3rd Grader. She also has a fabulous book called, “The Most Beautiful Place in the World” about a little boy growing up in Guatemala, whose biggest dream is to go to school. This one is heart-wrenching. The children and I usually end up crying about and cheering for the indomitable spirit of this little boy. Have fun reading!
BTW - I now teach 4th Grade. Any suggestions out there?
I teach pre-k and I also read books like “Wemberley Worried” and “The Kissing Hand” to the children during the first few days of school. Some other good ones are “Tucker’s Best School Day” and “Chicken Chickens Go to School”, as well as “I Love School!” by Philemon Sturges.
We start our new preschool year off with “The Kissing Hand” by Audrey Penn. It helps the children who are a little worried about beginning a new school , with a new teacher, new room, and new friends. Our friend “Chester” (a raccoon puppet) also joins us for story time and has the kids laughing and relaxing in no time. Chester hangs around our room for several months, to remind us that Mom’s love goes wherever we go, even to school!
For the first part of school, my 2nd grade team uses the following books to talk about being responsible, treating others with respect, accepting others, acting as a team, etc.
It Takes A Village
Chrysanthemum
Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse
The Three Questions
What I Did for My Summer Vacation
Leo the Late Bloomer
First Day Jitters (written from teacher’s point of view)
Herman the Helper
The Recess Queen
Wodney Wat
Kissing Hand (more for younger kids)
The Teacher from the Black Lagoon
The Principal from the Black Lagoon
any other Black Lagoon books
Oh, The Places You’ll Go
The Color of Us
If a Crayon Could Talk
Janet–2nd grade teacher
Is this always going to be first grade ideas? I teach 3rd. Thanks!
I teach first grade and I love Junie B. Jones! We begin the year with Junie B, First Grader at Last. My children really seem to like it and it is a great segue into journal writing!