We are inching closer and closer to the beginning of the school year. Soon we will be opening up the book closet and grabbing goodies to read to students. As teachers, reading to our students is an absolute delight, especially at the beginning of the year. Reading books can help build community, teach procedures and classroom expectations, as well as work to build individual character. The lessons and discussions that you can have with students at the beginning of the year are priceless. I decided to share a list of 20 books that I use specifically to teach many important lessons for students when they walk into my classroom for the first time.
This post may include affiliate links in the picture book titles, which means that I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through one of my links!
1. Peanut Butter and Cupcake by Terry Border
The first day of school can be a scary time for students when they enter your classroom for the first time. Peanut Butter is a character who goes out looking for friends. In the process, the students learn how they can use sentence stems to introduce themselves to others and make new friends.
2. Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes
Students need to hear that it’s okay to feel worried, scared, or timid on the first few days of school. This story gives teachers a great opportunity to talk about strategies to make friends and build comfort in the classroom.
3. Today I Feel Silly by Jaime Lee Curtis
In my elementary classroom, I often work with students about their feelings and how to regulate them. This book shows different moods that the character in the story is feeling. We have them identify the feelings in the book with Zones of Regulation.
4. Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann
I love using this story to talk about safety tips and rules to stay safe in our classroom and school. This read aloud leads into our class activity where we make a student guided classroom contract.
5. Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen
This book is fun for the students and brings up an organic conversation of voice level in different parts of the school and allows for you to build a plan around our voices in specific areas.
6. Clark the Shark by Bruce Hale
It is important to make sure that we are being responsible in our space and that we are respecting other student’s space and feelings. Broach the subject of “being handsy” in an engaging way where you can talk about this important topic as quickly as possible.
7. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
This story by Kevin Henkes focuses on students saying mean things to the main character about her name. The main character becomes saddened to the point of not wanting to go to school. This teaches students, in a wonderful way, how their words have consequences and can affect others.
8. The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
The Name Jar is a story about Unhei, who felt bad about her name being different and wanted to change it. Each year I speak with students about making sure that you learn how to say student names correctly and don’t continue to say the incorrect name.
9. Suki’s Kimono by Chieri Uegaki
In this story, Suki is proud of the clothes that she wears. You can have a candid conversation about the importance of students being themselves and appreciating their culture (what they wear, eat, celebrate, etc). We shouldn’t make fun of the different things that people wear. We should appreciate how different, cool, and unique each student is.
10. Bad Apple by Edward Hemingway
I love this cute little story about friendship and how bullies can ruin friendships if you let them (the crab apples are the bullies in this story). Teach students to stick up for their friends against bullies in this heartwarming story about a worm and apples friendship.
11. What James Said by Liz Rosenberg
Oh, what would I do without this book! Have you ever had students come up to you after recess about gossip on the playground? Teach your students what to do when they hear information from another student. Go to the source and ask if they said the thing that hurt their feelings. After reading this story, I play a game of telephone with the students to show how easily words can be manipulated into something else.
12. Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister
An oldie but a goodie. Show the importance of sharing and how friends appreciate when you share items, stem materials, etc. Begin a conversation with students about the different things that are appropriate to share.
13. The Peace Book by Todd Parr
Be happy being who you are! Appreciate who you are and appreciate who others are as well. If you can do this, you are showing peace in our world.
14. The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
After reading The Invisible Boy, I have a conversation about the possibility of students being on the playground and not having someone to play with them. I share that those students might be feeling invisible. We talk about strategies that they can use to help out. This also allows for students to come into the classroom and share to their peers or teacher about feeling invisible. Powerful!
15. Our Class is a Family by Shannon Olsen
Helping each other learn and grow and having each other’s back is so important. Whether with a bully, helping others learn, building someone up when they have a bad day, or showing kindness when it’s needed. Having a good class community makes everyone happier and more relaxed.
16. The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
Teach students about skin color and how brown isn’t just brown or white isn’t just white. Have students grab Crayola multicultural skin colors and find what their color is. Talk about each student’s color in class and make a list of the colors. Have students write down their color so they can draw pictures of themselves or others with their colors. My students love this lesson because they are able to draw pictures of classmates and know exactly what color of brown their classmate is.
17. Remarkably You by Pat Zietlow Miller
You are remarkable because you are different. There is nobody like you in the world. Being different makes you special. I use this book to help build students up and work on their confidence. Learn about the special things that each kid holds and build on that to help them realize that it is a remarkable part of them.
18. Elmer by David McKee
Following the story “Remarkably You,” I use Elmer to help students appreciate how different they are. Elmer hated being different but realized at the end of the story that being different made him special and that the other elephants didn’t hate how different he was. The elephants loved Elmer because of the goofy fun elephant that he was.
19. Beautiful by Stacy McAnulty
Being beautiful doesn’t mean that you have to dress like a princess or wear a dress. Sometimes, being beautiful can mean playing in the dirt, dressing up like a pirate, playing sports, etc. Beauty comes in many different ways. Sometimes, it feels like females are expected to dress or act a specific way. This story breaks those boundaries for girls.
20. What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada
I love sharing this story in class. I teach second grade students, and I frequently notice students who don’t feel confident with ideas that they have or are scared to share. I make it a point to read this story and share that having an idea is a wonderful thing. We talk about how the students need to keep working on their ideas so it will grow. The more time you give an idea, the bigger it will get.
