I ran into Janine at the bookstore last week. She said that she was looking for a new book to read aloud on the first day of school. Janine has been a primary grade teacher for about ten years now. She sheepishly admitted that she usually just grabs one of those back-to-school books featuring a familiar book character. You know the type: Froggy Goes to School (London, 1998), Franklin Goes to School (Bourgeois, 1995), The Berenstain Bears Go to School (Berenstain, 2005). I was pleased that Janine was putting more thought into her first day of school read aloud. It is not a decision to make lightly. Reading aloud is such a critical part of literacy instruction. On the first day, the read aloud is likely to have the goal of community building, and it will help set the tone for the year. What do you want to communicate to students about the kind of class they will be in for the whole year?

I excitedly began telling Janine about the book that I always used to read aloud on the first day when I was teaching first grade. I told her about starting the year with a Kevin Henkes author study. On the first day, I would read Chrysanthemum (Henkes, 1996), and then we would each talk about our name - how many letters it has, why our parents gave us the name, do we like our name or not, etc. Janine grabbed the copy of Chrysanthemum that I was holding and put it on top of the pile of books she carrying. She then said good-bye and made her way over to an easy chair. But I didn't even get a chance to tell her about the read aloud that I always chose for the second day of school - Wemberly Worried (Henkes, 2000). We'd talk about all the things that worried us about coming to school; I always had the longest list.

Then I started to think that if I were still teaching first grade, I'd probably still be starting each year with the very same books, just as Janine had been doing. What's new out there for the first day of school read aloud? What are other teachers reading? Do they use the same book every year, or do they switch books from one year to the next?

Surveying Teachers: Classics and New Favorites

I approached several teachers to talk about what they were planning to read. First I talked to Chris. She's taught fourth grade for awhile now. Chris likes to start the year with a book featuring a fourth grade protagonist. At the beginning of her career, she read Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (Blume, 1981). After a while, she felt that the book was more about the little brother than the fourth grader. So she read The Fourth Grade Wizards (DeClements, 1990) for a couple of years but eventually decided that it was a little heavy for so early in the school year. She wanted a book that had a little more humor. Her next choice was Fourth Grade Rats(Spinelli, 1993). In recent years, she has been reading Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade Without a Clue (Gantos, 2003). Chris says that it is a little more irreverent than her previous choices, but the students really like it.

Kathy has been teaching kindergarten for twenty years. For about the past ten years, she has been reading aloud Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten (Slater, 1996) on the first day of school. She likes the parallel stories of the 26 children and the teacher getting ready for kindergarten in their own ways. Kathy reports that her kindergartners love the individual portraits at the end of the book. She uses the characters' names in future letter recognition activities. Since she discovered the book, she has wished for a class of 26 children with names from A to Z.

A fifth grade teacher, Tony, noticed that some students' interest in reading begins to wane in fifth grade. The students have gotten over the thrill of being able to read chapter books. It is likely that they are beginning to get a little bored with the series they started reading back in the third or fourth grade. They're still smarting from trudging through the content area textbooks that were introduced in fourth grade. He is always looking for books for students who think they don't like reading anymore. Tony's "can't fail" first day of school read aloud book is The Top Ten Ways to Ruin the First Day of School (Derby, 2004). Before he starts the book, he invites his fifth graders to generate their own top ten lists. Tony reports that this book is falling-on-the-floor, laughing-until-your-sides-hurt funny. He wants to remind his students that reading is fun and they are going to have a lot of fun reading in fifth grade. Tony reports that it is just a coincidence that he and the book's protagonist have the same name.

Lori is very excited about a series of books that she has been reading aloud to her kindergartners during the first week of school for the past several years. The series is called That's Our School, authored by informational book author Ann Morris. Each book in the set features a specific school worker: custodian, principal, gym teacher, librarian, nurse, or teacher. The book contains colored photographs and is narrated by a primary student. Lori reads That's Our Principal on the first day of school. After she reads the book, she takes her class to visit the principal in her office. She continues with a new book featuring a different school worker on the following days. Lori finds the tours conducted in conjunction with this series to be a refreshing change from the school tours that she had previously conducted for new kindergartners.

Dan thinks Flying Solo (Fletcher, 2000) is the perfect book for the first read aloud in sixth grade. The book tells the story of a class that goes through an entire school day without adult supervision. Dan wants his students to be self-directed, take responsibility for their own learning, and support each other. He believes that this book is a wonderful vehicle to begin discussing these ideas. He loves the realistic depiction of the variety of personality types in the sixth grade class. Dan is particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to talk how these different kids interact with each other when there is no adult there making them be nice. Although the teacher in the story, Mr. Fabano, is fictional, Dan thinks that he is a great mentor and role model for all teachers.

Third grade teacher Leah uses two books on the first day of school. She reads the first chapter of Judy Moody (McDonald, 2000) and the picture book, This Is the Way We Go to School (Baer, 1992). She selected Judy Moody because the character is the same age as her students. Her students can relate to Judy's thoughts, ideas, and feelings. Judy Moody is also part of a series that most third graders can read. Leah thinks that it is a good way to move her students beyond the easier series books that they were reading in second grade. She uses This is the Way We Go to School to support her first math and geography lessons. The book shows the different ways that children around the world get to school. The students locate the places in the book on a world map. Then they begin working on a survey to find out how the students in their school get there. This information is later converted into different kinds of graphs.

Suggestions for Choosing a First Day Read Aloud

So what should you be looking for in that perfect first day of school read aloud book? Most of the teachers I talked to recommend reading books that feature characters that are about the same age as your students. They seem to prefer to start the year with a funny book rather than tackling serious issues right away. One teacher recommends that you use the first day of school read aloud to introduce a new series. Two teachers recommend using informational books. One teacher recommends that you use a book to start the conversation about the kind of class the students would like to have.

The genre that seems to be missing from their recommendations is poetry. I'd like to fill in that gap by recommending two poetry books. What a Day It Was at School (2006) is one of Jack Prelutsky's newest volumes of poems. It has 17 poems about everything that happens in school from heavy backpacks to suffering through gym class. This book has a nice balance of realistic and fantastic poems.

My next recommendation has been around for a little while. Lunch Money and Other Poems About School (Shields, 1998) has 24 very funny poems about the daily events of school. It takes you from the Pledge of Allegiance to the bus ride home. Both books feature poems with rhyme and rhythm, that simply delights elementary students.

Take a look at what you are planning to read on the first day. Maybe this will be the year that you try something new. Happy New Year!

References

Baer, E. 1992. This Is the Way We Go to School. New York: Scholastic.

Bourgeois, J. 1995. Franklin Goes to School. New York: Kids Can Press.

Berenstain, S. and J. Berenstain. 2005. The Berenstain Bears Go to School. New York: Random House.

Blume, J. 1981. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. New York: Puffin.

DeClements, B. 1990. The Fourth Grade Wizards. New York: Puffin.

Derby, K. 2004. The Top Ten Ways to Ruin the First Day of School. New York: Scholastic.

Fletcher, R. 2000. Flying Solo. New York: Yearling.

Gantos, J. 2005. Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade Without a Clue. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Henkes, K. 1996. Chrysanthemum. New York: Harper Trophy.

Henkes, K. 2000. Wemberly Worried. New York: Harper Trophy.

London, J. 1998. Froggy Goes to School. New York: Puffin.

McDonald, M. 2000. Judy Moody. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.

Morris, A. 2003. That's Our Principal. New York: Millbrook Press.

Prelutsky, J. 2006. What a Day It Was at School. New York: Greenwillow.

Shields, C. 1998. Lunch Money and Other Poems About School. New York: Puffin.

Slater, C. 1996. Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. New York: Scholastic.

Spinelli, J. 1993. Fourth Grade Rats. New York: Scholastic.