Start the School Year: Favorite Back to School Books

I suppose I am like any other teacher in the world. I have my go-to activities, my go-to books that I like to use to start the school year. I use them year after year. But I also like to collect new books to sprinkle amongst the old. I am a book lover from way back, and that keeps me hunting and looking, always, for fresh books to share at the start of the school year.

This year, I have purchased a few new ones. You can check out my staple books to start the school year on this blog post.

Last year, I ran into Adam Peterson's Instagram account via searching for ideas on kindness. He started a Yellow Day movement that focuses on being kind. He has a guinea pig for his class pet, just like me! He also wrote an amazing little book about kindness called Gigi's Yellow Garden. With a pet guinea pig in the classroom, this is the perfect book for my class! I also love that it is illustrated by a student! I mean, how fun is that?

This one may just turn out to be our guinea pig, Ginger's favorite book this year!

Another book I got was recommended by Amy Lemons from Step into Second Grade (on Instagram). She has this Rooted in Reading series that she created for TPT and is creating a new lesson for the book, Being Frank. After hearing her talk a little bit about this book, and seeing a preview of her resource, I knew this would be a perfect addition to my collection. It is about a boy named Frank who is just too...well, Frank! He says whatever is on his mind whether it is kind or not. This book will open up a lot of conversations about the power of our words and about not saying everything you are thinking. I have heard students say, "I don't mean to be mean, but..." right before they go ahead and say something extremely unkind. I know I can't be the only teacher who has experienced this. I am excited to use this book to talk about what is appropriate and also to teach that words do matter and have power. 

The last book I picked up was recommended by  Wild Things Learn, also on Instagram. It is called, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. I loved her idea of using this book to celebrate the grand opening of our library with much fanfare. It is a great way to talk about the importance of books in our lives and why they matter so much. 

New books are always exciting! I can't wait to share these new reads with my new class in August.