Try This… Update Your First Day Read Aloud

As I have deepened my picture knowledge over the last eight years of doing #ClassroomBookADay, and now as a school librarian, one of the things I notice is that many teachers have a tendency to stick with tried & true favorites for read aloud. Especially for back-to-school time. I think a lot of it comes from always feeling a bit of overwhelm at the amount we have to do to be ready for every new school year, so relying on something we already know means one less new thing to have to worry about. But with the wealth of children’s literature we have available to us today, and how much beautiful representation and connection we can find from it, I have a hard time with using the same go-to books. There are just so many other amazing options!

I have a general rule to go by when working through weeding a school library – if the book was published before I graduated high school, we probably have better options now! That’s a 20-25ish year aged range. Sure, classics have their place, but if we want to connect with the kids of today, who are surrounded by screens and digital media, we’re going to need to rely on more updated imagery in the print books we choose also. Plus, if we are still relying on the same book for the first day of school that we used 20 years ago, that means kids have probably heard it more than once. And that means this year is a great time to update it to something more relatable that will support students’ social emotional learning and start building classroom community from the very start.

So, instead of the overused First Day Jitters this year,
try one of these other 18 options instead!

Instead of First Day Jitters, try these!

A Case of the Zaps
This Is a School
First Day Critter Jitters
Butterflies on the First Day of School
Lena’s Shoes Are Nervous: A First-Day-Of-School Dilemma
The Arabic Quilt
A Small Kindness
A Tiger Tail: (Or What Happened to Anya on Her First Day of School)
Isabel and Her Colores Go to School
School’s First Day of School
Strictly No Elephants
Mae’s First Day of School
Danbi Leads the School Parade
The Queen of Kindergarten
My First Day
Calvin
I Am! Affirmations for Resilience
The King of Kindergarten

You can shop these lists & many more for your personal or classroom collection at my Bookshop page!