Back-to-School Books
Click on the ** to see some activities
* Title added Summer 2006

* * Arthur's Back to School Day, Marc Brown
* * Arthur's Teacher Trouble,  Marc Brown
Bad Boris Goes to School, Susie Jenkin-Pearce
* Brand-new Pencils, Brand-new Books , Diane deGroat
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,John Archambault
Clifford's: First School Day, Norman Bridwell
Chrysanthemum, Kevin Henkes
Curious George Goes to School, Margret Rey
* David Goes to School, David Shannon
First Day Jitters, Julie Danneberg
Franklin Goes to School, Paulette Bourgeois
Froggy Goes to School, Jonathan London
* If Everybody Did, Joann Stover
It's Hard to Share My Teacher, Joan S. Prestine
Leo the Late Bloomer, Robert Kraus
** Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse,  Kevin Henkes
Miss Malarkey Doesn't Live in Room 10,Kevin O'Malley
* Mistakes that Worked, Charlotte Jones
Morris goes to School Bernard Wiseman
* My First Day of School, P.K. Hallinan
My Teacher Sleeps in School, Leatie Weiss
Never Spit on Your Shoes, Denys Cazet
* Nobody's Mother Is in Second Grade, Robin Pulver
 Owen, Kevin Henkes
* Recess Queen, Alexis O'Neill
Summer's End (good for 2nd grade), Marybeth Boelts
The Awful Aardvarks Go to School, Reeve Lindbergh
* The First Day of School P.K. Hallihan
** The Kissing Hand, Audrey Penn
* The Night Before First Grade, Natasha Wing
The Teacher from the Black Lagoon, Mike Thaler
The Wheels on the Bus, Raffi
Time for School, Nathan!, Lulu Delacre
* We Share Everything, Robert Munsch
Wemberly Worried, Kevin Henkes
What I Did On My Summer Vacation, Marc Teague
Will I Have A Friend? Miriam Cohen

Comments: July 2002
For some great back-to-school book ideas (and lots more) go to
Back To School Books - What should I read to my class the first week of school?

Comments, June 2001:
Rita: I love to read What I Did On My Summer Vacation, by Marc Teague. I just repeated "What I did" this last week and the kids loved it. They are now writing my year end writing sample about what they will do, hope to do, or dream to do this summer.

Mary Jo: I used Arthur's Back to School Daylast fall and tied it in to bus safety. I was able to get materials from the bus company, and we wrote rules on an outline of a school bus.

Barbara Bashour, American Community School, Beirut, Lebanon: I wanted to share one thing that I do with Read Alouds with you. I make a copy of the cover and one meaningful page. I place the double sided paper in a plastic slip binder. By the end of the first week of school we already have about 10-12 books read. I then send the binder home with a child to share Read Alouds with the family. The parents receive a letter giving them some prompts for asking pertinent questions to improve retelling skills. I had five groups (each a color) and in no time at all we were circulating the 5 different binders through-out the whole first term. The kids love it and the parents get to see what we spend a lot of time doing.