Back-to-School Books

September is the back-to-school month in the U.S. Many children, of course, are nervous about their first day of school. These stories bring some of those childhood fears about school to light and in doing so, can help kids deal with them. In each story, the main character's problems are realistically resolved in a satisfying way without becoming overly saccharine. These books would also make a good inspiration for writing in those first school days. All of them are easy for children to make text-to-self and text-to-text connections with to enhance their comprehension.

Vera's First Day of School
by Vera Rosenberry

Vera can't wait to join her siblings at school but she somehow gets distracted and misses the school bell. Horrified, she runs home and hides from her mother. When her mom finds her, she helps her get back to school without losing face, and Vera ends up having a good first day. The children in this story are believably imperfect, and the story's resolution realistic and reassuring.

My little sister actually did this when she was young, and my mom was quite surprised to discover her behind the couch while vacuuming when my sister was supposed to be at school.


Timothy Goes to School
by Rosemary Wells
Rosemary Wells precisely captures the feelings of childhood in her stories, and this one is priceless. We all know how it feels to be compared to someone who is better at everything. Timothy tries his best, but feels always outdone by Claude. He becomes more and more dispirited as the days progress until he gets to know Violet, a classmate with the same problem named Grace. The two of them become fast friends and gain a sense of belonging that is essential for school success.


Chrysanthemum
by Kevin Henkes
Before she starts kindergarten, Chrysanthemum is proud of the name her parents lovingly gave her. But once at school, Chrysanthemum's classmates make fun of her long name that has "half the letters in the alphabet". They make fun of having a flower for a name, and Chrysanthemum is devastated. In the end her name is given the respect due it when her teacher reveals that her first name is Delphinium! All of Kevin Henkes' books speak to concerns that are very real to children, and he handles them with deference.

This is a wonderful book to inspire young children to count the letters in their names (first or last) and compare their physical lengths as well as the number of letters in each name. Other activities include sorting children's names by first letter and by number of letters, and putting names in alphabetical order by first letter.

The stuffed mouse to the right is available at IKEA for $2.99 as of this posting. Click on the picture to link directly to IKEA's web site.

Story Props for Back-to-School Books

"Grandma's Button Box" and "The Button Box"

Grandma's Button Box (Math Matters)
by Linda Williams Aber
Illustrated by Page Eastburn O'Rourke

Playing with Grandma's buttons, a girl drops the button box and spills them all over the floor. Her brothers help her to retrieve them to put them back, but how were they organized? The children sort and resort them before putting them carefully into the compartments of her button box so that Grandma will not be unhappy with the disorder. When Grandma arrives, she is pleased to find them organized because they were in a "big jumble" before, and she could never find the buttons she wanted. The story is well-written and provides an excellent stimulus for sorting and categorizing objects, an essential mathematics skill for children that is also enjoyable.


The Button Box
by Margaret S. Reid
Illustrated by Sarah Chamberlain

This is the original story about a child exploring his grandma's button box. The boy and his grandma think about each button's characteristics and where it might have come from. Although there isn't much of a plot, it provokes thoughtful consideration of attributes of objects, an important math skill for young children. Most children love sorting small objects like buttons, and with a little guidance from an adult, can learn to see more than just color or size as attributes.


Story Props for "Grandma's Button Box" and "The Button Box"

"Five Little Ducks" and "10 Little Rubber Ducks"

Five Little Ducks (Raffi Songs to Read)
by Raffi
Five little ducks went out one day, over the hill and far away; When Mama duck said "Quack quack quack quack"; Four little ducks came running back. On the story-song goes until all five ducklings are missing. All then return to their mother in the end. A very popular song with young children, it is also an easy book to learn to read because of the song's familiarity. It lends itself also to teaching the concept of subtraction.


10 Little Rubber Ducks
by Eric Carle
In 1992, a ship from China lost part of its cargo in the Pacific Ocean. Colorful plastic ducks were among 29,000 bathtub toys lost at sea. The little ducks began to appear all over the world, some many years later. This incident inspired Eric Carle's vibrantly illustrated story about the imagined travels of 10 of those toy ducks. The story is a delightful tale on its own, but also is useful for teaching counting skills and the ordinal numbers: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on. Story props: 10 yellow rubber ducks, optionally toy cargo ship


Books and Story Props for "Five Little Ducks" and "10 Little Rubber Ducks"