Best Books for the First Week of School

I love the first few weeks of school.  The students always seem so well behaved, eager to learn, and are soaking in everything!  My favorite thing to do during the first week of school is to read LOTS of books.  These are a few books that I consider must-reads for the first week of school!

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• The Kissing Hand - Follow-up Activity: Create a chart with all the students feelings about coming to school 

• No, David! - Follow-up Activity:  Sort different behaviors into either a No, David or Yes, David column (ex: throwing a ball inside vs. throwing trash away)

• David Goes to School Follow-up Activity:  Create class rules!

• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom  Follow-up Activity: Create a large display in your classroom with a coconut tree - have students add their names to it.  Have students create individual trees where they stamp their names onto the tree.

• How Full is Your Bucket?  Follow-up Activity:  Go around the circle and have each person compliment a friend.

• First Day Jitters  Follow-up Activity:  Make Jitter Juice!  Mix green punch with some sprite & serve to your students!

• The Rainbow Fish - Follow-up Activity:  Create a chart showing ways to be kind to one another, create an act of kindness jar & place pebbles in the jar for each act of kindness you see - reward the class when they fill the jar up!

• The Book with No Pictures - Follow-up Activity:  Make a slime -call it Blork or Bluurf - have your students play with it before filling out a chart talking about how blork/bluurf  smells, feels, looks, and sounds.

• My Mouth is a Volcano - Follow-up Activity:  Practice different noise levels for your classroom - practice whisper voices, silent voices, partner voices, group voices, etc.

• Kindergarten Rocks - Paint actual rocks - place them in areas around the outside of your school to brighten peoples day!

• How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?  Follow-up Activity:  Go on a dinosaur walk and show students the dismissal areas and procedures.

• How Will I Get to School This Year?  Follow-up Activity:  Create a graph of how students will go home this year.

• Chrysanthemum - Follow-up Activity:  Have students count how many letters are in their name - create a class graph!

• Kindergarten, Here I Come - Follow-up Activity:  Have students write or draw what they are most excited about!

• The Night Before Kindergarten - Follow-up Activity:  Have a former student come in and answer any questions your students may have about kindergarten!

What are your go-to books for the first weeks of school?