10 Purposeful Read Alouds for a Strong Start to Your School Year!
- Always Upper Elementary
- Aug 15
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 16
My love for picture books all started because of my sweet mom. Growing up, she would read dozens of picture books to me and my sister every night. When I say dozens, I mean DOZENS. We would read for hours together every single night! Not only did I love and cherish this time together, but I also fell in love with picture books. As a teacher and adult, I still adore picture books!
Reading books to your students sounds like a simple concept, but it is actually one of the most powerful teaching strategies! Read alouds build community, validate personal experiences, broaden perspectives, foster understanding, and also teach MANY academic skills that our students need to be successful.
It can be daunting to select books to read aloud because there are thousands to choose from! However, after 9 years of tweaking my back to school plans, I have finally found a great blend of read alouds for the first few weeks of school. During back to school season, I am very intentional about choosing books that foster community, highlight kindness, model empathy, encourage inclusivity, and help establish strong classroom & behavior management.
As you are thinking about how to structure your first few weeks of school, I encourage you to consider adding these into your schedule! Thank you in advance for using the links on this page. They are my affiliate links, which contribute to my income that supports my family, and allows me to continue Always Upper Elementary LLC. We are currently trying to buy our first house together as married couple, so we are really trying to save up! :)
Here are my top 10 favorite books to read during the first month of school:
This is my favorite book for the actual first day of school. The overall message of the book is that everyone gets nervous on the first day of school–even teachers! This book is funny, honest, and has a creative twist at the end of the story. There is also a companion text called, Last Day Blues. It is written by the same author and has the same characters, but is specifically written for the last day of school. Both books are perfect ways to "bookend" the year! Click here to get either of these books for your classroom!
What if Everybody Did That? is an excellent way to start your year with strong classroom & behavior management. This book helps students to think about how their actions and choices impact others. It will provide you and your students with common language you can all use as a class, which is incredibly helpful! I love displaying it by my main whiteboard because then it is up there as a constant, visual reminder. Sometimes I will simply point to the book (with a teacher look on my face of course!) as a nonverbal way to redirect students. The week after I read this book for the first time, I overheard one of my students politely saying, "ummm *Mark,* what if everybody did that? Can you please follow directions?" My teacher heart was overjoyed and I was SO proud. Simply put: this book is powerful! Also, the author has written other books that are excellent companion texts to bring out throughout the year: "What if Everybody Said That?" "What if Everybody Thought That?" Click here to get this book for your classroom!
That Rule Doesn't Apply to Me! is an excellent behavior and classroom managment book as well! It is clear, relatable, and downright effective! This book usually sparks a conversation about the difference between equity and equality. Students learn that if only some kids follow particular rules, it has a negative impact on everyone around. It is also simply unfair! The author use kid-friendly language to describe why rules exist, why they are important, and how our choices can have an impact on ourselves & everyone else around as well. This is a great book for the beginning of the school year as you are establishing expectations, routines, and procedures. The author (Julia Cook) has written other books that are similiar to this one, and I highly recommend them! For example, one year my students were struggling with integrity and not stealing. I pulled out Julia Cook's book called, "Ricky Sticky Fingers," and it was incredibly helpful! Click here to get these Julia Cook books for your classroom!
4. "Be Kind"
Be Kind describes how some acts of kindness can be simple & easy, and other acts of kindness require more bravery! However, all acts of kindness (regardless of size!) can have a positive impact on the people around us. This book provides students with concrete examples that help them understand what kindness looks like. If you would like a companion resource about kindness, check out my blog post about the crinkled heart here. Click here to get this book for your classroom!
The Invisible Boy is a story about a boy who often gets left out. This story reminds students to include others, "branch out" of their typical friend group, meet new people, and make an effort to help everyone feel welcome. It is an important reminder, especially at the beginning of the school year when there are new students. The main character in this book is quiet and shy, which is validating for students who are also more reserved. Click here to get this book for your classroom!
6. Hair Love
This one might surprise you, but hear me out! As educators, we try to actively teach students how to accept one another’s differences. One aspect that makes us each unique is our hair! So, we need to teach our students how to accept each other’s different hair styles! Think about it. Throughout the year, students are constantly changing their hair. Whether a student gets a drastic haircut, changes their hair to a different style, gets new braids, or dyes their hair, there are always changes being made to our student’s hair.
Last year, I had an incident happen between six of my students where feelings were deeply hurt because of comments made about each other’s hair. I ended up canceling the lessons I had planned for the day and we all read Hair Love together. After we read the book together as a class, I had students reflect on the story individually. Then, we had a whole group discussion about how we could apply the book’s theme to our own classroom and interactions with each other. After our discussion, we watched the short film about Hair Love to reinforce the moral of the story and to interact with the book in a different way (the link is here if you are interested!). This all happened in September. From that point forward, whenever a student’s hair style or cut or color was mentioned, I would say, “Amazing! Hair love!” My students latched onto the phrase, “Hair love!” too and started saying it to each other as well. The book Hair Love gave us a foundation to have positive conversations about each other’s hair. The reality is that hair is a huge part of our identities! Students (and all of us!) are sensitive about our hair (or lack thereof!) because it is a part of us. It is a part of our identities. Hair Love helped me teach my students how to accept each other’s differences and celebrate self-expression. I found it so valuable that I will definitely be reading this book during the first week of school forevermore! Click here to get this book for your classroom!
This is a great read aloud with such colorful illustrations! The message of this book is about welcoming everyone into the classroom and celebrating different backgrounds. I personally think this book is great for Kindergarten through 4th grade. It is also a shorter book, so it is easy to fit into your schedule or use when you finish a lesson early! Click here to get this book for your classroom!
The Magical Yet is all about having a growth mindset! This book illustrates how everyone goes through challenges and makes mistakes. The theme of this book is that we all mess up and that is okay–it is how we respond to adversity that matters!
Hard work and perseverance pay off!
My favorite part about this book is that it gives meaning to the word YET. That way, I can help my students rewrite their negative self-talk. I can help them change, “I’ll never understand fractions” into “I don’t understand fractions YET. I will keep trying, even though it’s hard.” If I am able to help my students rewrite their negative self-talk, then that is an incredible win! Click here to get this book for your classroom!
I want to start out by saying this book is DEEP, and in my opinion, it should be reserved for third grade and up. If you would like a light, cheery story that is K-4 friendly, then I would recommend skipping this one and reading my last recommendation "Our Class is a Family," which I describe below. The message in this story is profound, and it doesn't end with a "happily ever after" fairytale ending. However, it is definitely worth reading to your class. The story is about a new student, Maya, who is excluded and not treated well by other kids in her class. The teacher does a lesson about being kind, and one of the students, Chloe, realizes that she hasn't been kind to Maya at all whatsoever. She decides that she is going to change her behavior and make an effort to be kind to Maya, but unfortunately Chloe doesn't get a chance to do so because Maya moves away. This book usually sparks deep conversation and reflection, which is very powerful. Your students are bound to walk away with MANY powerful takeaways. If your students are struggling with friend drama later on in the year, make sure to check out my blog post for advice and strategies, and also download my free, editable friendship contract here! Click here to get this book for your classroom!
Our Class is a Family is about creating a positive, respectful classroom community. The author highlights the fact that we spend a considerable amount of time at school, so we should make our classroom as enjoyable as possible by treating each other with respect. This book explains that if everyone works together to show kindness, then the whole class will benefit. Our Class is a Family has the potential to spark lots of productive conversation about cultivating a respectful classroom community. That being said, it would work well to read this book before creating a classroom agreement or expectations! Click here to get this book for your classroom!
If you end up reading any of these books to your class, let me know what you think by sending me a message over on Instagram @always.upper.elementary or tagging me in your posts! I would love to hear about which books you enjoyed! :)
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Happy teaching!
Mrs. Ringold
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