Are you searching for new and interesting read alouds for September? These stories may be just what you're looking for and I've created engaging lesson plans to go along with each story, to help you in your planning this month! I absolutely love starting my school year with these picture books for children and I'm sure you will too!
Stick And Stone
One of the most important things to do, as we start back to school, is to build friendships and create a positive classroom environment. Stick and Stone is the perfect book for teaching your students about friendship. In the story, Stick and Stone are an unlikely duo, but they become fast friends and help each other out of sticky situations.
I use this book during the first week of school to help the children establish friendships with each other. After reading the story we do our friendship activities. Each child chooses a numbered stick or stone and the students find their partner with the matching number. They become friendship partners for the day.
Students go to 4 different friendship stations where they work together making friendship bracelets, kindness rocks, and playing games. Students make a flipbook about Stick and Stone and we end the day making friendship soup! Head over to this blog post to see everything we do in this lesson.
First Day Jitters
Everybody gets those first day of school jitters – even teachers! Raise your hand if you've had one of those back to school nightmares where you lost your class. 🙋🏻♀️ This is the perfect book to read to your students on the first day of school when discussing how they feel about school.
In the book First Day Jitters, Sarah Jane Hartwell is scared and doesn't want to start over at a brand new school. She does everything she can to avoid it but reluctantly pulls herself together and gets herself to school. The surprise ending will surely delight your students!
We use this book to help us take our nervous jitters away on the first day of school. We make our own jitter juice using a special secret recipe (Sprite, Hawaiian Punch and anti jitter sprinkles). Then the students write about how they felt on the first day of school and make a simple jitter juice craft.
The Dot
How many times do you hear students day “I can't do it” or I don't know how”. Teaching our students how to have a growth mindset and believe in themselves is so important! The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds is one of my favorite books for teaching kids that they can do anything they set their mind to. Perfect for September!
This is one of my favorite books to read to my students, any time of the year. It has a great message! We compare and contrast The Dot with the companion story Ish, discuss character traits and do some dot paintings of our own. The kids always love this lesson!
Decibella And Her Six Inch Voice
Does it seem like your kids speak on one level and its always SUPER LOUD? This seems to be a challenge in my classroom every year, so when I discovered Decibella And Her Six Inch Voice I knew I wanted to use it to teach my kids about proper voice level.
In this cute story, Isabella uses her voice to shout every word, idea and feeling which is a problem in her classroom. She's so loud that the other students nickname her Decibella, which is nothing to brag about. She is so loud that she interrupts class and irritates everyone. Her teacher shows her how to use her voice at different volumes for different places in the school building. It's the perfect book for teaching your students how to communicate appropriately.
After reading this book to my students we make a voice level tracker. This helps the students remember which voice they should be using when they are in the hallway, working at their seats or outside on the playground. We also do a quick sorting worksheet and make a Decibella craft.
Lacey Walker Non Stop Talker
Another favorite picture book for children is the classic tale Lacey Walker Non-Stop Talker, about little a little girl who loves to talk all the time. She talks so much that she ends up losing her voice and then she learns the importance of listening.
This is a great book to use at the beginning of the year when you're working to establish your classroom rules and when students can talk in class.
I introduce this book any time I'm having trouble with talking in my classroom. We work on a pocket chart sort about when we should and should not talk, do a writing activity, and make a Lacey Walker craft.
The Library Lion
In the story The Library Lion, we meet Miss Merriweather, the head librarian who is very particular about the library rules. When a lion comes to the library one day no one is sure what to do. There are no rules about lions in the library!
This adorable book is great for teaching your students about your expectations in both your classroom and school library and the perfect picture book for children at the beginning of the year.
We use this book to talk about library rules, story elements, opinion writing and we learn a little bit about real lions!
Looking for more ideas for September?
Head over here to get four easy writing prompts for September.
Head over here to see my first week of school lesson plans for first grade.
