Finding great books for the first days of school, especially new ones, is always on my list! These are some of my favorite books that lend themselves to higher level thinking first day of school activities. I like to make sure we start the year off right with critical thinking!
The Day You Begin Activity Ideas
The story begins with several examples of students feeling lonely and unlike anyone else in the room, then ends in a beautiful way. It encourages students to begin sharing their stories. From this the children in the story find commonalities and also celebrate each other’s uniqueness.
Mix and Share
This book certainly lends itself to discussion about each child’s uniqueness. To get kids moving, I like to have them walk around the room to music, stop when the music stops, pair up, and then talk about what makes them unique. Once enough students have sat down to indicate they are finished sharing, the music begins again and they share with new partners.
To fit with the book and make some connections within the class, it might be a good idea to see if students could also find a similarity between them before sitting down.
Making Connections
Students could also write/draw what makes them unique on a piece of paper that you hang around the room or set on desks. With sticky notes, students could go from paper to paper looking for a connection they have to someone’s uniqueness. When they find one, they could write their name or the connection on a sticky note.
This can be great for new students looking for friends, too!
School’s First Day of School Ideas
From the perspective of a brand new school, this book tells the story of a school’s first day of school. It shares the school’s uncertainties, frustrations, and happiness as the first day approaches, begins, and ends.
It’s a unique book that easily leads to several Schools First Day of School activities.
Student Feelings
You could easily use this book as a segue into a conversation about your students’ feelings. It opens itself up to imagining how others and even the building might feel as well.
These kinds of conversations where teachers care about students’ feelings helps to develop that important relationship for an effective classroom.
Rules
After hearing about the perspective of the school building, this book opens itself up nicely to a conversation about rules. But rather than doing a Plain Jane discussion, students could come up with rules ideas based on different objects or people.
To incorporate some movement (getting out those back to school wiggles!) hang these cards around the room with words like pencil, book, chair, lights, student, kindergartener, etc.
Students walk from card to card and talk with each other about three things:
1- What is important to this object or person at school?
2- What problems might they see?
3- What rule would they want to make?
Students can keep track of the rules they brainstorm on notebook paper, sticky notes, chart paper, or whatever else you have available.
Sticky notes are fantastic because at the end you can group different stick note rules together and eventually come up with the main rules for your classroom.
By walking the room and thinking from different perspectives, you are encouraging empathy, expecting creativity, and then getting students to think critically as they group the rules and synthesize them into new ones!
Letter from Another Perspective
This book could also inspire students to write a letter. They could directly thank the school for all it does, or you could give options to bump up the thinking and creativity by taking on a different perspective.
When adding in another perspective, I always suggest brainstorming the details first before making the product. This helps the students to be more focused and add in the creativity after working out the content.
RAFT
If you like the idea of using this book to talk about different perspectives, use this free RAFT with students!
For a RAFT, you pick the content area, then give students a few options for each of the letters in the acronym RAFT.
R- Role
A- Audience
F-Format
T-Topic
Generall, I create a table like the freebie for you above, and have students pick one row. I do let them change out the role, audience, or topic if I approve it. I always like to give students more ownership in their learning whenever I can.
First Day of School with Archibald Frisby
This is the story of a boy named Archibald Frisby. He isn’t quite like everyone else as he sees the world differently. Students love to see all of the ways Archibald sees the world. No matter what he looks at, he sees some science connection. It’s a great story to lead into a science discussion!
Science Discussion
The book naturally leads into a science discussion. Some years I have students who come in with so much science knowledge. This is a fantastic way to find out!
Scavenger Hunt
This also leads into the opportunity for a hunt around for different science concepts. To get some jitters out, teach how to use Google Slides and add photos, I like to do this scavenger hunt. My students have iPads that they can use to take pictures. This would be an easy activity in Google Slides or an easy thing to import into Seesaw if you use that platform.
Either way, you can grab the scavenger hunt activity for free!
Back to School Activities with A Beautiful Oops
In Beautiful Oops!, Barney Saltzberg takes readers on an adventure of “happy accidents.” As the reader unfolds, lifts, or turns the pages,he enters a world where mistakes present a chance for creativity. That torn piece of paper becomes the mouth of an alligator. The bent page becomes a penguin beak. The story sets off to convince readers that mistakes are not the end of the world, but in fact present an opportunity for celebration.
Draw Start
After seeing how Barney Saltzberg turns accidents into something else entirely, students are ready to try their hand at this! Draw starts are great first day of school drawing activities!
I like to give students a draw start to see how creative they already are. For a draw start, teachers give students a paper with 1-3 lines/shapes, and ask students to turn these lines/shapes into something. There are several ways that students can do this creatively. As we work to improve creativity throughout the year, I typically teach my kids to try to connect all the lines into one picture, add lots of specific details to the picture (brand names and taglines, detailed patterns, items in the background that add to the story, etc), and maybe try zooming in really close or even letting part of the picture go off of the page.
Usually I draw a line or two with a permanent marker on a blank paper then make copies for the draw starts, but if you’d like a couple of different options you’re welcome to this freebie!
It has 4 quadrants for students to try their hand at draw starts multiple times as well as a different one where students turn their grade level into a draw start.
If you’re looking to add creativity into your lessons throughout the year, be sure to check out this post!
Beginning of the Year Activities with Eggbert
In this story, the foods in the fridge discover that Eggbert is slightly cracked. After they kick him out, Eggbert searches for his place in the world, and uses his artistic talent to attempt to blend in. Eventually Eggbert discovers that the world is full of cracks, and instead of trying to hide it he should take pride in his crack.
Thinking Hats
I also like to use this book to practice a strategy we will use throughout the year, deBono’s Thinking Hats.
I’d give students an introduction to each of the hats, and then would display this on the screen so we can practice each kind of thinking.
Typically, I have students discuss this at table groups and then share out loud, but it could also be incorporated into your plans as one of your first day of school writing activities.
You’re welcome to grab this Eggbert Thinking Hats Questions freebie!
Poster Puzzle
After reading the book, I like to have a discussion about what makes each student unique, and we celebrate that. To remind them of this message throughout the year, we create an Eggbert puzzle poster.
Beforehand, I draw an egg on a piece of poster board, and write each student’s name to ensure they know which direction is up. Pro Tip: It’s also a good idea to take a picture of the puzzle before you cut it so you can have a quick reference if the kids need a hint!
Without telling my class what the puzzle pieces will create when put together, they decorate their pieces to represent themselves. Once everyone is finished, they work together to fit the pieces together and discover that they have created Eggbert!
More Back to School Books with Activities for Elementary Students
Although this post was supposed to just be 5 of my favorite beginning of the year read alouds, I need to mention these.
These are two fantastic books to use when you are going to talk about classroom rules. Or the first one could just be a fun read aloud. My students are always riveted when I read this first book!
Cute Classroom Ideas for the Beginning of the Year
You may also enjoy these ideas at the beginning of the year.
Photo Booth Props
At our meet the teacher event, I like to have a little photo booth with props. Parents want pictures at this event anyway, and it is fun and simple to make!
Student Gift
Student gifts at the beginning of the year are a fun way to welcome students. With the craze of fidget poppers, I like to give my students a keychain with a little gift tag attached.
Birthday Bags
I like to have student birthday gifts taken care of (and on the wall!) from the start of the year. Read more about that here:
Back to School Frame
I love to have a special first day of school photo op. For that, I make this DIY Back to School Photo Frame. Click below for the tutorial.
High Level Thinking Back to School Activities
If you’d like more activities for the first days of school that encourage lots of critical thinking, be sure to check out my back to school unit. It has several activities that require critical and creative thinking. It’s a great way to start the year turning your students into thinkers!
Let Me Help You Turn Your Students into Thinkers!
If you have a passion for getting your kids to think, you’ll love my FREE Guide. It’s about 4 simple strategies to bump up the thinking in any lesson. Download it for free and stay in touch to get classroom-tested ideas straight to your inbox!
Keep those kids thinking!
Colleen Patton
Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. I may get a small commission if you purchase these, but hey that helps me to keep offering some awesome freebies for you!
