I have pulled together a list of some of my all-time favorite first week of school read alouds for starting off the year on the right foot, all organized by category. Some of these are brand new to me, and I am so excited to add them to my read aloud library this year!

First Week Of School Read Alouds

When you're choosing your first week of school read alouds, there are a few things to look for. If you want to choose read alouds to build classroom community, it can be helpful to look specifically for books that do one of the following:

• Help students feel welcome in their new classroom
• Build relationship between teacher and student
• Emphasize kindness and empathy
• Celebrate learning and help get students excited for school
• Teach rules and routines

First Day Of School Read Alouds

These first week of school children's books are a wonderful, clear statement that my classroom is a place where we love and support each other, and that everyone is a welcome part of this community.

Our Class Needs You is a wonderful back to school book that talks about how there is a place for every student in the classroom – whatever their talents or interests may be! It emphasizes that each student is not only welcome, but needed for the class to be complete.

A Tiger Tail is a fun book for the first day of school because it talks about feeling nervous on the first day of school, and how it's normal for everyone!

Our Class Is a Family is another great back to school book for creating classroom community. This book emphasizes that your class becomes your family during the school year, and that school is place where everyone is appreciated and safe.

All Are Welcome is the perfect first week of school read aloud for emphasizing inclusivity and celebrating diversity.

Read Alouds To Celebrate Names

Celebrating student names is always on my list for the first week of school activities! I love this set of first week of school read alouds because they normalize all types of names, and they focus on celebrating the beauty of every name.

The Name Jar is a classic book for helping students appreciate and embrace their own names.

Alma And How She Got Her Name is a sweet back to school read aloud that celebrates a name that is meaningful to Alma and her family.

Your Name Is A Song celebrates the beauty of various names. This is a wonderful first week of school read aloud, especially if you have students with names that are harder for you to pronounce.

Diversity and Inclusion

These first week of school books are helpful to talk about all the wonderful ways that we are all different from one another, and how our classroom will be a place to celebrate these differences. I use these books to start conversations about how we should be proud of all the parts that make us who we are, even if some of them are different from our classmates. We talk about how there is no “normal”, and how it's okay to talk about how we are different from others in a way that isn't hurtful. These books create wonderful opportunities for students to proudly talk about things they love about themselves.

Kindness And Justice

In my classroom, we always talk a lot the first month about how to treat each other. We set expectations, we do role playing, we create word lists, and we revisit them all the time. These books help my students understand on a deeper level the importance of treating each other with kindness, and the importance of speaking out when you see something wrong.

Classroom Behavior

And of course we also talk about classroom rules and behavior expectations. These books help to start conversations about what kinds of behaviors we need in order to learn. And reading these books together as a group helps us all feel united in our commitment to upholding our classroom rules.

Which first week of school read aloud are you excited to try this year?
xoxo
Laura

The post First Week of School Read Alouds Your Classroom Needs appeared first on Love Grows Learning.

At this time in history, as the Black Lives Matter movement is taking hold of our nation in powerful and exciting ways, I am reminded more than ever of the responsibility I have as an educator. Our classrooms are sacred spaces, and teachers hold the power in those spaces. Our students look to us with trust to speak the truth. We have to do a better job of making these spaces safe for our BIPOC students.

I am fortunate that my teacher training took place at Mills College in Oakland, California, which had a robust diversity and social justice component and which trained us to use that lens through all aspects of our teacher training. So I started the work of unpacking my white privilege, discussing equity in classrooms, and learning about culturally responsive teaching.

But these times have been a reminder to me that there is more work to be done. So I am dedicating this summer to digging deeper in my examination of my identity as a white female teacher, to taking a closer look at how I can decenter whiteness in my teaching, and to deepening the level of conversations we have about diversity, race, inclusion, and antiracism in my classroom.

I do not claim to be a leader in this work. I am a learner. But what I can do is share the resources that I am finding, support the voices that are teaching me and inspiring me in this work, and do my best to make sure these important conversations happen in my school among teachers, parents, and administrators.

Here's how I am diving deeper into this work:

Courses & Resources

That's the thing about being a teacher, right? We are constantly learning, and there is always more we can do. Here are some courses I've signed up for, from amazing resources that you should take a look at:

• Be About It: A two day conference that focuses on antiracism instruction. I am so excited for this event! Their line up of discussions covers unpacking white privilege, examining biases, better serving Black students and students of color, talking with younger students about racism, and decentering whiteness in our classrooms. I've got my notebook ready! They also have the cutest swag from Trendy Teacherz.

• Monique Melton: an antiracist educator with a huge amount of powerful resources available on her website. She has a podcast, courses you can purchase, and even a series of talks for kids. I enrolled in her “Antiracism 101: A Crash Course”, and I am really excited to support the work she is doing by purchasing some of her other courses.

• Rachel Cargle: Rachel Cargle is one of my favorite people to follow on Instagram right now. She talks about the world in a way that is fearlessly authentic, yet ever hopeful. She started the Loveland Foundation, which helps provide opportunities for communities of color, especially Black women, to access healing and therapy resources. She also has a wealth of resources. Check out some of them here. Also check out her new account, @thegreatunlearn for even more.

• The Kinswomen: Yseult and Hannah are an amazing pair of women who are working together to have meaningful conversations between white women, Black women, and women of color. I signed up for their Allyship course, and it is such a gift to have a space with these knowledgeable and supportive women in which to discuss the lifelong journey towards allyship and putting allyship in action. They also have a Podcast that I highly recommend.

• Conscious Kid: I decided to invest in becoming a supporter on their Patreon website, and it is so worth it! The amount of resources they share is actually more than I keep up with. I've been bookmarking things to go back to, and many of their resources are specifically for parents and educators.

How have you been doing the work to move the world forward
toward greater equity and justice?
xoxo
Laura

The post Teachers, It’s Time To Be About It appeared first on Love Grows Learning.