22 Engaging Back to School Read Alouds To Build Classroom Community

One of my favorite things to do at the beginning of my first grade year is read. An actual book. Not play a youtube read aloud. Not pull up a digital copy of the book. Actually hold the back to school read alouds in my hand and read it to my kids! #soapboxover

Back to school read alouds are the perfect break in between hashing out routines and procedures…and MORE routines and procedures! Here’s a look at my must read back to school read alouds for building community in our first grade classroom!

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First Day of School Read Alouds

First Day Jitters is a must-read for the first day of school. It’s the first book I read with my kiddos, and it’s the perfect ice breaker!

Also, on the first day of school, we start building our class rules. We read David Goes To School and the kids write about what rule we should include in our classroom. I love integrating these back to school read alouds into writing, and this beloved book always gets tons of laughs!

Once we are through the first day of school, it’s time to start our first integrated unit on the rights and responsibilities of good citizens.

citizenship unit for first grade - TpT cover image

We read about what a citizen is with this non-fiction favorite (I LOVE timing this around September 11th so we can tie it in to our We Remember Project.)

Read Alouds for the IB Attitudes

Then, our back to school read alouds move on to fiction stories that show attitudes of good citizens in our classroom community. These books are so important in our classroom for building a sense of community, respect, and making our classroom a place we want to be for the next 178 days of school! The IB attitudes we read and write about during our unit are…

Enthusiasm – Morris Goes To School

Independence – A Bad Case of Stripes

Tolerance – The Sneetches

Creativity – Skippy Jon Jones

Integrity – Strega Nona

Respect – Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse

Curiosity – Curious George

Commitment – Horton Hatches the Egg

Appreciation – The Great Kapok Tree

Confidence – Sheila Rae the Brave

Empathy – Hey Little Ant

Cooperation – It’s Mine!

As we read each story, we discuss the coordinating IB attitude word and post them in our room… you can read about that set up here and find anchor charts to go with each story here!

Read Alouds for the IB Learner Profile

Once we discuss our IB attitudes and behaviors, we read more about being a good learner in our classroom community–how we can get the MOST out of first grade. I use the learner profile words from the International Baccalaureate PYP program because I started my teaching career in an IB school. Here’s a look at the books we use for each of the learner profile words.