"Back to Cool (School)" Picture Books & Ideas to Create a Positive Classroom Climate - by Kathy Halsey

  

Back to school? How about back to cool? Let’s make the re-entry to school fun and memorable with new books and interactive activities. These ideas promote thoughtful ways to create a positive, inclusive, and engaging environment for all. I hope you find some intersectionality between your books and their usefulness in back to school units, or you get ideas for new projects that fit the back to school theme!

 Books for Everybody to Pair & Share

As a former teacher and librarian, I remember scrolling over student lists, making diacritical marks in order to pronounce everyone's name correctly and noting who had nicknames or wanted to be called something different. Students of all ages  know the feeling  of people stumbling over their names.

Book:  The Power of Your Name

Author, Jyoti Gopal knows this feeling herself, and has a wonderful lyrical picture book hot off the presses August 26, that helps start a great conversation about names and how aspirational they can be. (Illustrator Olivia Sua's cut paper illustrations create vibrant worlds.)

 Classroom Activities/Ideas

Share Jyoti’s words from her interview with John Schu  Have you ever wondered where your name came from? Maybe you asked your grown-ups or maybe you took your name for granted and didn’t even think about it. In The Power of Your Name, we learn that names have stories, that each name is a feast of sounds, a gift, filled with promise, that it holds your family's heritage, hopes and dreams. Through the ABCs, this book celebrates the beauty of names and the fact that every name—including yours—is special. Whether your name is long, short, easy to pronounce, or often misheard like mine frequently is, this book will make you think about the story your name tells.

• Students can create a poster with markers or in Canva sharing what their name means along with the correct pronunciation. Students can then swap their posters with someone else . 

• Together each pair introduces the other to the rest of the class. Finally, add the posters to the classroom bulletin board where all can see them and practice pronunciation.

Book: A Season for Fishin’: A Fish Fry Tradition

Author Pamela Courtney has cooked up a book that centers family, learning a new skill, and contributing to the family tradition - cane fishing - as she catches her first bream. The prize? Her feeling of pride being part of her community and her own red fish fry apron. I’ve shared her debut book on the GROG before, but in this context the back matter with pronunciations from varied parishes in Louisiana fits the topic of identity and the importance of pronunciation. As Pam’s tante Lula says, “Folks been crisscrossin’, speakin’, and livin’ like the otherin’ for forever”. The spice of the vernacular of Louisiana is fascinating and fun to say aloud. (Illustrator Toni D. Chambers serves up delicious views of Ol Cane River country.)

Classroom Activities/Ideas

 After reading this engaging, lyrical book about the culture of Natchitoches, Louisiana, give students the option to choose one of the following options:

• Share a family tradition orally, in writing or as a “how-to” demonstration (if it’s a recipe or game).    

• Create a short slide show that shares unique family background and traditions,  or share a travelogue of family members who live in or outside the US including pronunciation for terms specific to the region. 

PreK -Second Grade

Books pairs are fun to share and these two winners have great activities built into them. For K-2 students, matching and grouping are core skills for classification, a key scientific process. These action-packed picture books highlight skills in observation and comparing and contrasting characteristics, core skills for both math and science. Both books include themes of classroom climate, SEL, and diversity. 

Book: We Match

Author: Chris Barton knows intuitively that kids notice when things match. Think about school spirit days when kids delight in matching outfits. Take that idea to the dog park where Button, a gray terrier, announces the commentary as dogs play ball and chase squirrels. Button observes that some like wet food, others prefer kibble; some wear sweaters; others destroy them. Button discovers more subtle ways the dogs match that also encourages readers to find for connections with their classmates. (Illustrator Sharon Glick creates the most "fetching" dogs.)

Book: Batter Up for the First Day of School

Author Bethany Hegudus, a bonafide baseball fan, creates a tried-and-true back to school picture book that hooks readers with baseball lingo, punny fun, and shares the schedule of a typical school day for young students The Twins, Hank and Erin, begin the day with some nerves, but excitement builds, and at the end of the day, the twins announce that, “Today was a home run!”(Illustrator Nomar Perez creates ballpark joy with his images.)

Classroom Activities/Ideas

Lucky for us, Bethany and Chris have hit a home run with their ready-made activities  students will enjoy.

Look at these adorable “We Match” playing cards from illustrator Nomar Perez! Students can create their own cards and compare their connections with other students.

Here’s an example of Chris and Sharon’s match session.

Bethany has a baseball card activity as a way the new classroom team can announce and share this year’s roster. Celebrate your MVPs here. 

Check out Bethany's MVP and his vital stats as an example to model! 

Readers, what books, book matches and activities do you recommend for a great back-to-cool? Let us know in the comments!