While some preschoolers will come to school having already been exposed to reading at home, many other kids will have their first introduction to reading in the prek classroom. Therefore, including regular read alouds in your preschool classroom is important.
Since read alouds will be a regular part of the classroom the best time to introduce them is at the beginning of the school year. This provides you with the opportunity to teach your students the routine for read aloud time as well as introduce them to the literacy skills they will explore during the year.
Keep reading to see our favorite back to school preschool books to use for read alouds.
How to Introduce Back to School Books to Preschoolers
Before we jump into our list of the best back to school preschool books, let’s have a look at how to introduce these back to school books to your preschoolers. As mentioned above, read alouds provide the opportunity for teaching a routine.
The actual routine that each teacher uses for starting and finishing a routine will vary. For example, the routine used for students to move to and from the reading carpet will be different in each classroom. However, while the classroom routines may vary we have created one common routine to follow during the learning activities.
This routine includes using the same types of questions and reading comprehension strategies in every read aloud. By doing this, the students become familiar with what to expect each time you having reading time. Therefore, the more familiar students become with the routine they more they can focus their attention and cognitive energy on each individual story.
These are the consistent reading strategies used in all of our read aloud resources:
- Levels 1 and 2 comprehension questions
- Whole group response to text activities
- Response to text worksheets
- Writing pages
- Vocabulary cards and worksheets
- Quiz
- Craftivity template
While every read aloud includes these different components to develop comprehension the questions and activities are carefully curated for each individual book. You can see examples of this with each of the books below.bac
How to Use a Read Aloud Routine
In addition to providing a routine for the students we also have fromatted each read aloud in a similar fashion for you as the teacher. As you explore the detailed lesson plans in each read aloud you will see that we have suggested specific questions and activities for three days of learning.
In addition, we have provided extra learning activities. We suggest using these learning activities on day 4 and even extending them into day 5. This depends on how many days you see your preschoolers and what works best with your teaching style.
Whatever you choose, we encourage you to use the same format for all of your read alouds. This will make it easy for you to plan and once again, easier for your students to dive into a text since they are already familiar with the types of activities for each day.
Back to School Read Alouds for PreK
To help you easily implement a reading routine in your classroom we created four read alouds using back to school books for preschool. This provides you with one read aloud for each week during the first month of school. By the end of the first month your students will have the read aloud routine down and be ready for all the other read alouds throughout the year!
While each of the read alouds below follows the same reading routine, remember that each read aloud activity reflects the individual book. We have provides a quick peek at some of the individualized reading activities your students will engage with for each book.
You’re Finally Here PreK Read Aloud
I’m Not Just a Scribble PreK Read Aloud
Color Monster Goes to School PreK Read Aloud
Stick and Stone PreK Read Aloud
PreK Read Alouds for a Year
Beyond the first month of preschool, we have created several more preschool read alouds to carry you throughout the year. Just like the back to school read alouds all of these follow the same routine. Once again making it easier and easier for your students to explore their reading with each new book!
Here are some of our favorite books with read alouds to explore with your students throughout the year.
