The Night Before First Grade (Reading Railroad Books)

The Night Before First Grade is a poem. In the beginning the girl gets all her things ready for the first day of school. She is so excited and can't wait to see her best friend. They have a surprise for them when they get to school, they have split up the first grade and her and her friend will not

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be in the same class. They meet up at lunch and see that each of their new friends are twin girls. This book is written to resemble the song "Twas The Night before Christmas". "Twas the night before first grade. I kissed my dog Clover. School's starting tomorrow because summer is over."

I read this to my son the night before he started 1st grade. We got all his things together just she did in the book. It helped him alittle with all the questions he had about going to first grade.

I would read this to the first grade class on their first day and we would draw pictures of what they went through the night before or about the first day of school.

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Great book to read the first day of school to first graders. Students can really relate to Penny about thier first day jitters.

This book is the perfect book to read on the first day of first grade. Students are always nervous and this is a great way to show students that teachers get nervous too! This book would be a great way to start off the first day of school when you are introducing yourself as their teacher.

In my opinion, The Night Before First Grade is a great book. One of the reasons I liked this book is because of the language. The author uses a rhyming scheme throughout the story, which adds an element of fun and predictability to the story. For example, the author writes, “We both have pet

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turtles and love turquoise blue. And pistachio ice cream is her favorite too,” which rhymes blue and two. Every page in the book follows the rhyming scheme. I also liked that the authors writing is organized after The Night Before Christmas. The author writes about visions of jungle gyms dancing in the main character’s head and seeing events occur in her wondering eyes. I also liked the character because she was very believable. She was very excited to enter the first grade, but grew weary when separated from her best friend, which is something that happens to everyone when they enter school. The big idea of this book is that although trying new things alone can be intimidating, but great things can come from it, such as a new friendship.

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This reads well with the younger crowd. It does a start to the school year well though the night before isn't really the focus here. The title is a reference to the famous Clement Moore book rhyme scheme that carried this through. It was good for what it did.

This would be perfect for the first day of school and could branch into endless first day activities.

Penny is excited to start her first day of first grade with her best friend but it turns out that they are in separate classrooms. Penny then gets worried that she will lose her best friend.

Recommended Age: Primary

Summary: This story is about a girl that is about to have her first day of first grade. When she goes to school, she is disappointed to find that her best friend is in the other class. She quickly meets a new friend. Her new friend has a twin that is in the other class and is friends with her best

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friend. They all four eat lunch together and become good friends.

Personal Reaction: I liked this book. I thought that this would be a good book for children to read before they have to go back to school from summer vacation. I also enjoyed all of the imagery and pictures in the book.

Classroom Extensions: 1) This would be a good book to show children that sometimes things turn out for the best even when things don't go how they want them to. 2) It would be a good book to read on the first day of first grade. It would be a good ice breaker for the kids.

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In my opinion, “The Night Before First Grade” is a wonderful book for a child who is about to enter first grade. The book completely grabs the attention of the reader because it mimics the famous story, “The Night Before Christmas,” and it is also a poetry book. For example, the story opens

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by stating, “Twas the night before first grade. I kissed my dog Clover. School is starting tomorrow because summer is over.” In this story, the main character expressed the same sort of excitement about school that a child typically expresses about Christmas morning. The plot is organized and predictable because it mimics the Christmas tale. The child in the story speaks in the same way as the narrator in “The Night Before Christmas.” This story also mirrors the poetic rhythm as the beloved Christmas story. The charming illustrations display cheerful colors and students of different cultures. The big idea is that the first day of school is something that all children should be excited about and not something to be scared about.

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For Penny it is the night before the first grade and she is excited. She is going to have her best friend in her class and she hopes they have desks next to each other. However, when they get to school they realized that they are actually going to be in different classroom this year. The morning

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goes on and Penny makes a friend with a new girl and she cannot wait to show her best friend her new friend. There is a twist and the new girl is a twin, which Penny’s best friend was hanging out with as well.

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This is an easy book to read to first graders. The words aren't to difficult and it uses rhyming words which is always fun for the class to predict in a shared reading activity. This book is about a girl who became a first grader and it describes her first day of school. This book can be used for a

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child who is about to enter the first grade, who is currently in the first grade, or has recently passed the first grade. It can be relatable at each stage because the child may be worried about entering the first grade and this book can help make them feel more comfortable and feel less scared. It can also be used in the other stages for kids to reminisce on what it was like for them the night before they started first grade. The class could be introduced to the topic of similarities and differences and discuss the similarities and differences between the book and themselves. This book is overall very cute, interesting, and easy to follow.

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