First Day Jitters

By Julie Danneberg

Illustrated by Judy Love

Scenario:  It is the first day of school for a girl in the 7th grade.  She just moved to a new state after living in the same city for 13 years.  She is extremely nervous because she doesn't know anybody and is not sure if she will make any friends.

Who has been in this situation before? Who has felt nervous about the first day of school or the first day  on a job?  I know I have, because the girl in the scenario was me.  What does this have to do with the theme of the week?  Well this week I read the book First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg. This book is about a girl named Sarah. It is Sarah's first day at a new school and she has first day jitters!  She does not want to get out of bed and has all these horrible ideas about how she will have no friends and what the kids will be like.  She finally makes it to school but is still very hesitant even with the support of the principal.  She will be introduced to the class by the principal but the twist at the end will shock all readers.  This is a great book to read to students on the first day of school!

I really enjoyed reading this book because I think it would be great for kids of all ages to look into the idea about being nervous or shy on the first day of something but better yet it can bring up some great conversation about how to help others that are feeling nervous. It is important to encourage your students to be empathetic and welcoming to new students to help them feel more welcome!  There are so many students that feel alone and if they have no friends.  This can all be prevented by not ignoring this!  This book would be a great opener to those discussions.  I had never read this book before but I think it would be great book to add to a teachers or a mothers library. 

You never know when you will be the person with the nerves!

Stephanie's Ponytail

Story by Robert Munsch and Art by Michael Martchenko

 

“I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” 

― Rita Mae Brown 

The idea for this week is individuality and self confidence!  When I think back to my time as a Elementary Student I was not a child with a lot of individuality.  I was the person that did what was cool so that everyone would like me.  Sure I was not a follower all the time but I do remember me wanting to be liked by all and when that didn't happen I would get super upset.  Hey, I still do!  However, I now know that people will not always like you so it is important to always be true to yourself.  How many of us have seen students, had friends, or known people that try to hard to be liked?  I'm sure we all know at least one, if not more.  What is the one thing that everyone has to say about all those people? "They are trying too hard." or maybe even "They seem fake." This is because people tend to enjoy a person's company more when the person they are hanging out with is being real with them.  Sure, we all want to be liked but I promise a lot more people will like you for who you are instead of pretending to be someone else.

Students' mindlessly following Stephanie's chaotic ponytails
 in the books' illustrations!

This is why it is so important to encourage individuality and self esteem in the younger grades, because if those two ideas are not expressed or ever learned by the younger students then the older students will probably never learn them and will have a lot of problems when it comes to relationships with themselves and others.  There are so many fun games, activities, and books that can be read to encourage these wonderful traits and Stephanie's Ponytail is one of those books!

 This story is about a young girl, Stephanie, who  went to school and saw that nobody had a ponytail in their hair and Stephanie wanted to be different.  So, her mom put a ponytail in her hair and all the children at school said, "Ugly, ugly, very ugly," but Stephanie did not let them bring her down and just said, "It's my ponytail and I like it."  Strangely the next day everyone had ponytails in their hair, but Stephanie still wanted to be different and kept tying  ponytails in her hair on different places on her head.  Everyday the school would comment on her ponytail saying it was ugly but every time the next day everyone would copy her . This made Stephanie very mad because she wanted to be different then everyone else so she makes a shocking decision to try something very different, but will the other children in the school follow her next idea?  This is a great book to show growth of confidence through individuality!

Students doing activities related to Stephanie's Ponytail!

I had never read this story before but when I did I fell in love with it right away!  It has such a great plot, the characters are so funny, and the idea behind being a proud individual is clear!  The author uses excellent language to help us readers really picture what is going along in the story and of course the drawings also very well done!  In the pictures a lot of different races, genders, and ages are represented and I do not see any stereotyping in the book!  I also think its great that the book continually follows the same pattern of words and plot so that children reading this book would be able to predict what they thought would happen next and of course this book offers up some extremely funny ideas that are certain to keep the kiddos entertained.  

Be proud of who you are and never let any one make you think you are any less awesome!