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!
I really like how you relate to the story, and connect to the main character because not only does it happen to many children all the time, but it happened to you personally. I also think it is very important for children to read a book about having the jitters of starting something new because it happens so often, just going from elementary school to middle school could be a huge scary change for children as well. I really like the plot of this book, and believe it is essentially to talk to your children in your class about, especially if you have a new student that came from a different school or town.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your book. The end is so cute and a complete shocker. I think it's a great way to read to kids omn their first day of school. As an activity for afterwards, you can start the class with an ice breaker activity. It will relieve all the pressures and force the children to get out of their comfort levels.
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