Sharpread - Colby Sharp

For more than a decade my friend John Schu and I have released our Mock Caldecott list at the beginning of November. I am so excited to share the list with you today. You can find the complete list on Mr. Schu’s website by clicking on the image below. John has recently joined Substack, so be sure to subscribe to his newsletter here. At the end of each month, I make a video where I share some of the read alouds we did in our fifth grade classroom.

This past week a new book came out in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The entire release, day one of my students asked me at least 20 times if we had received any copies yet. He went on tell me that he has memorized every page of every Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, and that is why he should be the first kid to read the new one. At the end of the day, my students and I were gathered on the carpet for our end of the day picture book read aloud. We hear a knock at the door.

My students entered fifth grade obsessed with Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, and The Babysitters Club graphic novels. Can you blame them? Those books are awesome! As we inch closer to being a quarter of the way through the school year, it has been fun watching them fall in love with creators that are new to them. On the second day of the school year I r…

One of my fifth graders fell in love with Aron Steinke’s Mr. Wolf’s Class series at the beginning of the school year. He flew through the entire series, becoming a bigger and bigger fan with each book. When he finished the series he asked me if I had any recommendations for him to read next. I quickly put together a book stack filled with books that I though he might love, and gave 10-15 minute book talks of each title.

Does anyone else find themselves missing your students from last year a whole heck of a lot at the beginning of a new school year? I am loving my new kiddos, but I am also really missing my readers from last year. When the new Sashimi book came out a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t help but think about how the first book took over my classroom last year, and how excited those kiddos would be to read book two.

After consuming all sorts of book in elementary school through my own reading and classroom read alouds, I REALLY struggled with all of the assigned books in middle school. I had every intention of reading them, but it never worked out. I start the book, and then quickly abandon it. I rarely missed school, and I figured out how to just pay attention enough to the classroom discussions, to get the B in class that my parents hoped for. The one book that I did read was Lois Lowry’s The Giver.

My wife teaches a high school class called Introduction to K-12 Education. A large part of the class is her students spending time helping out in classrooms. This semester I have two former students that are taking the class that will be volunteering in my classroom. One of the students had in class had her first placement last Thursday. It was so much fun having her back in my classroom, and it was awesome to see her jump right in and help out a group of students with their writing.

One of my favorite things about the start of a new school year is getting to know my new students, and one of the my favorite ways to get to know them is through the books and book creators that they love. It is interesting to see the kids that pick up a book when they have an extra few minutes, and the kids that avoid reading at all costs. I love hearing about their favorite read alouds from previous years, and they love to learn about through nonfiction books.

There is something extra magical about the beginning of the year read alouds. Getting to know a new group of kids through beautiful books brings me so much joy. I love everything about it. Even watching where they choose to sit on the carpet is fascinating. You can learn so much about kids by just paying attention. One of my favorite videos to make each year is the one where I talk about the first ten picture books I read aloud to my students to start the year.

I totally forgot how much fun it is to meet new students and their families. The first week of the school year was more fun and more exhausting than I remembered. Our first two days of the week were filled with a whole lot of meetings. I’m not really all that into meetings but it was great to reconnect with my school friends. sharpread | Colby Sharp is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.