Grade
2
Teachers’ Top 5 SEL Book Picks
The beginning of the year is a perfect time for a refresher on kindness, empathy, growth mindset, and other important social-emotional learning skills. We asked teachers to share some of their favorite back-to-school books for teaching these themes.
Check out these recommendations from second-grade teachers! Then take a peek at one of the September issues of Scholastic News for second grade. It’s another great resource for SEL instruction!
Scholastic News will help you engage students and provide the perfect jumping-off point for conversations about ways kids can be active and kind members of society.
Bring Scholastic News into your classroom all year long by starting a 30-day free trial today! Subscriptions include print issues for each student, digital access, activity sheets and Teacher’s Guides. If you need to cancel, you can keep the first issues at no cost. Order today!
Top 5 SEL Books
$6.71$8.95
save to wishlist“This is a book about a boy who wants his grandma to buy him the popular shoes, but they can’t afford the shoes. He finds empathy for a friend in his class whose boots are falling apart. It tugs at the heartstrings.” –Amy Walsh, second-grade teacher in Florida
$6.71$8.95
save to wishlist“I love using Chester’s Way by Kevin Henkes because it celebrates so many things in a kid’s life: the relationship between best friends; the realities of making new friends (from both sides), such as risk taking or not feeling like you need new friends; our own unique qualities; not having to be mean just because someone else is; and not having to change who we are just because others are afraid to embrace who we are.” –Connie Ford, second-grade teacher in New York
$5.21$6.95
save to wishlist“I would like to recommend a couple of books that I read to my students on the first few days of school. One book is How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids. I believe that this book is a great way to set the tone for the new school year. It helps to show students how encouraging others helps to fill their own buckets too.” –Christina Spencer, second-grade teacher in Missouri
$5.21$6.95
save to wishlist“At the beginning of the year, I like to use the book Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae to introduce the ‘Power of Yet’ concept.” –Laura Park, second-grade teacher from California
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