The Peter White Public Library staff are here to help all families as they return to school this year as best we can! Whether you homeschool, public school online, or return to class in-person, we are here to support you through access to physical and online collection and reference assistance via phone, email or chat. The library has available to parents and teachers a lot of resources that help them help their children with anxiety or fear. While not many are directly about COVID yet, being able to talk to your children about school related anxiety or fear is an important step.

New this fall, check out our School Resources page at pwpl.info. Here you will find links to online authoritative resources along with short YouTube videos giving you a quick break down of each resource. You will also find a School Pack request form, which you can fill to request materials based on subject being studied.

Online Resources

MeL (Michigan eLibrary) is a fantastic resource for teachers, parents and students-And best of all, it’s free to you when you access it through the Peter White Public Library’s website! Here are just a few of the resources available to you through MeL.

≤ Britannica School has leveled reading and allows you to easily switch between elementary, middle and high school grades. Educators and parents can create a free account and use it to create resource packs. Information can be found in various formats such as articles, videos and webpages. Britannica also has a chrome extension. Install this onto your students’ web browser and when they search in google, they will receive authoritative results from Britannica rather than Wikipedia!

≤ eBook Collections is a database that is accessible from any device, available 24/7/365 and allows multiple simultaneous users of the same titles, making it a great resource when multiple students need to access the same book at the same time. Books are PDF full text, many can be downloaded, and books are easy to hyperlink into whatever classroom management system you use! Serves students K-8 and High School

≤ Explora is a primary source database. Great for research purposes. Students can create free accounts to save articles, full text articles are available, and content is easy to browse by grade level.

≤ PebbleGo is a great learning tool for preK-3rd grade. It will help build vocabulary and reading skills. Content is read aloud to the user when they navigate to a page. English and Spanish is available. Each topic has multiple formats to help with learning-videos, articles, games and more! PebbleGoNext is similar, but for 4th-6th grade.

Print

Preschool & Kindergarten

“The Pidgeon has to go to school!” By Mo Willems (Picture Book)

Everyone’s favorite pidgeon is back-and this time he has to go to school! Pidgeon is a funny, relatable character for kids and he displays a lot of emotion and feelings as he tries to argue with the reader as to why he shouldn’t have to go to school. His silly reason, explanations and tantrums eventually lead the reader to realize that he is very anxious and a bit scared about school. But then he learns that he gets to do a lot of exciting things, like ride a bus, learn to read, make friends and more. Great for little ones heading off to school for the first time.

“The King of Kindergarten” by Derrick Barnes (Picture Book)

The adorable little boy heading off to school for the first time in this book has a wonderful day! Buoyed with confidence and courage from his parents, he goes to school and has a great time! This book can be a real confidence builder for little ones heading off to school, and can help parents give their children support.

Elementary & Upper Elementary

School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex (Picture Book)

Guess what-even schools can get nervous! In this delightful picture book, school is brand new-and really nervous about the first day of school! School is worried that the kids won’t like school, and frets about many of the same things that children off to school worry about. The School even deals with getting its feelings hurt by some of the students. But by the end of the first day of school, School decides that having the kids there was actually pretty good. Kids will recognize plenty of relatable things in this book.

“The Dot” by Peter Reynolds (Picture Book)

While not explicitly about first day of school, this book will help encourage kids who might be reluctant, or worried that they won’t be good at something. In this story a girl is very frustrated that she can’t draw, but with some encouragement from a teacher she finds herself able to draw-and encourage other kids in the same way.

“Katie Kazoo Switcheroo Who’s Afraid of 4th grade?” By Nancy Krulick (Chapter Book)

Great, short chapter books about Katie Kazoo who is starting at a brand new school as a 4th grader. Juggling siblings, extracurricular activies and other problems that 4th graders have, this is a great book.

“Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things” by Lenore Look (Chapter Book)

Alvin loves superheros, and comes from a long line of brave Chinese farmer-warriors-but when present with the challenge of making friends he must first overcome his fear of everything! Great books for kids who might have some anxiety of the unkown.

Middle School

“Shine!” By J.J. Grabenstein

7th grader Piper has to start a new school-worse, it’s a fancy prep school where every other student seems to be the best at everything. Piper, who loves science, finds herself in competition for the Excelsior Award, but things keep getting in her way! Great book for going to a new school, help kids think about what is really important, how to be a good (or bad) friend, and more.

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” by Jeff Kinney

You have probably heard of these before! The ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ books have been popular for a few years now, but they are still great reads for kids heading to middle school! Funny, with relatable characters and situations, these are great books.