
Early Elementary
First through third grade, all in one place. These are the years a child goes from sounding out words to reading a chapter book under the covers, and from counting on fingers to multiplying. Everything on this shelf is picked for that stretch: the workbooks that move at the right pace, the first books a child finishes alone, and the read-alouds that stay ahead of their reading level on purpose.
How to use it: an hour to ninety minutes a day is a full load at these ages, and shorter is usually better than longer. Do math while they are fresh. Read to them every day, past the point where they can read to themselves, because listening comprehension runs years ahead of decoding and that gap is where the vocabulary comes from.
Prefer a single shelf per grade? 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Not sure where your child sits? Five questions.
Shop our Early Elementary products below
Turtles (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 1)
Storms (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 1)
Superstars of the Sea Collection (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 2)
Wild Cats (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 1)
Play, Kitty! (National Geographic Kids Readers, Pre-Reader)
Roaring Rockets
- Astronomy & Space
- Engineering & Technology
- Story / Adventure
Why it works: Roaring Rockets sends Rabbit, Bird, and Mouse zooming to the Moon in a rhyming picture-book adventure packed with spacecraft details. Spacesuits, oxygen helmets, gravity gear, and the rocket's job become part of imagining how the friends can travel beyond Earth.
Cats (National Geographic Kids Readers, Level 1/Co-Reader)
Amazing Airplanes
- Physics & Energy
- Engineering & Technology
- Story / Adventure
Why it works: Amazing Airplanes follows Rabbit, Bird, and Mouse as pilots, baggage handlers, and cabin crew in a rhyming trip through an airport and flight. The animal cast and wordplay carry practical aeronautics, from the cockpit and landing gear to flight safety and air-traffic coordination.
How to Be a Ladybug
- Life Science
- Environment & Ecology
- Comics / Graphic Narrative
Why it works: How to Be a Ladybug gives Dotty the larva a garden full of predators, rival insects, confusing body changes, and wings still to come. Her comic journey lets children discover that a ladybug's early stages look and behave differently from the familiar adult.
How to Be a Dragonfly (in Association with the Royal Entomological Society)
- Life Science
- Environment & Ecology
- Comics / Graphic Narrative
Why it works: How to Be a Dragonfly follows Chase from pond-dwelling nymph to airborne adult as a grasshopper narrator coaches him through danger, growth, and daring escapes. The comic plot makes each life stage, behavior, and pond adaptation something Chase must use before readers can see what he becomes.

