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

Low stock
Regular price $9.99

Computer Decoder: Dorothy Vaughan, Computer Scientist

  • Engineering & Technology
  • Biography / Memoir

Why it works: Computer Decoder follows Dorothy Vaughan from mathematics teacher and human computer to a supervisor preparing her team for electronic computing. Her response to segregation and technological change makes calculation, programming, and learning a new machine part of a real person's high-stakes problem.

Andi Diehn
Low stock
Regular price $4.99

The Giant Germ (the Magic School Bus Chapter Book #6)

  • Life Science
  • Human Body & Health
  • Story / Adventure

Why it works: A class picnic expands into a Magic School Bus trip through the microscopic world of microbes. The class's impossible change of scale lets readers encounter germs, microorganisms, and health questions as discoveries inside an adventure.

Joanna Cole
Low stock
Regular price $9.99

Matter: Physical Science for Kids

Andi Diehn
Low stock
Regular price $9.99

Forces: Physical Science for Kids

Andi Diehn
Low stock
Regular price $8.99

The Magic School Bus and the Electric Field Trip

  • Physics & Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Story / Adventure

Why it works: The class rides alongside electric current as it moves through town and powers familiar devices. That impossible field trip turns a bulb, toaster, and motor into stops on an adventure about how electrical energy travels and changes form.

Joanna Cole
Low stock
Regular price $12.99

The Solvers Book #2: The Shrinking Setback: A Math Graphic Novel: Learn Fractions and Decimals!

Jon Chad
In stock
Regular price $4.99

The Great Shark Escape

  • Life Science
  • Environment & Ecology
  • Story / Adventure

Why it works: The class's escape from a great white shark turns shark biology and aquarium observations into the stakes of a Magic School Bus adventure. Readers have to distinguish what the animal is, how it behaves, and what the story exaggerates in order to follow the peril.

Jennifer Johnston
In stock
Regular price $4.99

Amazing Magnetism (the Magic School Bus Chapter Book #12)

  • Physics & Energy
  • Story / Adventure

Why it works: Amazing Magnetism sends the Friz's class into another exaggerated Magic School Bus adventure built around magnetic surprises. Predictions about attraction, repulsion, and magnetic materials are needed to understand what the class tries and why the next result changes its plan.

Rebecca Carmi
Low stock
Regular price $9.99

Icebergs & Glaciers: Revised Edition

Seymour Simon
In stock
Regular price $9.99

Wildfires

Seymour Simon
Low stock
Regular price $7.99

Gorillas

Seymour Simon
In stock
Regular price $9.99

Hurricanes

Seymour Simon
Low stock
Regular price $9.99

Oceans

Seymour Simon
Low stock
Regular price $9.99

Mountains

Seymour Simon
In stock
Regular price $9.99

The Heart: All about Our Circulatory System and More!

Seymour Simon
In stock
Regular price $8.99

Sharks

Seymour Simon
In stock
Regular price $9.99

Earthquakes

Seymour Simon
In stock
Regular price $9.99

Volcanoe

HarperCollins
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