The beginning of the school year is a great time to discuss and explore recess and the expectations surrounding it, but really you can do this any time of the year. This post shares children’s books about recess that you can use for this purpose. All of the picture books on this list lend themselves to this topic really well. Take a peek below to learn more about these children’s books about recess!
Children’s Books about Recess
Below is a list of some of our favorite children’s books about recess to share with elementary students. Check them out!
1. The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neil
The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill tells the story of a young girl named Jean. She is the Queen of recess at her school. She is always the one to go first when playing games and will growl at anyone who crosses her.
One day, a new student, Katie Sue, joins Jean’s class. Not knowing the rules, Katie Sue kicks, bounces and jumps before Jean. When Jean confronts Katie, she is surprised to find that Katie Sue talks back! As Jean chases Katie around the playground, everyone is caught off guard when Katie Sue asks Jean to jump rope with her. At first, Jean is shocked and doesn’t know what to do. With some encouragement from her classmates, Jean starts to jump. From that day on, not only is Jean friends with Katie Sue, but she enjoys playing with her classmates too!
Check out these The Recess Queen teaching resources and activities to help you plan and deliver highly engaging read aloud lessons!
2. Rulers of the Playground by Joseph Kuefler
The story Rulers of the Playground is about a boy named Jonah. He decides he wants to rule the playground and be king. He claims the slides as his territory and the other kids pinky promise to obey him. Another girl, Lennox, realizes that she also wants to rule the playground. She claims the swings as her territory and makes the other kids promise to obey her.
Now Jonah and Lennox are king and queen. They each want to be in charge of more and more area until the whole playground is taken over and no one wants to play with them.
Jonah and Lennox decide that it isn’t fun to rule. They apologize to the kids and stop being king and queen. Now everyone can play on the playground together.
Check out these Rulers of the Playground teaching resources and activities to help you plan and deliver highly engaging read aloud lessons!
3. Swings on Strike by Jennifer Jones
The story Swings on Strike is about swings at a park that are sick and tired of being mistreated by the children who use them. The children sit on them incorrectly, bend them, twist them, and jump on them. The swings have had enough and are going on strike.
They leave a note for the kids and when the kids read the note they go over to the swings. The kids apologized for how they treated the swings and the swings and children were able to have fun at the playground.
Check out these Swings on Strike teaching resources and activities to help you plan and deliver highly engaging read aloud lessons!
4. The Buddy Bench by Patty Brozo
The story The Buddy Bench is about Mrs. Mellon’s class playing outside at recess. There are some kids that have people to play with and others who do not have anyone to play with. Some students are comfortable asking to join in and others are not.
When Jake asks Gabe to play, he creates a chain of people asking to join in who normally are not included. The class learns the importance of inclusion and work with their teacher to create a buddy bench for all to be included.
Check out these The Buddy Bench teaching resources and activities to help you plan and deliver highly engaging read aloud lessons!
5. Do Not Bring Your Dragon to Recess by Julie Gassman
After working hard all morning, it’s finally time for recess! The principal at school reminds students not to bring their dragon to recess. The playground rules would be too hard for a dragon to follow and he might start running before making it outside. A dragon might have a hard time on the monkey bars and hold up the line. He might push the merry-go-round too fast making it a scary ride for the children, therefore, dragons should not be brought to recess according to the principal.
However, one little girl really wants her dragon to be able to play at recess. She promises he will be respectful and follow the rules. She explains the dragon will share and take turns. The principal thinks it over and realizes that everyone deserves a chance to play. She decides if the dragon can be respectful he should be allowed to go to recess.
Students will love this rhyming book about what might happen if dragons go outside to play at recess.
Check out these Do Not Bring Your Dragon to Recess teaching resources and activities to help you plan and deliver highly engaging read aloud lessons!
Get All of the Recess Book Activities!
Scoop up all of the activity packets based on the picture books featured in this post!
Or Get All of the Activity Packets for 600+ Picture Books!
Starts with a Story is a collection of hundreds of book companions based on high quality children’s literature that support you in delivering highly-engaging interactive read alouds with follow up activities. Each book companion includes:
- reading comprehension questions with sample student responses
- 30 writing prompts targeting 10 different types of writing
- SEL lesson ideas based on character and events from each story
- printable student activities
- editable teaching slides with book-based clipart
- and more.
Learn how to get unlimited access to all 600+ book companion packets below!
One Last Thing Before You Go… Grab this Free Reading Resource!
If you want to get more book ideas to read aloud to your elementary students, then grab this reading freebie for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom teachers. It includes:
- seasonal read aloud books lists for teachers
- printable reading logs to track students’ reading
- monthly reading challenges to motivate students to read more
It will have you covered for the entire school year, as well as the summer months! Grab this free elementary reading packet now!
In closing, we hope you found this list of children’s books about recess helpful! If you are a member of Starts With a Story, you have access to all of these book companion activities. Do you want more book recommendations? Check out this massive list of mentor texts for elementary teachers!
