Grab your backpack and get ready for the second grade in the latest big moment to be celebrated in Natasha Wing's best-selling series! It's the night before a young boy's first day of second grade, and he's excited. He's spent all summer reading and preparing for the year ahead, and he can't wait to learn more about what fun surprises second grade has to offer. Join him and his friends on their journey through the new school year in this delightful story, told in the style of Clement C. Moore's classic tale.

Follows a child through all the big first grade moments.

The Night Before My Birthday captures all the excitement and anticipation that every child experiences in the lead-up to their special day. The decorations are up, the table is set, and the food is ready - but what happens when there is an ice cream emergency? Once again Natasha Wing has written a story that is sure to appeal to every child getting ready for a birthday. The book is told by and seen through the eyes of the birthday child, so it is gender neutral and a fun gift for any birthday girl or boy.

It's the first day of school! Join the kids as they prepare for kindergarten, packing school supplies, posing for pictures, and the hardest part of all—saying good-bye to Mom and Dad. But maybe it won't be so hard once they discover just how much fun kindergarten really is! Colorful illustrations illuminate this uplifting takeoff on the classic Clement C. Moore Christmas poem.

It's the night before preschool, and a little boy named Billy is so nervous he can't fall asleep. The friends he makes the next day at school give him a reason not to sleep the next night, either: he's too excited about going back! The book's simple rhyming text and sweet illustrations will soothe any child's fears about the first day of school.

It's the night before the Big Day—first grade. Penny is excited to start the year with her best friend right beside her in the same classroom. This humorous take on Clement C. Moore's classic tale has a perfect twist ending that will surprise readers—as well as the “heroine” of the story—and help all about-to-be first-graders through their own back-to-school jitters.

Grab your backpack and get ready for the second grade in the latest big moment to be celebrated in Natasha Wing's best-selling series! It's the night before a young boy's first day of second grade, and he's excited. He's spent all summer reading and preparing for the year ahead, and he can't wait to learn more about what fun surprises second grade has to offer. Join him and his friends on their journey through the new school year in this delightful story, told in the style of Clement C. Moore's classic tale.

From the Introduction: "What kind of knowledge and skills can your child be expected to learn in second grade at school? How can you help your child at home? These are questions that we try to answer in this book. It presents the sort of knowledge and skills—in literature, reading and writing, history and geography, visual arts, music, mathematics, and science—that should be at the core of a challenging second-grade education. Because children and localities differ greatly across this big, diverse country, so do second-grade classrooms. But all communities, including classrooms, require some common ground for communication and learning. In this book we present the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American second graders. This core is not a comprehensive prescription for everything that every second grader needs to know. Such a complete prescription would be rigid and undesirable. But the book does offer a solid common ground that will enable young students to become active, successful learners in their classroom community and later in the larger communities we live in—town, state, nation, and world." BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from What Your Third Grader Needs to Know.

Give your child a smart start with the revised and updated What Your Second Grader Needs to Know What will your child be expected to learn in the second grade? How can you help him or her at home? This book answers these all-important questions and more, offering the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American second graders. Designed for parents and teachers to enjoy with children, featuring a new Introduction, this second-grade volume of the Core Knowledge Series presents the knowledge and skills that should be at the core of a challenging second-grade education, including • Favorite poems—old and new, from “Caterpillars” to Gwendolyn Brooks’s prizewinning “Rudolph Is Tired of the City” • Literature—from around the world, with African folktales, American tall tales, European fairy tales, and classic myths from ancient Greece • Learning about language—the basic building blocks of written English, all explained with a touch of humor and common sense • World and American history and geography—visit Japan, explore ancient Greece, travel the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman • Visual arts—with activities and full-color illustrations of masterworks by El Greco, Van Gogh, Matisse, and others • Music—basic theory, great composers, instruments, and fun-to-sing songs such as “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and “Do-Re-Mi” • Math—challenging lessons ranging from telling time to doing fractions, numbers to 100, and a first look at geometry • Science—the cycle of life and the seasons, levers and magnets, the wonder of the human body, and more, with lots of hands-on activities and stories about famous scientists