My First Day of School

Following is the entire text of the story. The words in red represent the personalized information.

My First Day at School
was created especially for
Mary Francis Smith
at the age of 5

With love from
Mom and Dad
November 9, 2001

Mary Francis Smith, from Chicago, woke up bright and early. Today is a very special day. It is her first day of school at Lakeside Elementary School.

Mary quickly jumped out of bed and checked her brand new backpack that Mom and Dad had given her. This would be the backpack Mary would carry to class every day.

Wonderful smells were coming from the kitchen. Mary hurried to the breakfast table where her favorite cereal was ready. Mary ate heartily while thinking about the classroom adventures that would take place today.

When Mary arrived at school, she saw other children coming to school too. Some were getting out of a bus and some were getting out of cars. Everyone was talking about the fun things they were going to do today. Mary thought it was a good idea that there were some grownups around to help everyone find the right place to go.

Mary was filled with excitement as she entered Lakeside Elementary School. It looked very big to Mary. She could hardly wait to see what her new classroom would look like.

Mary and all the new students took their seats in the bright and colorful classroom. The teacher introduced herself. She talked about the many fun things that they would be doing in her class.

"We will read everyday," said the teacher. She picked up a book and read a funny story. Mary and the whole class laughed. "Before long," said the teacher, "all of you will learn to read very well."

"We start with learning our letters," said the teacher. "There are 26 letters in our alphabet. Repeat after me...

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J

K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T

U - V - W - X - Y - Z"

Mary and the whole class repeated all the letters of the alphabet.

"Next, we learn our numbers. Numbers are for counting," said the teacher. "Let us count to ten."

The whole class counted out loud.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10.

Mary had fun counting out ten numbered blocks and stacked them on the table.

All the children loved lunchtime in the school cafeteria. Everyone is free to talk as long as they don't get too loud.

One of the students chose a delicious sandwich and a big, red apple. What did Mary choose for her lunch?

After lunch there is free time to go to the playground and run and play games.

The class divided into teams to play a game of soccer. Mary scored the winning goal and everybody cheered!

The afternoon was set for an art project. Everyone was given crayons and paper.

The teacher told the class to draw and color their favorite food.

When finished, the teacher tacked each picture on the wall. Mary drew a jar of honey. The whole class said this was the best picture.

As the school day was coming to an end, each student chose a picture book from the classroom shelf. Mary chose a story about Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

There are many books on the shelves. The pictures and the stories were fun and brought smiles to everyone's faces.

Then, the school bell rang. It was time to go home. Mary said goodbye to her teacher and her new friends. What a busy day it had been with so many things to learn and do!

Tomorrow would be another day of fun, games, and learning. Mary couldn't wait to tell Jessica, Steven, and Elizabeth about her first day at school. All of Mary's family and friends were proud because going to school means Mary is growing up.

Click on the book cover above for a short interactive preview of this book.  This is intended to provide examples of the illustrated pages.  Click on "Read the Story" (to the left) to see the full text for this story.

• Quality, hard-cover personalized children's book
• Washable hard cover
• Fully illustrated color pages
• 32 pages
• Measures 6 3/4" x 8 1/4"