Back To School - Let the reading aloud begin!

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!  Expectantly awaited by some and fearfully dreaded by others...school is just about to start.  I fall on the expectantly awaited side.  True, I'm retired and now only work part-time, so I still get to enjoy lunch outside a school cafeteria, time with family, and sleeping in, REGARDLESS, the beginning of school is a joyful anticipation of what's to come: connecting with new kids, new families, and, hopefully, making a difference in someone's life.  Now my job is out of a classroom (RTI coordinator- probably not the most loved position) but thinking about the beginning of school takes me back to planning for kids anyway.

The first couple of weeks I spent time sharing lots of books - - books that would become mentor texts for the year, books that told about my life, books I just loved, books that generated possible writing topics.

   Marianthe's Story by Aliki - This book has two stories ("Painted Words" and "Spoken Memories").  It is the story of a young girl moving to the U.S. from another country and her experience as she goes to school and begins to learn a new language.  It not only helped me let students know about my life, but in our current world it is common to find students from other countries, so it provided an opportunity for hearing about their stories and for discussing empathy and patience with those still learning the language.

   How Many Days to America? by Eve Bunting - similar to the one above in that it helped students open up about their own personal stories, if you have immigrant students in your class.

  A Box of Friends by Pam Munoz Ryan - loved to use it to find out about the students (where they've been, what they love).  The child in this story makes a box with items that remind her about special people and events in her life after she moves to a new house.  I had students respond in their writing notebooks by drawing a box and putting pictures of memories or people they wanted to remember.  It became a source of writing ideas for later.  The book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox is similar, and I have used it before as well.

  Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon,, by Patty Lovell - great for talking about bullying, about how you can stand up for yourself without hitting or crying.  This is also a book that's great to use when talking about developing characters in writing.

  Flossie & the Fox, by Patricia McKissack - a fun story that will be a mentor text for persuasive text, for voice, for story ideas, for character development.  I like using it at the beginning of school because in the Author's Note, she tells how this story came out of stories she heard her family tell. We discussed how we all have stories we've heard in our family and students add those to their writing notebooks as they gather ideas for writing.

  First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg - definitely a read for the very first day!

I won't tell much about it, so you check it out, but students love it.  A good mentor text for later, when teaching about endings.

  Painting the Wind, Patricia Maclachlan - a boy wants to learn how to draw the wind, so he watches different artists paint.  I like to use it to talk about how we can learn from each other, from the writers we read, etc.

  Ruby the Copycat, by Margaret Rathmann - great for talking about being a good friend and the importance of doing your own thing.

         Something Might Happen, by Helen Lester - a lemur is afraid of everything, fearing something awful could happen.  He doesn't have doors or windows.  He won't bathe.  He won't go outside when his friends ask him to join them. 

 

Nadia's Hands by Karen English - a young girl is chosen to be a flower girl in a Pakistani wedding and worries about what kids will say at school when they see the mehndi designs on her hands.  I love it to generate discussions on how we are alike and different, how our family traditions help us be unique.

The Name Jar, by Yangsook Choi - in this story a Korean girl is frustrated about how no one can pronounce her name and decides to change her name to one suggested by someof her classmates.  It's great to share how each student got their names, and again be able to celebrate the things that make each of us unique.

Dancing in the Wings, by Debbie Allen - Sassy is an outspoken girl who wants to be a ballerina more than anything in the world.  She thinks she is too tall, has feet too big, so she'll never get to be one.  This story shows that hard work and perseverance can help us accomplish dreams.

Up North at the Cabin, by Marsha Wilson Chall - perfect story to talk about what everyone did in the summer.  Later, a mentor text for describing, figurative language, and rich details. 

Hopefully you are excitedly planning for the beginning of school and these will remind you of stories you want to share with your students.  Connecting through a book begins to build your class community day one.

HAPPY READING!