Back to School Books

Back to school is a magical time in the classroom. I just love all the great read alouds that tie into the themes we teach at this time of year. There are so many great ideas for books to read at the beginning of the year for all grades. This is my all-time favorite read-aloud book for the first week of school for fourth grade.

Photo from Amazon.com

You can find The Name Jar HERE.

I use this book as a jumping off point for my name unit, which is the first unit I teach in Language Arts. Students research the meaning of their name, we make name glyphs and it leads to a lot of great discussions.

For this unit, I go to my local library and check out a ton of baby name books so that my kiddos can start researching. Researching is one of the strands we teach in fourth grade and there's nothing more motivating to research than your own self!

The Name Jar is beyond great in helping introduce making text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to-world connections. The kiddos can really relate to Unhei, especially during the first week of school.

I have a packet of activities in my store for this unit! You can check it out {here} if you're interested in pre-reading, during reading and post-reading activities such as vocabulary work, discussion questions, writing prompts, an expository writing project and much more!

What are your favorite read aloud books for this time of year? Link up to the Back to School Books linky party and you could win $50 to the Clever School Teacher.