Back to school read alouds that teach growth mindset, perseverance, and building friendships.
Planning our Back-to-School Interactive Read-Alouds truly gets us excited to start a new school year. This summer, we met at the Cheesecake Factory to select books and sketch out plans. Over a delicious dinner, we read each other’s new titles and narrowed down our favorites. We can’t wait to implement these new lessons because we are in love with each book that made the cut. These titles are fun and engaging, but also strategically chosen to spark meaningful discussions about growth mindset, perseverance, and building friendships. These titles are perfect for teaching these powerful lessons at the beginning of the school year.
Add Your Heading Text Here
The Thing Lou Couldn't Do
We are big fans of The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires. For several years we have used this inspiring story to launch our school year and discuss growth mindset with our students. We couldn’t contain our excitement when we discovered she wrote a new book this year. “The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do” exceeded our expectations.
This story features Lou, an adventurer, who loves to play make-believe with her friends. One afternoon, her friends insist on playing pirates up in the tree. Lou has never climbed a tree before and she is convinced she can’t do it. She tries to persuade her friends to play a not-in-a-tree game. When she fails, she comes up with reason after reason not to climb the tree. She even tries to convince herself that she doesn’t even want to play in the tree. Ultimately, she overcomes her fears and tries to climb the tree. In the end she fails, however, her efforts empower her to keep trying and instill in her a growth mindset.
Lou’s experience and feelings will resonate with students and they too, will be inspired to take on new challenges with perseverance.
Our Interactive Read-Aloud lesson plans cover summarizing, character feelings, character’s response to challenges, a growth mindset writing prompt, and a craftivity.
AFTER THE FALL: HOW HUMPTY DUMPTY GOT BACK UP AGAIN
We are also big fans of Beekle the Unimaginary Friend, by Dan Santat. When we saw he had a new book out we knew we had to get it. After the Fall, by Dan Santat, literally brought us to tears. It is hands-down our favorite read-aloud of the year.
This breathtaking and clever story will get students thinking about conquering their fears one step at a time. In this story, Humpty Dumpty has a great fall. He heals physically, but the emotional scars from falling still haunt him. His debilitating fear of heights prevents him from eating his favorite cereal from the top shelf, sleeping on his bunk, and bird watching. He longs for the skies so he builds a paper bird plane. One unfortunate day, Humpty accidentally flies his beloved plane over the wall. Humpty frets about climbing the wall but ultimately decides to conquer his fear one step at a time to retrieve his plane. In the end, something miraculous happens.
We were genuinely surprised by the ending, but won’t spoil it for you. After the Fall will evoke wonderful discussions about getting back up after a fall and overcoming fear. In these Interactive Read-Aloud lessons students will sequence the story, ponder Humpty Dumpty’s character traits, analyze the connection between the illustrations and the text, and write about overcoming their fears.
I'm not Just a Scribble
I’m Not Just a Scribble, by Diane Alber is an adorable, humorous tale that teaches the importance of accepting others and being yourself. In this story, Scribble sets off to make some new friends. Each drawing (character) he encounters, turns him away because he looks different.
At first, he has good spirits, but after multiple rejections, he begins to feel down. After a particularly rude encounter with the sun and clouds, he decides to stand up for himself. The sun and clouds feel guilty and decide their standoffish behavior isn’t who they want to be. They apologize and invite Scribble to play. Their good example inspires the other drawings to be accepting and they all work out their differences for a happy ending.
Our Interactive Read-Aloud lesson plans navigate Scribble’s feelings and reactions throughout the story and get students writing about feelings and accepting others for who they are.
The Sandwich Swap
We fell in love with The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania as soon as we read it. There are so many great lessons to learn from this story. It teaches about friendship, trying new things, and about culture diversity.
The story is about two girls from different cultural backgrounds who are best friends at school. They do everything together. Every day they eat lunch together and they both eat sandwiches. One day one girl tells the other girl that she thinks her sandwich is gross, which spirals into a big fight. They eventually find out that it is okay to like different things and that you should try something before you say you don’t like it.
Our text dependent questions will get your class discussing the topics of friendship, trying new things, and accepting people from different backgrounds. Our Interactive Read-Aloud lesson plans cover story elements, cause and effect, and get your students writing about times they tried new things. You and your class will love this interactive read-aloud!
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes
The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Gary Rubinstein and Mark Pett is another great book for the beginning of the school year.
This book teaches the importance of making mistakes. It is a great springboard for class discussions about daring to make mistakes. The girl in this book had never made a mistake, but at the same time she never dared to try anything new. She really wasn’t happy living this way, but she didn’t want to admit it. When she finally made a mistake she didn’t know what to do… so she started laughing. After she made the big mistake she started trying new things and wasn’t afraid of making a mistake anymore. Our text dependent questions will get your class discussing the importance of making mistakes and learning from them.
Our Interactive Read-Aloud lesson plans teach beginning, middle, and end, the girl’s character before the mistake and after, and will get students writing about a time when they made a mistake and what they learned from it.
Your students will love these read-alouds and you will love meeting so many Reading Literature Core Standards. Each read-aloud comes with a scope and sequence so you can see what standards are being taught. You can purchase each of these Interactive Read-Aloud book companion lessons separately or as a back-to-school bundle (to save money).
