Teaching the All Are Welcome Book to 1st and 2nd Graders
ALL students are welcome in the classroom! That is the message that as teachers we want to send. Regardless of race, religion, gender, or any other wonderful difference – it is important that every student in your classroom knows they are welcome. Moreover, that each student understands how to make others feel welcome!
Creating a positive classroom community is important all year long. However, it is especially important to begin the year with a welcoming environment. This is why we love including the book All Are Welcome by Alexandra Penfold as part of our back to school activities.
The All Are Welcome book is the perfect addition to any back to school activities you already do. So, no need to change what is already working! Just add this in for an updated take on a new year.
All Are Welcome Summary
There are a lot of amazing books and resources for teaching kids about diversity and inclusion. What we love about the book All Are Welcome is that it takes place inside a school! Therefore, students are learning about the importance of inclusion in a school environment.
It isn’t just about school though. This wonderful book teaches students to look at each other’s backgrounds and families to better understand and accept one another.
The book follows students through a day of school. Throughout the day, students learn about their peers through different activities – including what they eat for lunch, how they get to school, and what they wear. By the end of the day, all students know that THEY BELONG THERE! Just like your students will know – they belong in your classroom!!
Easy Read Aloud Activities
One creative way to engage your students in this book is to have them participate in some of the same activities that the students do in the book. Wouldn’t it be fun to have students learn about the different foods they all eat at home?!
In addition to incorporating fun activities from the book, our favorite All Are Welcome activity is a read aloud! As former first grade teachers, read alouds are one of our favorite activities. There are so many benefits to read alouds (not just for students, but teachers too)!
One of the teacher benefits is that one book provides a week worth of reading lessons! When we were teaching, we found the easiest way to create a week of reading activities was to have a format to follow. This is the exact practice we carried over when making our read alouds for you!
Here is an example of the different activities we follow when creating a read aloud. These are the main activities that you will find in any read aloud by The Core Coaches.
- Comprehension questions
- Whole group response to text activities
- Response to text worksheets
- Writing pages
- Vocabulary cards and worksheets
- Quiz
- Craftivity template
This isn’t all though! Keep reading to learn what additional activities are included in our All Are Welcome read aloud.
All Are Welcome Worksheets (and beyond)
Before we share our favorite activity with this read aloud, let’s look quickly at read aloud worksheets.
Traditionally, worksheets have been a go-to choice for easy read aloud activities. We love to use a basic worksheet format for practicing skills like vocabulary. A worksheet is also a simple format that works well for response to text questions.
However, while these are easy ways to present the information (and gather responses), worksheets can get boring. Especially for young kids! Therefore, we encourage you to explore new ways of using the same types of materials.
One way we have found that makes worksheets more engaging is to turn them into digital worksheets. This is why we have made all our read alouds both digital and printable resources. This gives you more variety in how you teach. Moreover, it further supports differentiated instruction for your students.
All Are Welcome Activities
Yes, the basics are essential when using a read aloud. You need to teach comprehension and vocabulary. Read alouds are not only about comprehension questions and worksheets though. They are also about instilling a love of reading.
Therefore, it is important to engage your students in their learning through a variety of activities.
Using a variety of activities keeps students engaged, while also offering several ways for students to connect with the text.
We all know that students learn differently. So, offering a variety of learning activities helps all students get access to the information in a way that is best for them. It also allows students to demonstrate their understanding in a way that is best for their learning style. Overall, providing different activities helps all students succeed (and have fun)!
One of our favorite creative activities for All Are Welcome is our retelling puppets! These are an excellent way for students to demonstrate their understanding of a text verbally. Moreover, they are fun to make.
In addition to the retelling puppets, this read aloud also includes a second craftivity template for additional creative learning.
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Other Inclusion & Diversity Activities
All Are Welcome presents a theme that is important all year long – not just in the first month of school. Therefore, we encourage you to add additional learning experiences throughout the year that reteach the idea that all are welcome!
One supporting activity that can be used all year long is Morning Meeting! Morning meeting focuses on creating a positive classroom community for all students. If you want to add Morning Meeting to your classroom, here is everything you need to start a Morning Meeting!
In addition to the activities we have already planned in our year-long Morning Meeting resource, you can add additional diversity and inclusion learning experiences.
A great addition is our Diversity & Inclusion Discussion Cards! These discussion prompts help you and your students engage in meaningful conversations about diversity and inclusion with simple and engaging questions.
In addition to the classroom, teaching students about the importance of other communities further encourages them to be welcoming and accepting everywhere. To help teach students about inclusion in different communities, we put together all of our favorite community-building activities into one great bundle!
These are just some of the many activities you can use to continue growing your community throughout the school year. In addition, there are several other amazing read alouds that can be used during the year to revisit these important themes.
