Why Buy A Letter From Your Teacher?
We know that running out to buy new books isn’t always an option for a teacher. Even if we want to buy ALL the books!
Therefore, many teachers try to be mindful of which books to buy and what books to borrow. When it comes to buying a book we think it needs to be a timeless story. One that you can consistently use for several years!
A Letter from Your Teacher on the First Day of School is one of those books! As is its partner book A Letter from Your Teacher on the Last Day of School.
These two books by Shannon Olsen are books that are worth buying. They are both stories that remain relevant year after year. Even better, they are not grade-specific. You can teach these two books at any grade! They are also books that you can be supported by many different engaging activities.
If you haven’t read either of these books, we are going to discuss the first book in today’s blog post. So, keep on reading to find out why you may want to buy A Letter from Your Teacher on the First Day of School. Moreover, why you may want to grab this ready to teach read aloud to go with it!
Back to School Reading Activities
When it comes to back to school activities there are several areas of focus. The immediate focus is often on getting to know you activities. These are essential to starting a new school year off on the right foot. Especially in younger grades.
Young students need to feel safe and welcomed from that first day of school. They also need time to get to know their peers, their teacher, and other school staff. Back to school learning goes beyond getting to know you activities though.
For teachers, that first month back to school is an important time to assess student learning. It is also an important time to create clear expectations. Clear expectations are needed for both learning and behavior.
Providing students with clear expectations in these areas helps them to be prepared and follow through in the desired way. Moreover, clear expectations help establish effective classroom management.
Back to school reading activities are one area that can help in these areas. Teachers can use back to school paired texts to help assess student reading and writing skills. More importantly, paired texts are great to introduce at the beginning of the year so you can teach your students how to complete them. Then, you can easily use them throughout the year to continue to assess and teach.
Back to School Read Alouds
In addition to using paired texts, back to school read alouds are perfect for the first month of school. Especially if you plan to use read alouds all year long (which we strongly recommend).
Books selected for back to school read alouds address important themes like respect, friendship, and growth mindset. Reading together as a class in the beginning also helps create an immediate feeling of community.
Even if you already have a great collection of back to school books, we highly recommend adding A Letter from Your Teacher on the First Day of School to your collection. If you haven’t read it yet, keep reading to learn more about this book. As well as the reading activities that you can use with it.
A Letter From Your Teacher Summary
This adorable book is the perfect creative and engaging way to introduce your students to the year ahead. In this book, the teacher writes a letter to her students. She shares it with them on the first day of school to introduce what they will learn that year.
We love this introduction of the year because it helps students see beyond that first day of jitters. They can see all the amazing things that are coming up in the year ahead. While you may not have the exact same plan as the teacher in the book, it gives a starting point to share your year plans too.
This book also on establishing positive relationships in the classroom. Relationships are essential to learning. Teacher to student relationships, student to student relationships, and whole class relationships are all important. These relationships are the building blocks for effective learning and classroom management.
The lessons taught in this book are perfect for starting to build these relationships.
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A Letter From Your Teacher Activities
There are so many amazing activities you can use alongside this book. You can write a letter to your students that explains what you will teach them during the year. You can also have students write letters to you!
Students letters are a great way to tie the book back to getting to know you activities. Beyond a letter, you can also have students write sticky notes that share “Things I Want My Teacher to Know About Me.”
In addition to supporting getting to know you activities, this book is perfect for teaching your students about read aloud time. Reading time is a weekly practice in most elementary classrooms. Therefore, it is important to establish clear expectations and procedures from the beginning of the year.
A Letter From Your Teacher Read Aloud Activities
One of the ways we found to support a read aloud routine is to have a clear read aloud format. This includes following the same procedure for getting to the reading carpet, sitting down, and later returning to desks. A procedure can go beyond a physical routine though.
We found that having the same structure for learning activities also helps students. They know exactly what types of activities to expect. Furthermore, they know how what to do when they come across them. That’s why we always use the same format of activities in our read alouds.
Using the same outline of activities also helps teachers to plan quickly and efficiently!
Here is the outline of activities for A Letter From Your Teacher Read Aloud:
- Detailed lesson plans
- Comprehension questions
- Whole group response to text activities
- Response to text worksheets
- Writing pages
- Vocabulary cards and worksheets
- Quiz
- Retelling puppets
- Craftivity template
This is the same outline we use for all of our interactive read alouds. We start with this outline and then make book-specific activities for each section. This helps teachers and students know what to expect.
You can try an ENTIRE read aloud for free by clicking below.
By starting your year with this book and read aloud packet, you are setting yourself and your students up for an easy and efficient read aloud routine for the entire school year!
