Build Background

• Have students tell the things they do to get ready for the first day of school. Ask them to tell what they did a few days before school begins, what they did the night before school started, and what they did on the morning of the first day of school. Write students’ responses in a 3-column list on the board with the columns titled Week before, Night before, Morning before.

Book Walk

Introduce the Strategy: Connect life experience and use prior knowledge

• Show students the front and back covers of the book. Have students read the title of the book or read it for them if necessary. Ask students to tell what is on the front cover (boy with backpack). Ask students if any of them have a backpack similar to this one. Have them tell what they use it for. Have students tell what is on the back cover (children getting on bus). Ask students to tell if they ride a bus or get to school some other way. Have students tell what they think the book will be about.
• Tell students that knowing something about the topic of the book they want to read helps them understand and remember what they are reading. Model using the strategy.
• Think aloud: When I read a new book, I try to think about what I already know about the topic of the book. When I look at the picture of the boy with the backpack on the front cover, I think about how I carried my books to school when I was a little girl. I had a red plaid book satchel that was kind of like a small suitcase. When I look at the picture on the back cover, I think about how I got to school. If it wasn’t raining, I walked. By looking at the title and the pictures on the cover, I can predict that I may find other things kids do to get ready to go to school. (Comments should be tailored to fit personal experience).
• Ask students what kinds of things they think they will read about getting ready for the first day of school. Encourage students to make connections between their knowledge and experiences with getting ready for the first day of school with what they read in the story.
• Show students the title page. Talk about the information written on the page (title of book, author's name, illustrator's name).
• Show students the table of contents. Explain that there are 4 chapters in the book. Read the chapter titles and tell students that the number that follows each one tells the page number on which the chapter begins. Have students put their finger on the chapter title they think might tell what kids do when they wake up in the morning. Have them put their finger on the chapter title they think might tell something that happens at school.
• Show students the graph on page 11. Explain what it shows and how to read it. Have students put their finger on the bar that stands for students that ride their bikes to school. Have them move their finger across to find the number of students that ride bikes. If necessary, ask additional questions about the ways students get to school.

Introduce the Vocabulary

• As you preview the book, ask students to talk about what they see in the illustrations and use the vocabulary they will encounter in the text. Model how to use what they know about getting ready for the first day of school as they preview the illustrations.
• Reinforce new vocabulary by incorporating it into a discussion of the pictures. For example, on page 6, you might ask: What things are the children getting in this picture?
• Model for students the strategies they can use to work out words they don’t know. For example, point to the word backpack on page 6. Point out that this word is made up of 2 smaller words. Cover pack and have students sound out the first part with you. Then uncover the second part and sound it out with students. Ask students whether the word backpack makes sense in the sentence. Remind students that when they come to a word they don’t know they can look for parts they already know, then they can check the beginning sounds or ending sounds, and they can think what would make sense in the sentence.
• For additional teaching tips on word-attack strategies, click here.

Set the Purpose

• Have students read the book to find out what these children do to get ready for the first day of school. Remind them to think about things they do that are like what these children do.

Student Reading

• Guide the Reading: Give each student a book and a sticky note. Tell them to put the sticky note on page 7 and to read to the end of the page. Tell students to reread the pages if they finish before everyone else.
• When they have finished reading, ask students what words in the text match the pictures. Ask students to tell what the children in the book have done so far to get ready for the first day of school. Have students tell things they have done to get ready for the first day of school that are like the things the children in the book have done. Have them tell how this helped them understand what they read.
• Model making connections: The night before the first day of school my sisters and I would go to bed early. Thinking about what we did the night before school helped me figure out the word early. (Comments should be tailored to fit personal experience.)
• Continue the discussion by asking students to find the sentence that tells the name of the first day of school. Point out that this word begins with a capital letter even if it is not at the beginning of a sentence. Have students find the sentence that gives a hint about why children go to bed early on Sunday night.
• Encourage students to continue to think about things they have done to get ready for the first day of school as they read the remainder of the story.

    Tell students to make a small question mark in their books beside any word they do not understand or cannot pronounce. These can be addressed in the discussion that follows.

Reflect on the Reading Strategies

• Ask students what words they marked in their books. Use this opportunity to model how they can read these words using decoding strategies and context clues.
• Reinforce that making connections with things they already know about the topic of the book helps them understand and remember what they read. (It promotes thinking skills and encourages students to be actively involved in the reading process.) Model the strategy:
• Think aloud: Thinking about things I already knew about in the book helped me understand what I read and figure out words. It helped me feel like I could have been one of the children in the book. Now that I’ve finished reading, I remember what the book was about. Do you?

Teach the Comprehension Skill: Main Idea and Details

• Introduce and model: Give students the comprehension worksheet. Explain that they will be looking for the big idea or main idea of the book and the details in the chapters in the book. Tell students that all books have a main idea, which is the main thing that the book is about. Explain that sometimes they can get a clue about the main idea from the title. Model using the title as a clue to the main idea.
• Think-aloud: The title of this book gives me a good clue about what the main idea is. The pictures on the covers also help me think that the main idea of the book is about what we do to get ready to go to school. I can look at the table of contents to find out about the main idea, too, because often the headings give me a clue about what each chapter is about. These headings don’t tell me exactly, but I get the idea that there is going to be information about getting ready and the last chapter will be about being at school.
• Turn to the first chapter. Model how to pick out the details.
• Think-aloud: I’m looking for details about children getting ready for school. I find these details: they get backpacks, paper, pencils; they go to bed early. These are things they do to get ready.
• Make a copy of the graphic organizer on the board. Model writing in the main idea of the book. Then record the details from the first chapter that support the main idea. Have students copy this as you write it in.
• Check for understanding: Have students look at the second chapter. Ask them to find some details about what children do when they get up to get ready for school. Have them write or draw the details on the chart.
• Independent Practice: If students are able, have them complete the worksheet. If they need more support, have them work with a partner, or have them work as a group with you to find the details.
• Extend the Discussion:

    Instruct students to use the last page of the book to draw a picture of themselves on their first day of school. Have them share with the group and tell about their days.

Phonemic Awareness: Identify and produce rhyme

• Say the words night and light and have students tell what is the same about the words. (They rhyme/have the same ending.) Tell students you can think of other words that rhyme with night and light and say: fight, might, sight, right.
• Tell students that you are going to say some words one at a time. Tell them to say words that rhyme with each word. Ask students to list as many words as they can for each word you say. Use the following words: day, eat, go, dad, big.

Phonics: Consonant digraph ch

• Write the ch digraph on the board and say the /ch/ sound. Have students repeat the sound. Ask students to think of words that begin with the /ch/ sound.
• Write the word children on the board and read it with the students. Ask a volunteer to circle the letters that make the /ch/ sound.
• Have students find the word children in the book and count the number of times they find it.
• Write the following words on the board: chip, chop, chap, chin. Model sounding out the first word by running your finger under the letters as you say the sounds: /ch/ /i/ /p/. Repeat and have students sound it out with you. Then repeat with the remaining words.
• Explain the worksheet, go over the example provided, and instruct students to complete the worksheet. When completed, discuss their answers.

Grammar and Mechanics: Sequence and capitalize days of the week

• Review or explain that there are special words that tell the names of the days of the week. Show students a calendar and say the name of each day of the week, in sequence, as you point to it on the calendar. Have students repeat the words.
• Introduce students to the meanings of the words before, after, and last. Use the calendar to show students that Sunday comes before Monday, and that Monday comes after Sunday. Use the calendar to show students that Saturday is the last day of the week. Provide additional practice with before and after using other days of the week.
• Have students turn to page 4 in the book. Tell them to find the word that names the day of the week on which school begins. Have students turn to page 7. Have them find the name of the day that comes before Monday.
• Point to the capital letter at the beginning of each word. Tell students that these words always begin with a capital. Write sunday and Monday on the board. Ask students to tell which word is written correctly. Have them tell what needs to be done to the other word.
• Give students the days of the week worksheet. Explain that they are to answer the questions using the names of the days of the week. Discuss their responses.

Vocabulary: Compound words

• Tell students that some words they read in the book are words made by putting 2 words together. Direct students to page 6. Ask them to find the word that tells what students put their books in. Write the word backpacks on the board. Explain that the words back and packs have been put together to make a new word with a new meaning. Ask students to tell what the word back (a part of the body) means. Ask them to tell what the word packs (to carry) means. Ask students to tell the meaning of the word backpacks (a pack carried on a person’s back).
• Have students turn to page 5 to find the word everywhere. Ask them to tell the 2 words that were put together to make the new word. Explain that every means all and where means place, so the new word means in all places. Have students look on page 9 to find the word breakfast. Explain that this word is a little trickier because they may not have heard one of the words used to make it. Tell students that the words are break and fast. Explain that the word fast means to not eat. Ask students if they can figure out what the compound word means (to break the fast, that is, to begin eating again after not eating all night).
• Check for understanding by asking students to identify the words in each of the following compound words: airplane, houseboat, grandmother, flagpole, and discuss how the smaller words making up the compound word help them understand the compound words.
• Click here for a compound word worksheet. Have students cut out the cards and make as many compound words as possible. Have them write the words on a separate sheet of paper.

Independent Reading

• Allow students to read their books independently or with a partner. Partners can take turns reading parts of the book.

Home Connection

• Give students their books to take home to read with parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.
• Give students their worksheets to take home. They can complete them with the help of their parents, caregivers, siblings, or friends.

Writing and Art Connection

• Write the sentence I _______ on the first day of school. Ask students to write something they do on the first day of school. Have them illustrate their sentences. Display on a bulletin board titled "Getting Ready for Our First Day of School."

Math Connection

• Have students look at the bar graph on page 11. Discuss what the bars and numbers stand for. Tell students they can make a bar graph about other things, such as red books, blue books, and white books on the bookshelf. Model drawing a bar graph on the board that shows the number of each on the classroom bookshelf. Have students work as a group to come up with other things they can count and show on a bar graph. Give them a large sheet of paper on which to draw it. (Possible items: hair color, eye color, types of clothing, number of siblings)

Monitor students to determine if they can:

• make connections with experiences they had on or prior to their first day of school to better understand the text
• understand the main idea of the book and identify details in each chapter that support the overall main idea
• listen to words and suggest words that rhyme
• use words that begin with the consonant digraph ch to complete sentences
• sequence days of the week and write each with a capital letter
• identify words used to form compound words; form compound words.

Comprehension Checks