First Day Jitters activities and lesson plan ideas

Our First Day Jitters Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Julie Danneberg's book. Read aloud the picture book then use the printables or go paperless with Google or Seesaw to practice standards-based skills.

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH: 

◼️ READING STRATEGIES

☐ making predictions

☐ visualizing

☐ making connections

☐ author's purpose

☐ analyzing character

☐ analyzing illustrations

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ feelings

☐ positive self talk

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ contractions

☐ action verbs

☐ multiple meaning words

☐ compound words

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The story First Day Jitters, tells the story of Sarah, who is very nervous for her first day of school. Her dad tries to get her out of bed and Sarah says she is not going. She is worried about starting her new school and not knowing anyone. As Sarah gets ready for school the more nervous she becomes, even her hands are clammy.

Sarah’s dad drives her to school and she begins to feel sick with nerves. When they arrive at the school, Sarah’s principal is there to greet her and show her where to go. The principal leads Sarah through the crowded halls to her new class. When the principal enters the room she introduces the students to their new teacher, Mrs. Sarah Jane Hartwell!

Students will love the surprise at the end of the story, when they discover that teachers also get nervous on the first day of school.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social-Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list-making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables