Your Name is a Song activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Your Name Is A Song Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Kevin Noble Maillard's book. Read aloud the diverse 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

☐ summarize/ retell

☐ analyzing character

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ sequencing

☐ author's purpose

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ being respectful

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ plural nouns

☐ possessive nouns

☐ types of sentences

☐ contractions

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT: 

After the first day of school, the main character in this book was very upset. No one in her class could say her name, not even her teacher. The girl’s mother encourages her to sing her name for her classmates, and that is how they will learn to say her name. The girl also explains that people at school made fun of her name. Some girls in her class pretended to choke on it, a boy’s eyes got very wide, and someone said her name was made up.

While they walk home, the girl’s mother talks to her about the importance of names and where they come from. The girl learns that names come from dreamers, that names are strong and that it is important for everyone to learn new names.

The next day at school, the teacher calls out everyone’s name and gets stuck on the main characters. The girl decides to sing her name and the teacher is surprised. The girl then explains that names are songs, and sings her teacher’s name and classmates’ names. Soon, everyone wants to hear the girl sing their name. The girl’s teacher asks her to sing her name again and her classmates sing it back.

Students will enjoy this story about the importance of a name.

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