Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Name Jar will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of diversity and transitions, this The Name Jar picture book by Yangsook Choi is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with The Name Jar Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Name Jar. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with The Name Jar reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE NAME JAR SUMMARY
Unhei has just moved from Korea to America. On the bus ride to her first day of school, the students laugh at her name. When she gets to her new classroom and it is time for her to say her name, she claims that she doesn’t have one. She says she is still deciding on her name and will let the class know by the end of the week.
Boys and girls in her class create a name jar and fill it with suggestions for Unhei’s new name. However, none of the names feel quite right for Unhei.
At the end of the story, Unhei has to make the decision about whether or not to share her real name.
Students will learn about diversity and individuality throughout this great read.
THE NAME JAR LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for The Name Jar, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based The Name Jar reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making predictions
- analyzing character
- summarize / retell
- plot | problem – solution
- author’s purpose
- ask and answer questions
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- diversity
- transitions
- positive self-talk
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- proper nouns
- compound words
- suffixes
THE NAME JAR ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for The Name Jar?
- Lexile® Measure: AD590L
- Guided Reading Level: N – O
- DRA Level: 28 – 30
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.2 – 3.3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written and illustrated by Yangsook Choi.
What genre is The Name Jar?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 40 pages long.
