Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Last Day Blues 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 feelings and transitions, this Last Day Blues picture book by Julie Danneberg 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 Last Day Blues Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Last Day Blues. 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 Last Day Blues book companion to make lesson planning simple with Last Day Blues reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
Last Day Blues Summary
Mrs. Hartwell and her students have reached the end of the school year and summer vacation is quickly approaching. Although the students are looking forward to their summer vacation, they worry that Mrs. Hartwell will be sad and lonely all summer. The class decides to make their teacher a gift to cheer her up.
On the last day of school, the students are ready to give Mrs. Hartwell their gift. She is happy to see they made her a poem listing all their best memories from the school year. As the students make their way home for summer vacation they consider how sad all the teachers must be. Little do they know, the teachers are just excited about summer vacation and ready to celebrate! This book makes a great read aloud for the end of the school year!
Book Information for Elementary Teachers
What are the reading levels for Last Day Blues?
- Lexile® Measure: NC620L
- Guided Reading Level: O
- DRA Level: 30 – 34
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.3 – 3.5
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Julie Danneberg. It was illustrated by Judy Love.
What genre is Last Day Blues?
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 32 pages long.
Last Day Blues Lesson Plan Ideas
Each of our 600+ 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 Last Day Blues, 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 Last Day Blues reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making predictions
- making connections
- plot | problem and solution
- cause and effect
- author’s purpose
Literature-Based Social Emotional Learning Lessons
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- feelings
- transitions
Grammar, Vocabulary & Word Study
- nouns
- base words
- capitalization
- quotation marks
Get the Last Day Blues Book Activities
This Last Day Blues Book Companion includes 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
One Last Thing Before You Go… Grab this Free Reading Resource!
If you want to get more book ideas to read aloud to your elementary students, then grab this reading freebie for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom teachers. It includes:
- seasonal read aloud books lists for teachers
- printable reading logs to track students’ reading
- monthly reading challenges to motivate students to read more
It will have you covered for the entire school year, as well as the summer months! Grab this free elementary reading packet now!
