Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Day You Begin 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 taking ownership and diversity, this The Day You Begin picture book by Jacqueline Woodson 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 Day You Begin Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Day You Begin. 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 Day You Begin reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE DAY YOU BEGIN SUMMARY
The Day You Begin follows different students as they spend time at school. Each student feels different from their classmates, and shies away from what makes them unique. One student spent the summer reading books and taking care of her sister, one student speaks another language and is from another country, and another student enjoys a lunch that is unfamiliar to her classmates.
The day that each student begins is the day they share their stories about who they are and what makes them special.
Students will enjoy this story that explores diversity and the importance of owning who we are.
THE DAY YOU BEGIN 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 Day You Begin, 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 Day You Begin reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making connections
- plot | problem – solution
- author’s purpose
- figurative language
- identifying theme | message | moral
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- taking ownership
- diversity
- self esteem
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- proper nouns
- plural nouns
- compound words
THE DAY YOU BEGIN 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 Day You Begin?
- Lexile® Measure: AD980L
- Guided Reading Level: W – X
- DRA Level: N/A
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 7 – 7.4
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Jacqueline Woodson. It was illustrated by Rafael López .
What genre is The Day You Begin?
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.
