Fun Discussion & Activity Prompts to Start the School Year

Getting to know you

• Listen to a selection of Author Name Pronunciations. Ask students to write down what stands out to them. What do they most notice about the recordings they listen to? Are they funny, poignant, informative? Then have students write and record their own name pronunciations, using the ones they listened to as inspiration.

• Have students fill out the Celebrating Differences Listen & Respond worksheet, then share what characteristics they consider uniquely theirs.

• Use the One-A-Day Celebrating Differences worksheet to learn something new about each other each day.

Icebreaker ideas

• Listen to Lisa Yee’s Meet-the-Author Recording for Katana at Superhero High. Then ask everyone to share what their superpower would be. After they offer their responses, ask students what their *actual* superpower is — are they super kind? Super prompt? Super smart?

• Listen to the audiobook excerpt for Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl, featuring a character who collects porcupine neckties. Ask students what collections they have, or what collections they would like to start.

• Have students complete the TeachingBooks Scavenger Hunt and share a title or resource they found.

Writing and thinking

• Play this video book reading from School’s First Day of School, which features the school’s point of view. After watching, have students write about the first day of school from the perspective of something inanimate, like their desk, locker, bedroom, alarm clock, etc.

• Listen to the Meet-the-Author Recording for New Kids and Underdogs. Ask students these two questions:
  • 1) If you had to “write what you know,” what would you write about?
  • 2) If you had to research something you don’t know much about yet, what would your topic be?

What’s working for you?

We’d love to hear how you’re using TeachingBooks resources in your classrooms and libraries! Leave your ideas in a comment below.