The beginning of the school year is always exciting! This year is no different, especially because many of us are going back virtually or in some hybrid method. Reading our favorite picture books to our students is a great way to create conversations and community within our class. I’m sharing 3 of my favorite most fabulous read-aloud picture books for 4th grade and back to school.
How Full Is Your Bucket?
by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer
I don’t know about you but I think there has never been a more perfect time to talk about this! In my first week of 4th grade, I have little friends who are disappointed they are in the classroom and trying very hard to stay positive.
How Full Is Your Bucket is a beautiful book about how everyone has an invisible bucket. A full bucket helps us feel great throughout the day. An empty bucket makes us feel terrible.
As we read, we follow Felix, the main character, as he discovers how everyone has a bucket and how every interaction either fills or empties their bucket.
Bucket Filling in the Classroom
My class become bucket fillers from the very first day.
First, everyone decorates their bucket to put up in the classroom. I attach these to a library card and then to the door.
Then, every morning they choose at least 3 people’s buckets to fill. I give them a class list to keep in their desk so they may cross off the classmates’ buckets they have filled. I encourage them to fill every classmate’s bucket on the list before filling someone’s a second time.
They use the simple bucket filling slips below to write their message and place it in their classmates buckets.
Finally, at the end of the week, everyone collects their buckets and reads the positive messages received during the week.
I make sure everyone has their bucket filled with at least one sweet note. To do that, I check buckets throughout the week and fill buckets myself every day!
During the spring, my class of 4th graders graduating high school that year come to a luncheon celebration on campus. If I’m not in the classroom when they stop by, they always grab a bucket filler and write me notes just like when they were in my class.
One of my graduating seniors shared with me that she has kept her bucket fillers from 4th grade and rereads them often!
Your Fantastic Elastic Brain
written by JoAnn Deak, Ph. D
The second book I read at the beginning of the year is Your Fantastic Elastic Brain by JoAnn Deak.
Wow…I love this book for many reasons, but at the beginning of the year, I especially love it for Growth Mindset. It teaches the kiddos different ways the brain can change and grow with exercise just like our bodies!
After reading, we have an initial discussion about growth mindset and continue that discussion all year long.
Each Kindness
by Jacqueline Woodson
Each Kindness may bring a tear to your eye. It did for for some of my kiddos and me.
It is about Chloe and her friends. They choose not to play with a new girl, Maya. Anytime Maya tries to join Chloe and her group they turn away and reject her. Eventually, Maya doesn’t return to school. Chloe is left to wonder what might have happened if she had shown Maya kindness.
After reading, we role play different situations that happen in the classroom and on the playground. The role playing really helps the class to act out uncomfortable situations in a safe environment. When (not if) these uncomfortable situations occur in the classroom or on the playground, they will have words and actions “in their back pocket” to use.
And there you have it! 3 of my favorite picture books for 4th grade to read aloud at the beginning of the year.
I hope you found a new title or a new way to incorporate one of these books in your classroom this school year.
What are your favorite books to read at the start of the school year?
3 Responses
Good to know.