Today we are spotlighting a sweet book about a little girl who learns where her name comes from. We love that this book encourages students to think about the meaning behind their name and what kind of person they want to be. It makes for great social emotional learning discussions and we leave students wanting to talk about the story with their own families at home. - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Alma and How She Got Her Name tells the story of a young girl named Alma. Alma has a very long name and is frustrated by how long it is. It doesn’t fit on a piece of paper, and she has to tape an extra strip of paper to the bottom so it can fit. She goes to her dad to complain how long it is, and instead he tells her the story of her name. She learns that each part of her name represents one of her relatives. Each name was chosen specifically for her to represent the great qualities each relative had. Alma learns to love her name as she hears the story of each relative. At the end of the story, Alma’s dad tells her that he chose the name Alma just for her and that it isn’t a name that someone else in the family had. The name is for her to use to write her own story.
Students will love hearing the story about how Alma got her name, and think about the origin of their own names.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Children’s books can be used for so much more than reading them aloud and asking comprehension questions. Teachers can integrate so many different subject areas to connect students’ learning. Here are some ways to integrate comprehension, writing, grammar, and social emotional learning into Alma and How She Got Her Name.
- Practice making connections. This reading strategy helps students make meaning of what they are reading.
- Summarizing can be a challenging skill for students. This book is a great opportunity to practice summarizing the important events of a story.
- This book lends itself to incorporating opinion writing. Students will form their own opinion and create reasons to back up their opinion.
- Ask students to write lists! Reluctant writers will love this activity and it’s a great way to brainstorm for future writing.
- Introduce quotation marks and how authors use them.
- Review compound words and pronouns.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- 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
The Starts With a Story book companion for Alma and How She Got Her Name has over 25 comprehension questions, 30 writing prompts, ideas for teaching three grammar skills, and discussion ideas for integrating social emotional learning. Our graphic organizers and worksheets are a great way for students to practice new skills or demonstrate their learning. We hope this resource makes planning and teaching so much easier!
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson
- The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
- My Name Is Yoon by Helen Recorvits
- Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied MΓ©ndez
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
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