May
24
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Poll: Last Read Aloud of the School Year
A couple of weeks ago, I asked Nerdy Readers to share their favorite read aloud from both their childhood and this school year. I’m back this week with another poll question. What book will be the last book you read aloud to your students this year? Please let me know down in the comments below. I cannot wait learn what book you chose.
Below you will find a video I made about how I pick the last read aloud of the school year. In the video I also share the book I selected!
Please share the following in the comments below:
- How do you select the last book that you will read aloud to students?
- What book did you pick (will you pick) this school year?
I’ll randomly select one person that leaves a comment and send them a copy of The Creativity Project.
Colby Sharp is a fifth grade teacher in Parma, Michigan. He is the editor of The Creativity Project, co-founder of the Nerdy Book Club, and Co-host of The Yarn Podcast.
Nerdy Book Club 
I agree with all the things you said in your video. So many things to consider…..I teach first graders and at the end of the year I want to leave them with a happy memory. I am torn between I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and It Will Be Okay by Lysa TerKeurst. I teach at an international school in Seoul, S Korea and each year brings many transitions so I feel like It Will Be Okay might be the better choice but I still have not decided. I might read both — one on the day before the last day and one the last day.
Great picks! Let us know what you choose.
Right now I’m choosing books that inspire empathy.
What are some of the books you have picked?
I Wish You More, always tearful for me as a final sendoff, but even more so this year with our school closing.
Awesome pick!
Last Week—Worlds Afire—Great for questioning and discussion. Excellent vocabulary!
Last Day—I Wish You More
Good choice – great video. I only see my students once a week, so my read aloud has to be quick. This year, for 3rd grade I am doing Elevator Family – great word play and a fun read. For 2nd grade I am doing a Melissa Stewart trio. Not sure about 4th and 5th yet.
Have a great end to your year!
As a librarian, I had so many for different grade levels, but love Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller was loved by all….
One of my favorite read alouds is Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber. I read this during the year. But on the last day I read, Ira Says Goodbye by Waber. It is about a friend moving away and the emotions that go with that. In the end, they remain friends by visiting and talking on the phone. So many of my 2nd graders are sad they won’t all be together next year and this helps to show that they can still be friends.
Sounds like a perfect book to end the year with!
I enjoyed watching your video. I choose to share one of my favorite books, The Day the Crayons Quit, with my friends.
I am ending the year with the novel Fish in a Tree. We’ve read a lot of great books together this year, and I too wanted to end the year with a book that gives them hope. A book that reminds them that they have the power to rise above their circumstances. A book that reminds them that the words they speak matter and affect others. I’m going to miss them, and I hope this book touches their hearts and is a wonderful class family memory.
We just completed ESPERANZA RISING yesterday and they loooooved it! We were supposed to finish it today, but they beeeeegged for the last chapter so I gave in and they were blown away by the last sentence in the Author’s Note. We have 5 school days left, so i’ll be reading picture books daily to my fifth graders. This is the end of my twenty-eighth year of teaching and I read the same book on the last day of school every year: MISS RUMPHIUS. She and I have a lot in common what with living by the sea, and traveling to far away lands, and trying to make the world a more beautiful place. At the end I ask my students if they know of anything I may have tried to do to make the world a more beautiful place and they get it (teaching). I tell them that they will probably spend at least a little time by the sea and get to travel a bit as they grow older, but they also need to think about how they will make the world a more beautiful place (future profession/contribution to society) and it’s perfectly okay if they don’t know what that is yet. And then we play one last game of kickball until the bell rings and I hand out their report cards in a package with three wrapped books and a packet of lupine seeds.
I am getting a little misty eyed just reading this comment! What a lovely and powerful connection to a book!! It makes me want to be a 5th grader all over again…as long as I could be in your class!
I read First Day Jitters. I know that’s a strange choice but mine just came back from moving up day and were so nervous about going to sixth grade. I talk to them about that teachers were scared about a new class also. My last big read aloud was Short, which we had great discussions about it.
My students insisted we read The Wild Robot Escapes after reading the first book, so we’ve been reading it several times a day in order to finish it. Today’s our last day and we’ve got 40 pages left. We all are Loving it! Many thanks to Pernille Ripp and the Global Read Aloud for the inspiration to read The Wild Robot!
My class also insisted that we read The Wild Robot Escapes after we had read The Wild Robot earlier in the year for GRA. I almost never read a sequel, as I want them to pick it up on their own, but they were unanimous in their choice.
I am going to read I Wonder by Annaka Harris. I’m choosing this book because I want my students to continue to feel that sense of wonder all summer long.
You’ve inspired me! What will be my last read aloud??? Hmmm…
I teach sixth grade and feel the same way about read aloud in general, and about the importance of the last read aloud of the year. I know my 6th graders won’t have read aloud in 7th or 8th grade and it makes me sad. I, too, have decided to read a book that is not yet published: Breakout by Kate Messner. I teach in a program for the gifted in an affluent neighborhood (where I can’t afford a house). Like Nora in Breakout, my students live sheltered lives. I am hoping Breakout will help them open their eyes and see what life is like beyond their neighborhood.
Great video and a book I would like to read. However it will not be published until October 2018! You must have received a galley from the publisher?
One of my classes has read The Night of the Spadefoot Toads as an end of the year along with Fish in a Tree.
What started as a conversation about creating your own island and what would be on that island (both literal and metaphoric), turned into a great debate among my colleagues of a possible read aloud. We are finishing up Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. If you haven’t read this yourself or read it aloud to your students (probably 5th grade and higher), you’re missing out.
For my 8th Grade English Co-taught class, we are reading aloud Restart by Gordon Korman. I let them choose between Ghost and Restart and that’s what they chose. I think it’s one of the best read alouds ever with such great voice and a timely topic for so many of kids in my class.
I’m reading The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor to 5th graders. We have all fallen in love with the main character, Mason, and are trying to uncover the mystery of what happened to his best friend two years prior.
This book is fantastic!
Thank you for sharing your last read aloud. I cannot wait to read Kate’s new book! I am the school librarian at a K-5 school and my last read aloud was The Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty. I read it to all of our 3-5 kids and they loved it!
I love THE WISE WOMAN AND HER SECRETS by Eve Merriman. I love the way the book teaches true wisdom is to be full of wonder.
Forever Young based on the Bob Dylan song.
We were a very quirky group this year and I wanted them to know that being different is an awesome thing so we ended the year with two novels: Beatrice Zinker—Upside Down Thinker and Fortunately the Milk. And they LOVED them!
I chose to read Orbiting Jupiter with my 7th graders to end our year. The students love it as much as last year’s students did.
We read Faithful Elephants.
This book has given me many sleepless nights and I will despise the professor who read this to a class for reading teachers forever. I would never put those thoughts in a child’s head. It is tantamount to mental abuse.
I always end the 4 year old preschool class with The Little Engine That Could.
For my final read aloud this year in my sixth-grade class, I read Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls. From the beginning of the year, I share my favorite reads and I tell them how much this particular book has touched me every single time I read it. I tell them the story of the time I “ugly cried” when I read the book, and from that point they beg me to try reading the story to them. I ended this school year with this book, and together my students and I cried our way through the last chapter!
Oh, the Places You’ll Go is my first pick for a lasting memory. It gives me the chance to give my last bit of advice, “make wise choices, things may be hard at times, but you can overcome” and is the perfect time for me to tell them how happy I am that I was part of their lives.
I decided on Bridge to Terribithia. I needed a short one since we only had 17 days when I started it- so I did the picking. My teacher read it to me decades ago, and I have such great memories of it!
I have already picked my first read aloud for next year- I’m looping with most of my class- so need fresh titles! I’ll be reading Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus.
Here come the tears!!! Such a beautiful book.
I chose Riding Freedom by Pam Muñoz Ryan. We had read two other books by her this year and I think she and Kate DiCamillo are the two powerhouses in children’s writing at the present. The book is short enough that I can read a chapter each day and finish by the end of the school year. Also it comes in both English and Spanish so I alternate reading in the two languages as part of my 50/50 dual language model.
My teaching partner decided to teach the kids to make origami paper cranes. I thought…cool, I’ll read them Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes as our last read aloud. Big mistake!! I sobbed my way through the last 3 chapters. I literally had to throw the book down at one point I was crying so hard. Never again!!
We’re on our 11th read aloud (chapter books; we also do #classroombookaday) & are ending the year with Amal Unbound.
The MasterMInds series by Gordon Korman was a favorite this year. It inspired many students to read more of his books. I like to end the year with a picture book I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe. It inspires students to be content with who they are and not try to be like someone else.
We are reading The Bicycle Spy by Yona Zeldis McDonogh! Finishing it today actually, and then our last three days will be time to celebrate some awesome picture books! We chose The Bicycle Spy because it is on our 2018 Bluebonnet list, because it’s a wonderful intro to WWII without being too much for 9 year olds, and because its message of friendship and taking risks for others is an important one right now! They are loving the adventure and suspense, and it for just right into our end of year!
I try and choose a book that ties in with my focus for the year. Last year was all about cultivating ideas and learning from failures. This year is about empathy and creativity so I found “Drawn Together” by Minh Le.
I love this book so much! Great pick.
Because of Mr. Terupt. This will be the final read aloud to my fourth grade students this year as it will keep them engaged until the very last day of school, with hope and curiousity about the conclusion of the story. As our year together comes to an end, this book will remind them of what is important in life- their family, their friends, their values. It is a reminder to be kind, it’s okay to make mistakes, and we are all human. It will also be one last reminder to them how much I truly care about them and how I will always be their teacher. Down to our last minutes together, my students all wonder about the fate of Mr. Terupt.
Awwwww
This year I gave a selection of choices (with some student input) and they voted on what they wanted the last read aloud to be. They voted for Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard.
Love it!!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, struggles, and final readaloud choice! Working in the public library field, there are families or children who might have hundreds of books readaloud to them or just one at a school visit or storytime session. I want books that I can be enthusiastic about and create a memory with the patrons.
The Tale of Despereaux to my 3rd graders to end on the note that love is a powerful thing.
One of the all time greats.
We read The Wild Robot. I chose this book for the end of the year, so we could make our own robots as we were reading. Kids loved this. I allowed them to choose their own groups and their creativity really showed.
This was the first time I’ve read this book, and I will read it again next year as a read aloud with my 2nd graders as I’m mkving down from many years in 4th grade
I hope to win your book. I have a copy the librarian loaned me, but would
Love to have my own so I can reference and add sticky notes.
CIRCUS MIRANDUS BY Cassie Beasley is the last novel we are reading together and my third graders (soon to be fourth graders) are LOVING it! Our last classroom book a day will be YOU BE YOU by Linda Krantz.
I teach four sections of 6th grade and have a different book for each. Two sections requested books to help fill their genres so I am reading Ugly and the Plot to Kill Hitler. In the other two I am reading Refugee, to challenge their thinking a bit, and Masterminds , which ends on a cliff hanger so it’s great to inspire summer reading. When I finish with only a few days left of school, I read the first chapters of books to give them some ideas for the summer.
I read aloud to high school students. The loved Goodnight, Mr. Tom. One of the best to end the year with was Tuesdays With Morrie. They love it and it left them with plenty of good advice to ponder.
Restart by Gordon Korman for my 8th grade cotaught English class. Such great voice and a timely topic.
I use many multi-genre thematic text connections throughout the year. The last read aloud I will be sharing with my Grade 7 students is from the book “Sit” Stories by Deborah Ellis. I will read aloud the last story entitled “The Hope Chair”. We will connect this text to Emily Dickinson’s poem Hope is the Thing With Feathers and the picture book “Feathers” by Phil Cummings as well as texts explored at the beginning of the year surrounding the theme Why Stories Matter.
Shelley, these lessons sound very intriguing. Please tell us more!
My 5th graders and I ended the year with Restart by Gordon Korman. He came to visit our school, so I wanted to follow up by reading one of his books. I happened to stumble upon this book and I am so glad I did! It turned out to be a perfect book to end the year with. My students were cheering for Chase at the end and wanting him to turn his life around. It left them feeling empathy for the main character. In addition, they felt hopeful that he would turn out okay. It is a really engaging book!
I need to read this book. My students love it!
Just finished Clayton Byrd Goes Underground, but will squeeze in Enginerds in the last 2 weeks
Great picks!!
My first day picture book read aloud is First Day Jitters, so the very last day picture book is The Last Day Blues. My students always love seeing familiar characters and a fun book to end the year. This year we ended the year reading the chapter book The Breadwinner. It gave us great conversations about the privilege and right of ALL children to go to school. Kids can be so insightful.
Saving Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea is a powerful and fabulous read aloud for grade 5 at the end of the year. Many kids have said this is their favorite read aloud of grade 5. Our county just purchased it for all 120+ 5th teachers in our 26 schools. The book has 2 sequels that follow the characters into middle school.
Wow! This was great reading! Last Day Blues will be my EOY read aloud. I read your comments about my favorite books and learned some interesting titles to look for next year! Here’s to a wonderful end of the year and the start of a glorious and relaxing summer.
Ms. Bixby’s Last Day has been my last read aloud to my grade4-6.
Colby, I’m sure you already picked a winner, but I’m commenting anyway. Your passion for kidlit and your students is incomparable. ALways uplifting! 😀 ❤