What is Labor Day? Most kids don’t know. Depending on where they live, they might think it’s the last day the community pool is open for “the season.” Some families will have the day off. Some will go to the beach one more time. And some might be doing their last bit of shopping before school starts. But Labor Day has an important back story many children haven’t heard.
For our youngest readers (K-1), simply making them aware of all the people who work and provide services in our communities is a good place to start. And teaching them to have gratitude and an appreciation for the efforts of others is an important life skill. This little Labor Day book does both. I like the simple, uncluttered pages for early readers. The book has a predictable text pattern to build confidence and support fluency, adding only a few new words near the end.
IDEA: For explicit word work, have the children highlight the sight word you each time they find it in the text. If your students are ready for this phonics skill, you can also work with the -ank rime in thank and make a list of additional words that share that same word family, such as bank, sank, and prank.
The interactive page at the end gives children the opportunity to demonstrate their background knowledge and personalize the book with their own illustration. You can DOWNLOAD A FREE COPY of this book. Printing directions have been included for simple assembly.
What Is Labor Day: Option Two
If you need to differentiate for higher readers though, you might also like this version. It includes age-appropriate information about the history of the holiday, going into a little bit of detail about unfair labor practices and the purpose of striking.
This text includes more nonfiction text features, such as captions, labels, and underlined key words. There are also traceable sight words throughout the book and more invitations to write directly on the pages.
The resource also comes with a few tools for assessing comprehension. Written response sheets can be done together or used as an assessment, but I would use the retelling cards first. My kids like using these picture cue cards to help them remember important facts from the text as well as the sequence of events where necessary.
IDEA: I usually let my students use their actual text as a reference when answering questions on the written response sheets. This is a real-life skill, plus digging back into a text to locate relevant information is tied to the standards. In fact, I often write questions that begin with: According to the text…
You can grab a copy of this book, What Is Labor Day?, 👉HERE. It’s best suited for children in 1st and 2nd grades. However, it will also work with third graders who need a little extra support.
Happy teaching!
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