Amelia Bedelia
First Day of School
Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources

Fun ideas and unique lesson plans for
group and individual projects based on this book.

Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School, written by Herman Parish, is a book that would be great to read aloud to your elementary school students during the first week of school.

Amelia Bedelia has been making children laugh since 1963, when the first Amelia Bedelia book was published. Herman Parish is the nephew of Amelia Bedelia's creator, Peggy Parish, and the author of fourteen books about Amelia Bedelia, the grown up.

Now, for the first time, you can introduce your students to the young Amelia Bedelia as she experiences her first day of school.

Even as a youngster Amelia Bedelia takes everything literally, including gluing herself to her seat. She is a challenge to her teacher, who is also having her first day of school.

PROJECT #1:

Amelia Bedelia Group Project
Using Fun School Bus Templates

Do you want to begin the school year with a fun group project based on a humorous picture book that you can read to your students during the first week of school?

Are you looking for a fun and engaging idea for a group project based on the book Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School?

The beginning of the school year is the ideal time for your students to learn to work cooperatively with their classmates. Bring this book to life for your students by having them complete a project that has been specifically designed for this picture book.

These bus shaped group projects, along with the bulletin board banner and free reading road signs that are included in this set, will help you to create a dynamic Amelia Bedelia bulletin board display in your classroom during the first week of school.

This Amelia Bedelia group project will provide you with all of the teaching resources that you will need for your students to write about Amelia Bedelia, her teacher, classmates, and why it would be fun to have Amelia Bedelia as a student in their class.

Traditionally, requiring students to write a summary about a book is a task that most students find quite boring.

By using these uniquely shaped school bus graphic organizers, you will be paving the way for your students to complete these writing tasks with enthusiasm.

Your students will have fun completing this project with their group members during the first week of school.

This project contains five templates that assemble into a school bus. The finished Amelia Bedelia school bus project measures 28 inches in width and 8.5 inches in height.

These finished bus projects will make a colorful bulletin board display of your students' work.

Everything that you need to complete these school bus group projects is included in this set of teaching resources. All that you will need is scissors, glue, tape, and coloring pencils.

There are 15 worksheets and template pages in this set, as well as a 5 page color bulletin board display banner. There are 7 reading road signs to use as accent pieces for your bulletin board display, as well as a background of a road template for you to use.

Amelia Bedelia First Day of School Lesson Plans
What's Included?

This Amelia Bedelia First Day of School lesson plans set includes assembling directions on how to prepare and assemble this project.

Due to spelling differences in English (words like color and colour), there are two sets of worksheets for this set of teaching resources. You can select the spelling that is used in the country that you are from.

I believe that it is important for students to go through the steps of the writing process. For this reason, my students never begin their group projects by writing on their final draft school bus templates, instead they write on first draft worksheets.

Next, my students edit and revise their work together and I circulate amongst the groups and provide assistance as needed.

This set contains two worksheets for students to write their first drafts on. On my first draft worksheets, I have designed the writing line spaces to match the spaces on the final draft school bus templates.

• Amelia Bedelia
• Miss Edwards and Classmates
• If Amelia Bedelia Was a Student In Our Class
• 3 Illustrations: Students draw three pictures in the school bus windows.

This set of teaching resources includes 5 templates that assemble into the shape of a school bus. Inside the three bus windows, students draw three pictures.

The top of the school bus templates contains the title heading "Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School" when they are assembled together.

There is an optional step in this group project for students to cut the doors of the school bus so that they open up to reveal a drawing of a character. Below is the worksheet that contains these optional directions.

When I am first introducing my students to a new project, I believe that it is important for them to have a visual example of what their final draft projects will look like. I always assemble the project myself beforehand and display it at the front of my classroom.

To save you time in coloring your example that you show your students, I have included color school bus templates of this project for you to use.

Below are examples of the color school bus templates that are included in these Amelia Bedelia First Day of School lesson plans.

I know that it takes teachers a lot of valuable time to assemble their bulletin board displays. Many teachers spend hours of time cutting out large display letters or making a banner on their own at home on their computers.

This time is valuable and better spent on developing your classroom curriculum and grading papers, so I have designed a matching 5 page banner for your bulletin board display.

If you have access to a laminating machine, you can laminate your banner so that it is durable and you can use it year after year for bulletin board displays of your students' Amelia Bedelia group projects.

These school bus graphic organizers are a unique and fun way to get your students excited about completing a writing assignment about Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School.

You can use the matching bulletin board banner and additional road sign accent pieces that are included in this set to help you quickly assemble a colorful and eye catching Amelia Bedelia bulletin board display during the first week of school.

To give you an idea of what a finished classroom display of these bus projects will look like, I have included an example photograph below. The examples in this photograph are from my students' school bus book report projects, but the templates in this Amelia Bedelia First Day of School lesson plans are exactly the same size and dimensions.

PROJECT #2:

Amelia Bedelia
Book Bag Writing Templates

This picture book has an adorable illustration of Amelia Bedelia wearing her book bag on the front cover of the book, and this same image is found on many of the pages of this book. Consequently, I created book bag shaped writing templates for my second set of Amelia Bedelia lesson plans.

Your students will enjoy writing about the story, or about about their own first day of school, using these fun book bag templates which they can color and design themselves.

Your bulletin board display of your students' Amelia Bedelia writing assignments will stand out and capture everyone's attention with this set of teaching resources that contains student backpacks as the theme.

Since I am also a teacher, I understand that teachers often need to change or adapt a resource that we find to meet our own needs. I have provided 4 different versions of these bookbag templates in order to help you select the version that would best suit your own needs.

Book Bag Templates #1:

For this assignment, students can write a summary about the book, or they can write about their own first day of school.

This Amelia Bedelia creative writing assignment will not take your students very long to complete. The book bag templates are on one worksheet and they are easy to cut out.

These bookbag templates measure 7 inches in width and 10 inches in height.

This quick creative writing assignment will provide you with student work samples that you can post on your bulletin board during the first week of school.

You will be able to create a dynamic Back to School classroom bulletin board of your students' projects by using the colorful bulletin board display banner and book bag accent pieces that are included in this set of teaching resources.

Book Bag Templates #2:

Book Bag Templates #3:

Book Bag Templates #4:

I know that it takes teachers a lot of valuable time to assemble their classroom bulletin board displays.

Many teachers spend hours of time cutting out large display letters or making a banner on their own at home on their computers.

This time is valuable and better spent on developing your classroom curriculum and grading papers, so I have designed a matching 5 page banner for your bulletin board display (shown above).

If you have access to a laminating machine, you can laminate this banner so that it is more durable and you can use it year after year for bulletin board displays of these Amelia Bedelia book bag projects.

To help you decorate your bulletin board display with a book bag theme, I have included 4 different book bag accent pieces in this set of Amelia Bedelia First Day of School lesson plans (shown below).

MATCHING TEACHING RESOURCE:

Back to School Creative Writing Activity:
Written Inside Unique School Bus Templates

At the beginning of the school year teachers often get to know their students through an information worksheet that students fill out about themselves.

These student information sheets are often ideal for a first bulletin board or classroom display for the new school year.

If you are looking for a new, unique, fun, and eye-catching idea for this "get to know me" creative writing activity, take a look at my version of this lesson plan that uses school bus templates.

This Student Information School Bus set of lesson plans will provide you with all of the teaching resources that you need for your students to fill out an introductory worksheet about themselves during the first week of school.

This fun back to school creative writing activity will help you to be able design a colorful bulletin board display of your students' work.

Since this is a short creative writing assignment, your students can complete this task quickly and you will be able to display samples of your students' work in your classroom by the end of the first or second day of school!

This Back to School English teaching resources set is designed to be assembled into one VERY LONG school bus.

If you do not have the space for a long school bus display in your classroom, you can assemble these templates into groups of 5 students together and have 5 or 6 smaller school buses representing all of your students' information sheets together.

Remember, you can make your school bus display as long as you want by gluing as many student bus templates together as you wish. Each student fills in their information section and draws and colors a picture of himself or herself in the bus windows.

Although this is a fairly short writing activity, I still have my students complete a first draft. By taking the time to write a first draft, I can ensure that my students' final drafts contain less spelling and capitalization errors.

As my students are filling out their first drafts, I walk around the classroom and read their responses and make comments about the interesting information that I have learned about my new students.

When a student has finished his first draft, he raises his hand, and I go over and quickly glance at his work and point out the mistakes that I feel that he should edit and revise. Then, I give this student his final draft bus template.

Below is an example of the first draft worksheet, which should be cut into two rectangles and given to two students.

Since this set of teaching resources uses the word favorite in it, there is a second set of resources which contains the spelling favourite for teachers in countries that use this spelling.

Above: There are two bus templates that are not given to the students: the front of the bus and the door. On the door template, you will write the grade level, your name, and the name of your school.

Above: The third bus template (shown on the left) is the template that you will need to make multiple copies of to give to your students.

The fourth bus template (shown on the right) will completed by one student.

Above: If you are unable to print out color copies of this project, there are black and white school bus templates included in this set.

Bulletin Board Accent Pieces:

Above: This Back To School English teaching resources set includes 12 pages of road signs which you can use as bulletin board accent pieces to help you in decorating your bulletin board display of your students' work.

Above: This set includes a 5 page road banner that you can assemble together and use for your bulletin board display if you wish.

MATCHING BOOK REPORT PROJECT:

Sequencing School Bus Book Report Project

Do you want a fun and colorful book report idea for your students that will make them want to hop on board the reading bus?

These bus shaped book report projects will provide you with all of the teaching resources that you need for your students to write about the sequence of the events (beginning, middle, and end) that occur in their books.

Traditionally, requiring students to write about the sequence of events of a book is a task that most students find quite boring. By using these uniquely shaped school bus graphic organizers, you will be paving the way for your students to complete these writing tasks with enthusiasm.

Go To: School Bus Book Reports

Click on the links below to view teaching resources
that I have created for these popular picture books.

Alphabetical List of Book Titles:

Click on the links below to view the teaching resources that
I have created for these popular novels and picture books.

• Amelia Bedelia First Day of School Lesson Plans by Herman Parish


• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Lesson Plans Page 1
  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Lesson Plans Page 2
  
  
• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
  (1953 Newbery Honor winning book)


• A Christmas Carol Lesson Plans by Charles Dickens


• The Enormous Crocodile Lesson Plans by Roald Dahl


• Esio Trot Lesson Plans by Roald Dahl


• First Day Hooray Lesson Plans by Nancy Poydar


• First Day Jitters Lesson Plans by Julie Danneberg


• The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me Lesson Plans by Roald Dahl


• The Giving Tree Lesson Plans by Shel Silverstein


• How I Spent My Summer Vacation Lesson Plans by Mark Teague


• How the Grinch Stole Christmas Lesson Plans by Dr. Seuss


• Shiloh Lesson Plans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
  (1992 Newbery Medal winning book)


• Stellaluna Lesson Plans by Janell Cannon


• Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving Lesson Plans by Dav Pilkey


• The Way to Start a Day Lesson Plans by Byrd Baylor
  (Caldecott Honor winning book)


• The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman
  (1987 Newbery Medal winning book)
  The Whipping Boy Lesson Plans Page 1
  The Whipping Boy Teaching Resources Page 2
  The Whipping Boy Student Projects Page 3