A Book, A Freebie and A Question

So when I started my weekend posts I thought I would blog about all the books we had used, were using or that I found and loved. But a crazy week and a snow day have made me a little behind so I am sharing just one book.

I know this is not a new book but I just wanted to share how I use it. My kids still enjoy when I take out the Robert Munsch books - they love the over the top yelling, the repetition of phrases and looking for another book cover in one of the illustrations. I like to use these books to teach or practice some skills like writing a retell, making connections or in this case identifying point of view and possible alternate points of view.

This book is about Andrew - and how his mom is always embarrassing him. Until him and his friend Taylor-Jae come up with a plan to embarrass their moms back! Pretty simple, here is what I do with this book.

Pre-reading:
*activate our knowledge of the author Robert Munsch - list characteristics of his books/his style
*think-pair-share - times we have been embarrassed by something we did or by someone we were with
*discuss what the word embarrassed means - identify other emotions

Reading:
*discuss from what point of view is the story being told
*enjoy the story

After Reading:
*have students use the graphic organizer to pick out events from the story
*retell the story in journal format using transition words

Pre-reading
*who are the characters in the story (main and secondary)
*think about how the story would change if it was being told from a different character's point of view - who else could tell this story?

Reading
*have students focus on the mom - ask questions about how she might be feeling during each one of the events, how would their mom be feeling and why (confused - why is her son embarassed, annoyed - he ran away, hurt, embarrassed by his behaviour at the end etc)

After Reading
*pick out main events from the mom's point of view
*write a retell of the story from her point of view - for each event give a feeling and a reason for that feeling

Follow up Writing
*write a journal entry for themselves of an embarrassing event
*write about an embarassing day like Andrew had (my kids love stuff like ripped my pants, my mom gave me a Dora lunch bag etc)
*both of these should use transitions words appropriately

Click here for my teaching outline, my graphic organizers and writing paper if you would like a copy.

Here are some great giveaways that I have entered and one that I donated to, check them out for some great prizes!

Adventures of Ms. Smith is giving away a $15.00 TpT gift certificate.

And now for the question: What shoud I watch tonight Downton Abbey or Walking Dead - why when I watch so few shows do they have to be on at the same time? Ugh!