Beginning of the School Year Book and Activity

Margaret Welch Fall EL 320 Beginning of the School Year Book and Activity

For my Beginning of the School Year Book and Activity:

I have choose two books to read: Splat the Cat First Day of School to read in the A.M., to calm school jitters and have a few laughs over the mouse in the lunch box; after lunch I will read The Rainbow Fish so the students would know that everyone is different and how to treat their new friends.

A.M. Reading

Author: Rob Scotton Publisher HarperFestival Date of Publication: 2008 Grade Level: K

Begin Lesson by asking, It is the very first day of school; was any one nerves or have jitters (butterflies in out tummy), today? Encourage students to share experiences.

It is the first day of school and for Splat, too. His tail wiggled wildly with worry.

Splat is about to begin his first day of cat school. How do you think he might be feeling?

Just in case, Splat did not make friends he decides to bring along his pet mouse, Seymour, and hides him in his lunchbox.

Do you have any pets? Go around the room and have students answer. I have a cat named Wilson. My daughter has a dog named Lilly and she comes to visit me. Show picture of Wilson and Lilly. Margaret Welch Fall EL 320 Beginning of the School Year Book and Activity

Pre-reading Discussion:

Before reading this book, launch a discussion with students and invite them to engage in the story’s theme.

Tell students that one of the characters in the movie is nervous about his first day of school. Encourage them to listen for how he acts and how others act toward him. Ask them to think about how they might act if they were in Splat’s situation.

Read: Splat the Cat First day of School

 How did you feel about coming to school this morning

 Were you a little bit scared this morning?

 What was in Splat’s lunch box? Does anyone have a mouse in their lunch box?

 What did the cats do?

 Mrs. Wimpydimple teaches the class about how clever cats are. Think about how clever you are and what special talents you have.

 Make a list of ways that we can help a new pupil to settle in when they start at a new school.

 Seymour the mouse was very helpful in the story... tell what did Seymour do?

Activities:

This book has rhyming and alliteration, (exp. wiggled wildly with worry); Point them out to the kids.

Have students draw a picture of themselves on their first day of kindergarten; and talk about what scares them the most. Display pictures.

Have students pick either cat or mouse color sheet to color.

How can there be homework when it’s only the first day of school? Splat had to pick only one of his fun summer adventures to share, each student is to think about a summer activity to share tomorrow.

Themes: School, Friendship, Animals and Pets, Growing Up, Humor Margaret Welch Fall EL 320 Beginning of the School Year Book and Activity

After Lunch Reading

Author: Marcus Pfister Publisher: NorthSouth Date of Publication: 1999 Grade Level: K The book best known for its morals, the Rainbow Fish is an award-winning book about a beautiful fish who finds friendship and happiness when he learns to share. This lesson helps students with their reading skills as they learn about generosity, the ideas of sharing, being unique, and how to treat friends. Begin lesson by asking "Have you ever had something you had to give away?" Encourage students to share experiences. Discuss with students about reading a book about someone who had something that others wanted. Show students the cover of the book and discuss. Read The Rainbow Fish to the class, remembering to stop at each page to summarize. Discuss the page and answer questions about the characters and actions. After finishing the story discuss about the Rainbow Fish refusing to share his scales. Ask:  “What we would do if we were the Rainbow Fish–share a scale or keep it? We vote on what our responses would be, discuss, and graph the results of the class vote. Show the graph. Margaret Welch Fall EL 320 Beginning of the School Year Book and Activity

As a class, describe Rainbow Fish at the beginning of the story and at the end of the story and what caused him to change. Discuss real life application (generosity, friendship). Activity: Give each student a 6 inch half circles cut out of construction paper (the scales), have each student color their scale. *Can also put glitter on the scales to help create the Rainbow Fish’s sparkling scales. Assemble all the scales on large fish to show how different each scale is, and how all of the scales go together to make the fish.

Themes: Generosity, the ideas of sharing, being unique, and how to treat friends.