A great way to introduce the book is to have the class try to remember all the words to the traditional rhyme. That sets up the background knowledge and rhythm-and-rhyme pattern to really appreciate the author's cleverly written story.

 

This is a book worth reading aloud twice. The first time, only show students the cover, stopping to have students describe what they're visualizing from the words alone. On the second read, show all the illustrations. Later, discuss whether the pictures in their heads matched the pictures in the book. (The illustrations are very humorous!)

 

 

Level 1/2: Show students the picture on page 12 of Pilkey's book. Then do the Building Better Sentences strategy (The Write Tools binder, page 17). Begin with the intentionally boring sentence, "The children were holding the birds." The details in the illustration will help students generate lots of picture-painting words to add to the sentence.

 

Level 2/3: Ask students to write a one-sentence Dollars and Cents summary of the book. See who can craft the best summary closest to $2.00 in value (Active Reading module, pg. 57).

 

Connection with 6+1 Traits of Writing: Use a craft activity (the traditional brown construction paper turkey with brightly colored paper feathers) to work on improving word choice. Have students write a boring, overused word in the body of their turkey. Words such as nice, cute, said, walked and mad work well. On each feather of the turkey, have them write a synonym that could be used in place of the predictable word. Voila! A holiday version of the Flower Power strategy from The Write Tools 101 basic training.