Three Great Read-aloud Picture Books with Unique Activities

Remember this guy from my Frogs, Food & Fun post? Well, he's helping me celebrate the one-year anniversary of my introduction to the world of teacher blogs and TpT. Yippee!

A tasty "frog" for students to sample after reading the book "Gilbert de la Frogponde"

I can't believe that this blog is already over a year old! In honor of the occasion, I'm highlighting three of my favorite springtime read-alouds and their corresponding TpT units with fun extension activities that I blogged about when Swersty's Swap Shop was just a baby. Drumroll please: 

1. "Gilbert de la Frogponde" by Jennifer Rae

Click here to go to my "Chef de la YOU!" TpT book study unit. It's FREE!

What's for snack? 

2. "Charlie the Caterpillar" by Dom De Luise

 Click here to go to my "Caterpillars, Datapillars & Butterflies" TpT unit. It's on sale until Wednesday!

Making datapillars is a fun way for your students to record and display facts!

3. "Surfer Chick" by Kristy Dempsey

Click here to go to my "Surfer Chick and Her Rad Dad!" TpT book study unit. It's on sale until Wednesday!

Make your own Word Pool center, complete with real water, dude!

Happy springtime reading, everyone! 

~Swersty

Some are hairy and fat!

Isn't that a great sentence? Are you wondering what this first-grader is describing? (Think academics, people, not how some of us feel at the start of swimsuit season...)


This little gem came from a student in Reagan's class. Earlier in the week she graciously allowed me to be a guest classroom teacher and try out my newest TpT unit on her students. (I have to say--it was fun to step out of my librarian shoes and go back to where I started my teaching career in a first grade classroom!) 


The first thing we did was to read this great caterpillar book about friendship:

This is not a new book, but back when I was a classroom teacher I always read it to my kids and they loved it!

Next we did an activity that had us thinking about fact and fiction, caterpillar style:

Then the kids got to work writing down caterpillar facts...

lots of facts, which explains the "fat and hairy" sentence, right?!

And finally, the facts were linked together to create adorable Caterpillar Datapillars! 

This Datapillar lesson plus more activities are available here at my TpT store. And although I highly recommend getting the book Charlie the Caterpillar by Dom De Luise, many of the activities in this unit can be adapted to other caterpillar/butterfly picture books.

Well friends, after a long day helping at my school's Field Day, I am signing off. I will leave you with one fact of my own, though:

~Swersty