Book Fair Day Activities

1. Before reading this story aloud, ask students to look for a number pattern in the story. (Did they notice each scene counts up by 5—lose place 5 times, bonk on head 10 times, 15th door? etc.) 2. When reading the story aloud, invite students to join in on the throat clearing “ahem” parts. 3. Have each student write an ad or create a commercial about their favorite book—trying to convince others to read it. 4. Have a Classroom SWAP Book Fair. Students should help to come up with the organization and rules for such a fair, but the idea is for students to bring in used books from home that they are willing to swap. What rules make sense (i.e. parental permission to bring in books to swap, one who brings in one book to swap can choose one book, someone who brings two can choose two, etc.). 4. The Mrs. Shepherd stories are CHARACTER STORIES. A main character with a flaw is in a given situation/scene and that character’s flaw gets in the way time after time until finally the flaw says the day. Show students the organizer on the following page and fill in the blanks for one or more of the Mrs. Shepherd stories. Then students can try planning and writing their own character stories. You might try writing a class story first as a model before students work on their own stories.

From www.lynnplourde.com

Name:________________ Teacher:______________

WRITING CHARACTER STORIES

Character with a flaw ______________________________ Scene/Situation __________________________________ Flaw gets in the way #1 #2 #3 Flaw saves the day ________________________________ On back of paper brainstorm possible names for your character (a thesaurus could be helpful)

From www.lynnplourde.com