Boo Hoo Bird

Before Reading

Activating and Building Prior Knowledge:

Ask the children what a boo-boo is. Have they ever been hurt and had a boo-boo? What happened? How did they feel? What helped them to feel better? Show the front cover of the book and read the title and the name of the author/illustrator. Ask the children to predict what will happen to the Boo Hoo bird in the story.

During Reading:

Tell the children that they are to read the book using expressive voices. Discuss what this means. Share an excerpt of the book with them in a monotone voice; share the same excerpt again but using different voices for the characters. How might fox sound? How might Raccoon sound? Have the children practice different voices for each of the characters.

Predicting:

Have the students predict what will happen after each incident in the book.

After Reading:

 Ask the children what they liked about the book. Did they enjoy the illustrations? Did they think that the book was funny? Ponder why the author chose to write Boo Hoo Bird. What did Jeremy Tankard want to teach his readers or did he simply write the book for entertainment? What was his purpose for writing this tale? 

Curriculum Connections:

Language Arts: 

Brainstorm with the children what other ways Boo Hoo Bird’s friends could have tried to help them. If working with younger students, have the children draw a picture of themselves helping Boo Hoo Bird in their own special way. The teacher can scribe the students’ descriptions. Older students can journal their responses and share them with the class. Arts Education: Younger students can take on the roles of the characters in Boo Hoo Bird. The teacher can dictate the text as the students act out story. Instead of having Boo Hoo Bird stand on his head, the students can choose a different action to copy. Make sure to supply props to make the drama more interesting (a cookie, ball, band aid, etc.)

Older students can break off into groups and act out the story without having it read as they do so. The students may want to change the ways that Boo Hoo Bird’s friends try to help him. They will also want to change the action of Boo Hoo bird standing on his head. Have each group present to the class.

Physical Education:

Younger students can play “Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo, Bird” as a warm up to the class. This game is played exactly like “Duck, Duck, Goose” only the words are changes. Since Boo Hoo Bird’s friends copy him by standing on their heads in the story, the children can play “Boo Hoo Says”. This game is played exactly like “Simon Says” but with a Boo-Hoo Bird attitude. This is also a great transition activity that will have all students paying attention and ready to learn. CD &DD