See how we use this book as a week-long close reading comprehension activity. You can see how we respond to this hilarious book by Aaron Reynolds. Fun craft idea too!
If you have not yet discovered Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, you are in for a treat. Your students will laugh out loud with this fun book. We also really love his other book, A Creepy Pair of Underpants.
During this close reading of the book, Creepy Carrots, we focus on a different reading comprehension strategy each day. As the teacher, we do the decoding work, but we ask our students to do the thinking work. Students discuss the book and collaborate to peel back the meaning of each book we read… even a silly book like Creepy Carrots.
Science supports the need for primary teachers to develop listening comprehension by providing more sophisticated texts. In the early grades, students’ listening comprehension largely exceeds their reading comprehension.
According to authors, Jan Burkins and Kari Yates in their amazing book, Shifting the Balance 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classrooms, “… we must have an eye towards the future, focusing on stretching the limits of listening comprehension through oral language development.”
They also state. “In typically developing readers, listening comprehension and reading comprehension eventually become one and the same.”
Creepy Carrots Lesson Plans Day 1: Predictions
Here is the prompt we ask students to discuss and ultimately respond.
“Jasper has made a plan. What do you think will happen next/”
Creepy Carrots Lesson Plans Day 2: Text Details and Retelling
Students work on retelling Creepy Carrots in this collaborative activity.
Then we ask students to organize the retelling on their own. Should they need support, they can always look at the group retelling chart that they class did together.
Creepy Carrots Lesson Plans Day 3 Cause and Effect
We also have students discuss the causes and effects in Creepy Carrots.
Creepy Carrots Lesson Plans Day 4 Making Connections
Students also make connections while reading Creepy Carrots.
Creepy Carrots Lesson Plans Day 5 Opinion Writing
Usually, on the final day of our week-long Creepy Carrots lessons, we plan an opinion response. By continually asking students to respond to opinion pieces, we have found their writing becomes stronger when they are asked to write other opinion pieces.
Here are a few more examples of student responses to Creepy Carrots. These include the craft activity that is included in the Engaging Readers unit.
You can find this Engaging Reader Lesson Plans by clicking:
I have also blogged about A Creepy Pair of Underwear. You can find that blog post by following this link:
Because wiggling happens, this is a fun way to get those wiggles out!
Each month comes with 4 ELA Skills and 4 Math Skills.
You can download this free template by clicking HERE.
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My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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