Mo Willems’ book, Knuffle Bunny, A Cautionary Tale been a classroom favorite for years! Has your class read it yet? If not, make sure to add it to your reading list!
In this blog post, you will find activities for Knuffle Bunny and a really cute Knuffle Bunny craft idea!
Here is a brief summary of the book Knuffle Bunny:
Trixie and her father go to the laundromat with Knuffle Bunny, Trixie’s stuffed animal in tow. Knuffle Bunny gets lost in the washing machine, and Trixie is upset. However, she has not spoken her first words yet, so when is not able to tell her parents why she is so upset.
Eventually, the whole family races back to the laundromat to find Trixie’s special toy!
The illustrations are so unique. Mo Willems has layered the characters on top of black and white photographs.
This is the first book in the Knuffle Bunny series (affiliate links):
In addition to being a great mentor text for personal narratives for students’ own writing, Knuffle Bunny is a s great picture book for teaching reading comprehension skills.
Here are some of the comprehension questions and writing prompts we included in our English language arts lessons.
For this lesson, teachers will read until the point of the book where Trixie is trying to let her father that she has left Knuffle Bunny behind. Her father does not understand until they return to Trixie’s mother.
It is only then that they all race back to the laundromat. I love the expressions on the parents’ faces.
I’m pretty sure it is a parent’s right of passage to scour the whole world for a missing favorite toy [raising my hand.]
Together the whole class works to put the Knuffle Bunny sequencing picture cards in order. This is a great way to teach the comprehension skill of retelling the story. Once the cards are in order, each student will retell the story to their partner.
If students need support, the retelling cards are there to help them. Over time, young children will begin to include time order words like: at first, then, next, and at last!
This is such a great way to strengthen students’ oral language skills in an authentic way.
It is important for readers to keep track of the setting. We explain that the setting is where and when the story takes place. We discuss some of the settings that were in the book. Then we ask students to write about two of them.
Here is an anchor chart that supports our kindergarten and first grade students as they discuss the setting.
Here are few kindergarten example of the students’ response pages.
Students are also asked to write about their favorite part of the story.
This Knuffle Bunny washing machine craft is one of my favorites. Students are each given their own Knuffle Bunny craft template. All of the cutting is a great way to strengthen their fine motor skills. When they are all done, they make the cutest bulletin board display as well.
You can find all of the Knuffle Bunny Activities above by clicking:
There is no substitute for having a book when you are teaching an interactive read aloud. You will want a book so you can go back and linger on the important pages for the pages you want your students to discuss.
That being said, having a video version is helpful as it also gives another example of reading fluency.
Here is a great one!
If you would like to download an editable lesson plan template, you can click on the image below to start downloading it.
If you are interested in finding more week-long lesson ideas, you can click on this link:
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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One Response
Children always need new ways to make learning for them easy.
I think You are doing a great job here.
Keep up the good work.