Kids love doing reader’s theatre. It can get noisy and chaotic, but they’re excited about reading and practicing fluency! Plus, my library is noisy and chaotic more often than not. I like my kids to be excited!
I did this lesson with my 3rd graders, since I did reader’s theatre with them last year and I knew they’d be pumped. I have lots of reader’s theatre books, but this lesson came from my favorite:
This is the second Read! Perform! Learn! book, and I love them both. They’re perfect for using in the library because the scripts are adapted from books. First I read the story so they can enjoy the illustrations and understand the plot, then they get to be the characters during reader’s theatre. This week I used the lesson that goes with Even Firefighters Hug Their Moms by Christine MacLean.
This is a cute story about a little boy who likes to pretend that he has different jobs (firefighter, police officer, astronaut, garbage truck driver, etc.). He’s too busy at all of his “jobs” to stop and give his mom a hug. The story itself is very repetitive, and gets extremely boring if you read is as many times as I do with 12 third grade classes. It makes a really great reader’s theatre script, though. The repetition works well for the kids when they’re reading their parts. I especially love the Read! Perform! Learn! selections because they select books with lots of onomatopoeia and put those into the script for the role of the “chorus.” This allows EVERY student to have a part, even if it’s a chorus role that’s shared with others. Even though the chorus is a smaller role that’s part of a group, it’s great for struggling readers because they have support from others but still get to participate and be proud.
Library Club is up and on its way. I’m teaching them how to check books in and out so they can help during their class time. They take their job so seriously — it’s so cute! They’re excited and working hard to learn how to help in the library.
I can’t believe how quickly this week has gone by. Tomorrow’s Friday! Woohoo!