Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

(To promote an interest in reading and reading literature.)

Goals:

The students will…

Identify the main idea of the story.

Use prediction to relate the events to the illustrations in the book.

State the story structure of the stories. (In relation to the importance of the characters, the items in the story, and the setting.)

Though the use of literature the students will improve reading skills.

Identify specific events of the stories.

Use creative writing to present their interpretations of the story.

Demonstrate critical reading skills by answering comprehension questions.

Use geography skills to locate and gain information about the location, the setting, where the story takes place or where the character wants to go.

Instructional Objectives: The learner will…

Predict, from the title of the story, what the story is about.

Predict from the front cover illustration, what the story is about.

Identify the main idea of the story.

Name and identify the characters in the literature selection and their importance in the story structure.

State their opinion of the story related to their enjoyment of reading and literature selection.

Identify the sequence of events in literature.

Identify critical details of the story, what they encounter during their critical reading of the literature selection.

Alexander and The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

This lesson is developed for the whole language classroom. The lesson plan is developed for a different activity for each individual day or two or three activities at a time.

MEET THE AUTHOR: Judith Viorst

Give information and backgroud about the author. (This activity would be a wonderful activity to start in January since her birthday is in January and the class can make and illustrate cards to the author.)

MEET THE ARTIST: Ray Cruz

Give information about background on the artist.

Pre-Reading Activities

Predict what the story is about from the title.

Predict what the story is about from the front cover.

List the predictions on chart paper. Star those items liked the most by the students. At the end of the story go back to the predictions and see how many of them were correct or good predictions.

III. Read the Story

As you are reading the story make note of words not known to be looked up in the dictionary.

IV. (Math) Graphing

Make a list of things that constitutes a bad day. Poll people on which they agreeon that makes a bad day. Graph the results on graph paper.

(English) Nouns-person, place or thing.

List places (nouns) where bad things happen. Re-read the story and make a list of the places where bad things took place for Alexander.

(English) Charts

Place on a chart Good Days and Bad Days.

VII. (Art)

On chart paper record "bad day " happenings. Illustrate a "bad day" concept… The illustration will go with one of the definitions or concepts given for a bad day.

(Art) Invisible Art

The students will make invisible pictures. Mrs. Dickens likes Paul’s picture of a sailboat better than Alexander’s picture of an invisible castle. On the paper, paint a picture using lemon juice. (As you paint you will be ablt to see the juice. When the juice dries,, it will be invisible.) Display your invisible artwork on a bulletin board or wall in you classroom for one day. Take your painting down and have your teacher press it with an iron. The heated lemon juice will turn brown, revealing your artwork. Mount your picture on construction paper.

(Writing)

Write about your own "Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day."

(Drama)

Act out Alexander’s day from the time he got up in the morning until he goes to bed at night. Also students can be grouped to write a simple play about one of the mains happenings in the story.

Do a rewrite of the book. Change everything that was bad into something good. For example, Alexander remembered to take the gum out of his mouth. He woke up cheerful.

(Social Studies)

Locate Australia on a map or globe. Find out ten interesting facts about this country.

(Critical Thinking and Journal) Dream Places

Why did Alexander think of moving to Australia would solve his problems?

(Math)

The students will look up the route to be taken to Australia. The students will look at the size of Australia and the population of Australia.

(History)

The students will locate information of the origins of the people of Australia.

(Science)

Study the animals and climate of Australia.

(Health)

Alexander’s Visit to the dentist and study about dental health care. Talk to the students about toothbrushes, toothpaste and dental floss… Discuss with the students about how and why they need to take care of their teeth. Also discuss why the need to go the dentist.

(Writing and Journals)

Write a letter to Alexander.