One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo

 

I found this book in a local bookstore recently and immediately loved it.  Elliot visits the aquarium with his father and comes back with a pet penguin.  The story reminded me a little of Mr. Popper's Penguins (the book, not the movie), but as a picture book I would use it a little differently in my classroom.  The ending is not what I expected.

I focused on picture books with my students the last several weeks in class.  I find that older children still love picture books and are happy to have me sit and read one to them.  I can use them to teach many of the reading strategies we are working on and we can use them as starting places for our own writing.

Here are some prewriting questions to think about:

Having a penguin as a pet (or some other exotic animal) is a fantasy of many children.  What exotic pet would you want to own?  What problems would this cause for you or your family?  What problems would this cause for your neighbors?  What would you need to take care of this pet? 

Here is a free printable graphic organizer to plan a story.

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