Who Will I Play With?

Relationship skills

Making friends

The essential question of this issue is How Can We Be Brave? The articles below connect to this theme.

• Big Read-Aloud: “Dogs to the Rescue,” p. 10
• Word Play: “Ways to Say Brave,” p. 16
• Mini Graphic: “Sticky Situation: Who Will I Play With?,” p. 17
• Fiction: “My Name Is Zahara,” p. 24
• Poetry: “Brave Night,” p. 32

Through the above genres, students will discuss:

• What do the people (and animals!) in these stories do that is brave?
• When have you been brave?
• What happens when we are brave?

Morning Meeting

• If you use your morning meeting to build your classroom community, this mini graphic can be a great conversation starter.

Whole Group Activity

• Another suggestion is to read “Who Will I Play With?” during a whole-class read aloud. Once you’ve read and discussed the story together, have children act out the different parts.

Show a Video (10 minutes)

• This video teaches children about the features of a comic, or graphic novel.
• After watching, draw the features of a comic on chart paper. The features in the video are panels, speech bubbles, and thought bubbles. See if children can tell you what each one is for.

Set a Purpose for Reading (5 minutes)

• Open your magazines to the story. Ask: What kind of story is this (a comic, or a graphic novel)? How do they know?
• Tell children they will read about a boy named Leo. As they read, they can think about his problem and what he should do.

• Model reading the dialogue with expression. Check comprehension as you read each panel. Ask children what they can tell from the pictures.
• Discuss the Talk It Out! questions as a class.

SEL Focus: My Bravery Story (15 minutes)

• Children can share a story about when they were brave. (This skills page also goes with other stories in the issue.)

SEL Focus: Relationship Skills (10 minutes)

• Let children “finish” the story with What Should Leo Say?

SEL Focus: Relationship Skills (10 minutes)

• The Finish the Story skills page allows you to provide the same content at a lower skill level.