Teacher Share: Fox the Tiger

Just like Fox in the Book of the Week, Fox the Tiger by Corey R. Tabor, sometimes we all wish we could be someone we’re not. And while playing pretend can be very exciting and worthwhile, at the end of the day, our own unique selves are more than enough.

Second grade teacher Joyce Dlugose from Holland Township School in Milford, New Jersey, shares suggestions for how to use this self-affirming early reader with your students.

• Sound Words: Try writing different onomatopoeias from the story and placing them around your classroom. Students can go around and write different things that might make those sounds.

• Previewing Books: Before diving into the story, encourage students to look at the cover and title and make predictions about what they think will happen. This can help foster curiosity about the story.

• Elements of a Story: Encourage your students to identify as many language-arts elements as they can in the story, such as picture cues and dialogue. How do these elements enhance their experience of reading?

• Text-to-Self Connections: Fox wants to be a tiger; how about your students? Students can illustrate what they would want to be as a class activity. You can even tie in social-emotional learning by encouraging them to think about what they love about being themselves.
 

Try Joyce’s suggestion to let students imagine what they want to be by downloading the free printable “Let’s Play Pretend!” worksheet in this week’s Cooked Up from a Book.

How do you plan to use Fox the Tiger with your class? Please share with the Scholastic Book Clubs community on Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #ScholasticBookClubs.