Alfie: The Turtle That Disappeared is a book every teacher needs when they are doing a lesson on perspective. We love this book because it is a great mentor text that clearly shows the perspective of two different characters throughout the story. Even if you aren’t planning on teaching perspective to your class, this is a great book to add to your library because students love it! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
The story Alfie is about a girl named Nia and her pet turtle Alfie. The story starts from Nia’s point of view. She loves her turtle Alfie but she thinks that he doesn’t notice the different stories she tells him or dances she teaches him. After a while she forgets about him, until he disappears on her seventh birthday.
The story changes to Alfie’s point of view. Alfie loves Nia and she makes him feel incredibly happy with her stories and dance moves and she always makes him laugh. He escapes on her seventh birthday so that he can find the perfect gift for her. It takes him a long time to find the perfect gift for her, and a whole year goes by. He arrives to her party on her eighth birthday, with the perfect present.
Students will love this cute story about a turtle who truly loves his owner and wants to be able to show it.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Aside from teaching perspective, Alfie is a read aloud that can be used to teach writing, reading, grammar and social emotional learning. There are so many skills that students in first, second, and third grade can learn from this book.
- Introduce new vocabulary to students and expand their knowledge of words.
- Teach students to analyze illustrations to learn even more about the story.
- Help students to sequence the events in the story.
- Practice or review letter formatting and have students write letters.
- Integrate this read aloud into a lesson on expository writing.
- Explain the different types of sentences to students.
- Have a class discussion on perseverance and feelings.
NO-PREP PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES:
If you are looking for “ready to go” activities for the first day of school, be sure to check out the book companion. With it you’ll receive all of the following resources to align with this specific book:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
Have you tried any of our Starts With a Story Book Companions yet? If you haven’t, you’ll definitely want to check them out. Check out our companion for Alfie The Turtle That Disappeared. Once you purchase it, you’ll be ready to teach!
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- After the Fall by Dan Santat
- Mossy by Jan Brett
- Nerdy Birdy by Aaron Reynolds
- Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang
TRY OUT A SAMPLE COMPANION
It's hard to explain how amazing the Starts with a Story book companions are because there is just so much goodness included in each one. It's best if you experience using one for yourself. Sign up below & we'll send you an entire book companion to try out for FREE!
