Bat's Big Game is part of our Starts With a Story Collection, which includes more than 550 picture book companions based on high quality children’s literature that support you in delivering highly-engaging interactive read alouds with follow up activities. Learn more about this children’s book below! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
"Bat's Big Game" by Margaret Read MacDonald is an engaging and humorous picture book that follows the adventures of a clever bat named Bat. The story starts as the bird and animal games begin! The animal team is gathering and wearing their A shirts while the bird team is gathering and wearing their B shirts. Bat really wants to win so throughout the games Bat switches teams depending on who the winner of each race is! Towards the end of the games the two teams notice that bat is switching teams just because he wanted to be on the winning side. The animals and birds kick Bat off both teams and teach him that being a good teammate means to stick with your team when they're winning or even when they're losing! With its delightful illustrations and amusing storyline, "Bat's Big Game" is a delightful read-aloud book that will entertain young readers and inspire them to be a good teammate and to enjoy games and sports even if they're on the losing side.
 USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Our read aloud lesson plans for this picture book come with reading comprehension questions (with sample student responses), 30 writing prompts, teaching ideas for grammar skills, social emotional learning discussion ideas, and more. Check out our list below to get a sneak peek at some of the skills this resource teaches.
- Practice making predictions throughout the book. Encourage students to check and see if their predictions were correct.
- Help students to analyze what the author’s purpose for writing the book might be.
- Encourage students to use their summarizing and retelling strategies.
- Introduce students to proper nouns using examples from the story.
- Teach students how contractions are used.
- Have a class discussion on the importance of sportsmanship.
- Discuss the importance of teamwork and what a good teammate looks like.
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
- 30Â 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
This book is a must have for your school or classroom library. Your students are going to love completing these activities for the book and you will be impressed with how much they learn. You will want to read this book to your class every year.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will love the similar books listed below, which can all be found in our free picture book list.
- Bats at the Library by Brian Lies
- Bat Loves the Night by Nicola Davies and Sarah Fox-Davies
- Stellaluna by Janell Cannon
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!
