Calling all classroom teachers, special education teachers, speech language pathologists, and anyone who works with children! You absolutely need the book Hooway for Wodney Wat. This is a story about a rat that has a speech problem: he can’t pronounce the letter r. His classmates tease him for the way he talks. We think this book is so important for anyone working in an elementary setting because as you know, so many of our students have difficulty with language. This read aloud allows teachers to bring up this topic and make all students feel accepted. - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Rodney Rat has a problem, he can’t pronounce the letter r very well. When he tries to say his name, it comes out like Wodney Wat. His classmates tease him making Rodney the shyest student in his class.
One day, a new student joins their classroom, Camilla Capybara. She is the biggest, meanest and smartest student. Everyone else is intimidated by Camilla’s interrupting, shouting and trampling. When the students are playing Simon Says at recess, Rodney gets to be Simon. Camilla does not understand him like his classmates do and keeps doing the wrong things! She weeds instead of reads and wakes the leaves instead of rakes the leaves. Rodney catches on to this and tells everyone to go rest. Feeling very smart, Camilla goes west and never comes back. Rodney is now a hero among his classmates and they never tease him again!
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Hooway for Wodney Wat lends itself to some great social emotional learning lessons. However, teachers can also use it to introduce, review and practice other academic concepts such as comprehension, writing and grammar. Here are some of the topics our lesson plans for this book cover.
- Examine the cause and effect of the characters actions throughout the story.
- Encourage students to make personal connections to Rodney.
- Ask students to write book reviews of this story.
- Incorporate research by asking students to learn more about rodents and write about their findings.
- Use examples from the book to teach a lesson on shades of meaning.
- Complete activities on action verbs, suffixes, and adverbs.
- Discuss the difference between bullying and teasing.
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
The best part about our book companion activities is that they can be used in a variety of educational settings. Teachers can use them for whole group instruction in the classroom, small group instruction and in resource and therapy rooms. There are so many activities for educators to choose from depending on their role and the needs of students.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- Madeline Finn and the Library Dog by Lisa Papp
- Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes
- Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
- Ruby the Copycat by Margaret Rathmann
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!
