Okay teachers, we absolutely love the book I Need My Monster. It is such a clever play on “monster under the bed” stories, however it has a surprising twist. The child in this book enjoys having a monster, and actually needs the monster to get to sleep. The descriptive writing makes it a great book to practice visualizing and can serve as a mentor text for students' own descriptive writing. This would be a fun book to read around Halloween, especially if your school doesn’t celebrate the holiday. - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Ethan was getting ready for bed when he found out his monster will be gone for a week. He starts to worry about how he will fall asleep without his monster, Gabe, there. Ethan needs his monster, with long, sharp claws, and a long tail in order to sleep at night. He decides to call in a substitute monster.
The first monster arrives and does not have long enough claws. The next monster has long claws but they are not ragged like his monster’s claws are. Ethan is visited by 5 monsters and none of them are scary enough, so he sends them away. Finally, Gabe, returns from his fishing trip and Ethan is so happy to see him. Gabe felt like the fish scared too easily, and likes that Ethan is a challenge. Thankfully, Ethan is able to fall asleep now that his beloved monster has returned.Â
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
I Need My Monster  is a great mentor text for teaching students important reading comprehension strategies, writing skills, and grammar concepts. All of our book companions come with activities that relate to these subject areas. Check out just some of the skills included in our book companion!
- Practice analyzing the main character in this book and discuss their feelings throughout the story.
- Have students practice identifying the problem and solution in the book.Â
- Integrate descriptive writing by asking students to describe the monsters from the book.Â
- Teach students about creative writing by having them add pages to the book.Â
- Use examples from the book to teach a lesson on helping verbs and conjunctions.Â
- Teach a lesson on prefixes and adverbs.Â
- Have a class discussion about 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
- 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 resource is all you will need when it comes to planning your read aloud for the book I Need my Monster. Gone are the days when you have to brainstorm discussion questions, look online for student activities, and spend hours gathering resources. Now everything you need is included in this book companion allowing you to make choices on what you want to use with your students.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- Creepy Pair of Underwear by Aaron Reynolds
- We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins
- The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams
- 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!
