Every so often you’ll come across a book your students love so much they’ll ask you to read it again and again. During the book fair, my students heard the book Interrupting Chicken while at lunch. Once they found out I purchased it for the classroom it quickly became a favorite read aloud. Whenever I was trying to think of a book to read, they were eager to suggest this story. Laughter coming from the classroom could be heard down the hall when we would read it. That is why we are spotlighting Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein on the blog this week. If this book is not already a favorite in your classroom, it will be soon! - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
The book Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein is about Little Red Chicken and his Papa. It is time for Little Red Chicken to go to bed, but he really wants Papa to read him a bedtime story.
At first, Papa is hesitant to read a story because he thinks Little Red Chicken will interrupt. Little Red Chicken promises to be good and Papa begins to tell a story.
Before Papa can finish, Little Red Chicken interrupts the story! Papa tries to read two more stories and each time he gets interrupted. Papa has run out of stories and decides that Little Red Chicken should tell him a story. As Little Red Chicken starts to tell the story, he finds that Papa has fallen asleep.
This story will have children laughing at Little Red Chicken and is a great way to demonstrate the effect of interruptions.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
A fantasy book like Interrupting Chicken allows you to teach so many different skills. It lends itself to discussions on students’ favorite fairy tales as they make an appearance throughout. We also love using this book to teach some of the important social emotional skills that are important in the classroom. Here are some specific ways you can use Interrupting Chicken in your classroom:
- Students can practice making connections between themselves and Little Red Chicken as well as connections between the book other stories they’re familiar with.
- Character analysis is an important skill when it comes to reading comprehension. A character like Little Red Chicken is perfect to get students thinking about character traits.
- Teach students to write procedures and break steps down as they explain different rules and expectations.
- Use Interrupting Chicken as an opportunity to practice descriptive writing.
- Discuss how writers use capitalization and action verbs in their writing.
- Use Little Red Chicken’s constant interruptions as a way to set rules for listening to stories.
- Explain the importance of patience and the effects of interrupting others.
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
Interrupting Chicken and the great instruction it lends itself to will have your students excited to share it with their friends and family.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook
- The Bad Seed by John Jory
- Quiet Please, Owen McPhee by Trudy Ludwig
- Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin
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!
