Mañana Iguana 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
"Mañana Iguana" by Ann Whitford Paul is a delightful bilingual picture book that tells the story of Iguana, who is trying to get ready for a party, but her three friends Gonejo the rabbit, Tortuga the tourtoise, and Gulebra the snake are all filled with excuses on why they can't help. Gonejo says he's too fast, Tortuga says he's too slow and Gulebra always says that when she grows arms she will be able to help. As the day progresses and the party is getting closer Iguana starts to get annoyed with her friends for not helping. Iguana's friends feel bad when Iguana yells at them right before the party and so they decide to help clean up the mess when she's too tired to clean it up her self after the party. Through lively rhymes and colorful illustrations, "Mañana Iguana" teaches young readers about the importance of being kind, responsible, proactive, and considerate of others. It emphasizes the rewards of taking action and demonstrates that the satisfaction of accomplishing tasks can bring happiness and strengthen friendships.
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.
- Encourage students to use their summarizing and retelling strategies.
- Have students sequence the important events in the story. This is an important skill when it comes to retelling a story.
- Discuss the different characters in the story and analyze their thoughts and actions.
- Help students to analyze what the author’s purpose for writing the book might be.
- Teach students how contractions are used.
- Discuss a social emotional learning concept such as resiliency.
- Discuss responsibility and the qualities of a responsible person.
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
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.
- I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff and David Catrow
- The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
- Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
- The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds
- Ish by Peter H. Reynolds
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!
