Many teachers find it challenging to teach point of view to elementary students. Having a great mentor text for a read aloud is really important. We love using the book Memoirs of a Goldfish to teach this important comprehension skill. This book is written in a diary format told by the goldfish. Students will love listening to this story and will be engaged with all of the excitement and action this book has to offer. - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Goldfish is very happy alone in his bowl, he has plenty of room to swim around. However, one day the bowl starts to get more crowded. First came Mr. Bubbles, a scuba diver that would not talk. Next, were plants and a snail named Mervin who liked to eat slime. Soon after came Cha-Cha the angelfish and two guppies named Rhoda and Clark. Goldfish no longer had room to swim! Frustrated that everyone was taking over his tank, Goldfish yelled at the other sea creatures.
The next day, Goldfish was taken out of the bowl and put into a smaller one alone. It didn’t take long before he started to miss and worry about his friends. Thankfully, he was soon moved out of the little bowl into a big, new tank with all of his friends who he has started to consider family. Goldfish even meets a new friend, Gracie, who looks just like him.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
While we love using Memoirs of a Goldfish to teach point of view, it can be used to teach many other skills and strategies. Below we’ve identified some of the ways teachers can integrate this book into lessons on comprehension, writing, grammar, and social emotional learning.
- Have students discuss the setting of the story and how it impacted the character.
- Ask students to sequence the events in this story. This is a great way to practice retelling.
- Have students write about how to take care of a goldfish.
- Encourage students to write about the problem in this story.
- Teach a lesson on irregular verbs.
- Engage students in an activity to help them learn nouns.
- Discuss the importance of friendship and what a good friend is, and is not.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
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
We know that students will have so much fun reading this book. Students can use these activities to extend students learning and learn new skills. The activities make great lesson plans for teachers, independent activities, and plans for a substitute teacher.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- Memoirs of a Parrot by Devin Scillian
- Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
- The Day the Crayons Came Home by Drew Daywalt
- Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings
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!
