Today we are spotlighting our favorite book to read around Valentine’s Day, Somebody Love You, Mr. Hatch. We love this book because it is all about community, helping others, and spreading kindness. It lends itself to great class discussions and students are always excited to work with this book. - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch is a great story about kindness! Mr. Hatch has the same routine everyday. He goes to work, eats lunch alone, gets the paper, goes to the grocery store, and heads home for the night. The people in Mr. Hatch’s down think that he keeps to himself.
One day, the postman brings Mr. Hatch a package. When he opens it up, he finds a box of chocolates and a note that says “Somebody Loves You.” Mr. Hatch is curious to find out who sent the mysterious package so he starts to walk through the town. He says hello to everyone he passes. Eventually, Mr. Hatch starts socializing with everyone and helping out his community. He throws parties and has the children over to brownies and lemonade.
Then, the postman returns to Mr. Hatch’s house looking very upset. He confesses to Mr. Hatch the he delivered the package to the wrong house, it did not belong to Mr. Hatch. This makes Mr. Hatch very sad and he goes back to his old ways. However, this time his community notices. They work together to bring balloons, candies, and a banner to his house! Mr. Hatch realizes that many people love him after all.
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
Here are some different ways you can use Somebody Love, You Mr. Hatch in your own classroom.
- Help students to practice synthesizing as you read. This can be a really challenging skill but this story lends itself to discussing how Mr. Hatch changes.
- Have students identify the theme and message of this story.
- Incorporate letter writing. Students will be excited to write their own letters after reading the story.
- Encourage students to write their own “how-to” books surrounding the theme of kindness.
- Practice using plural nouns and compound words.
- Introduce students to a new prefix that is found throughout the book.
- Explore the theme of kindness and have students brainstorm ways they can help spread kindness.
- Lead a class discussion on the importance of friendship.
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
You will be amazing at how much your students learn from these activities!
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- Be KindΒ by Pat Zietlow Miller
- Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
- The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
- Ordinary Maryβs Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson
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!
