Mother’s Day can be a difficult holiday to celebrate in the classroom. Students’ families are so diverse and it is important to make everyone feel included. We think the book Stella Brings the Family is a great book to read around this holiday. It spotlights different kinds of families to show students that no two families are alike. This book can be used to teach students that even though families are different, they all love and take care of one another. - Jodi and the Starts With a Story Team
SUMMARY
Stella’s teacher tells the class they will be having a special Mother’s Day Celebration at school. Her classmates are excited, but Stella is nervous. She doesn’t have a mother like all her classmates do, she has two fathers. Stella worries about who she will bring to the party. Her classmates wonder if she doesn’t have a mother, who makes her lunch, reads her stories and gives her kisses. Stella explains that her father's do all of that and there are a lot of people that give her kisses. Jonathan suggests that Stella bring everyone to the party and the children start preparing.
On the day of the party, Stella brings her fathers, grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousin to the party. Everyone has a great time celebrating!
USE THIS BOOK TO TEACH:
This book is great to have in your social emotional learning library. However, it also lends itself to some important reading comprehension strategies and can be used as a mentor text for teaching different styles of writing. Check out some of the topics and skills our lessons plans for Stella Brings the Family addresses.
- Practice inferencing! This book is a great way for students to practice their inferencing skills especially for younger students.
- Have students practice their summarizing and retelling skills after reading the story.
- Practice letter writing by asking students to write letters to their family.
- Have students engage in expository writing about their own families.
- Teach a lesson on possessive pronouns using examples from the book.
- Review or introduce irregular verbs.
- Discuss the importance of appreciating diversity.
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
If you are looking for a diverse, inclusive book to read this Mother’s Day, you need to grab the lessons and activities. These resources can be used year after year, even if you change grade levels. There are so many different worksheets and resources to choose from depending on the skills and concepts you are currently teaching.
GET THE PRINTABLE ACTIVITIES
ADDITIONAL BOOK SUGGESTIONS
You and your students will also love these similar books:
- My Brother Charlie by Denene Millner, Holly Robinson Peete, and Ryan Elizabeth Peete
- Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall
- Worm Loves Worm by J. J. Austrian
- Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw
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!
