The Circus Ship 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
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SUMMARY
"The Circus Ship" by Chris Van Dusen is a whimsical and enchanting children's book that tells the tale of a circus ship that accidentally becomes shipwrecked near a small New England town. The ship is home to a diverse array of circus animals, and as they swim to safety, they create quite a commotion in the town. The animals find refuge in the nearby forest, hiding from the circus owner who wants to retrieve them. The townspeople, captivated by the animals' presence, grow to love and care for them. When the circus owner finally arrives, the community bands together to protect their new animal friends. With its captivating rhyming text and vibrant illustrations, "The Circus Ship" celebrates the themes of friendship, acceptance, and the power of unity. The book encourages readers to embrace differences and stand up for what is right. Through its engaging storyline and delightful characters, "The Circus Ship" leaves a lasting impression about the importance of compassion and the magic that can happen when people come together.
 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.
- Analyze the illustrations in the story. Discuss how they provide meaning that the words might not.
- Help students to analyze what the author’s purpose for writing the book might be.
- Practice identifying figurative language in the story.
- Use examples from the book to teach a lesson on punctuation.
- Introduce and act out action verbs.
- Encourage students to think about ways they can show compassion.
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
- 30Â 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.
- The Bad Seed by Jory John
- Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
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!
