The Sloth Who Slowed Us Down 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 Sloth Who Slowed Us Down" by Margaret Wild is a charming and thought-provoking picture book that tells the story of a girl named Amy who brings a sloth home to her fast family. Amy's family are constantly rushing and hurrying, but when the slow-moving sloth enters their life, they learn a valuable lesson about slowing down. At first it takes the family awhile to match up to the slow-moving sloth's pace but while they wait for their new animal friend to finish eating or getting ready they realize how important it is to take the time to appreciate little moments. Eventually, Amy's family realizes that the sloth's slow pace allows them to appreciate the beauty of their surroundings and find moments of peace and the time to reflect. Through poetic prose and beautiful illustrations, the book imparts a valuable lesson about the importance of slowing down, appreciating life's little joys, and embracing the art of being present in the moment.
 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.
- Cause and effect can be a difficult skill for students. This book is a perfect mentor text for teaching this skill.
- Practice comparing and contrasting after you read the book.
- Encourage students to use their summarizing and retelling strategies.
- Introduce and act out action verbs.
- Teach a lesson on the different types of sentences.
- Discuss mindfulness with students and practice a mindfulness activity with them.
- Explore the theme of gratitude and have students brainstorm ways they can help show gratitude.
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.
- Mindful Mr. Sloth by Katy Hudson
- The Lemonade Hurricane by Licia Morelli
- The Couch Potato by Jory John
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!
