Today I'm going to share a favorite of mine that I used for a fun after school craft activity this year (read about it here scroll down to #5). I also used this book the previous year to teacher character change & point of view... This is probably the cutest book about a goldfish you'll ever find... Not Norman A Goldfish Story by Kelly Bennett.
In this story, the boy wants nothing more than a cuddly pet for his birthday, but instead he gets a goldfish... Norman.
He decides he is going to trade Norman in for a new pet...
He thinks he might want a dog...
But when that doesn't work out, he continues on, "dealing" with Norman as a pet. As the story goes on, he starts to change his feelings towards Norman... perhaps a fish isn't such a bad pet after all. Find out what happens, does he keep Norman? Does he get a new pet?
Reading Level:
Guided Reading: I
DRA: 16
Lexile: 460L
Resources for teaching:
Web Resources:
- Read & Do: Find vocabulary, discussion questions & a craft
- Teacher's Guide: Review, questions, ideas, and more
- Author's Page: Here is Kelly Bennett's page including a video of her reading Not Norman aloud
- Reader's Theater: Scroll down to Not Norman Activities and click Activity Pack link (the other link doesn't work)
Activities:
Before Reading:
- Tell students the main character wants a pet in this story. Ask students to share about their own pet or a pet they would like to have. Why do they like/dislike their pet, what would they like/dislike about a new pet? What responsibilities come with having a pet?
During Reading:
- You can use some of these questions while reading, then have students answer the questions in writing after reading. There is a worksheet with sentence frames and without sentence frames.
- Keep a T-chart showing ways that the narrator starts to change his feelings about Norman. Students can use this T-chart after reading to describe how the narrator changes.
After Reading:
- My students LOVED doing the reader's theater version of Not Norman. Find it in the links above.
- Use the organizer below for students to tell how the main character changes in the story.
- Read Not Curtis... Norman's side of the story as told by Kelly Bennett. Ask the students to compare/contrast how Curtis & Norman's feelings are the same or different. After they read the other point of view, have them pick an event where the characters have a different point of view and explain it using this organizer.
