46. Butterflies in My Stomach and Other School Hazards by Serge Bloch
August 12, 2009 at 12:45 am 1 comment
Retell: It’s the first day of school and the narrator is nervous. Each person he encounters speaks in confusing idioms.
Topics: first day of school, idioms, school
Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Realistic Fiction
Reading Skills: monitoring for sense, envisionment
My Thoughts: It’s well into August and that means that my mind is beginning to think more and more about the first weeks of school. I’m on the hunt for engaging books to start the year out well. I found this cute book a few days ago during a visit to Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon. Butterflies in My Stomach and Other School Hazards not only makes for a good read aloud on the first day of school, but it is also great for introducing idioms. On each page the main character encounters a person who says an idiom. Each idiom is illustrated literally. For example, when his teacher said “he was all ears,” the illustration shows the teacher with giant ears. If you didn’t want to read this book aloud in one sitting, you could read a page or two each day as a warm-up activity. You could keep a chart of idioms that the class learns each day.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: envisionment, first day of school, idioms, monitoring for sense, personal narrative, realistic fiction, school.
Teachable Texts 
1.
Caroline | August 19, 2009 at 5:02 pm
I absolutely love this book! I read it during the first week of school last year to my 5th graders and we all laughed at the illustrations. I like the idea of combining it with a discussion/lesson on idioms.