My favorite Valentine’s Day read aloud is “Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch” by Eileen Spinelli. It’s always fascinating to me how I have students every year who have never read it, but I’m also thrilled to be the teacher who introduces it to them! Last year, I did a lesson that I wanted to share with y’all:

Basically, we read the book once first thing in the morning…just to enjoy it. If you don’t own the book, Storyline Online has a fantastic video of the book that I highly recommend using!

After we read it the first time, we discussed the basic points of the plot, and I split them into groups. The numbers on the board were the kids’ “numbers” in my class. (The kid x’d out was absent that day…just wanted to drop that detail here because it looks funny that I just drew an X over a kid, hahah)

In those groups, they were assigned on element of fiction that I wanted them to find. I chose these four, because they were skills we had just been working on during this quarter’s standards.

We read a second time, and I paused every 2-3 pages to let the kids take notes about evidence they were seeing of their skill so far. They did this in their reading notebooks in whatever fashion they wanted, but graphic organizers would also be fantastic for those kids who need help structuring their thoughts.

Once we had finished our second read, and they had plenty of evidence, I let them meet with their groups, and I gave them a piece of chart paper. They used the chart paper to create posters that summarized that skill for this book. I didn’t give them a ton of parameters on this…I only said I needed exact evidence from the book to support what they had decided to share.

The character/setting/plot group made a chart that listed major characters, settings, and the overall plot. The compare/contrast group made a Venn diagram that compared Mr. Hatch before the valentine to Mr. Hatch after the valentine. The cause and effect group made a T-Chart that showed the events that caused Mr. Hatch to behave differently at different points in the book. The theme group drew a giant heart with the words “Love makes the world a better place” in the center. Then around the edge they wrote examples from the book of times kindness and love made someone’s day better.

Four totally different posters, but an awesome, meaningful lesson that hit several standards at once!

If you’re on the hunt for some graphic organizers for this book, some guided reading questions, and a craft to go with it…I have a book companion for you!