Rats, Bats, and Black Puddings 6-pack Author: Brian Birchall ISBN: 9780478120547 Lesson Plan Blackline Master Grade Level: 2 Reading Level: K Strategy/Skill: Fluency, Summarizing, Text structure Genre: Folk Tale/Traditional Story, Play Theme/Topic: Animals, Birds, and Insects Classification: Fiction Fluency: Early-Fluent

Book Summary

Small Cat, frustrated by her size, asks Black Bull how to grow bigger, with interesting results.

Features of the Book

• The humor in the text, especially the sayings of Small Cat.
• The use of large type for expression and characters’ names.
• The range of punctuation – ellipses, question marks, exclamation points, and quotation marks.
• The adjectives – “big,” “little,” “small,” “quick,” and “clever.”
• The character list.
• Repetition as a support for the reader.
• The use of parentheses and/or italics for stage directions.

Purpose

Rats, Bats, and Black Puddings can be used in a guided reading setting to introduce and reinforce the following skills and strategies:

• understanding the punctuation cues and their meanings
• discussing the organizational structure of the text
• identifying the plot and characters within the story
• writing a recount of the story using own words

For more information please see our Lesson Plan