I am back this week with another holiday book recommendation for you!
This book has been in my library for years (it was published in 1995) and it is a favorite of mine because of its sweet story of friendship and love during the holiday season.
Lessons from the story… Compassion
The main character in this story is Old Armadillo. He lives alone, and on Christmas Eve his loneliness is very evident and so sad. This is a great place to stop and talk to your students about compassion for others. If students have neighbors or friends who are alone during the holidays this story might encourage them to do something special for others.
I also think that this book provides a great discussion starter for focusing on kindness during the holiday season. I have included a simple activity that you could use with this book (or even on its own) to help students think about simple acts of kindness they could do for others.
Grab your FREE The Gift of Kindness PRINTABLE ACTIVITY!
Lessons from the story… Context Clues
This story also provides many opportunities for students to use context clues and pictures to determine the meaning of unknown words. For example… casita, ristra, brooding, peccary, and mesa- to name a few.
You might want to place a sticky note in the story to mark the pages where you want to stop ahead of time so you will remember- it’s so easy to get caught up in the story and forget! Encourage students to use context and picture clues to figure out the unknown words.
There are also several places that would be perfect for the teacher to model using clues to figure out unknown words… I did not know what a ristra was and this was a great place to model for my students.
Lessons from the story… Determining the Theme
If you are looking for additional third grade activities for the holiday season- you might want to check these out!
