How to Catch a Leprechaun
I am hooked on the “How to Catch a…” books by Adam Wallace. They are extremely clever and kids love studying the details of the illustrations. In “How to Catch a Leprechaun” the witty and mysterious leprechaun outsmarts the children and escapes all of their traps. He taunts them and challenges all children to engineer a trap to catch him next year. This story works well for a close read/interactive read-aloud because illustrations have so many details that it takes several dives into the text and illustrations to fully appreciate all it has to offer.
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I read the story to the class the first time and asked kids to practice a speaking and listening strategy “turn and talk” to answer text dependent questions about the key ideas and details from the text. Then the students completed a “How to Catch a Leprechaun” graphic organizer.
The next lesson we revisited the text to more carefully study the illustrations. In “How to Catch a Leprechaun” the illustrations are equally important to the story as the text. I wanted to focus on how the author and illustrator worked together to tell the story. We revisited several parts where the illustrations taught us information that was not in the text. To check for understanding, I had kids choose a part (I provided 4 different options) to illustrate what the text meant. This graphic organizer is a great way to address difficult to teach core standards in Craft and Structure and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas. For more simple graphic organizers and mini-lessons check out our “8 Simple Reading Literature Strategies to Meet the Standards.”
The third time we revisited the text we focused on the leprechaun’s challenge. He taunts all kids to engineer the perfect trap to catch him next year. I gave children the opportunity to collaborate and design the perfect trap to catch the leprechaun. Their traps were so creative, I wanted to display them in the hallway. Kids attached their designs to a cute leprechaun craftivity. Our strategic lesson plans cover many Common Core standards through the use of deeper text dependent questioning and graphic organizers. Each time you revisit the text with your students they will gain a deeper understanding of the text.
This read-aloud is perfect for kindergarten and first grade. Your students will love it!
Don’t worry about how much work it will take to write your own text dependent questions and create your own graphic organizers. We have done all the work for you!
You can purchase these How to Catch a Leprechaun Interactive Read-Aloud Lesson Plans and Activities in our Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
You can purchase it individually, or in our March Interactive Read-Aloud Bundle.
