Cause and Effect With Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

In order to turn our readers into comprehenders we need to go deep when working with a book.  One of my very favorite books that makes reading for meaning so much fun is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Perfect for teaching cause and effect, it is also rich with comprehension building opportunities for students to make inferences, explore text structure, decode longer words, as well as build social skills. In this post I’ve shared ideas and free activities for teaching cause and effect in your classroom.

Take a peek inside my classroom and see all of the ways we used Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day to dive in deep!

Identifying Cause and Effect

During our literacy centers students made flapbooks and later added them to a culminating Alexander booklet.

Working with Vocabulary

As all teachers are, I am strategic when pulling vocabulary from a book we are working with. I like to have students work with words that not only increase their vocabulary but also give opportunities to work with grammar and spelling patterns.

Decoding Longer Words

Like all teachers, I have a wide range of reading abilities in my classroom.  This book is a treasure trove of multi-syllable words to work with and I pulled words from the book to make this flapbook activity. With two versions it serves double duty as a small group work mat that is easily differentiated.

Making Grammar Connections

We worked with story statements to identify base words   and endings in this roam the room activity.

We wrote persuasive letters from Alexander’s point of view asking “Can we move to Australia?”. Students tried to convince their parents that moving to Australia is a good idea!

Creating a Timeline

As an extension activity, a group of my students created this flow map type timeline of Alexander’s day.

They first made a list of all the key events then wrote and illustrated each event on an index card.  After sequencing the cards in story order, students glued them onto a large piece of butcher paper.  I love how this cooperative effort turned out!

Alexander Foldable Lapbooks

We did so much more with this book that I’ll be sharing it all in a 4-part series. I hope you’ll stay tuned for:

Opinion Writing: Will Moving to Australia Solve Alexander’s Problems?
Invisible Pictures: What Would Alexander’s Teacher Say?
Building Social Skills with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good, Very Bad Day

Thanks for reading along!
Click to find more book studies and related resources. For more literacy ideas and inspiration be sure to follow my All Things Reading Board on Pinterest!
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