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Louder, Lili (A Little Gem of a Back to School Book!)

I’m always on the lookout for out for those not so ordinary back to school books. Last year I found this sweet gem of a book that’s so perfect for building community those first few weeks.  Louder, Lili is a wonderful story about an quiet little girl who struggles to be heard. She is too shy to raise her hand, find a partner, or ask to take care of the class guinea pig, a job she really wants. Cassidy is Lili’s bossy classmate. She exploits Lili’s inability to speak up by volunteering to partner with Lili then manipulating her into doing all the work while Cassidy takes the credit. When Cassidy begins to mistreat the class pet Lili musters the courage to finally speak up.

Working With Character Traits

Louder, Lili-A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. Character traits anchor chart. this post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
This back to school book lends itself so well to teaching about character traits and the inner journey a character experiences in a story.
 
Louder, Lili-A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. Character traits anchor chart. this post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.

 Retelling and Summarizing

One of the skills we focus on at the start of the year is retelling the beginning, middle, and end of a story.
 
 
Louder, Lili-A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. Class pet retell craft. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
We made this guinea pig craft and students retold the important details from each part of the story.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko -Retelling craft. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
Lili’s journey to find her voice puts her through some significant changes which led to a great discussion on how she responds to the events and challenges she faces at school.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. Graphic organizer to show how the main character changes throughout the story. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
I purchased 6 copies of the book this summer and had groups work together. They completed a “flubble map” as my class calls them, to describe Lili, as well as provide evidence from the story, at the beginning, middle, and end.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. Graphic organizer to show how the main character changes throughout the story. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
The groups then shared their ideas while I added them to our map on the SMARTBoard.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. Graphic organizer to show how the main character changes throughout the story. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
We then used our maps to guide us in making these flap books that we later added to a culminating foldable story booklet.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. Graphic organizer to show how the main character changes throughout the story. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.

 

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As students worked with character traits, vocabulary, and writing a summary in mini-books we added them to our story booklets.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. Foldable mini book inserts A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
 
Louder, Lili story summary. Part of a foldable booklet project with this book companion.
 
We also did some how-to writing during our writing block explaining how to be a good friend.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
After publishing our writing in trifold brochures, they were added it to our booklets.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas for working with the book. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 

Louder, Lili Literacy Centers

During our literacy block we worked with story vocabulary and made these mini-books for our story booklets.

 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 

 

Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
My kids loved these fluency sticks! Partners took turns reading passages from the book in what they imagined the different character’s voices to be like.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
This book lends itself so well to this standard. The author gives quite a vivid mental picture of each character and their loud, soft, or bossy voices in this story! And what’s more fun than reading in a bossy voice?
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
We practiced writing words in alphabetical order,
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
And even had a hamster hop! My kiddos got to roam the room to find all the cards, then record the part of speech of the underlined words.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
 Here’s a little peek at our classroom display once we were all finished!
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
I displayed some of our prewriting along with our finished booklets.  This shows our learning process, and because my class was so proud of their writing!
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.

 

Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
Click here to find these and more Louder, Lili activities.  The resource I use includes easy to prep chart parts, templates for interactive notebooks, and additional literacy centers available in my Louder, Lili Book Study.
 
Louder, Lili by Gennifer Cheldenko. A perfect back to school book about classroom community, friendship, and finding your own voice. This post has lots of ideas, literacy centers and culminating foldable project for working with the book and getting kids writing about reading. This is a great book to also use for encourage and support shy students.
 
 
 Be sure to share with your teacher friends on Pinterest or Facebook!
 
Louder, Lili a gem of a back to school book perfect for teaching students about friendship, standing up for what is right, and finding your own voice. An effective story to help shy students, and to notice how what we say and do can change how others feel. Activities includes a character traits anchor chart, vocabulary, word work, retelling craft, printables, literacy centers, and culminating foldable with lots of activities for students to write about what they’re reading.
 
Looking for more back to school books and ideas for the first week of school? You’ll love this post, They’re Finally Here! 
Need help with back to school bulletin boards? don’t miss these helpful tips in Beating the Bulletin Board Blues.
 
For more literacy ideas visit my Reading board on Pinterest!
 
Happy teaching friends!
 
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2 Comments

  1. Linda, you make me miss 2nd grade every day! I wish I could be in your classroom for even just one day to learn from you! I'll have to pick up this book and share it with my firsties!

    By the way, those hamsters are too cute! Thank you for sharing your creativity with us!

    Reply

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I’m Linda Kamp, a 20 year primary grade teacher with a passion for creating educational materials that excite students and make learning fun!

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Linda Kamp