Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for You Will Be My Friend will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, teaching ideas, and information about the book.
With themes of friendship and perseverance, this You Will Be My Friend picture book by Susan Lurie is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. You and your students will love it too!
Engage Your Students with You Will Be My Friend Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of You Will Be My Friend.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the You Will Be My Friend book companion to make lesson planning simple with You Will Be My Friend reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
You Will Be My Friend Summary
The story You Will Be My Friend is about a bear named Lucille who decides she is going to go into the forest to make a new friend. She is very excited about making a new friend and can’t wait to get started.
Lucille approaches many different animals trying to be their friend. She went up to different animals and introduced herself or tried to do what they were doing, she tried to help them and ask them questions. She tried to fit in with every animal that she met but nothing worked.
Eventually she decided she needed to calm down and be herself. A flamingo approaches her and asks if he can be her friend and the two form a very fun and exciting friendship.
Book Information for Elementary Teachers
What are the reading levels for You Will Be My Friend?
- Lexile® Measure: AD470L
- Guided Reading Level: I
- DRA Level: 16
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.6
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Susan Lurie. It was illustrated by Murray Head.
What genre is You Will Be My Friend?
It is a Fantasy, Poetry, Songs, and Verse book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 32 pages long.
You Will Be My Friend Lesson Plan Ideas
Each of our 600+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for You Will Be My Friend, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
Reading Comprehension Questions
The text-based You Will Be My Friend reading comprehension questions focus on:
- summarize/retell
- sequencing
- analyzing character
- making connections
Literature-Based Social Emotional Learning Lessons
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- friendship
- perseverance
Grammar, Vocabulary & Word Study
- contractions
- types of sentences
Get the You Will Be My Friend Activities
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
One Last Thing Before You Go… Grab this Free Reading Resource!
If you want to get more book ideas to read aloud to your elementary students, then grab this reading freebie for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom teachers. It includes:
- seasonal read aloud books lists for teachers
- printable reading logs to track students’ reading
- monthly reading challenges to motivate students to read more
It will have you covered for the entire school year, as well as the summer months! Grab this free elementary reading packet now!
