Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for And Tango Makes Three will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book.
With a theme of changing families, this And Tango Makes Three picture book by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will quickly become one of your favorite Pride month books!
Engage Your Students with And Tango Makes Three Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of And Tango Makes Three.
- 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 book companion to make lesson planning simple with And Tango Makes Three reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
AND TANGO MAKES THREE SUMMARY
The book, And Tango Makes Three, tells the true story about a pair of male penguins living in the Central Park Zoo. Roy and Silo spend all of their time together. They swam together, walked together, and sang to each other. Roy and Silo were similar to the other penguin couples in many ways. However, unlike the other penguin couples, Roy and Silo did not have an egg of their own. Although they had built a nest together, they still did not have an egg to care for.
When Mr. Gramzay noticed this, he brought Roy and Silo an egg of their own! The two penguins cared for the egg just like the other penguin couples did. They took turns sitting on the egg while the other went for food. Eventually, the egg hatched into a penguin chick! Mr. Gramzay named the chick Tango. Roy and Silo took good care of Tango and she learned to swim just like the other young penguins. Visitors to the zoo loved watching Tango and her two fathers play!
This story teaches readers that although some families may look different, at the end of the day all families love and care for one another.
AND TANGO MAKES THREE LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ 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 And Tango Makes Three, 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 And Tango Makes Three reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making inferences
- comparing and contrasting
- analyzing character, author’
- purpose
- identifying theme | message | moral
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- changing families
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- nouns
- action verbs
- irregular verbs
- onomatopoeia
AND TANGO MAKES THREE 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
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for And Tango Makes Three?
- Lexile® Measure: AD520L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 24 – 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.7 – 2.9
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell. It was illustrated by Henry Cole.
What genre is And Tango Makes Three?
It is a fiction 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 36 pages long.
