Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Bird Hugs will love this post. With themes of friendship and feelings, this Bird Hugs picture book by Ged Adamson is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. Your elementary students will love this read aloud too!
Engage Your Students with Bird Hugs Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Bird Hugs.
- 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 Bird Hugs reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
BIRD HUGS SUMMARY
Bernard the bird was different from his friends who were birds. He had very long wings. When all of his friends started learning to fly, Bernard had a hard time. He couldn’t seem to figure it out like the other birds. Soon, all of his friends had left in search of new places and Bernard still could not fly.
Not ready to give up, Bernard tried to solve his problem. He tried changing his wings, making them smaller, and even asked another animal for help. Unfortunately, nothing worked and Bernard felt useless. He was so upset he went off into a lonely tree for a long time. Then one day Bernard heard someone else crying. He left his tree to find a very upset orangutan. Bernard walked over and gave the orangutan a hug. Soon enough, the orangutan felt better and Bernard was hopeful. The next morning, there was a line of animals at the bottom of Bernard’s tree. They all wanted hugs from him! The animals started sharing their problems with Bernard and he listened to them and gave hugs. It made Bernard feel good to help the animals and he made many new friends.
Bernard learned that although he could not fly, he still had a purpose. By helping others he could make friends, and when he had friends, he could do anything.
BIRD HUGS 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 Bird Hugs, 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 Bird Hugs reading comprehension questions focus on:
- predictions
- analyzing character
- making connections
- plot | problem – solution
- sequencing
- identifying theme | message | moral
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- friendship
- feelings
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- action verbs
- suffixes
- time order words
- onomatopoeia
BIRD HUGS 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 Bird Hugs?
- Lexile® Measure: 480L
- Guided Reading Level: M
- DRA Level: 20
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.6
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written and illustrated by Ged Adamson.
What genre is Bird Hugs?
It is a fantasy 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 40 pages long.
