Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Not Norman will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of feelings, this Not Norman picture book by Kelly Bennett is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Not Norman Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Not Norman. You can find it in the section below.
- 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 Not Norman reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
NOT NORMAN SUMMARY
The main character in this book is a young boy who wanted a pet for his birthday. He is disappointed to find that his parents got him a goldfish instead of a cat or dog like he wanted. The boy names his goldfish Norman, but plans on taking him back to the pet store to trade for another pet.
However, as time goes on the boy realizes there are many things about Norman that he likes. At school, Norman is the only one listening to his story during Show and Tell. Norman likes listening to the boy play his tuba during his music lesson and even makes the boy laugh. When the boy is scared in the middle of the night, Norman is there for him. When it is time to pick a new pet at the store, the boy realizes that none of the pets there are like Norman. He decides to keep his goldfish after all.
NOT NORMAN 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 Not Norman, 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 Not Norman reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- making predictions
- making connections
- plot (problem-solution)
- cause and effect
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- feelings
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- action verbs
- nouns
- irregular verbs
- onomatopoeia
NOT NORMAN 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 Not Norman?
- Lexile® Measure: 460L
- Guided Reading Level: M
- DRA Level: 20
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.5-2.6
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Kelly Bennett. It was illustrated by Noah Z. Jones.
What genre is Not Norman?
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 32 pages long.
