Compare and Contrast Books About Loveys... with a Freebie

Monday I subbed in a fourth grade class. The teacher had told me ahead of time that she was so sick she would not have time to put together lesson plans. I was familiar with the other teachers on the team and the class, however, and knew the teachers would provide me with everything I needed and the students would hang right there with me while we figured it out. Just in case, I brought a Compare and Contrast activity using three picture books.

For Christmas, I asked for any books by Patricia Polacco as she is one of my favorite authors. Yes, I am a grown-up, but when you teach elementary students, you ask for picture books. What I got was a title I was unfamiliar with, but now love... Bun Bun Button. When I read it, I was immediately reminded of Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems and Corduroy by Don Freeman since they all tell stories of special loveys treasured by children. I already had the other books, so I brought all three.

Sure enough, we had time (and the students begged me) to read all three books. And amazingly, the reading skill they were focusing on for the week was compare and contrast! Perfect! When we finished all three, I had the students draw and complete a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting the three books. The students went to town. They are great books to do that with! Each pair of books has unique things in common, all three have things in common, and each book has differences as well... plenty to fill in each spot in the diagram. I just had these students draw their Venn diagrams on a sheet of notebook paper, but I have created a freebie for you. Compare and Contrast Loveys has four Venn diagrams, three with the various combinations of two of the three books to use with younger students, and one with all three for the older ones.

These would be great sheets to laminate to reuse with multiple classes, or as an alternative to lamination, you can simply put them in a sheet protector and it serves as make-shift lamination.

As an extension for earlier finishers, I had them write on the back of their diagram a connection they were able to make with the book. Many wrote about their own loveys, but one student even related the stories to Linus from the Peanuts comic series. We did this activity in the morning, and they were still talking about it at dismissal. I would say it was a success!

And if you need a source for the books, I have provided the Amazon links in a slideshow below.