Koala Lou

The first graders and I are reading Koala Lou by Mem Fox during the Global Read Aloud event. We are using this book as a close read. It's a story that can open up a new world to the students as we learn about Australia through the author's words.

As we completed the first read, I asked the students to concentrate on what was happening at the beginning, middle and end of the book. Their retell of the story helped me to figure out if there were any misconceptions or errors that needed to be corrected.

During the second read, we focused on character traits. We made a character trait chart of the three main characters (Koala Lou, Mom, Koala Klaws) and cited evidence from the story to back up the trait we thought each character portrayed.

Finally during the third read, the students made connections to their own life. Questions we focused on were:

• Has there ever been a time you felt like Koala Lou at the beginning, middle, and end of the story?
• What can you infer about Koala Lou and her mom's feelings for each other?
• Have you ever met someone like Koala Klaws?
• Was there ever a time you spent 'special' time with an adult?

We finished this lesson by watching a video about Koalas on YouTube so the students had a better understanding of the Koala.

Here's a deck toy we used to make sure we really understood the message Mem Fox was trying to get across to us: