Goodnight, Little Orcas
A Counting Book
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Written by Megan Calderon ~ Illustrated by Rachael Balsaitis
Teacher Corner
Look here for ideas on how you can integrate Goodnight, Little Orcas into your reading, writing, math or science curriculum.
Reading
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Vocabulary
Words to consider teaching: scatter, darting, tusks, bay, glide, frigid, pod, huddled
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Action words: Have students find and act out the action word for what the orcas do on each page.
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Phonemic Awareness
Find the rhyming words on each page. Make a list of other words that rhyme with the pair of words.
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Comprehension
Setting: Describe the setting on different pages such as: on the tour boat, on the shore, deep in the ocean, on the ice.
Sequence: Order the animals/things that the orcas encounter.
How do the pictures show what is happening? Connect the text to the illustrations.
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At the end it says, Another day is ending that was filled with friends and fun….What are some of the fun things the orcas did in the book?
What happened at the end of each page?
Infer Feelings: Number 6 – Look at the little girl in the red jacket. How does she feel? What is she doing that shows she feels that way?
Text to Self: Have you ever seen any of the animals in the book? If so, where? If not, which one would you like to see? Why?
Which animal in the book was your favorite? Why?
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Writing
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-Draw pictures or write a list of the animals/things that the orcas encountered.
-Read the nonfiction information at the end of the book, and look online or in other books to learn more about a specific animal. Students can then draw a picture of the animal and write the facts they learned using the CAN, HAVE, ARE prompts.
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For example:
Polar bears can...
Polar bears have...
Polar bears are...
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Math
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Counting:
Count how many orcas are on each page
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Count down from 10-0. Have students predict how many orcas will be on the next page by following the pattern of 1 less.
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Addition:
Use the illustrations to create fun addition story problems.
Examples:
How many whales are there total if there are 7 orcas and 1 beluga?
If there are 2 kids and 4 adults on the tour boat, how many people are there total?
There are 4 polar bear cubs and 1 mom, how many polar bears are there total?
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Graphing:
What was your favorite animal from the book? Make a class graph and discuss the results.
Which animal did the most students like?
Which animal did the fewest students like?
How many students liked...?
How many more students like... than...?
Science
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Classification: Using illustrations from the book discuss then draw. Who lives in the ocean? Who lives on land? Land and Ocean?