Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun!

Did I just say spaghetti in a hot dog bun?! Oh, yes I did!!! It's the new favorite snack of every first grader at my school thanks to this wonderful book by Maria Dismondy - BTW - she has a whole line of amazing character education titles! As part of my mission this year - first graders showing kindness - we read this book during our fiction study this week. It tied in perfectly with our other book study this week, A Bad Case of Stripes - always a favorite! In "Spaghetti..." Lucy learns to have the courage to be who she is no matter what others around her may think. She also learns that kindness has a way of spreading to the people around you when she is faced with the dilemma of helping the same person who was mean to her. I LOVED the way this got my classroom talking about kindness. I even heard "spaghetti in a hot dog bun" used as a verb. Seriously! Someone was being far from kind about sharing a fancy pencil and another student looked him right in the face and said, "Hey! Spaghetti in a hot dog bun!" The kid handed over the fancy pencil and said, "Okay, you use it to write one word, then I'll use it to write one word". WOAH! Sharing the fancy pencil? I was impressed.
After reading, doing a 5 finger re-tell, and comparing and contrasting Ralph and Lucy (the main characters) using this freebie - it was time to tie it all together with a fun snack! This kids loved it! I tried it, too. Let me tell ya, Lucy might be on to something!

I can't wait to continue using literacy to teach the act of kindness in my classroom. Which book should I share with my firsties next?


If you'd like to use this book in your classroom, too you can grab a copy here --->