Nobody Hugs a Cactus by Carter Goodrich is a great read aloud for all students. It has a great message about kindness, friendship, and change. This leads to a great discussion about character traits and how characters can change throughout a story.
After discussing the character traits of the main characters, we discussed our own personal traits that we would use to describe ourselves. A fun way to share a little more about ourselves was to make these mini foldable character trait books. We drew a picture of ourselves and wrote down a few traits that might describe us. Accordion fold them to make a little mini book. Trade with a partner so everyone can learn a little bit more about each other. This could be a fun beginning of the year getting to know you activity.
You can find these mini books at my TPT store HERE!
Another fun activity that correlates to this book involves a little research. Allow students to come up with a list of other "prickly" animals. Use books and research databases to learn a little bit more about their prickly animals. Here are some animal ideas!
-Porcupine
-Hedgehog
-Sea Urchin
-Bearded Dragon
-Lionfish
-Stingray
We also created a list of animals that might have a prickly personality. They don't want hugs either! Here are a few ideas.
-Sharks
-Bears
-Spiders
-Rattlesnakes
After doing a little research on the animals, students can create their own page to showcase the prickly animal and add in a few fun facts about why we might not want to hug them. Students can draw a picture to go with their fun facts.
You can find this page at my TPT store HERE!
Enjoy!
