Teaching About Friendship Books
When is the perfect time to be teaching about friendship in your classroom? All the time! Friendship books are the perfect way to do that! We know that even if friendships and groups have been long established, the wind can blow the wrong way at recess and they aren’t friends again.
Friendship Books
These are books that demonstrate a friendship relationship through the story. Discussing characters, analyzing actions, words, and events are all wonderful ways to transform a read aloud to a social emotional moment about friendship.
Books for the Beginning of the Year
When choosing books for the first month of school, I always like to keep in mind that short and sweet is best. A read aloud the first few days may have lots of pauses and “please sit on your bottom,” “we keep our hands to ourselves on the carpet,” etc. So having a book with little text and high interest illustrations is perfect for teaching read aloud expectations.
When Pencil Met Eraser is the perfect book for this job and the beginning of the year for many reasons!
The first week of school can be all about school supplies and organization. Use this story to talk about the job of pencils and erasers as tools and classroom expectations for using them.
Another reason, is because it one of the friendship books you can use to discuss what it means to be a friend and how to be open minded about new friends. Make inferences about the characters as you read to show the friendship development.
Finally, the illustrations are detailed and beautiful. They will truly grab the attention of your reader and can lead to lots of discussions.
Friendship Books Themes
When Pencil Met Eraser paints (or draws) a picture of friendship, acceptance, and understanding other viewpoints throughout the clever story.
Summary of the Book
This story follows the adventures of a pencil who gets upset when a small eraser is ruining all of their drawings. The pencils see the eraser markings as bad changes, AT FIRST. The persistence and creative viewpoint of the eraser helps the pencil to think outside of the box. The realize together they can make something really special and have a lot of fun along the way!
Book Discussion Questions
As you are reading aloud, make sure you are talking to your students. Engage them in questions or model think alouds of your reactions.
To get you started here are questions for before, during, and after the text.
Before reading:
What can you tell about how the pencil and eraser are feeling?
Make a prediction about why they might feel that way?
What do you notice about how the title of the book is displayed?
Recall what you know about pencils.
What do you know about erasers?
During reading:
How does Pencil feel when Eraser erases?
Why is Pencil upset with Eraser?
What is Eraser trying to do by erasing parts of the pictures?
On each page, talk about what the eraser is doing and how the erasing is actually adding to the picture.
What moment did Pencil change his mind about Eraser’s erasing?
Why do Pencil and Eraser make a good team?
Where does this story take place?
After Reading:
How did Eraser show persistence?
How did Pencil show flexibility?
Why did Pencil and Eraser become friends?
Which was your favorite drawing that the team made?
Make a prediction based on the end of the story of what could happen next.
What are other classic pairs like a pencil and eraser?
I hope that your class enjoys this special book and that it is a building block in nurturing meaningful friendships in your classroom.
If you are looking for more social emotional and comprehension book suggestions, make sure that you are following me on Instagram!
