This is a story of a good kitty turned bad after her favorite foods disappear. Bad Kitty's only options for food are Asparagus, Beets, Cauliflower, and twenty-three other vegetables Kitty finds unappetizing (all creatively listed in alphabetical order). For her retaliation, Kitty, Ate homework, Bit grandma, Clawed curtains, and so on, through letter Z.
The lessons below highlight a few CAFE literacy strategies that work especially well with this title. Use them to spark discussion, model skills, and guide your instruction—then build on them as you see new opportunities with your students. Printable versions are included for easy reference.
Where does the story take place?
Who are the characters?
What is the problem in the story?
What was the solution?
P. 35 – Do you think Kitty sees the new dog as a reward for her good behavior? Why or why not?
P.1 – Do you have a pet that is usually good, but sometimes misbehaves?
P. 5 – Do you sometimes have a reaction to vegetables like Kitty?
Use sentences from Bad Kitty (What a very, very, bad, bad, bad kitty. But then...) to model appropriate punctuation and phrasing.
There are many statements in this book that should be read with intonation (dialogue, and exclamatory phrases). The vegetable section provides a great opportunity to portray Kitty’s disgust with her family. Model this for your students, and have them perform these phrases with you to practice appropriate expression.
When we read we see a lot of words that end in -ed. Did you know that this ending gives us a clue about the word’s meaning? The suffix -ed usually tells us that something already happened—it’s in the past!
For example, if we see the word jumped, we know that someone already jumped. If Kitty sneaked, that means she did it before now.As we read, let’s pay attention to words with -ed. Noticing this ending will help us understand when things happened in the story.
Point out and discuss interesting words in the text such as: endangered, grappled, hurled, loitered, quarreled, and tormented. Provide students with opportunities to use these words in their writing and speaking.
The teaching points for this lesson were written by Jessica Manning.
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