Noticing Body Language and Facial Expressions

Category: Reading Workshop/Comprehension/Inferring

Mini Lesson: Noticing Body Language and Facial Expressions

Appropriate Grade Levels: K-2

Description: How do we help primary aged children read between the lines and infer the author’s deeper meaning in a text? This higher order thinking skill is challenging but fully possible and this mini lesson shows you how. In this lesson plan, teachers begin with Mo Willems’ The Pigeon Wants a Puppy and through careful study of the illustrations, children work on guessing how pigeon is feeling throughout the story. By the end of the lesson, children are browsing their own texts, carefully studying the facial expressions and body language of their characters and thinking deeply about what the authors want them to know about their stories!