Thanks!
Margo

Since I’m here, I thought I would share some of my own experiences with sharing this book when I visit schools. In fact, I already utilize some of the exercises Ms. Dill suggests.

But first, I feel that I should point out that there already is a sequel to “Bad Kitty” featuring that naive dog in the form of “POOR PUPPY.” But, moving right along…

I create interactive exercises for each of my books and turn to them depending on the age group I’m meeting. For “Bad Kitty,” I do indeed use an alphabet exercise that works well with a group, but I’ve also designed it as work for individual kids. The point of the exercise is to explain that even though it took me 2 months to illustrate this book, it took me nearly 6 months to write it because it’s not as easy as it looks to find the right word for each letter of the alphabet 4 times.

The alphabets we work on are “First Names,” “Sounds,” “Sports,” and “Instruments.” First Names is by far the most accessible exercise for kids. Perhaps not so surprisingly, “Sounds” is the most abstract for them.

When working with a large group of kids, I tend not to go through the entire alphabet, but pick a subject and then pick a letter and then see how many words the kids can find as a group. The lesson here is that sometimes the letters that you would think should be easiest aren’t.

One fun group activity I almost always employ is to see how many Sports starting with the letter “S” the group can find. The obvious ones like “Soccer” and “Skating” are always chosen early. Around #10, the list grows harder to fill. My challenge to each group is to find at least 15. I think the record is 23. Pay attention to the kid who shouts out “Sumo Wrestling”… that kid has a bright future.

Anyhoo… since this is such a cool blog, and since I already employ an exercise similar to the one being suggested here, I thought I would offer free pdf files of the exercise I use to anyone who wants it. Again, it’s a simple alphabet exercise that could be given to kids as a group, in teams or individually. Just email me at nick@nickbruel.com and I’ll happily send it to you.

By the way, in reference to another suggestion… I’ve visited at least two schools in which classrooms have created an alphabet called “Bad Kiddie” in which they put together an alphabet of all the awful things a kid might do, complete with drawings.

Great blog. Thank you for the kind words.