Scaredy Squirrel Books in the Primary Writing Classroom

Ruth was shocked when she learned that I had never heard of Scaredy Squirrel Books when we passed the Kids Can Press Booth at the NCTE Conference.  Quite frankly, once I started paging Mélanie Watt‘s first Scaredy Squirrel Book, which was published four years ago, I, too, was shocked.  It was humorous!  I found the book to be written in an extremely witty way and I loved the illustrations.  However, I didn’t beat myself up too much about not knowing it… the books are geared to a slightly younger audience than the students I taught when I was a classroom teacher.

About a month after NCTE, some review copies of the Scaredy Squirrel Series arrived from Kids Can Press.  I read them several times, giggling at the things I saw Scaredy doing on the pages of the book.  Watt really brought him to life and created a unique personality for this squirrel who has lots of phobias.  While it’s clear we can teach children in the primary grades a lot about the way to build a fictional character from reading all of the Scaredy Squirrel Books, there are also specific things we can teach young writers to do if these books are used as touchstones in the classroom.
I’ve combed through three of Watt’s books and have found several things we can teach students to do from these texts.  I created a craft table, similar to other craft tables I’ve created for The Pencil, Alex and Lulu: Two of a Kind, Those Shoes, A Sweet Smell of Roses, and Artichoke Boy.  For more information about how to use the craft table, which you can view on Scribd, click here.

If you’re not happy with the formatting of the craft table in Scribd, then click here.

Material from Scaredy Squirrel, Scaredy Squirrel at Night, and Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend is used by permission of Kids Can Press. © Mélanie Watt