Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day | Book Activities

ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst is a fun book for First Grade and Second Grade! It lends itself to discussions around feelings, self regulation, how to deal with things we don't like, and much more. All with a side of humor, which makes it so appealing to our students!

ALEXANDER AND THE TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD DAY BOOK ACTIVITIES AND TEACHING IDEAS

MAKING TEXT TO SELF CONNECTIONS

Poor Alexander is having quite a day. Everything seems to be going wrong. He gets gum in his hair, trips over his skateboard, and had to have lima beans for dinner. He gets soap in his eyes, goes to the dentist and has a cavity, and lost his best friend...and more! 

Your students will enjoy making their own list of things that annoy them as they make text to self connections.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

Alexander has many thoughts and feelings that cause him to act the way he does in the story. 

In this activity, students will dig into the text to piece together things that Alexander sees, feels, thinks, and does in the story.

SCHEMA

Throughout the book, Alexander says that he'd like to escape his troubles by moving to Australia. This activity has students listing things they know about Australia. It's fun to see what they know about other places in the world :)

MAKING INFERENCES

Students can make their own inferences, based on what happens in the story, and share what they think might be going through Alexander's mind.

ALEXANDER WRITING ACTIVITY

What if, instead of having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, Alexander has a wonderful, amazing, terrific, very good day?! Students can write and draw about this twist on the story in this fun activity.

GIVING MY OPINION

When Alexander becomes discouraged by all the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things that happen in his day, he resolves to move to Australia.

Would your students like to go to Australia, like Alexander? Your students can share why or why not in this activity.

COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES

In these activities, students dig into the text to answer questions about the story, using evidence from the text to support their answers. 

GIVING MY ADVICE

Alexander feels dejected and miserable. In this activity, your students can share some advice they would give to Alexander as he tries to get through his day.

ALEXANDER CRAFT

To wrap up this book study, have students do a writing activity about their own terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. It can be a narrative or a fiction story. Have students add a boy or girl topper to the activity and use it as a bulletin board display to showcase student learning!

This book activities unit is packed with even more standards based literacy companion activities for students in First Grade and Second Grade than what's shown here. Your students will LOVE Alexander as he has the worst day ever!

These book activities can be used for whole class learning, during small group guided reading time, as individual student work, or as part of a book club. Copy a pack for each student, and you're ready to go!

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