When teaching young children, it is important to help them learn control and restraint when it comes to speaking out in class. Every child has important stories to tell and sometimes they can’t hold it all in! My Mouth is a Volcano is a fantastic book that uses a compassionate approach to teach about the habit of interrupting teachers and students in the classroom. This book is fun and silly and sends its message in a way young students can understand. Students will learn ways to hold in their words without having to blurt them out, and most importantly, to wait their turn! Everyone can have a turn to share their feelings, but we have to be respectful of others.
My Mouth is a Volcano is told from the perspective of Louis, a young student with a lot to say! Louis always has something to say when others are talking and telling stories. Instead of waiting his turn, his impulses get the best of him and he yells out whatever comes to mind.
This book gives parents and teachers an entertaining way to teach students to wait their turn to share. Along with this book, I use some interactive and hands-on activities to help my students get the most out of this book.
My Mouth is a Volcano Anchor Chart
I love using interactive anchor charts in my classroom. The students love being an active part of our lessons and creating the teaching tool. Not only does this increase engagement, but it also helps them remember our lessons.
Using an anchor chart as part of a book study is a must! Whether you are digging into vocabulary, story structure or the underlying message, students can benefit from an anchor chart. This interactive anchor chart for My Mouth is a Volcano focuses on the message of controlling our words and using self-control.
After reading the story we discuss the technique from the book on how to keep from “exploding” with our words. The students love to remind me of the steps in the process. It’s a great way to review the book and see how the class is doing with basic fact recall too!
As we list a step, we add it to the anchor chart and then practice it. I like to call this “The Louis Method” and list the steps to keeping your volcano to yourself until it is your turn. This naturally leads to a discussion of other things we can do to control our words and keep from interrupting. I like to add all of these ideas to the anchor chart! We then keep this posted in the room as reminder all year long.
My Mouth is a Volcano Sequence of Events
Learning and understanding the sequence of events in a book is very important. This cut and paste activity is a fun, engaging way to highlight the events in the book and the order they happened. My students loving coloring the images that represent our story and then moving them around until they are in the right order. It’s a great opportunity for me to see how they are doing with the concept of sequencing. Students can work on this independently at their desks or it can be added to a literacy center during the week.
Fun Volcano Craft
We love crafts in our classroom! They are not only fun and engaging for students, but they can be used to teach as well. This is a fun volcano craft that students can complete after reading the book and discussing it. This is a great culminating activity that really gives students an opportunity to think through everything they have learned from the book and apply it to real life.
We start with the writing activity. Students will write about how they can control their words and not interrupt. It’s amazing to see how students really internalize this lesson as they make a plan for using self-control in the classroom.
Once students are done writing and illustrating their paper, they are ready to create this cute volcano. It makes the perfect “frame” for their writing.
For this craft, students will create an erupting volcano that will remind them of our story. Each craft will be unique and different and can be displayed on classroom bulletin boards or as a hallway display. Students will really enjoy this craft and as a bonus, learn more about ways to be respectful when others are speaking!
Comprehension Questions Tri-Fold
Comprehension is key when teaching young students through books and stories. We teach our students to recognize the beginning, middle and end of stories in order to summarize. We also focus on important story elements like characters, settings, problem and solution. All of these things can be taught or discussed with this book.
Depending on the time of the year and abilities of my students, this reading comprehension tri-fold activity might be done as a group or individually. There is really no right or wrong way to use this activity. Instead choose the option that would work best for your students.
This is a really engaging activity that will get students thinking about the true message of the story. You can print this out, front and back, so that students can fold it like a brochure. Not only will students get to draw in their own unique pictures, they will get to answer questions from the story. This will help them retain the information they learned! Some of the questions include how Louis mouths erupts, how Louis solves his problems, what he realizes in the end, and more!
Break out the crayons and colored pencils and let students draw and decorate this tri-fold how they please while filling in the questions. This is a great activity for them to take home and show parents all about the book and what they learned!
Louis Directed Drawing
It is always fun to include a directed drawing activity to go along with classroom learning! It’s a great way to work on following directions during class rime. And . . . students LOVE drawing things related to what they are learning. Even students who don’t think they draw well love directed drawings.
This directed drawing activity will have your students drawing their very own Louis character complete with an erupting volcano mouth. It’s a great reminder of the book and the lessons we learned.
I love to complete these activities as a class. I model on the board as students draw on their paper. It’s a great way to talk about some basic art terms too. But students can also complete this activity independently using the step by step drawing instructions.
Students can get creative by coloring and adding their own fun elements to their Louis drawing. When students are done, let them use their drawing as a starting point for retelling the story or summarizing the lesson from the book.
My Mouth is a Volcano Activities
You can find all of these My Mouth is a Volcano book activities in the Emily Education store. Everything you need to create your own anchor chart and dig into this book is included. Just grab a copy of the book from your local library and you are ready to get started. It’s a great book for the beginning of the school year as you teach classroom procedures. It’s also a great addition any time you need a reminder about interrupting and self-control.
Save These Engaging Book Activities for Later!
Save these fun, hands-on book activities to your favorite classroom board on Pinterest that way you can quickly and easily grab them next time you need book activity ideas!