My Puppy Filled Past :)

Happy Saturday!  I am so very excited to present to you my brand-spanking new reading center or extension pack! 

Before I share with you all of the fabulous things in this pack, I wanted to tell you where my inspiration came from, so you could get to know me a little better :)

In 2010, I begin fostering for a local dog rescue in my area.  

When I started I would foster one adult dog at a time.  My family loved this!  

But it was EXTREMELY hard, since the dog would become part of our family and then we would have to say goodbye a few weeks later.  

When my schedule lightened up, (or so I thought) when I began graduate school for teaching, I agreed to begin fostering litters of puppies.  

I know, I know... you all are thinking is she CrAzY?!  

Well, honestly.. YES!  This turned into an INSANE time in my life!  

Everything I did was based around the puppies I had at the time.  I would foster anywhere from 3 to even 18 puppies at a time!  The 18 puppies was because another rescue had cancelled their pickup from the high kill shelter.  I could not let those little babies be put down!  

This was an amazing, yet difficult saga in my life.  I wish I could continue to foster puppies to save them from being put down.  But with teaching full-time I would not be able to give them the time and attention they required.  :(  

It is something I hope to return to during my summers off.

Here is a picture of SOME of the puppies/dogs I fostered (not all!)

So here is what is inside this pack:

I created this activity for students to practice reading for the purpose of gaining specific information, compiling that information, analyzing that information, inferring, and writing to inform.

Students read an ad about a homeless dog at the Summit Dog Rescue.  While reading, they must identify the specific needs of that dog that must be provided in their forever home.  They will also read about up to 3 families that are possible adopters and see if the dogs needs are met with any adopter.  Students will track their findings on the organizer page. 

There is only one perfect adopter for each dog. 

Once the student has selected the perfect forever family, they can use one of the leveled letters to write to the family informing them of why they were chosen.

An extension activity is included, where students must create their own dog and possible adopters.

** I plan on completing one as a whole group activity and then using the others as independent centers. **

Here are the student friendly directions:

Introducing Ernie:

Introducing Max:

Introducing Jack:

Introducing Lucy:

Introducing Louie:

Introducing Molly:

Introducing Princess:

Students will record there findings as they read on the organizer below.

After the students have determined the family they will write a letter to the family informing them that they were selected as the forever family for the pup.  I created one guide template for the structure of a letter.

   

Then I created two options for the letter.  One option is blank for students to complete on their own and the other option is fill in the blanks.

Finally, in the pack I included an extension activity pictured below.

Click on the picture below to purchase this pack in my store.  

Happy trails!