You Are Special

Title: You Are Special 

Author: Max Lucado has written over fifty books since he began writing. Besides writing books Max also works as a preacher in Texas. Max has sold more than eighty million copies of his print throughout his career. He believes that it is important for children to feel good about themselves and tries to make them see that they are perfect just the way they are through his writing. 

Genre: Fiction 

Grades: K-6

Subject Area: Character Education 

Summary: This is a story about not caring what other people think about you. It is important to be yourself and not care if other people don’t like you. As long as your true to yourself that is all that matters. This is a lesson the Punchinello learns after he talks to the person who made him. Punchinello meets a girl who has no stars or dots and wants to learn why dots and stars can not stick to her. He doesn’t want dots to stick to him. He goes and talks to Eli and learns that he is special.

Pre Reading Activity: I want you to use a graphic organizer provided to organize your ideas on what you think makes someone special. Students should come up with six to eight different things that make someone special.  If the kids are too young to make the graphic organizer by themselves we will make it as a class. They will give me the words and I will write it on chart paper. 

Post Reading Activity: Talk as a class about how it is important to be yourself and not change for other people.  We are the way we are for a reason. People are all different and it is important to understand that our differences make us special. Life would be boring if we were all the same because there would be no differences to us. We would not be individuals. As a class come up with ideas how to make each other feel special if someone is having a bad day. Discuss how important it is for everyone to feel special and not put each other down. Like the Wemmicks did when they handed out the dots. We want everyone to feel like a star!