The World's Best Class Pet (Show Me Reader Nominee 2025-2026): Home

1st - 3rd Grades

Missouri Association of School Librarians (MASL) Standards:

• Reading Engagement: K-2 & 3-5: Compare and contrast stories to identify similarities and differences.
• Information Literacy: K-2: Recognize different perspectives in texts.

American Association of School Librarians (AASL) Standards:

• Inquire:
  • I.A.1: Learners display curiosity by formulating questions about a personal interest or a curricular topic.
  • I.B.3: Learners generate products that illustrate learning.
• Include:
  • II.A.2: Learners adjust their awareness of the global learning community by demonstrating empathy and equity in knowledge building.
  • II.B.1: Learners exhibit empathy by seeking perspectives in learning activities.

• 1st Grade: 1.R.2.A.b: Read, infer, analyze, and draw conclusions using fiction texts to describe the main idea of a story.
• 2nd Grade: 2.R.2.A.b: Identify and explain the main idea of a story, using supporting details.
• 3rd Grade: 3.R.2.A.b: Explain how details in a text contribute to its main idea and overall message.

1 class period of 30 minutes

This lesson was created by Lara Garrett from Gray Elementary School, Springfield Public Schools, MO

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Students will listen to The World’s Best Class Plant, discuss how the class’s feelings about their plant change, and identify the main idea using a chart. Activities include guided discussions, partner sharing, and differentiated tasks by grade level. The lesson concludes with reflections on appreciating and caring for something.

• The World’s Best Class Plant by Audrey Vernick and Liz Garton (ISBN: 978-0593205518)
• Large chart paper or whiteboard for Main Idea Chart
• Individual worksheets for students to write or draw their main ideas
• Markers, pencils, crayons

Students will be able to:

• Identify the main idea of a story and support it with key details.
• Describe how characters' feelings and perspectives change throughout a story.
• Explain how naming and caring for something can change the way people feel about it.

Grade-Level I Can Statements:

• 1st Grade: I can find the main idea of a story and tell what it is mostly about.
• 2nd Grade: I can describe the main idea of a story and use details to explain it.
• 3rd Grade: I can analyze how a character’s actions and feelings help show the main idea of a story.

Warm-Up Discussion:

• Have you ever thought something would be boring but then it turned out to be really fun? What was it?
• Connect to the lesson: Today, we’ll read a story about a class plant that starts off seeming boring, but something happens that makes the students love it.
• State the lesson objective: As we read, we’ll think about what happens in the story and figure out the main idea.

Whole Group Read-Aloud:

Read The World's Best Class Plant

• Pause at key moments to ask questions:
  • When the students think the plant is boring: Why do you think they don’t like the plant at first?
  • When they name the plant: What do you think naming the plant changes for the students?
  • When the plant grows and they host an appreciation day: Why do you think the students are so excited about Jerry now?
  • At the end: What does it mean to the students to take home a baby plant?

Guide Understanding with Discussion Questions:

• What do the students learn about Jerry as the story goes on?
• How do the students’ feelings about the plant change?

Guided & Independent Practice Activity Options

• Complete a class Main Idea Chart together on chart paper.
• Students write or draw a picture of their favorite part of the story and explain why it was important.
• Work in pairs to complete their own Main Idea Chart.
• Discuss why the students’ feelings about Jerry changed and how that connects to the main idea.
• Extension: Write a paragraph explaining why naming and caring for something can make it feel special.

Closure

• Review the class Main Idea Chart together.
• Ask:
  • How did the students’ feelings about Jerry change from the beginning to the end of the story?
  • Why do you think the plant became so important to them?
• Encourage students to think about how they might care for something in their own lives that they didn’t appreciate at first.
• End with a reflection: What is something that seemed boring to you at first, but you later realized was really special?

• Observe student participation during discussions.
• Review Main Idea Charts for accuracy.
• Have students turn to a partner and share what they think the main idea of the story is and why.
• Call on a few students to share with the group.

• For students needing extra support: Provide sentence starters or a simplified Main Idea Chart with visuals. Pair them with a peer for discussion.
• For advanced students: Encourage them to create their own story about something they once thought was boring but later enjoyed.
• For EL students: Use picture-supported charts, gestures, and simplified vocabulary to reinforce the lesson.