3rd Grade Diversity Lesson Plan

Teacher: Ms. Nalany Vidrio

Book: Strictly No Elephants
By: Lisa Mantchev
Illustrated by: Taeeun Yoo
Published: October 27, 2017
Grade Level: Pre K – 3rd Grade

Multicultural Themes
 Getting along with everyone, all pets and people come in different shapes and sizes
 Respecting the differences others may have
 Inclusion and acceptance

Education Standards
CCSS.ELA- Literature. R.L 3.3 Describe Characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or
feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
CCSS.ELA- Informational Text. R.I 3.6 Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the
author wants to answer, explain, or describe.

Objective:
Students will be able to identify the main purpose of the story, analyze and relate to the
feelings of the characters in the story by drawing a picture with their unique animal and writing
a couple of sentences explaining why it is important to make others feel accepted and
included; as well as explain what message the author wanted to convey to the audience with
95% accuracy.

Materials Needed
 The book Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev
 Colorful construction paper
 Markers, crayons, color pencils, and regular pencil
 Procedure:
1. Have the students come altogether and sit in a circle all together. Introduce the book
Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev and explain to them that the book is about
inclusion and acceptance of others. Explain that “Every day we have to promote respect
and kindness towards one another; we all are different and do not look like one another
but we all have to accept and include others.” Clarify that “it is ok to be different and
stand out!”
2. After a short discussion about the book with the students, the teacher will read the
book Strictly No Elephants out loud to the class.
3. After reading the book, discuss the 5 five questions found below as a class. Have
students engage in the conversation and ask how they would feel if they were the boy
in the story. Ask them to apply it to their life and reflect if they’ve even felt unincluded
and not accepted and how that made them feel.
Question 1. What do you think the author meant when she said the boy never quite fit in?
Question 2. How would you feel if you were not allowed and excluded from somewhere?
Question 3. After the elephant and the boy were not allowed in the club, why do you think the
elephant was not afraid of the cracks on the floor?
Question 4. Why do you think after the boy and his friends started the pet club they allowed
everyone to join and they didn’t put any restrictions like the other club?
Question 5. What was the main purpose of the story, what was the authors’ message?

Activities
1. Students will work individually, and will draw an animal of their liking, they can either
create a new animal or use an existing one.
2. They will also color and name their animal and explain why they picked that certain
animal.
3. Have the students write 3 or more sentences explaining why it is important to make
others feel accepted. Have them explain a time they weren’t included somewhere and
how that made them feel.
Evaluation
Have all the students present the animal they drew to the class and make sure all the students
feel accepted when presenting.