Making Inferences Freebie

I've always been a lover of reading. I remember getting reprimanded alllll the time in elementary school for hiding a book on my lap during class! It's that desire to be a "wild reader"--to quote Donalyn Miller-- that I want to instill in my own students.

The book I'll be sharing with you today is one of my favorite wordless picture books--A Ball for Daisy, by Chris Raschka. This is a great book to read for making text-to-self connections. What child hasn't been devastated over the loss of a beloved toy or a broken SOMETHING? Students really empathize with Daisy as she mourns over her beloved ball. 

This is also a great book for teaching inferences--The author doesn't TELL us anything because there is no text--but the students can use their schema and the illustrations to tell you exactly how Daisy is feeling. Raschka does such an excellent job of showing this in the illustrations, which is why I love this book so much. 

Here is a little freebie to help you work on inferencing with your students. Here is how you might use it with this story--The picture shows: Daisy's eyes are closed and her ears are drooping. I know that: the other dog popped Daisy's ball. I feel sad when my toys get ruined. I infer: Daisy feels sad because she misses her ball. Click on the image to download!