Reading "Judy Moody Predicts the Future" with your Grade 3-5 Class: Five Activity Ideas
Judy Moody Predicts the Future, part of a popular series for second, third and fourth graders, is the fourth book of the Judy Moody
books by Megan McDonald. Judy, the star of the series, is a girl of many moods and great enthusiasm for many things. In this book, Judy eats nearly a whole box of cereal in order to find the prize in the box. It turns out to be a mood ring. A perfect accessory for a girl of many moods!
For your students: What is a prediction? It is when someone says that a certain thing will happen in the future. A prediction is more accurate when you gather information before you say what will happen. This is what a weather forecaster does or someone who claims to know who will win an election. They don’t just make a random prediction but, after gathering information, they use it to make an educated guess.
Before Reading
Predicting the Outcome:
Since this book is about predicting the future, use the chapter titles for a reading activity about predicting the outcome. This is an important skill to practice. When students “study” the chapter title in a novel or even a textbook, it gives them a purpose to read the chapter to see if they are right. It helps students to focus on the main idea of what they are reading.
Activities
1. Instruct your students to write two sentences about what they think will happen in each chapter based on the chapter title. Collect the papers and save them until you have finished reading the book. Then return the papers to the students and discuss who came the closest to predicting the outcome of each chapter.
Chapter Titles:
The Mood Ring
Eeny Meany Green Zucchini
Toady Calling
Madame M for Moody
The Sleeping Speller
Preposterous Hippopotamus
Antarctica
The V.I.Q
Operation True Love
Non-fiction Prediction
Purple Mountain Majesty
2. Choose a current event to predict:
a. Sporting event: predict scores or winner
b. Election results: school wide, community, or state/national
3. Instruct students to write a story title on a slip of paper. They should have an idea in mind of what the story will be about. Then put the folded slips of paper in a basket. Each student should pick a slip of paper from the basket and write a story using the title as a springboard for the story content. Did the “story author” predict what the “title author” wanted it to be about?
After Reading
Math Activity
An informed prediction uses the available information to make an educated guess about what an answer will be. In math this is called probability.
Probability Activities:
1. Write these words on the board:
certain, probable(likely), unlikely, impossible
Then call up sets of students and ask questions about each set of students. Here are some examples:
Set of four boys in a race: What is the probably of a girl winning the race? Impossible
Set of one boy and three girls in a race: What is the probability of a girl winning the race? Probable
Set of four students, all with brown eyes: If you were blindfolded, what is the probably of you choosing a student with brown eyes? Certain
2. Pairs of students will do this next activity. Each student should have a piece of paper and a pencil. Give each pair of students a coin. When tossing the coin, what is the probability that you will get heads half of the time? While one student flips the coin, the other student tallies up the results in a “heads” column and a “tails” column. Flip the coin twenty times. Then switch places and do it again. Discuss the results.
Do the same activity with dice. What is the probability that you will roll the same number every time? Half of the time?
Tally the roll of the dice in columns of 1-6. Discuss the result. Were you surprised by the findings?
Judy Moody Predicts the Future by Megan McDonald is another entertaining entry in the list of Judy Moody books. I predict that your students will enjoy the follow-up activities, too!
This post is part of the series: Judy Moody: Rare!
Judy Moody is a one-of-a-kind third grader who has a mood for every situation. She is passionate about many things. This book series by Megan McDonald is fun to read and offers opportunities for cross curriculum lessons.
