The Principal from the Black Lagoon by Mike Thaler - Teaching Ideas

The little boy gets sent to the principal's office. On the way there, he thinks about all the horrible things that he has been told about the mean monster principal. He thinks about the evil spells she casts on the the kids and is scared he is going to end up with rabbit ears! As he sits outside her door anxiously waiting, he is shocked at what he sees when she opens the door.

Use the following list of reading skill and strategies to create a meaningful lesson for this book.

If your students need inferencing practice, use the packet I created to go along with this book and The Teacher from the Black Lagoon as well as The Class from the Black Lagoon.

Reading level: 2.3

Theme/subject: school, confronting fears, imagination

Genre: humorous

Suggested vocabulary/phrases: ahead in the polls, headlines, jaws of fate, master of disguise

Reading skills and strategies:

• Asking questions – these are just possible questions or wondering from either the student or teacher
• Before – I wonder why teacher is crossed off and Principal is written over it. I wonder why the boy has to go to the principal’s office. I wonder if he is going to get punished.
• During – I wonder who told him all these things about the principal. I wonder if any of these things are true.
• After – I wonder if still thinks she is a green monster.

  **Remember to have your students answer/reflect their questions.

• Author's point of view – First person
• Author's purpose – entertain
• Evidence
1. The principal can’t really be a monster.
2. The illustrator and the author show the kids with animal body parts.
3. It’s pretty silly when it shows the thin kids as bookmarks.
• Beginning, middle, end – the most important event from each
• Beginning – The boy gets sent to the principal’s office.
• Middle – The boy sits outside the principal’s office thinking about all the awful things he has heard about going there.
• End – The boy is really excited that the visit to the principal’s office was not as horrible as he thought it was going to be.
• Cause and effect  
1. Why did the boy think the principal was a real monster? Because that is what he heard.
2. Why was Doris Foodle sent to the principal’s office? Because she was chewing gum.
3. Why does the boy say the rug is red? So it won’t show the blood.
4. Why was the boy sent to the principal’s office? Because he snatched Mrs. Jones’s wig.
5. Why did the boy think he was lucky? Because he thought the flowers on the principal’s desk were poisonous and he held his breath so he didn’t turn purple and die.
• Character analysis - describe the boy or Mrs. Green {looks like, feelings, thoughts, character, how others think/see the character}
• Classify & categorize
• Classify – Reasons for being called to the principal’s office
1. Doing something good
2. Doing something bad
• Compare & contrast
• A time when you got called to the principal’s office
• Your principal to Mrs. Green
• This book to any other Black Lagoon book
• Connections
• Text-to-self  
1. Getting sent to the principal’s office
2. Being afraid of the principal
3. Hearing untrue stories about what the principal does
• Text-to-text  
1. Any of the Black Lagoon books
• Drawing conclusions & inferencing – Why would being sent to the principal’s office be bad if he runs for president?
• Text clues – The picture in the newspaper shows him covering his eyes and people pointing at him.
• What I know – I know that presidents are supposed to be good.
• My conclusion – I think that being sent to the principal’s office would be bad if he ran for president because it shows that he was a bad kid and might not be a good president.
• Main idea & details
• Main idea – The story is mostly about all the bad things that the boys has heard about the principal and going to her office.
• Details
1. She uses tall kids as coat racks.
2. The waiting room is filled with bones and skeletons.
3. She has a 12 foot paddle that has poisoned spikes on it.
• Plot - the turning point or climax in the story is when the principal opens the door and he sees a pretty woman standing there.
• Predict
1. What do you think the story is going to be about?
2. What do you think the principal is going to be like?
3. What kind of horrible things do you think the boy has heard?
• Problem & solution
• Problem – the boy is sent to the principal’s office and he is afraid he is going to come out with the ears of a rabbit.
• Solution – his fear was subsided when he left the principal’s office with only having to apologize and not getting rabbit ears from the evil Mrs. Green.
• Sequencing
1. On the third day of school the boy was sent to the principal’s office.
2. The boy thinks about all the bad things he has been told about Mrs. Green the monster principal.
3. He thinks about the bones and skeletons that are supposed to be in the waiting room.
4. He thinks about the short kids that she feeds to her alligator and the fat ones she uses as paper weights.
5. He thinks about the kids that she keeps for her experiments.
6. He is hoping that he doesn’t come out of her office with rabbit ears.
7. The principal’s office door opens and out walks a beautiful woman.
8. The boy looks around and doesn’t see anything like he was told.
9. Mrs. Green tells him he must apologize.
10. The boy is happy he didn’t die in the principal’s office.
• Story elements - list title, author, characters, setting, beginning, middle, end, or problem & solution.
• Strong thought – someplace in the story that the reader has a strong reaction for example an “I knew it”, or  “Don’t do it” type of moment while reading.
• Theme – the lesson, message or moral of the story
1. Don’t always believe everything you hear.
2. Rumors can make you think the worst about someone.
3. Going to the principal’s office probably won’t be as scary as you think it will be.
• Visualize – what do YOU picture…
• The boy pictures some awful things that the principal might be like. What is something you would picture the principal to be like?

Happy Reading!