Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed
Picture Book Read Aloud
book summary
Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed is the story of a little girl who is seemingly ordinary, yet affects the lives of countless others by doing one kind deed for her neighbor. The neighbor, not yet knowing who brought her the bounty of blueberries she found on her doorstep makes 5 batches of muffins and gives them to 5 people, each of those people, then do kind things for 5 other people and so on and so forth. These random acts of kindness that each person does, affects countless others until everyone has been touched by kind gestures and eventually the good deed comes back to Mary when her aunt surprises her with a gift, which was spurred on by kindness from someone else. You really can change the world, regardless of how “ordinary” you may be.
suggested teaching point
On page 1, guide students to make a connection with the main character. The author describes Mary as ordinary. Why would Mary be described as ordinary? What about you could be described as ordinary? The opposite of ordinary is extraordinary. Something that is extraordinary is unusual or remarkable. What is something about you that could be described as extraordinary?
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