Plankton is Pushy
When Plankton says hello to Mister Mussel, he expects a similar greeting in return. But when Mister Mussel doesn’t reply, Plankton is astonished! The book depicts Plankton’s struggle as he tries to encourage Mister Mussel to speak to him. It begins with some simple social instruction, but quickly progresses into Plankton becoming a bit, well, pushy. At the end of the story, Mister Mussel finally chooses to open his mouth…but the result is not exactly what Plankton was expecting!
Pennsylvania Center for the Book Awards
Book Activities & Discussion Ideas
Plankton is Pushy is a fun read, and one that children will want to hear again and again. They will also love joining in on subsequent readings because this is such a simple yet exciting story. It will be fun to act out with puppets/props. The props can be homemade to depict the two characters in the story, or they can be any type of animal. Plankton’s character shows many different expressions throughout the story, and it is also fun to think about what Mister Mussel might be thinking.
Reading a story with expression not only creates an engaging and fun story time, it is also a foundational literacy skill that supports fluency when reading. Before reading the story with children, adults can walk through the story and think about how Plankton is feeling during his interactions with Mister Mussel. How does the use of punctuation, capitalization, size of text, or style of the speech bubble align with Plankton’s expressions on each page? While reading with children, adults can use expression, and encourage their child to take a turn reading some of the lines with expression as well.