Dear Mr Blueberry – I Wish You Were My Teacher

I love writing letters and I love whales, and I l really love Dear Mr. Blueberry. In fact, I wish he were my teacher!

Dad reads this book to me often at bedtime in a special Mr Blueberry voice he’s made up. He holds the pages up high so I can see the drawings from my bed. Mom says the book reminds her of what learning is like right now in this pandemic, with students writing to their teachers and teachers writing back— except in Dear Mr. Blueberry the student and teacher write each other real letters, on real paper, and send them with real stamps; not email like Dad does with his music students.

“Dear Mr. Blueberry, I love whales very much and I think I saw one in my pond today. Please send me some information on whales,” starts the book. It’s vacation time, so Emily has to write to her teacher and ask for help when she finds a blue whale living in her pond. Mr. Blueberry writes back and says that she must be mistaken, because whales live in the ocean, not in ponds. The more they write, the more I learned about whales. I like that the book is written in a series of letters. It’s a funny book too. When Mr. Blueberry says that whales live in salt water, silly Emily goes and sprinkles salt in her pond!

Mom really likes that Emily politely insists and persists, and she likes that Mr. Blueberry has all the facts, and a big heart.

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I think you will like Dear Mr. Blueberry. Do you think there really was a whale in Emily’s pond? Let me know on Facebook!

DOWNLOAD DEAR MR BLUEBERRY ACTIVITIES AND FREE PRINTABLES 

Trace the letter W — Trace the letter W, as in whale and water

Draw the Water – Trace lines to draw the water!

Connect the dots – Do a dot to dot whale and practice putting the alphabet in order with lower case letters

MAKE A MAILBOX! Follow the steps in this easy DIY craft video to make your very own mailbox

LETTER MATCHING GAME! Have your child interpret the instructions then click here to download a free matching game with capital letters on envelopes and lower case letters on stamps. Once matched, work with your child to find his or her initials, or spell sight words, and deliver the corresponding mail to their newly-made mailbox from the above activity.

DEAR MR BLUEBERRY COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS:

1. What was your favorite part of the Dear Mr Blueberry book? Why?

2. Do you think there really was a whale in Emily’s pond?

3. What’s one fact you learned about whales?

4. Did you notice that Mr. Blueberry and Emily have different signatures on their letters?

5. What do you think of Mr. Blueberry’s suggestion that perhaps what Emily saw was a blue goldfish?

6. Do you remember what the word migratory means? How would you explain it to someone who doesn’t know?

7. Do you have a teacher that you write letters or send emails to?

8. Anything you want to ask me?

USEFUL INFO FOR GROWN UPS:

• Book: Dear Mr. Blueberry

• Written and illustrated by Simon James

• Age Range: 3-7

• Paper Back: 32 pages

• Publisher: Aladdin Picture Books; Illustrated Edition ( June 1, 1996)

• ISBN-13: 978-0689807688

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