Make a "Know, Want to Learn, What Did I Learn," or KWL, poster with your students. Show them the cover of the book and then make a chart and label each of the three columns K, W and L. Bring the class together and discuss the topic of the story and record what the students already know about themes of illness and acceptance, both present in the book. Then, ask students to develop a few questions they want to learn while reading the story. After you read the book, fill in the final column of what was learned with your students.
Provide students with two blank sentence strips. Show them the cover of "A Bad Case of Stripes" and have them write down one prediction of what will happen in the story on each sentence strip. Encourage them to make predictions about the main character or the basic storyline of the book. Read the book with students, and allow them to discuss their predictions with one another. Discuss whether their predictions were correct or not. If they were not, ask students to explain what did occur in the story. This activity helps in the evaluation of comprehension.
Ask students to write a short paragraph explaining a time when they felt they had to please someone before reading "A Bad Case of Stripes." This person might be a sibling, parent or teacher. The main character in the story, Camilla, struggles with this issue, and introducing this theme through a pre-writing activity allows children to relate to the main character of the story as they read it.
Gather the class together and complete a walkthrough of the book, "A Bad Case of Stripes." Begin by showing students the cover of the story and discuss the illustration. Ask students to guess what they think the book might be about. Open the book and slowly look through the illustrations, without reading any of the words with students. Continue to ask students to predict and make observations about the text before reading it. This activity helps students anticipate the words and vocabulary that might be in the story.