MEMOIRS OF A TORTOISE activities and lesson plan ideas

This MEMOIRS OF A TORTOISE Activities and Interactive Read Aloud Resource Book Companion Packet includes lesson plans, reading comprehension questions, vocabulary, grammar, phonics, writing and word study activities with both printable and digital student pages.

Following an interactive read aloud of the picture book, MEMOIRS OF A TORTOISE by Devin Scillian, choose from the included collection of either printable activities or go paperless and use the digital activities to practice standards-based skills. We've even included editable teaching slides themed to match the book!

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH:

◼️READING STRATEGIES

☐ AUTHOR'S PURPOSE

☐ MAKING INFERENCES

☐ POINT OF VIEW

☐ RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ QUOTATION MARKS

☐ CONTRACTIONS

☐ PROPER NOUNS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ COPING

☐ EMOTIONS

☐ FRIENDSHIP

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

This heartwarming story is told from the perspective of a tortoise. Every day, he sees his pet human, Ike. Ike plays fetch, gives him food, and pets his smooth shell. This story takes us through each month and season, until Ike no longer comes out to play. The tortoise walks to see his mother, where he learns that pets do not live as long as they do. They must be grateful for the time they share together.

With that, we infer that Ike has passed away. The tortoise goes home, but he is not sure if it will feel the same. That is, until Ted comes to play. Ted lives in the same house as Ike did. He is Ike’s son!

This beautiful story teaches students about honoring the life of pets and looking forward to new adventures.

THIS COLLECTION OF ACTIVITIES and LESSON IDEAS INCLUDES:

➜ Comprehension Questions categorized by reading strategy; text-dependent
➜ Social Emotional Learning guidance lesson ideas & discussion topics based on the story
➜ Vocabulary Activities with kid-friendly definitions
➜ Grammar Topics selected to align with the text
➜ Focus Sentences use the book & author's craft as a mentor text to improve writing
➜ Lesson Planner summary, background info and planning space

➜ Story Mapping Printable identify character, setting, problem and solution

➜ Making Words Activity Page use any word from the book

➜ Focus Sentence copy work, identifying elements of the sentence, rewriting)

➜ Design a New Book Cover demonstrate understanding of the text by creating an illustration

➜ Predicting Activity primary-ruled and wider-ruled versions
➜ Summarizing Somebody → Wanted → But → Then → Finally

➜ Comparing and Contrasting using a Venn Diagram

➜ Cause and Effect analyze how events affect one another

➜ Visualization illustrate visualizations from the story and support thinking with text-based evidence

➜ Making Connections identify text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

➜ Thematic Writing Paper Use with the Writing Prompts... Makes a Great Bulletin Board

➜ 2 Sequencing Activities First → Next → Then → Last and Beginning → Middle → End

➜ 2 Vocabulary Activities Vocabulary Booklet and Word Mapping

➜ 2 Character Trait Activities listing traits and supporting traits with text-based evidence
➜ 30 Text-Based Writing Prompts 3 prompts for each of the following types of writing:

• narrative
• persuasive / opinion
• descriptive
• expository / informative
• creative / story writing
• procedure / how-to
• list making
• letter / postcard writing
• poem
• book reviews

INCLUDED DIGITAL ACTIVITIES:

➜ 5 Teaching Slides to use for instruction (add questions, vocabulary, instructions, etc)

➜ 15 Student Pages for use in Google™️ Classroom or as editable files to create customized printables