NIGHTSONG activities and lesson plan ideas

This NIGHTSONG 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, NIGHTSONG by Ari Berk and Loren Long, 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

☐ ASKING AND ANSWERING QUESTIONS

☐ POINT OF VIEW

☐ VISUALIZING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ ACTION VERBS

☐ PRONOUNS

☐ QUOTATION MARKS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ COURAGE

☐ MINDFULNESS

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The story, Nightsong by Ari Berk and Loren Long, is about a bat named Chiro who is nervous to go out and fly on his own at night. Chiro says that it is too dark and that sometimes he has a hard time seeing. His mother tells him that to help him see, he needs to use his good sense.

Chiro asks his mother what his good sense is, and she says it is the song that he sings out into the world and that it will help guide him through.

When Chiro flies out of the cave, he is nervous and frightened. He remembers to use his good sense and travels across the world following his nightsong.

Chiro notices many different sounds that nature makes and follows his song back home when the sun starts to come back up. Chiro returns to his mother and tells her of all the great things he saw.

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