OTIS activities, worksheets & lesson plan ideas

 This OTIS 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, OTIS by 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

☐ SUMMARIZE / RETELL

☐ COMPARING AND CONTRASTING

☐ SEQUENCING

☐ PLOT | PROBLEM - SOLUTION

☐ CAUSE AND EFFECT

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ PREPOSITIONS

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ MULTIPLE MEANING WORDS

☐ COMMAS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ FRIENDSHIP

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Otis is a tractor that lives on the farm. He spends his days working in the fields with the farmer. When the work day is over, Otis loves to unwind. He rolls in the hills, plays in the hay, and relaxes under the apple tree. At night, Otis goes to sleep in his stall in the barn.

One day, the farmer brings a new baby calf into the barn. At night, she cries for her mother. When the calf hears the gentle purr of Otis’ engine, she is able to calm down and fall asleep. From that day on Otis and the calf were best friends. She followed him everywhere and they enjoyed playing together. But when the farmer gets a big, new tractor, Otis is moved out behind the barn. The new tractor takes his place. Otis spends his days behind the barn, but he no longer plays. Weeds start to grow on him but his friend the calf often visits. She does not like the noise of the new tractor and misses her friend. 

On a hot day the calf wanders down to the pond to cool off but gets stuck in the mud. The farmer and farm hands try to pull her out but are unsuccessful. They bring in the new tractor but it scares her and only makes things worse. Even the fire engine can’t get her out. That’s when Otis comes down to the pond and starts circling it. The calf keeps her eyes on Otis and eventually gets out of the pond. 

Now Otis has a new role on the farm. He is able to comfort and calm the animals allowing them to produce milk or eggs. He and the calf can once again enjoy the shade of the apple tree overlooking the farm.

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