THE POPPY LADY activities and lesson plan ideas

This THE POPPY LADY 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, THE POPPY LADY by Barbara Elizabeth Walsh, 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

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER

☐ ASKING AND ANSWERING QUESTIONS

☐ AUTHOR'S PURPOSE

☐ IDENTIFYING THEME | MESSAGE | MORAL

☐ SUMMARIZING | RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ POSSESSIVE NOUNS

☐ PLURAL NOUNS

☐ ARTICLES

☐ COMPOUND WORDS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ GRATITUDE

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The book The Poppy Lady tells the true story of Moina Belle Michael and the history behind the poppy symbol. Moina was a school teacher at the beginning of World War I. When Moina first heard about the possibility of the war, she was nervous for all the young men and women. Moina worried about the impact it would have on the young women she taught.

When it was decided America would go to war, Moina wanted to do everything she could to help the young soldiers. She was in awe of their bravery and cheerfulness. Moina started by rolling bandages and knitting socks and sweaters but still, she wanted to do more. She began bringing books and magazines to nearby camps but still wanted to do more.

Moina decided to travel to New York City to train to become a canteen worker. Despite finishing the training, she was too old to go overseas. Moina refused to give up on helping the soldiers and opened an area where soldiers could go to relax. She created a bright and beautiful space for people to gather and enjoyed spending time talking to soldiers.

Next, Moina was determined to have the memory of soldiers live on. Inspired by a poem, she started wearing a red poppy on her jacket. This caught on and many others started wearing poppies, becoming the symbol of remembrance we know today.

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