PECOS BILL activities and lesson plan ideas

Save yourself time and engage your students with these Pecos Bill activities. This jam-packed book companion is quick and easy to use - Just print and go!

Read on to learn more about all that is included in this standards-based interactive read aloud packet based on the children’s book, Pecos Bill by Steven Kellogg.

TO SAVE YOU TIME, WE'VE DONE ALL OF THE WORK FOR YOU!

1. We chose vocabulary words & kid-friendly definitions.
2. We selected mentor sentences & specific grammar skills for each.
3. We wrote 30 book-based writing prompts (that cover 10 genres of writing).
4. We identified an SEL focus / character education topic based on events in the story.
5. We constructed strategy-based reading comprehension questions and created no-prep, print-and-go reader response worksheets.

YOU ONLY NEED TO DO 3 QUICK & EASY STEPS:

STEP 1: PLAN

Simply customize your Pecos Bill lesson plans using the ideas in the teaching guide and choose from the 15 standards-based activities.

STEP 2: PREP

Prep can be as simple as printing the activity pages (or assigning the included digital version) and finding a free video of the book being read aloud online.

OPTIONAL: If you want to dive deeper into a book study, you’ll find our teaching ideas and slides make it easy to create mini-lessons, anchor charts, and slideshows.

STEP 3: TEACH

Engage your students with an interactive read aloud by reading or streaming the picture book. Practice reading comprehension strategies with text-based discussion questions. We even wrote the Pecos Bill comprehension questions for you!

Some teachers like to assemble and assign independent work packets. Others prefer to dive deeper into the story with vocabulary, grammar, SEL, and writing lessons that can span over several days.

The best thing about our 500+ book companions is the flexibility they provide you. We’ve packed them with a variety of teaching ideas and activities so you have the option to use them in the way that works best for you and your students!

THE PECOS BILL BOOK COMPANION FOCUSES ON:

◼️READING STRATEGIES

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER

☐ ANALYZING SETTING

☐ MAKING CONNECTIONS

☐ SUMMARIZING / RETELLING

☐ VISUALIZING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ NOUNS

☐ ACTION VERBS

☐ ANTONYMS

☐ ADJECTIVES

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ GOAL SETTING

PECOS BILL SUMMARY

Pecos Bill was known for being the greatest cowboy of all time. When he was just a baby, Bill’s family set off in their covered wagon to find a home out west where it was less crowded. However, when Bill was fishing off the back of the wagon one day, he fell off. Thankfully, he was pulled ashore by a coyote who took Bill in and then raised him.

One day, a man named Chuck came across Bill napping outside. He told Bill all about ranching and Bill thought he would give it a try. On his journey to convince a gang of outlaws to join him, Bill ran into a giant rattlesnake. He fought the rattlesnake and turned him into a lasso. Word spread about how Bill was able to fight such large, wild beasts, and the gang was impressed. They agreed to herd cattle with Bill. During his time as a cowboy, Bill invented lassoing and rodeos. The greatest adventure of his life though, was meeting Sue. She agreed to marry Bill on two conditions: he must get her a dress with the biggest bustle, and let her ride his horse to the wedding.

When Bill returned with a dress for Sue, the bustle was so big she bounced into outer space. Bill had to use a tornado to catch her and it blew them all the way to California. Bill was surprised to see his family had still not found a place to call home and was certain they wouldn’t find anywhere better than his home in Texas.

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