The Jelly Donut Difference activities and lesson plan ideas

Our The Jelly Donut Difference Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Maria Dismondy's book. Read aloud the picture book then use the printables or go paperless with Google or Seesaw to practice standards-based skills.

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

◼️ READING STRATEGIES

☐ summarize / retell

☐ making predictions

☐ sequencing

☐ cause and effect

☐ identifying theme | message | moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ kindness

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ possessive nouns

☐ base words

☐ multiple meaning words

☐ adverbs

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Dexter and Leah are twins that are constantly arguing. They both want to be first and will grab and yank things from each other. When their parents are preparing to have guests over for dinner, they realize they are out of eggs. The twins' parents send them over to their neighbor, Ms. Marvis’s house, for eggs. While at her house the twins realize how quiet her house is and think she must be lonely. They decide to invite Ms. Marvis over for dinner.

While at dinner, Ms. Marvis tells everyone stories about her family tradition of making jelly donuts. The next day, the twins decide to make donuts and leave a bag at Ms. Marvis’s house. They also create a family of snowmen outside her house. Ms. Marvis is so appreciative of the twin's kindness that she writes them a thank you note. The twins are happy that they have a family and learning new traditions from their neighbor.

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