SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE activities, worksheets & lesson plan ideas

 This SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE 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, SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE by William Steig, 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

☐ RETELL

☐ ANALYZING ILLUSTRATIONS

☐ ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONS

 ◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ SUFFIXES

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ LINKING VERBS

 ◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ PATIENCE

☐ GRATITUDE

☐ FEELINGS

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

This humorous story by the remarkable William Steig shows the power of love between a family. One day, Sylvester the donkey came across a fiery red pebble. He realized that if he is holding the pebble, any wish he makes will come true! As he was walking home, a lion appeared. Sylvester panicked, and wished he was a rock to be safe. He quickly learned that by being a rock, he would be unable to wish himself back to a donkey.

 After overcoming a series of obstacles, Sylvester realizes that his family is the most important wish he could have. This book is an excellent mentor text for social and emotional lessons about patience, gratitude, and feelings of loneliness. Filled with reflection, love, and morals, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is a story great for children and adults alike!

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