BINNY'S DIWALI activities and lesson plan ideas
This BINNY'S DIWALI 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, BINNY'S DIWALI by Thrity Umrigar, 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
☐ POINT OF VIEW
☐ SUMMARIZING | RETELLING
◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS
☐ PROPER NOUNS
☐ BASE WORDS
☐ VERB TENSE
☐ ANTONYMS
◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS
☐ INDIVIDUALITY
SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:
At school, Binny’s class is learning about different holidays. Her teacher, Mr. Boomer, has asked students to teach about their favorite holidays. Binny is excited to be teaching her classmates about Diwali. She woke up that morning feeling excited and nervous.
Binny’s parents helped her prepare by picking out a special Indian outfit and preparing special treats eaten during Diwali. They even packed some of the treats to share with Binny’s classmates! When it came time to share at school, Binny was very nervous. She closed her eyes and thought about Diwali and how it was the celebration of goodness and light. Binny imagined the special oil lamps that were lit to chase away darkness and bring in good luck.
Thinking about this helped Binny to share with her friends. She told them about the fireworks that were lit and had her friends help decorate streamers. Binny even brought in a special toy called in diya and drew pictures with chalk powder. Everyone enjoyed the sweet treats Binny brought to share. At the end of the day, Binny was proud she was able to share about Diwali with her class.
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