Chester's Way activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Chester's Way Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Kevin Henke'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

☐ making predictions

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing character

☐ making connections

☐ plot | problem and solution

☐ asking and answering questions

☐ author's purpose

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ friendship, peer relations, and multiple friends

☐ individuality

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ pronouns

☐ possessive nouns

☐ plural nouns

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT: 

Chester and Wilson have their own way of doing things, and they did everything together. They did everything the same way each time. This all changed when Lilly, who has her own way of doing things, moved into the neighborhood.

Lilly tried to get Chester and Wilson to play with her and to do things her way, but they would not talk to her or engage in her playful activities.

One day, some boys came up to Chester and Wilson and were not being nice to them. Lilly, disguised as a cat, helped them get free of the boys. The three friends mice realize they have lots in common and become great friends.

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