HOW TO CATCH AN ELF activities and lesson plan ideas

This HOW TO CATCH AN ELF 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, HOW TO CATCH AN ELF by Adam Wallace, 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

☐ POINT OF VIEW

☐ IDENTIFY THE MAIN IDEA

☐ SEQUENCING

☐ AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

☐ RHYME | RHYTHM | REPETITION

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ PRONOUNS

☐ IRREGULAR VERBS

☐ CONJUNCTIONS

☐ ONOMATOPOEIA

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ TEAMWORK

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

It’s Christmas Eve and Santa is ready to deliver toys to all the boys and girls. Luckily, he has his elf there to help him through the busy night. Children used to try and catch Santa, but he was too fast for them. Now the children are trying to catch Santa’s elf!

The two set out to deliver gifts, they’re ready to navigate the traps children have set out. Throughout the night, the elf tries and avoid traps made of tinsel, tape, candy canes and lasers. One time, he even gets trapped in tape but Santa is there to help him.

Their final stop of the night is at a grocery store. There, an avalanche of food makes a big mess and a cannon sends the two flying through the store. Thankfully, Santa and his elf make sure a great team they are able to deliver all the gifts safely. When the night is done, the two share a pizza and celebrate their success!

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