Little Tree activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Little Tree Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Loren Long'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 inferences

☐ making predictions

☐ visualizing

☐ plot | problem and solution

☐ cause and effect

☐ identifying theme, message or moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ transitions

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ verb tense

☐ plural nouns

☐ antonyms

☐ types of sentences

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT: 

Little Tree lives in a forest surrounded by other trees. He enjoys hearing the morning dove sing and the squirrels climbing his branches. When fall comes, the trees’ leaves start to change color. Eventually, the other trees begin to drop their leaves. Little Tree holds onto his leaves tight, he is nervous about what will happen when he drops his leaves. Little Tree keeps his leaves through the winter. When spring comes, the other trees start to grow new leaves, while Little Tree keeps his old, brown leaves.

The seasons continue to change and Little Tree keeps his original leaves. The other trees have grown big and strong. The squirrels and morning dove sit in their branches. Little Tree is still very small and can no longer feel the sunlight. He remembers how he used to be the same as the other trees. When he finally begins to let go of his leaves, Little Tree is able to grow and change like the others.

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