Memoirs of a Parrot activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Memoirs of a Parrott Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Devin Scillian'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

☐ point of view

☐ summarizing and retelling

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing character

☐ asking and answering questions

☐ identifying theme, message or moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ friendship

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ shades of meaning

☐ pronouns

☐ adverbs

☐ synonyms

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Brock is a parrot living in Wilbur’s Pet Shop. He can’t stand when customers come in and stare at him, asking if he wants a cracker. Brock can’t seem to understand why they think his name is Polly. One day, a man named Todd comes into the store and buys Brock. Right away, Brock doesn’t like Todd. His house is right near the freeway and he is not good at playing the ukulele. Todd keeps trying to get Brock to talk, and Brock doesn’t know why Todd can’t understand him. Eventually, Brock realizes Todd wants him to speak his language.

Brock enjoys dropping his crackers in the toaster to warm them up. One night, he drops a cracker in but it doesn’t pop back up. The house starts to fill with smoke and he calls to Todd for help. When Todd saves him from the smoke, Brock says thank you in Todd’s language. The is the start of their friendship and Brock is finally happy in his new home with his friend.

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