Memoirs of an Elf activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Memoirs of an Elf 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

☐ making predictions

☐ analyzing character

☐ point of view

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ plot | problem and solution

☐ asking and answering questions

☐ cause and effect

☐ figurative language

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ advocation

☐ problem-solving

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ contractions

☐ homophones

☐ adverbs

☐ prepositions

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Memoirs of an Elf is told from the point of view of one of Santa’s elves. It is Christmas Eve and Santa and the elves are getting ready to go deliver presents. It’s the elves' jobs to keep Santa on schedule. Santa tends to get a little distracted by all the cookies, dogs and toys. Despite running behind schedule in the beginning, Santa and the elves deliver all the toys in time and head back to the North Pole to celebrate.

As the elves unload the sleigh, they discover that something was left in Santa’s bag. It was Tugboat, someone’s dog! The group must figure out how to get Tugboat back to his family without being seen during the day. Eventually, Santa and the elves return Tugboat to his family and save Christmas!

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