ROLLING THUNDER activities and lesson plan ideas

This ROLLING THUNDER 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, ROLLING THUNDER by Kate Messner, 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

☐ AUTHOR'S PURPOSE

☐ IDENTIFYING THEME | MESSAGE | MORAL

☐ POINT OF VIEW

☐ RHYME | RHYTHM | REPETITION

☐ SUMMARIZING | RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ PLURAL NOUNS

☐ VERB TENSE

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ SYNONYMS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ GRATITUDE

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Kate Messner’s book Rolling Thunder is a lyrical story about a young boy who takes part in The Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom. It is a special day for the boy and his grandfather as they ride for the narrator’s Uncle Zach and the grandfather’s friends. The two set out on the motorcycle to meet up with the grandfather’s friends.

On the morning of the ride, many motorcycles line up with their engines roaring. The motorcycles display flags to honor veterans and crowds roar and cheer as they drive by. The ride ends at The Wall, where they will remember those that never made it home. The young boy finds his uncle’s name and makes a rubbing of it. There are speeches and prayers as everyone shows their gratitude for the sacrifices of veterans.

This book is a great way to teach students about Memorial Day and the importance of honoring and remembering veterans.

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