Stellaluna activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Stellaluna Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Jannell Cannon'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

☐ summarize / retell

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing character

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ sequencing

☐ cause and effect

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ perseverance

☐ friendship

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ adjectives

☐ types of sentences

☐ adverbs

☐ interjections

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon is the heartwarming story of a young bat. One night when flying with her mother, an owl attacks and Stellaluna falls from her mother’s grasp. When she can’t find Mother Bat, Stellaluna joins a family of baby birds. Stellaluna tries her best to fit in with the bird family, even though she doesn’t like eating bugs and misses sleeping upside down.

One afternoon, as the young birds and Stellaluna practice flying, Stellaluna gets separated as the sun begins to set. As she sits on a tree to rest, a curious bat approaches her. He can’t seem to understand why she isn’t acting like a bat. As more bats gather around and Stellaluna tells her story, one bat is amazed! It is Stellaluna’s mother! The two are happy to reunite and Stellaluna learns all about being a bat.

Students will love this sweet story of the young bat’s journey to find out who she really is.

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