The Gardener activities and lesson plan ideas

Our The Gardener Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Sarah Stewart'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

☐ analyzing setting

☐ point of view

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ cause and effect

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ transitions

☐ kindness

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ commas

☐ antonyms

☐ multiple meaning words

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Sarah Stewart’s book, The Gardener, takes place during the Great Depression. The story follows a young girl named Lydia Grace, whose parents have both lost their jobs. It is decided that she will move to the city to live with her Uncle Jim who owns a bakery. The book is told through the letters she writes home to her family.

Lydia Grace loves gardening and works hard to neaten up the bakery and plant flowers. She also discovers a secret place on the building’s rooftop and plans a surprise for her Uncle Jim, who never smiles. Lydia Grace and her new friend Emma work to create a beautiful garden on the rooftop and plan to surprise Uncle Jim. When Lydia Grace reveals the garden to Uncle Jim, she learns he has a surprise for her too. Her surprise is cake and a letter announcing her father’s new job and that she will return home!

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