The Rough Patch activities and lesson plan ideas

Our The Rough Patch Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Brian Lies' 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

☐ visualizing

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ synthesizing

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ cause and effect

☐ identifying theme | message | moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ transitions

☐ grief / loss

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ synonyms

☐ adjectives

☐ antonyms

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The Rough Patch tells the difficult story about a fox that loses his best friend, his pet dog. The two did everything together, and their favorite activity was gardening. It is very hard for Evan, the fox, to continue gardening after the loss of his dog. Evan is angry for a while and makes his garden the most sad and lonely place. However, overtime weeds start to grow in the garden again. Evan feels comfort from tending to them. Soon a pumpkin starts to grow and Evan cares for that, too. The pumpkin reminds him that the fair is coming up. He takes his pumpkin to the fair and enjoys reconnecting with old friends. Evan wins third place at the fair. He must choose his prize: ten dollars or a puppy.

Students will be thrilled to learn that Evan chooses a new puppy!

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