14 COWS FOR AMERICA activities and lesson plan ideas

This 14 COWS FOR AMERICA 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, 14 COWS FOR AMERICA by Carmen Agra Deedy, 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

☐ ANALYZING SETTING

☐ AUTHOR'S PURPOSE

☐ MAKING INFERENCES

☐ RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ PROPER NOUNS

☐ SUFFIXES

☐ ADJECTIVES

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ COMPASSION

☐ INDIVIDUALITY

☐ TEAMWORK

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

This empowering story is about a boy named Kimeli and how he returned to his village in Kenya with a story. Kimeli is from a nomadic tribe of herders and won a scholarship to study in the United States.

When he returned to visit his family, he brought the story of 9/11 with him. His tribe wanted to help, so they decided to dedicate 14 cows to America. The United States sent over a diplomat who witnessed a beautiful ceremony and dedication. With the promise of these cows to never be harmed, they are now calved and totaling over 35. They know, as we all do, that no country is too powerful to not be wounded. And as they show, no group of people is too small to provide comfort.

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