A Chair for My Mother activities and lesson plan ideas

A Chair for My Mother Activities are now printable & digital with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Vera B. Williams' book.

Read aloud the diverse picture book then use the printables or go paperless with to practice standards-based skills. 

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT, A Chair for My Mother, TO TEACH:

◼️ READING STRATEGIES

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing character

☐ making connections

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ asking and answering questions

☐ cause and effect

☐ author's purpose

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ making good choices

☐ empathy

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ contractions

☐ compound words

☐ action verbs

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

A Chair For My Mother by Vera Williams is the story of a young girl named Rosa and her mother. Not too long ago, there was a fire in Rosa’s apartment and they lost everything. Their neighbors, friends and family helped by donating many things. However, they did not have a sofa or big chairs. Rosa’s mother worked as a waitress at a diner. Sometimes Rosa helped out at the diner and earned money. Both Rosa and her mother saved their money in a big jar. When the jar was full they planned to buy the chair of their dreams.

One day, the jar was full! Rosa, her mother and grandmother went to the store searching for the perfect chair. When they find it, they take it home right away. Now Rosa’s mother can sit in the chair to rest after a long day.

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