Akiak activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Akiak Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Robert J. Blake'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

☐ visualizing

☐ analyzing character

☐ analyzing setting

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ ask and answer questions

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ teamwork

☐ perseverance

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ possessive nouns

☐ multiple meaning words

☐ time order words

☐ adverbs

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Akiak tells the story of a dogsled team running in the Iditarod. Akiak is the oldest dog on Mack’s team. They have never won the race before, and now that Akiak is 10 years old, it is her last chance to win the race. She is the lead of her dog team because she knows the trails very well. When Mack’s team makes it to first place in the race, they must start running through deep snow. Akiak gets a lot of snow jammed in her paw and gets hurt. She can no longer run the race and her team must go on without her.

As a handler is trying to get Akiak into a helicopter, she breaks free and starts to run after her team. She runs for several days through the cold snow and storms. Several volunteers try to catch her while others cheer her on. Akiak finally catches her team when they are on the wrong trail. Thanks to her experience, Akiak is able to direct her team to the finish and help them complete the race.

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