Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday activities and lesson plan ideas
Our Alexander who Used to be Rich Last Sunday Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Judith Viorst’s book. Read aloud the math 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
☐ summarizing and retelling
☐ analyzing character
☐ making connections
☐ plot | problem and solution
☐ asking and answering questions
☐ rhyme, rhythm, and repetition
◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS
☐ patience
☐ goal setting
◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS
☐ common and proper nouns
☐ adverbs
☐ contractions
☐ apostrophe
SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:
Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, tells the story of a young boy named Alexander. He really likes money and wants to buy a pair of walkie-talkies. One day, Alexander’s grandparents come to visit and they give him and his brothers a dollar each. Everyone in his family has suggestions for what Alexander should do with his money. He eventually starts spending his money little by little, instead of saving for the walkie-talkies. Alexander goes to the store to buy gum, makes bets with his family, and buys a one-eyed bear at a garage sale. Before he knows it, Alexander is out of money and left trying to come up with a way to get more.
Students will enjoy this story as they listen and laugh at what Alexander does with his dollar.
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