Apples to Oregon activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Apples to Oregon Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Deborah Hopkinson'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

☐ plot | problem and solution

☐ cause and effect

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ perseverance

☐ problem-solving

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ suffixes

☐ capitalization

☐ commas

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Delicious and her family are moving from Iowa to Oregon. Her father wants to bring the things that are most important to him: his apple trees. The family travels across the country with the trees on a big covered wagon. Throughout the journey the family faces many different problems. They must protect the apple trees from the wind, heat and cold as they float across rivers and travel long distances.

Delicious is always by her father's side to help him protect the apple trees. Her quick thinking and willingness to help save the apple trees on more than one occasion. When the family finally makes it to their new home in Oregon, they plant the apple trees in the new soil. Delicious’ father buys her a new pair of boots to replace the ones she lost on their journey, as a way to thank her for all her help.

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