APRIL FOOL! WATCH OUT AT SCHOOL! activities and lesson plan ideas

This APRIL FOOL! WATCH OUT AT SCHOOL! 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, APRIL FOOL! WATCH OUT AT SCHOOL! by Diane de Groat, 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 CHARACTER

☐ CAUSE AND EFFECT

☐ MAKING CONNECTIONS

☐ MAKING PREDICTIONS

☐ SEQUENCING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ COMPOUND WORDS

☐ CONTRACTIONS

☐ PUNCTUATION

☐ QUOTATION MARKS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ SPORTSMANSHIP

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

It’s April Fools’ Day and Gilbert is excited to get to school and play tricks on his friends. When Gilbert meets Patty on the walk to school, she tricks him by saying his shoe is untied. Their principal tricks them by talking backwards! Gilbert looks forward to using those tricks later in the day. Even Mrs. Byrd tricks Gilbert by asking him to say silly words when he gets to punctuation marks while reading.

The tricks from Gilbert’s friends keep coming. However, Gilbert can’t seem to trick anyone else. He tries using spicy gum as a trick and even a fake spider, but he can’t fool anyone! Instead, he keeps getting tricked by Lewis. By recess, Gilbert is frustrated and tells Lewis he has been saving his best trick for him. Throughout the day Gilbert shows kindness to Lewis by holding the door, letting Lewis borrow his eraser and pulling out a chair for him. Each time, Lewis thinks he is on to Gilbert trying to trick him but Gilbert explains that’s not the trick.

Lewis becomes so worried about Gilbert tricking him that he can’t concentrate on anything else. Finally, Lewis is frustrated and asks Gilbert what the trick is. Gilbert explains there never was a trick, and that was his trick all along! This light hearted story is the perfect read for April Fools’ 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