Diary of a Worm activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Diary of a Worm Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Doreen Cronin'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

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ point of view

☐ making connections

☐ sequencing

☐ author's purpose

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ empathy

☐ manners

☐ taking ownership

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ plural nouns

☐ compound words

☐ punctuation

☐ time order words

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The Diary of a Worm gives the reader an inside look into the life of a worm. This story follows the days of the worm through diary entries. The worm is just like human boys and girls. He has a best friend, goes to school, spends time with his family, and enjoys telling jokes and being silly.

The worm’s mother reminds him about the importance of the Earth. She teaches him that the Earth provides everything that they need and that even though worms are small and sometimes people forget they are there, the Earth always remembers.

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