Extra Yarn activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Extra Yarn Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Mac Barnett’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

☐ visualizing

☐ analyzing character

☐ analyzing setting

☐ plot | problem and solution

☐ identifying the theme, message or moral

☐ cause and effect

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ problem-solving

☐ perseverance

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ possessive nouns

☐ prefixes

☐ compound words

☐ contractions

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Annabelle lives in a dark and dreary little town. One day, she discovers a box filled with colorful yarn. She decides to knit herself a sweater, and when there is leftover yarn she knits one for her dog. Everyone starts to notice Annabelle’s colorful sweaters so she begins to make them for others: her neighbor, teacher, classmates, and animals. Each time she knits something, there is still extra yarn! Word spreads about Annabelle and her magic yarn, and people begin visiting the town. An archduke even comes and offers Annabelle large amounts of money for the box of yarn, but she declines. The archduke is angry and decides to have robbers steal the box of yarn. When he returns home, the archduke is surprised to find the box is empty. He throws the box out the window and curses Annabelle. However, the box makes its way back to Annabelle and she continues to knit.

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