Groundhog's Day Off activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Groundhog's Day Off Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Robb Pearlman'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 inferences

☐ making predictions

☐ making connections

☐ visualizing

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ plot | problem and solution

☐ identifying genre

☐ sequencing

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ advocation

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ adjectives

☐ colon

☐ commas

☐ italics

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Groundhog is getting tired of the same routine year after year. He wishes the tourists and reporters would ask him personal questions for once, rather than focusing on the weather. He decides that he is going to take a vacation. Before heading to the spa, Groundhog leaves a note to the people explaining they’ll have to find someone else for Groundhog Day this year.

The mayor decides that they will hold auditions for the role of Groundhog. Many animals try out but no one is right for the job. While watching the news, Groundhog hears the Mayor talking about how special Groundhog was. Groundhog is excited to hear how much people think of him and rushes back to his hole. Everyone is excited to hear from him and ask him questions. On Groundhog Day, he gets what he always wanted, everyone is interested in him instead of the weather.

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