HOW TO CATCH A MERMAID activities and lesson plan ideas
This HOW TO CATCH A MERMAID 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, HOW TO CATCH A MERMAID by Adam Wallace, 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 SETTING
☐ RHYME | RHYTHM | REPETITION
☐ SEQUENCING
◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS
☐ PUNCTUATION
☐ CONTRACTIONS
☐ PLURAL NOUNS
◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS
☐ GOAL-SETTING
☐ PATIENCE
☐ SPORTSMANSHIP
SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:
A young girl wanted to catch a mermaid so she could be her best friend. They could explore, play, and even build a mermaid city!
The girl gathers a team, hits the tide pools, and starts to set a trap. From treasure chests to crowns, the mermaid-catching team was set. That is, until the mermaid outsmarted them! She switched necklaces with rocks, and sharks even came out to scare them off!
The sharks followed the children into a ship, and right before they were doomed, the mermaid came out to save them! They bid her goodbye and returned safely to land.
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