HOW TO CATCH A REINDEER activities and lesson plan ideas

 This HOW TO CATCH A REINDEER 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 REINDEER by Alice Walstead, 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

☐ POINT OF VIEW

☐ MAKING INFERENCES

☐ SUMMARIZING / RETELLING

☐ SEQUENCING

☐ MAKING PREDICTIONS

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ CONTRACTIONS

☐ NOUNS

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ TYPES OF SENTENCES

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ TEAMWORK

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

It’s Christmas Eve and Santa and his reindeer team are out delivering presents. Comet the reindeer has been a part of this team from the start and she loves Christmas.

In her time working with Santa, Comet has seen just about everything. This year, she has heard that children are setting traps to try and catch Santa, an elf or a reindeer. However, an offering of carrots won’t stop Comet!

Throughout the night, Comet encounters many different traps set by children in hopes of catching a reindeer. Comet is clever, and none of the traps are able to catch her! Throughout the night, Comet enjoys dancing and playing in the snow with the other reindeer. Some children and the reindeer even gather together to take a picture!

However, after some fun, Comet doesn’t want to keep Santa waiting. It’s back to the sleigh after a fun-filled night. Comet looks forward to doing it all again next year.

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