I Need My Monster activities and lesson plan ideas

Our I Need My Monster Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Amanda Noll'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 predictions

☐ visualizing

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing character

☐ plot | problem and solution

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ feelings

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ helping verbs

☐ prefixes

☐ adverbs

☐ conjunctions

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Ethan was getting ready for bed when he found out his monster will be gone for a week. He starts to worry about how he will fall asleep without his monster, Gabe, there. Ethan needs his monster, with long, sharp claws, and a long tail in order to sleep at night. He decides to call in a substitute monster.

The first monster arrives and does not have long enough claws. The next monster has long claws but they are not ragged like his monster’s claws are. Ethan is visited by 5 monsters and none of them are scary enough, so he sends them away. Finally, Gabe, returns from his fishing trip and Ethan is so happy to see him. Gabe felt like the fish scared too easily, and likes that Ethan is a challenge. Thankfully, Ethan is able to fall asleep now that his beloved monster has returned.

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