JOHN HENRY activities and lesson plan ideas

This JOHN HENRY 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, JOHN HENRY by Julius Henry, 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

☐ CAUSE AND EFFECT

☐ MAKING PREDICTIONS

☐ POINT OF VIEW

☐ SEQUENCING

☐ SUMMARIZING / RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ MULTIPLE MEANING WORDS

☐ SUFFIXES

☐ IRREGULAR VERBS

☐ CONTRACTIONS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ COURAGE

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

When John Henry was born, everyone knew he was going to be special. In fact, animals came from all over to see the new baby. When his parents brought him out onto the porch to show everyone, John Henry jumped out of his mother’s arms and started growing. He grew so tall that he burst through the roof. From that moment on, John Henry started using his strength to help others.

He was able to help his father add onto their house and even cut down an acre of trees to turn into firewood. One time, John Henry challenged someone named Ferret-Faced Freddy, who was known for being mean, to a race. It was decided that if John Henry won, Freddy would have to be nice to others forever. It worked.

Throughout his life, John used his super strength to help others. When he left home, his father gave him two sledgehammers. On his travels, John Henry used the sledgehammers to bust through a giant boulder that was in the way of a road being built. He then came across a railroad being built. The railroad had to go through a mountain, but thankfully they had a machine to help. John Henry challenged the railroad boss to see who could make it it to the middle faster. John Henry was able to hammer so fast and strong that he won the challenge. Unfortunately, the hard work caused his heart to stop.

Through John Henry’s death, people learned that dying was inevitable, however what mattered was how you lived your life. John Henry lived his life using his strength to help others.

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