KAMALA AND MAYA'S BIG IDEA activities, worksheets & lesson plan ideas

 This KAMALA AND MAYA'S BIG IDEA 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, KAMALA AND MAYA'S BIG IDEA by Meena Harris, 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

☐ SUMMARIZE / RETELL

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER 

☐ PLOT | PROBLEM - SOLUTION

☐ AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

☐ IDENTIFYING THEME | MESSAGE | MORAL 

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ NOUNS 

☐ VERB TENSE 

☐ ARTICLES 

☐ PRONOUNS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ PERSEVERANCE

☐ TEAMWORK

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Kamala and Maya had the great idea of turning the courtyard in their building into a playground. After all, it wasn’t being used and it would give the children a place to play. They asked their mother how they could make it happen and she told them to talk to the landlord about it. The girls wrote a letter and drew a picture and brought them to the landlord to discuss their idea. Right away he told them no. While the girls were disappointed, they kept thinking about how to change his mind. 

The girls talked to the other children in the building who were just as excited about the idea of a playground. Later, they all returned with a longer letter and again he told them no. He did tell them they could build the park if they do it on their own. Determined, the girls got started on the project. They talked to their parents, made posters, and knocked on doors. Unfortunately they got the same answer from everyone: no. One neighbor, Mr. Green, did stop to talk. He offered to get some scrap lumber and sand from work to build a sandbox. Another neighbor brought an old tire for a teeter-totter. Slowly, more and more people started to help turn the courtyard into a park. The neighbors, children and landlord were all impressed with Kamala and Maya and what they were able to accomplish. This book teaches students to follow their dreams, never give up and the power of working together.

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