Knuffle Bunny activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Knuffle Bunny Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Mo Willems' 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

☐ summarizing and retelling

☐ making predictions

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ making connections

☐ plot | problem and solution

☐ sequencing

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ communication

☐ managing stress and anxiety

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ time order words

☐ prefixes

☐ capitalization

☐ prepositions

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT: 

In this story, Trixie and her father have an errand to do and Trixie brings her favorite stuffed animal, Knuffle Bunny. They go to the laundromat and Trixie gets to help her father by putting clothes and money into the machine. As they walk home, Trixie realizes that Knuffle Bunny is missing. She can’t talk yet so she tries to show her father how unhappy she is by crying, but he doesn’t understand.

When they arrive home, Trixie’s mother asks where Knuffle Bunny is and her father finally realizes why she was so upset. The family runs back to the laundromat and looks everywhere for the stuffed animal. When they find it, Trixie is so excited she says her first words, Knuffle Bunny!

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