Library Lion activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Library Lion Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Michelle Knudsen’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

☐ analyzing character

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ plot | problem and solution

☐ cause and effect

☐ identifying theme, message or moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ expectations

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ action verbs

☐ adjectives

☐ prepositions

☐ homophones

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

One day, a lion made his way into a library. Mr. McBee, who worked in the library, raced to tell the librarian Miss Merriweather. She explained since he was not breaking any rules, the lion could stay. He made himself comfortable and enjoyed the story hour with the children. As the days went by, people grew used to seeing the lion in the library and he was very helpful. He licked envelopes for Miss Merriweather, dusted, and helped children reach books on tall shelves.

When Miss Merriweather was reaching for a book on a high shelf, she fell to the ground. The lion ran to get help from Mr. McBee and had to roar as loud as he could to get his attention. When Mr. McBee heard the roar, he raced to tell Miss Merriweather. The lion knew he had broken the rules and left the library. Everyone missed the lion and Mr. McBee set out to find him. He explained to the lion that sometimes rules can be broken, like when you are trying to help a friend that is hurt.

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