LOOKING AT LINCOLN activities and lesson plan ideas

 Save yourself time and engage your students with these Looking at Lincoln activities. This jam-packed book companion is quick and easy to use - Just print and go!

Read on to learn more about all that is included in this standards-based interactive read aloud packet based on the children’s book, Looking at Lincoln by Maira Kalman.

TO SAVE YOU TIME, WE'VE DONE ALL OF THE WORK FOR YOU!

1. We chose vocabulary words & kid-friendly definitions.

2. We selected mentor sentences & specific grammar skills for each.

3. We wrote 30 book-based writing prompts (that cover 10 genres of writing).

4. We identified an SEL focus / character education topic based on events in the story.

5. We constructed strategy-based reading comprehension questions and created no-prep, print-and-go reader response worksheets.

YOU ONLY NEED TO DO 3 QUICK & EASY STEPS:

STEP 1: PLAN

Simply customize your Looking at Lincoln lesson plans using the ideas in the teaching guide and choose from the 15 standards-based activities.

STEP 2: PREP

Prep can be as simple as printing the activity pages (or assigning the included digital version) and finding a free video of the book being read aloud online.

OPTIONAL: If you want to dive deeper into a book study, you’ll find our teaching ideas and slides make it easy to create mini-lessons, anchor charts, and slideshows.

STEP 3: TEACH

Engage your students with an interactive read aloud by reading or streaming the picture book. Practice reading comprehension strategies with text-based discussion questions. We even wrote the Looking at Lincoln comprehension questions for you!

Some teachers like to assemble and assign independent work packets. Others prefer to dive deeper into the story with vocabulary, grammar, SEL, and writing lessons that can span over several days.

THE LOOKING AT LINCOLN BOOK COMPANION FOCUSES ON:

◼️READING SKILLS

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER

☐ ASKING AND ANSWERING QUESTIONS

☐ AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

☐ POINT OF VIEW

☐ SUMMARIZING / RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ PRONOUNS

☐ PREPOSITIONS

☐ ACTION VERBS

◼️SEL

☐ COMPASSION

LOOKING AT LINCOLN SUMMARY

Maira Kalman’s book Looking at Lincoln, tells the story of a young girl who is interested in Abraham Lincoln. One day while walking through the park to breakfast, the young girl sees a man who looks familiar. It’s not until she is paying for her breakfast with a five dollar bill that she realized the man looked like Abraham Lincoln. This inspires the girl to learn more about the sixteenth president so she heads to the library.

Throughout the book, readers will learn about the life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln. He grew up poor and only attended school for one year, but loved reading. When he was older and married, he became interested in government and ran for president. Lincoln was known for being honest and kind. He didn’t believe in salves and fought to abolish slavery. Lincoln lost his life when he was shot while watching a play with his wife.

Lincoln is still remembered at the Lincoln Memorial, surrounded by the cherry blossom trees. Students will love this story that teaches them about Abraham Lincoln through the perspective of a young girl.

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