Memoirs of a Hamster activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Memoirs of a Hamster Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Devin Scillian'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

☐ point of view

☐ summarizing and retelling

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing character

☐ asking and answering questions

☐ identifying theme, message or moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ friendship

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ shades of meaning

☐ pronouns

☐ adverbs

☐ synonyms

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Seymour the hamster is very happy with life in his cage. He has everything he needs: his wheel for exercise, a water bottle for hydration, and food. Seymour never thought of leaving his cage until Pearl the cat told him about life outside the cage. She talked about the sunroom and how the stairs were made of sunflower seeds.

Seymour was curious and came up with a plan to leave his cage. However, once he escaped he realized Pearl was lying and instead wanted to catch Seymour! He escaped under the couch and had to wait for her to fall asleep before attempting to run back to his cage. As Seymour ran, the vacuum caused a commotion and Pearl was chasing him again. Thankfully, the little girl who takes care of Seymour came to his rescue. Seymour never wants to leave his cage again.

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