Mrs. Spitzer's Garden activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Mrs. Spitzer's Garden Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Edith Pattou'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 inferences

☐ making predictions

☐ summarize / retell

☐ point of view

☐ author's purpose

☐ identifying theme | message | moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ growth mindset

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ articles

☐ adverbs

☐ antonyms

☐ capitalization

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Mrs. Spitzer is a teacher at Tremont Elementary School. Throughout this story, the narrator is comparing Mrs. Spitzer to a gardener planting new seeds, her students. At the end of each school year, her principal gives her a new packet of seeds which she will plant. Mrs. Spitzer tends to the new seeds, making sure they get everything they need to grow.

When the plants start to emerge, each one is different. Some of them take longer to grow while others grow quickly. Each plant is unique and needs something different. As the seasons change Mrs. Spitzer watches over her garden and cares for all of the plants. When the year is over, Mrs. Spitzer’s job is done. The plants go forward and continue to grow while Mrs. Spitzer prepares for the new seeds she will receive from her principal.

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