Nerdy Birdy activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Nerdy Birdy Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Aaron Reynold'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

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing character

☐ making connections

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ ask and answer questions

☐ author's purpose

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ friendship

☐ empathy

☐ teasing

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ suffixes

☐ punctuation

☐ plural nouns

☐ interjections

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

This book tells the story of Nerdy Birdy, who has small wings and big glasses. Nerdy Birdy enjoys reading, video games, and reading about video games. He admires the other birds like eagles, cardinals and robins but they are not kind to him. Nerdy Birdy feels lonely. One day, another bird approaches Nerdy Birdy and says he should hang out with them. Nerdy Birdy is introduced to a whole group of birds that share similar interests to him and they become friends. When Vulture moves to town and is teased by the eagles, cardinals and robins, Nerdy Birdy tries to include him in the group. Nerdy Birdy is surprised when the other nerdy birds do not want to be friends with Vulture. Nerdy Birdy is able to empathize with Vulture and the two become good friends despite their differences.

Students will love this sweet story about Nerdy Birdy’s journey to friendship.

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