NOBODY HUGS A CACTUS activities and lesson plan ideas

This NOBODY HUGS A CACTUS Activities and Interactive Read Aloud Resource Book Companion Packet includes lesson plans, reading comprehension questions, vocabulary, grammar, phonics, writing and word study activities with both printable and digital student pages.

Following an interactive read aloud of the picture book, NOBODY HUGS A CACTUS by Carter Goodrich, choose from the included collection of either printable activities or go paperless and use the digital activities to practice standards-based skills. We've even included editable teaching slides themed to match the book!

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH:

◼️READING STRATEGIES

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER

☐ RETELLING

☐ AUTHOR'S PURPOSE

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ SYNONYMS

☐ EXCLAMATION POINT

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ EMOTIONS

☐ APOLOGIZING

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Sitting on a windowsill in a hot desert, there lived Hank the Cactus. Hank seemed to be just as prickly on the inside as he was on the outside. Hank would yell at his neighbors, like Rosie and Lizard, to get off his yard. He enjoyed being alone, soaking up the sun.

Until one night, he realized how lonely his life is. A cup hit him in the face, but his arms were too short to get it off. Rosie came to help him, and he reflected on how he wanted to change. He grew a flower just for her, but when he gave it to her, she got stuck! Although they were stuck, it was better to have a friend than no friend at all.

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