Not Norman activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Not Norman Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Kelly Bennett'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

☐ analyzing character

☐ making predictions

☐ making connections

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ cause and effect

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ feelings

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ action verbs

☐ nouns

☐ irregular verbs

☐ onomatopoeia

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The main character in this book is a young boy who wanted a pet for his birthday. He is disappointed to find that his parents got him a goldfish instead of a cat or dog like he wanted. The boy names his goldfish Norman but plans on taking him back to the pet store to trade for another pet.

However, as time goes on the boy realizes there are many things about Norman that he likes. At school, Norman is the only one listening to his story during Show and Tell. Norman likes listening to the boy play his tuba during his music lesson and even makes the boy laugh. When the boy is scared in the middle of the night, Norman is there for him. When it is time to pick a new pet at the store, the boy realizes that none of the pets there are like Norman. He decides to keep his goldfish after 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