NOT QUITE NARWHAL activities and lesson plan ideas

This NOT QUITE NARWHAL 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, NOT QUITE NARWHAL by Jessie Sima, 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 ILLUSTRATIONS

☐ COMPARING AND CONTRASTING

☐ SUMMARIZING | RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ ADJECTIVES

☐ COMMAS

☐ SPEECH BUBBLES

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ INCLUSION

☐ PROBLEM SOLVING

☐ RESILIENCY

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

This story is about Kelp, a creature in the ocean that lives amongst the narwhals. From a young age, he knew he was different from the others. He could not swim, he did not like the same foods, and his tusks were not as long. Nonetheless, he loved his friends and they loved him.

One day, a current came and swept him to shore. he found a unicorn and realized he was one of them! They looked the same and even loved the same foods. After a while, he realized he missed his friends below the ocean. He returned to be greeted by a beautiful banner and welcoming friends!

Over time, Kelp has to decide if he should stay with his narwhal friends or return to shore with his unicorns. In the end, he decides to bring his two worlds together and create a beautiful, magical, utopia where all are welcome!

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