Ricky, the Rock that Couldn't Roll activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Ricky, the Rock That Couldn't Roll Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Jason I. Miletsky'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

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ cause and effect

☐ author's purpose

☐ rhyme | rhythm | repetition

☐ identifying theme | message | moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ friendship

☐ self-esteem

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ common and proper nouns

☐ pronouns

☐ verb tense

☐ contractions

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT: 

Jay Miletsky’s book, Ricky the Rock that Couldn't Roll takes place on a green, grassy hill where rocks come to play. All of the rocks there have fun rolling down the hill. However, there is one rock that does not roll. His name is Ricky and he can’t roll because he is flat on one side. All of the other rocks have fun rolling down hills but Ricky isn’t able to join in the fun. He is not like the others and has to sit on the sidelines. His friends work together to find a way to help Ricky roll so that he can join in the fun. They try many different solutions without success. Finally, one of the rocks comes up with a way to make Ricky round so he can roll like the rest of them. He is finally able to join in on all the fun rolling down the hill like his friends.

Students will love this story about friendship and perseverance.

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