Ruby the Copycat activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Ruby the Copycat Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Margaret Rathmann'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

☐ analyzing character

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ identifying theme | message | moral

☐ author's purpose

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ self-esteem

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ plural nouns

☐ possessive nouns

☐ multiple meaning words

☐ adjectives

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Ruby is a new student in Miss Hart’s class. She sits behind Angela, who has a pretty red bow in her hair. Ruby starts to copy Angela, she copies what Angela wears, says and does. Every day at lunch, Ruby leaves school and comes back wearing something similar to Angela. At first, Angela likes when Ruby copies her but after a while she starts to get mad. Miss Hart talks to Ruby and tells Ruby she should be herself.

When Ruby returns to school, she is wearing red fingernails just like Miss Hart. When Miss Hart shares that she went to the opera over the weekend, Ruby says she went too. Miss Hart encourages Ruby to share something else she did this weekend. Ruby explains to the class that she hopped! She can hop sideways, forward, backward and with her eyes shut. Miss Hart encourages everyone to get up and do the Ruby Hop. For the first time, everyone else is copying Ruby.

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