Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Seven Spools of Thread Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Angela Shelf Medearis' book. Read aloud the Kwanzaa 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

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing setting

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ sequencing

☐ cause and effect

☐ author's purpose

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ cooperation

☐ compassion

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ prefixes

☐ suffixes

☐ adverbs

☐ apostrophe

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT: 

The book Seven Spools of Thread is a folktale that takes place in Ghana. There are seven brothers that live in a village and they argue day and night. When their father passes away, the village Chief tells them that their father has left them his inheritance. However, in order to receive it they must do two things: turn seven spools of thread into gold, and do so without arguing. The brothers return home and come up with a plan together. Eventually, they decide to try creating something with the thread to sell in exchange for gold. The brothers create a colorful fabric, which is different than the single-colored fabric in their village. A treasurer for the King gives the brothers gold for the fabric and they earn the inheritance. The brothers show compassion to their village by teaching others to turn thread into gold.

The seven threads in this story symbolize the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

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