SHMELF THE HANUKKAH ELF activities and lesson plan ideas

 Save yourself time and engage your students with these Shmelf The Hanukkah Elf activities. This jam-packed book companion is quick and easy to use - Just print and go!

Read on to learn more about all that is included in this standards-based interactive read aloud packet based on the children’s book, Shmelf The Hanukkah Elf by Greg Wolfe.

TO SAVE YOU TIME, WE'VE DONE ALL OF THE WORK FOR YOU!

1. We chose vocabulary words & kid-friendly definitions.
2. We selected mentor sentences & specific grammar skills for each.
3. We wrote 30 book-based writing prompts (that cover 10 genres of writing).
4. We identified an SEL focus / character education topic based on events in the story.
5. We constructed strategy-based reading comprehension questions and created no-prep, print-and-go reader response worksheets.

YOU ONLY NEED TO DO 3 QUICK & EASY STEPS:

STEP 1: PLAN

Simply customize your Shmelf The Hanukkah Elf lesson plans using the ideas in the teaching guide and choose from the 15 standards-based activities.

STEP 2: PREP

Prep can be as simple as printing the activity pages (or assigning the included digital version) and finding a free video of the book being read aloud online.

OPTIONAL: If you want to dive deeper into a book study, you’ll find our teaching ideas and slides make it easy to create mini-lessons, anchor charts, and slideshows.

STEP 3: TEACH

Engage your students with an interactive read aloud by reading or streaming the picture book. Practice reading comprehension strategies with text-based discussion questions. We even wrote the Shmelf The Hanukkah Elf comprehension questions for you!

Some teachers like to assemble and assign independent work packets. Others prefer to dive deeper into the story with vocabulary, grammar, SEL, and writing lessons that can span over several days.

The best thing about our 500+ book companions is the flexibility they provide you. We’ve packed them with a variety of teaching ideas and activities so you have the option to use them in the way that works best for you and your students!

THE SHMELF THE HANUKKAH ELF BOOK COMPANION FOCUSES ON:

◼️READING SKILLS

☐ RHYME I RHYTHM I REPETITION

☐ ANALYZING SETTING 

☐ AUTHOR’S PURPOSE

◼️GRAMMAR

☐ COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS

☐ COMPOUND WORDS

☐ CONTRACTIONS

◼️SEL

☐ INCLUSION

☐ RESPONSIBILITY

SHMELF THE HANUKKAH ELF SUMMARY

The story Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf is about an elf named Shmelf who works in Santa’s workshop. Shmelf’s job is to check the naughty and nice list. Shmelf discovers that there are lots of boys and girls who should get presents but aren’t. He learns that those children are Jewish and celebrate Hanukkah.

Shmelf goes to the home of a Jewish family to learn about Hanukkah and its different traditions. When Shmelf returns to the North Pole, he tells Santa everything he learned and Santa decides to make him Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf.

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