Squirrel's New Year's Resolution activities and lesson plan ideas
Squirrel's New Year's Resolution Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Pat Miller'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
☐ summarize / retell
☐ making connections
☐ analyzing character
☐ plot | problem and solution
☐ sequencing
◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS
☐ problem-solving
◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS
☐ nouns
☐ plural nouns
☐ action verbs
☐ shades of meaning
SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:
It is the start of the new year and all of the animals in the forest have made their New Year’s resolutions, everyone except Squirrel. She starts off by asking Bear what a resolution is and if he has one. Bear explains what a resolution is and tells Squirrel that his resolution is to help their friend Skunk learn how to read. After talking with Bear, Squirrel is determined to come up with a resolution.
As she travels throughout the forest, Squirrel runs into many of her friends and talks about their resolutions. Skunk wants to learn to read, Turtle and Mole want to plant a garden, and Porcupine wants to be less grumpy. When Squirrel is eating lunch at the diner, her friends arrive too and they talk about how helpful Squirrel has been. When she visited Skunk, she helped her feel better. She climbed a tree to help Mole and Turtle find a spot for their garden. She also taught Porcupine some funny jokes. That is when Squirrel realizes what her resolution will be: to help someone each day.
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