The Big Test activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Big Test Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Julie Danneburg'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 inferences

☐ summarize / retell

☐ comparing and contrasting

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ making connections

☐ identifying theme | message } moral

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ managing stress and anxiety

☐ expectations

☐ best-effort

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ verb tense

☐ adverbs

☐ interjections

☐ synonyms

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

It is the end of the school year and Mrs. Hartwell and her students are back! It is time for them to show what they learned during the school year by taking the Big Test. Mrs. Hartwell spends the week getting them ready for the test. They practice sitting quietly, working alone, and filling in bubbles. As the week goes on, the students begin to get nervous. Many of them need to go to the nurse because they are not feeling well. When Mrs. Hartwell realizes how her students are feeling about the test, she realizes she must teach them one last lesson.

As the class heads to the library, the students are clearly nervous. When Mrs. Hartwell opens the door she explains the last part of preparing for a test is to relax and stop worrying! She has designed a day of relaxation where students can play games, taste test snacks, and make their own thinking caps! They are now ready to take the Big Test.

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