THE CHRISTMAS OWL activities and lesson plan ideas

This THE CHRISTMAS OWL Activities and Interactive Read Aloud Resource Book Companion Packet includes lesson plans, reading comprehension questions, vocabulary, grammar, phonics, writing and word study activities with both printable and digital student pages.

Following an interactive read aloud of the picture book, THE CHRISTMAS OWL by Gideon Sterer, choose from the included collection of either printable activities or go paperless and use the digital activities to practice standards-based skills. We've even included editable teaching slides themed to match the book!

THIS READING UNIT FOCUSES ON USING THE MENTOR TEXT TO TEACH:

◼️READING STRATEGIES

☐ SUMMARIZING / RETELLING

☐ ANALYZING ILLUSTRATIONS

☐ ANALYZING SETTING

☐ IDENTIFYING THEME | MESSAGE | MORAL

☐ MAKING PREDICTIONS

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ VERB TENSE

☐ PLURAL NOUNS

☐ PUNCTUATION

☐ PROPER NOUNS

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ KINDNESS

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Gideon Sterer’s book The Christmas Owl, tells the true story about an owl that was found in the branches of Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Little Owl lived happily in the branches of a very big tree. She enjoyed playing outside with her friends. One day, Little Owl noticed that the town was changing. Lights were being strung and houses were being decorated. Her friends explained that it was Christmas, although no one was too sure exactly what that meant.

As Little Owl flew back to her tree one day, she noticed a group of people standing around it. As she sat among the branches, the people tied up the tree, cut it down, and loaded it onto a truck. For three days, Little Owl was stuck in the Christmas tree as it made a long, cold drive into the city. When it finally stopped moving and the branches opened up, a worker found Little Owl in the tree.

The worker brought Little Owl to meet Ellen, who worked at a wildlife center. Ellen took care of Little Owl who was too weak to fly. She gave Little Owl food and x-rays. Little Owl stayed with Ellen until she was strong enough to fly home.

That Christmas night, before flying back home, Little Owl flew back over the city. This time it did not look so scary. Little Owl noticed the people hugging and holding hands. They enjoyed being around one another. That’s when Little Owl realized what Christmas was all about and she flew home to reunite with her forest friends.

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