THE COUCH POTATO activities, worksheets & lesson plan ideas

 This THE COUCH POTATO 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 COUCH POTATO by Jory John, 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

☐ MAKING PREDICTIONS

☐ COMPARE AND CONTRAST

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER

☐ MAKING CONNECTIONS

☐ CAUSE AND EFFECT

☐ AUTHOR’S PURPOSE 

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ SUFFIXES

☐ COMPOUND WORDS

☐ INTERJECTIONS

☐ ONOMATOPOEIA

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ MINDFULNESS

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

The Couch Potato is happy with his life. He spends all day on the couch, and doesn’t have to get up for anything. He loves his comfortable couch and is happy that he never has to leave. He has gadgets and devices that can do everything for him and he doesn’t have to meet up with friends in person! He can see them through the screens. The Couch Potato thought that this was the perfect life.

One day, a new device was delivered to The Couch Potato. When he went to plug it in, the power went out! For the first time, he had nothing to do! The Couch Potato decided to take his dog outside for a walk. That’s when he noticed how bright it was and took in all the colors. His walk continued and he heard the birds chirping and noticed the stillness of nature. The Couch Potato enjoyed his time outside and relaxed in the park next to a big tree. He took in his surroundings: the clouds, view and sunset.

When he finally returned home, he realized how much of his life he was spending on the couch. In that moment, The Couch Potato decided to spend more time outside. He played outside with his friends more often and took a break from all the technology. The Couch Potato realized he was so much more: entertaining, kind, and smart. But at the end of a long day one thing stayed the same, he still enjoys relaxing on the couch.

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