THE WILD CHRISTMAS REINDEER activities and lesson plan ideas

 This THE WILD CHRISTMAS REINDEER 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 WILD CHRISTMAS REINDEER by Jan Brett, 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

☐ Visualizing

☐ Analyzing Character

☐ Plot | Problem and Solution

☐ Cause and Effect

☐ Analyzing Theme | Message | Moral

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ Proper Nouns

☐ Plural Nouns

☐ Base Words

☐ Compound Words

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ Patience

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Christmas Eve is approaching and Santa has asked Teeka to help prepare the reindeer. It is an important job and Teeka has never done it before, she wants everything to be perfect. Teeka decides she must be strong and firm when working with the reindeer.

When Teeka found the reindeer, she began shouting at them to guide them back to the barn. The reindeer were startled by her loud voice. In the barn, Teeka put the reindeer in different stalls than they were used to, causing many of them to feel stressed. She brushed them for too long and pushed too hard.

The next day, Teeka struggled to get the reindeer in their harness. She scolded the reindeer causing them to run off. When she first tried to have them pull the sleigh, the reindeer got tangled up and crashed into one another. They ended up in a pile all locked together. It was in this moment Teeka realized she had been doing everything wrong. She promised them tomorrow would be different, there would be no more yelling.

The next day, Teeka directly the reindeer softly. She was able to get them harnessed and lined up without problems. They practiced pulling the sleigh for a long time and were successful.

This heartwarming Christmas story teaches students the importance of teamwork and patience.

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