TOWN MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE activities and lesson plan ideas

This TOWN MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE 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, TOWN MOUSE, COUNTRY MOUSE 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

☐ ANALYZING CHARACTER

☐ ANALYZING SETTING

☐ COMPARING AND CONTRASTING

☐ POINT OF VIEW

☐ SUMMARIZING | RETELLING

◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ SHADES OF MEANING

☐ PUNCTUATION

☐ COMMAS

☐ APOSTROPHES

◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ STRENGTHS AND CHALLENGES

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Jan Brett’s book, Town Mouse, Country Mouse, tells the story about two mice that decide to switch places. The town mouse dreams of taking a vacation in the country where he and his wife can eat wild blackberries and the sun shines everyday. They decide to leave the town and head into the country for a picnic. Meanwhile, the country mouse and his wife are tired from searching for food and avoiding the wild animals.

When two sets of mice meet out in the country, they decide to switch homes! Each set of mice looks forward to life in their new home, thinking things will be much better for them. However, they quickly realize the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. The town mouse struggles with wild animals and unpredictable weather out in country while the country mice learn finding food in the town is not as easy as they imagined.

One night, both the country mouse and town mouse find themselves faced with danger. The country mouse and his wife run home after being chased by a cat. The town mouse and his wife run home after being chased by an owl. Both sets of mice are relieved to be back home where they know what to expect.

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