Trouble With Trolls activities and lesson plan ideas

Our Trouble With Trolls Activities are now digital for distance learning with editable teaching slides and worksheets based on Jan Brett's book. Read aloud the winter 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 predictions

☐ point of view

☐ analyzing setting

☐ analyzing illustrations

☐ plot | problem - solution

☐ identifying genre

◼️ SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS

☐ problem-solving

☐ perseverance

◼️ GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS

☐ action verbs

☐ adjectives

☐ synonyms

☐ onomatopoeia

SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:

Trouble With Trolls by Jan Brett tells the story of a young girl named Treva. She is going to visit her cousins and must cross the mountain to get there.

Treva and her dog Tuffi start climbing up the mountain together when they run into a troll. The troll grabs Tuffi and Treva must think quickly to save him. She decides to trick the troll into taking her mittens instead, it works! As they continue their hike, they run into more trolls. Each time, Treva tricks the trolls into taking something else of hers instead of Tuffi.

When Treva and Tuffi reach the top of the mountain, they see all the trolls together. In order to get herself and Tuffi safely down the mountain, Treva must trick the trolls again. She decides to trick them into believing that she can fly. Piece by piece she gets her clothing back and finally Tuffi. Treva “flies” down the mountain and away from the trolls on her skis while carrying Tuffi.

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