WHEN SPRING COMES activities and lesson plan ideas
This WHEN SPRING COMES 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, WHEN SPRING COMES by Kevin Henkes, 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 ILLUSTRATIONS
☐ ANALYZING SETTING
☐ COMPARING AND CONTRASTING
☐ MAKING CONNECTIONS
☐ VISUALIZING
◼️GRAMMAR & LANGUAGE CONCEPTS
☐ PLURAL NOUNS
☐ ADVERBS
☐ ANTONYMS
☐ SHADES OF MEANING
◼️SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING TOPICS
☐ PATIENCE
SUMMARY OF THE MENTOR TEXT:
Kevin Henkes book, When Springs Comes, describes the changes that take place as winter turns into spring. In the winter, the tree branches are bare and stick out against the blue sky. However, as it turns into spring, the trees grow green leaves and blossoms. The piles of snow slowly melt and the grass turns from brown to green. Flowers grow and new baby birds are born.
Another change that comes with spring is the rain. There are puddles and mud. We see new plants start to grow and it is the perfect time for gardening. It can take awhile for spring to come and stay but when it does, we can see, hear, feel and smell it.
This story is the perfect book to read as the seasons change from winter to spring.
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