I love using picture books to teach a comprehension skill. It is so much more intriguing and "fun," for students than to base activities out of their basal reader. We use Reading Street for our weekly concepts, but I'm not exactly sure when the last time was that I took an activity out of the teacher's manual to teach the comprehension, grammar, writing, or phonics skills for the week. That's why I love being able to use resources from fellow teachers and to create them myself - because I know the needs of my students and how to tailor activities to help them understand.
This past week, the concepts we needed to cover were summarizing and cause and effect.
My Scholastic book order had just come in with my purchase of Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds. I had bought the book because two weeks prior I had purchased Anita Goodwin's Creepy Carrot pack which you can find here. That's the first time I purchased a resource BEFORE seeing the book, but it was too cute!
After students filled out the organizer, they had to take those ideas and create a paragraph on the final copy summarizing sheet. Their favorite part was to make Creepy Carrots at the end and it kept them motivated! I love Anita's pack.
The second skill we needed to cover was cause and effect. To reinforce this concept, after practicing it with real life examples, some other short books, etc. students had to match up causes and effects from the book.
I created this quick cause and effect flap book. It can be done in an interactive notebook OR on a piece of construction paper like I have here. There are four causes numbered 1-4. Students have to find the matching effect, and then glue them in order under the cause-effect flaps.
Next week, I am going to have them write their own, "Creepy....." story. They can choose something to make creepy and create a funny and unique story on this template.
You can grab the cause and effect and writing template HERE. Enjoy!!

I love these ideas, Amna! I just bought the book and can't wait to use your ideas and freebie! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! I love when comprehension skills fit in so nicely with awesome books.
DeleteI love this post! I am obsessed with Creepy Carrots and so are my kiddos! These ideas are fabulous and I added Anita's unit to my wishlist on TPT! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! Her unit is awesome and it also includes a comic strip bit I haven't done yet with the students, but plan on doing.
DeleteNice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I am impressed! Extremely helpful information specially the last part I care for such info a lot. I was seeking this particular information for a very long time. Thank you and good luck. creepy news stories
ReplyDeleteWow i can say that this is another great article as expected of this blog.Bookmarked this site.. cause and effect examples sentences
ReplyDelete