Now that students have heard the book twice, it is time to complete the trifold activity that covers basic comprehension questions. Once we are done we display it at the front of the room and it makes a great visual that we refer to throughout the week when talking about the book and its story structure.

You know me – I love creating an interactive anchor chart about the story structure with my class. Immediately after reading, we begin learning about story structure.

These modeling opportunities are generally focused on the characters, setting, problem, and solution. I might even stop a few times as we are reading and model some of the thinking I am doing as a reader. So as I read, I use my voice to help students identify different parts of the story. On this day we are going to be talking about story structure. I begin our lesson by re-reading Chrysanthemum. The Chrysanthemum activities are just getting started! There’s four more days of fun! Day 2 Plan Reading with a Focus I really choose what will work best for the group of students I have that year. In different years, I’ve used different options. The cover can be completed as a simple craft or a coloring page. We finish the day by completing the cover for our “What’s in a Name” book that we will be working on all week. It’s really fun to see how, even at a young age, they are developing visualization skills through activities like this. They love this activity because they get to draw a picture representing the word and then share it with a friend. I usually have them partner up for this task. Starting with vocabularyĪfter our discussion, I have my students complete their vocabulary flash cards. Depending on when you teach this book you might be able to connect to a study of living and nonliving or animals. It also makes a great science connection too. Sometimes we will use this time to make a K-W-L chart. The kids always get super excited and love to share their stories and prior knowledge about mice.

Not only does this activity follow our normal procedure for learning and reviewing sight words, but it is also a great way to get the kids excited about this cute little mouse that will become the main character of our new book.ĭuring carpet time, I like to hype up the unit by talking to your class about the mouse that will be in the story. It’s really more of a teaser than an introduction, but it works to get them excited. I begin this unit by having my students complete the mouse Color by Sight Word activity. Day 1 Chrysanthemum Activities A little teaser for engagement I’m excited to give you a little peek into how I teach using Chrysanthemum. Together my students really dig into the book and the man who wrote it.

When I teach this amazing book, I incorporate a 5 day book study unit along with some extra activities from our Kevin Henkes author study.

Chrysanthemum kevin