Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant Interactive Read Aloud Activities for Fall

Item description

This fall picture book companion is a perfect accompaniment to Cynthia Rylant’s book, Scarecrow. It’s the ideal interactive read-aloud for autumn or for educating your students about seasonal changes, appreciation, the wonders of nature, and personification. Students will love the engaging and fun activities, and you will appreciate the time saved hunting for high-level resources to teach reading concepts that students frequently struggle with.

With 37 print-and-go reading activities to choose from, this resource is ideal for customizing learning to your student’s specific needs and academic ability. Students will investigate characters, identify story elements, determine the theme, sequence events from the story, practice personification, explore and use new vocabulary, discover cause-and-effect relationships, explore plot elements, write poems, investigate imagery, and much more! The activities provided are designed to enable students to apply higher-level thinking skills, to encourage students to provide text evidence to support their thinking, and to challenge students to express their own thoughts and/or perspectives.

Need ideas for different ways you can implement these activities?

• Focus on different reading skills each day for targeted instruction and have students complete a corresponding printable to check for understanding.
• During centers, students can independently read the story again and complete an activity that reviews a previously taught concept.
• Work with students on a reading concept they struggle with during guided reading or strategy groups.
• Students work with a partner(s) or in literature circles to complete additional reading activities.

This Resource Includes:

• See, Think, Wonder – Before reading the book, students will examine the front cover and describe what they see, make predictions about what the book is about, and the questions they think the book might answer.
• Story Elements – Students complete the graphic organizer with words and images.
• Cause & Effect – Students identify cause and effect relationships in the story (ANSWER KEY included).
• Who is the Scarecrow? – Students include details from the story to describe what the character says, thinks, does, and feels.
• Character Traits #1 – Students choose two important character traits that describe the main character and provide evidence from the text to support their choices.
• Character Traits #2– Students choose 2 different character traits that describe the main character and provide examples from the text to support the traits they chose.
• Character Perspective – Students compare the perspectives of the scarecrow and the narrator on a story event of their choice.
• Character Summary – Students summarize the main character of the story.
• Sequencing – Students sequence the events of the story with text and illustrations.
• Plot Map – Students organize the events of the story on the graphic organizer.
• Setting Influences the Plot – Students answer the questions about the setting of the story to gain a better understanding of how a story’s setting helps to build the narrative’s mood, plot, and character development.
• Summarizing – Students complete the Somebody, Wanted, Because, But, So graphic organizer and write a summary of the story.
• Making Inferences – Students use clues and schema to make inferences.
• Making Connections– Students make connections to two events from the story.
• Theme #1 – Students answer the questions to determine which theme best fits the story and provide text evidence to support their choice.
• Theme #2 – Students answer the questions to determine the theme of the story and provide text evidence.
• Thematic Statements – Students choose the thematic statement that they believe best fits the story and include evidence from the text to support their choice.
• Visualizing – Students create images based on the descriptive language used in the story.
• Symbolism – Students answer the guiding questions and identify what the scarecrow symbolizes in the story.
• Sensory Details – Students describe an event from the story and describe it from the character’s perspective using the five senses.
• Seasonal Imagery – Students describe the seasons using the five senses. A student handout for summer, autumn, winter, and spring is included.
• Descriptive Language – Students use the author’s descriptions to draw a picture of the scarecrow in the story.
• Personification Practice – Students identify what is being personified, explain which human characteristic is being applied, and the author’s purpose (ANSWER KEY included).
• Personification Poem Brainstorm – Students choose an object to personify that reminds them of one of the seasons. Then, they will brainstorm imagery around noun and verb word pairs.
• Personification Poem Template – Students write and illustrate their personification poem. There are four layout options included.
• Reader Response Questions – Students answer multiple-choice and short-answer questions to respond to the text.
• Vocabulary Matching Cards – This activity can be used during stations or posted on a word wall to reinforce vocabulary words from the story. Print the cards onto cardstock paper, laminate, and cut apart.
• Vocabulary Crossword Puzzle – Students will complete a crossword puzzle by matching words from the story to their definitions (ANSWER KEY included).
• Vocabulary Word Search Puzzle – Students find the hidden words in the puzzle (ANSWER KEY included).
• Scarecrow ABCs – Students choose words or phrases that begin with each letter of the alphabet to describe a scarecrow.
• Scarecrow Selfie – Students create a social media post from the scarecrow’s point of view.
• Wait… There’s More! – Students create 2 pages for the end of the book.
• Book Review – Students write a book review for the story, Scarecrow.
• Design a Book Cover – Students design a new cover for the book.

This resource is for extension read-aloud activities only.
The book is not included.       

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