Booktivities By Sandy

I have a secret to tell you…I’ve been working on a new line of activities that I’m super excited about called Booktivities by Sandy!

It’s been an idea I’ve had ever since I started creating my Literacy Lesson Plans (You can read more about those here.) As much as I enjoyed creating those, they do take A LOT of time to put together and manage as links change or move around on the internet. So, over the last year, I wanted to develop something different that would be easier to manage, but still give parents, grandparents, and educators a wide variety of activities to do centering around a fabulous book. (Because when it comes down to it, that’s what really gets me excited about teaching…finding that perfect read-aloud book!)

The first story I did was a fun book called Giant Pants by Mark Fearing.

Here’s what’s included in the “Booktivities by Sandy” set for Giant Pants.

DOK (Depth of Knowledge) Questions:

When talking to teachers at my campus, one thing that they had trouble finding time to create were Depth of Knowledge questions (DOK) to use with their read-alouds. So, I started off by creating a set of DOK questions for the book that would help kids with their higher level thinking skills. (If you’d like to learn more about DOK, you can read about it here.)

Story Elements:

Reviewing the parts of a story are something I do on a regular basis to help my kids with their comprehension, so I wanted to include an easy way you could retell/review the story with kids. I also wanted to give you options in how you did this, so I created a paper version you can have kids do as well as an interactive version you can do with the whole class through a PowerPoint slideshow.

Bookmarks for Home Connections:

I also wanted to find a way to involve parents in the activities and books we read together in the library. So I created a bookmark that kids can take home to share.

Variety of Extension Activities:

Finally, I wanted to provide some additional activities for the K-2 kids to have fun with the book and work on their coloring, writing, and creativity.