Sheila Rae the Brave lesson plans and activities. Reading response, vocabulary, centers, sentence work, and a directed drawing for the book, Sheila Rae the Brave.
Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes
Sheila Rae the Brave is such a great book! The main character, little Sheila Rae thinks she is very brave… that is until she gets lost on her way home from school.
We use this book in kindergarten and first grade to practice reading comprehension skills. The lesson plans and activities for Sheila Rae the Brave keep students engaged in learning throughout the week.
Sheila Rae the Brave Lesson Plans
We have fun developing comprehension strategies. We practice making predictions, focusing on details in the story, analyzing characters, making connections, and writing about our opinion all in one week. Plus, we throw in some vocabulary and a sentence study!
Each day of the week, we practice a new reading comprehension skill.
Making Predictions
Students love making predictions… and better yet, discovering if their prediction was correct. For this response to reading activity, we make predictions on what will happen when Sheila Rae tries to walk home a new way.
Details in the Story
Throughout our Engaging Readers units, we often focus on retelling the events in the story. For this book, we do that but look even deeper at the details in the story and determine first if they actually occurred in the story or not.
This activity works great in whole group and also provides an opportunity for independent practice.
Analyzing Characters
We teach students that you can better understand the characters in a story by thinking about their physical traits and the things they do and say. Not only do we look at Sheila Rae in this story, we also talk about her younger sister, Louise. During a class discussion, we identify character traits for Sheila Rae and Louise throughout the story.
On day 4, we talk about our personal connections with Sheila Rae and tell about a time we were lost or afraid.
At the end of the week, students write about their opinion on why Louise changed at the end of the story. We reflect back on our discussion of character traits from day 3.
Sheila Rae the Brave Vocabulary
Together as a class, we discuss the meaning of words that are found in the story. Our vocabulary words for Sheila Rae the Brave are brave and familiar.
Sheila Rae the Brave Sentence Study
In addition to the reading response activities, we designate a little time each day to our sentence study.
Sheila Rae the Brave lesson plans, along with the vocabulary, sentence study, and the directed drawing you will see below can be found in this Engaging Readers unit:
Sheila Rae the Brave Center Activities
I like to add math and literacy activities to our center station that match our story for the week.
Sheila’s New Words
In this center, students practice writing new words by changing the initial sound.
Brave Sheila’s Syllables
A fun literacy center to practice clapping out syllables.
Counting On Sheila
Students practice counting on from a given number in this math center.
Click this link for Sheila Rae the Brave center activities (along with a STEM activity):
Sheila Rae the Brave Directed Drawing
I love how these turn out! Students can use water colors to complete their directed drawing.
I love pretty much every book Kevin Henkes has ever written! Using his picture books is a great way to practice reading comprehension skills. If you too are a fan, here are a few more books with lesson plans and activities:
4 Responses
Hi! I am really interested in the guided drawing for Sheila Ray but I do not need the rest of the packet. Is there anyway to get just this piece!? Please let me know 😉 Thank you!!
I’m sorry, we don’t have it listed on its own.
I have the Guiding Readers units for June and I don’t see the directed drawing. Where can I find it?
It is on pages 146-147 of the unit. 🙂
If it has been a while since you downloaded the PDF, you may want to. We have updated so much!!!