Reading aloud to students is a great way to help them build comprehension skills and love of reading. These activities, crafts, and lesson plan ideas are based on the book, The Relatives Came, by Cynthia Rylant. (affiliate links)
Having family members that come to visit for a visit is something many students can make a connection with. Why not use their visit as an opportunity to do some fun read aloud activities with your students? In this blog post, we’ll share read aloud lesson ideas and activities that you can use with your students.
Cynthia Rylant’s book, The Relatives Came is such a great book to read either before Thanksgiving or after. This book was illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Gammell has been recognized numerous times as an award-winning children’s books author. The Relatives Came was a Caldecott Honor book in 1986!
Here is a summary from Amazon:
“In a rainbow-colored station wagon that smelled like a real car, the relatives came. When they arrived, they hugged and hugged from the kitchen to the front room. All summer they tended the garden and ate up all the strawberries and melons. They plucked banjos and strummed guitars.
When they finally had to leave, they were sad, but not for long. They all knew they would be together next summer.”
One of the criteria we use for selecting an interactive read-aloud is text complexity. We want to be certain that our mini lesson focus helps to support our young readers listening comprehension skills. Children books, like, The Relatives Came does fills that need perfectly!
One skill we practice with this mentor text is making a mental image as we read. Students will hear Cynthia Rylant’s rich vocabulary and make a picture in their minds. Here is the writing prompt for this lesson.
We have printable images and a digital resource you can use to help students organize their ability to sequence the story.
Here is the digital version of the story sequencing. This is a simple PowerPoint slide, but you can easily add it to your Google Classroom activities if you wish.
After the book images are put in order, students practice retelling the story to their partners. Then students will complete their own retelling.
While I was working with a school in Georgia a few years ago, I snapped a few pictures. The students in Mrs. Morris’s class were making text-to-self connections with the text. You can also add the complete sentence activity to this craft!
In additional activity using this book is to make connections with the story. We talk about what a relative is and students tell about a time they had a visit with a relative. They love writing and drawing on Post-it notes.
This inferring question is discussed with students on the 4th day of the interactive read aloud. Here is the inferring writing prompt.
We usually round the week out with an opinion writing piece. However, a written response is not needed for each day. The important element of an interactive read-aloud is the student discussion.
You can find all of these activities including the retelling pieces, anchor charts, sentence study and even this fun craft by clicking:
We really love this video version of The Relatives Came!
Here are a few of the math centers that have a Thanksgiving Theme!
You can find these kindergarten math centers by clicking:
You can download this free lesson plan template. Guess what? It is editable so you can make changes to match your own classroom needs!
Simply click on the image below to download the template.
I hope you found a few fun ideas and activities that you can use with Cynthia Rylant’s book, The Relatives Came! This great story is one of my favorites.
Be sure to download the template today. It’s a great way to keep all of your lesson planning organized and in one place.
Read all about interactive read aloud lesson planning by clicking:
Find more lesson plans like this one by clicking:
My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!
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2 Responses
I wanted the free resource for The Relatives Came but I only received a bump game.
Hi Becky! The free file is the BUMP center game. The files for The Relatives Came are available for purchase. You can see the link on where to find those in the blog post. I hope that helps.