When I was in the classroom I always liked celebrating fun and random national days with my students. I always made sure to keep the activities standards-aligned, while also being creative and unique so my students could have fun while learning. Here’s an example of how I did that with a lesson I taught on National Unicorn Day.
I started the lesson by reading the book, Thelma the Unicorn, aloud to my students. There are so many books about unicorns, but this is one of my favorites.
After reading the book aloud once through, I told my students the learning goal, and success criteria, and made sure they understood the goal of the lesson.
Learning Goal:
- We are learning how to determine the central message of the story.
Success Criteria:
- I can determine story details.
- I can identify the character’s traits, motivations, feelings, and actions.
- I can explain the author’s purpose.
Then, I read the story a second time. This time, I told my students to think about what the central message could be while I read the story. I used a graphic organizer on an anchor chart to model how to collect details while reading.
We would stop and partner share, as well as whole group share, our ideas about the central message.
At the end, I would ask my students what the central message of the story was, and students would write out their responses, citing evidence from the text.
Finally, we’d make a fun unicorn craft to display our writing.
Another great way to use this book and get students to write is to follow the same lesson format, but instead, ask students what made Thelma unique. Then, for the writing portion, students can write about what makes them unique!
You can find Thelma the Unicorn here on Amazon.
Here’s an example of another writing prompt you can use for your students after you read the story Thelma the Unicorn.
