Dasher Lesson Plan and Book Companion

Welcome the holiday season with Matt Tavares' newly released picture book, Dasher. Designed for intermediate students, this comprehensive lesson plan is packed full of engaging opportunities for students to discuss and sequence key events. This download is loaded with options to customize for the perfect-fit lesson for your class. A wide variety of standards-based book companion activities can be done at a time that works best for your students!

Lesson Objective: Students will be able to summarize Dasher by sequencing key events.

Lesson questions will focus on identifying and sequencing key events as Dasher seeks freedom from the traveling circus. An optional story map anchor chart is included to collect this evidence. At the end of the lesson, students will respond to the the following prompt independently: Summarize Dasher, including key events from beginning to end. Several differentiated assessment options are included.

**Be sure to check out the preview of this lesson for a more in-depth look at what you’ll get with this 50-page download!!**

For the lesson, teacher resources include: teacher guide with skill rationale/teacher language, lesson plan with stopping points, text-dependent questions (and scaffolding questions for each), expected student responses, post-its to print questions and place in book for easy reference during the lesson.

Other student resources included: large, printable form of the essential question, student friendly objective, and questions to post for visual learners.

There are tons of extras and extensions to be used after the lesson for more fun and learning!

• 5 colorful vocabulary cards and 4 blank cards
• Student vocabulary graphic organizer to infer meaning of words and provide context clues
• Vocabulary activity options and photographs representing each word
• Students practice the strategy of visualizing. On the movie reel, students sketch the five most important events that helped them understand the story. Then, label their sketches with key words from the text.
• Students sequence story events on post-its independently or in pairs. Just print one page of post-its per group. Students sort and stick on a sentence strip. Then, practice retelling the story orally. *This may be helpful if some students need additional practice before writing their summary.
• Students think about Dasher’s thoughts, actions, and traits to complete the character graphic organizer.
• Students compare and contrast Dasher’s life before and after meeting Santa. Students record text evidence on the Venn Diagram, then write to summarize their findings.
• Students describe how the point of view would change from the vantage point of different characters (Silverbell, Mr. Finnegan, Dasher’s Mama, Santa) when Dasher escapes the traveling circus.
• Students analyze the author’s use of figurative language. For each of the two examples, students respond to the questions in order to infer the meaning. Then, students sketch a picture to support their understanding.
• Students read an informational article about caribou (title: Rudolph the Red Nosed…Caribou?). Then, students complete each of the four responses (main idea, vocabulary, text structure, identify key details). Two differentiated articles are included.
• Students continue the story by writing and illustrating an additional event that could have taken place after Dasher and her family returned to live in the North Pole after delivering presents on Christmas Eve.

Interested in NONFICTION Christmas articles?

Check out my Christmas Differentiated Nonfiction Passages here!

Thank you for checking out this lesson plan! Please let me know if you have any questions before purchasing.

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