Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for All Different Now will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of respect, this All Different Now picture book by Angela Johnson is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with All Different Now Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of All Different Now. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with All Different Now reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
ALL DIFFERENT NOW SUMMARY
Angela Johnson’s book, All Different Now, tells the story of the first Juneteenth.
It is a June morning and the narrator and her family are just starting their day. They eat breakfast, chat with one another, and head into the fields as the sun is still coming up. While everyone gets to work in the fields under the hot sun, some important news starts to spread. When the news finally makes it from the port all the way into the fields, everyone realizes things will be very different. A Union general has announced that the slaves are free.
The narrator observes those around her taking in the news. Her aunt sings to her baby, Mr. Jake cries quietly, and her mother holds her hand. The narrator and her family head to the water for a picnic. As the day goes on, more and more people join the celebration. They ate, laughed, and told stories before walking back home.
The next morning, everyone wakes up to a life that will be very different.
ALL DIFFERENT NOW LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for All Different Now, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based All Different Now reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing setting
- comparing and contrasting
- making inferences
- point of view
- summarizing/retelling
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- respect
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- articles
- prepositions
- compound words
- pronouns
ALL DIFFERENT NOW ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies


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BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for All Different Now?
- Lexile® Measure: N/A
- Guided Reading Level: N/A
- DRA Level: N/A
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): N/A
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Angela Johnson. It was illustrated by E.B Lewis.
What genre is All Different Now?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 40 pages long.