Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Extra Yarn 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 problem solving and perseverance, this Extra Yarn picture book by Mac Barnett 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 Extra Yarn Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Extra Yarn. 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 Extra Yarn reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
EXTRA YARN SUMMARY
Annabelle lives in a dark and dreary little town. One day, she discovers a box filled with colorful yarn. She decides to knit herself a sweater, and when there is leftover yarn she knits one for her dog. Everyone starts to notice Annabelle’s colorful sweaters so she begins to make them for others: her neighbor, teacher, classmates, and animals. Each time she knits something, there is still extra yarn!
Word spreads about Annabelle and her magic yarn, and people begin visiting the town. An archduke even comes and offers Annabelle large amounts of money for the box of yarn, but she declines. The archduke is angry and decides to have robbers steal the box of yarn. When he returns home, the archduke is surprised to find the box is empty. He throws the box out the window and curses Annabelle. However, the box makes its way back to Annabelle and she continues to knit.
EXTRA YARN 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 Extra Yarn, 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 Extra Yarn reading comprehension questions focus on:
- visualizing
- analyzing character
- analyzing setting
- plot (problem and solution)
- identifying the theme, message or moral
- cause and effect
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- problem solving
- perseverance
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- possessive nouns
- prefixes
- compound words
- contractions
EXTRA YARN 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
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Extra Yarn?
- Lexile® Measure: AD550L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Mac Barnett. It was illustrated by Jon Klassen.
What genre is Extra Yarn?
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.
