Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for How to Catch a Dragon 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 resiliency, this How to Catch a Dragon picture book by Adam Wallace 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!
Check out these other Chinese New Year books too!
Engage Your Students with How to Catch a Dragon Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of How to Catch a Dragon. 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 How to Catch a Dragon reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
HOW TO CATCH A DRAGON SUMMARY
Adam Wallace’s book How to Catch a Dragon takes place just before the New Year. The main character is getting ready with his mother and grandmother. The boy’s mother mentions that a dragon would bring them good health and fortune in the New Year, so the boy decides to try and catch one!
Throughout the book the boy and his friends run about the town trying to catch a dragon. They try to lure the dragon with sticky rice, noodles and even gold coins. The children try and trap the dragon by providing a cozy spot for him to nap but have no luck. They decide to make their own dagon but end up making a big mess.
The young boy returns home and is disappointed he wasn’t able to bring his mother a dragon. She explains that she loves him most of all and the family enjoys watching fireworks together.
HOW TO CATCH A DRAGON 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 How to Catch a Dragon, 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 How to Catch a Dragon reading comprehension questions focus on:
- cause and effect
- making connections
- rhyme, rhythm & repetition
- sequencing
- summarizing/retelling
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- resiliency
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- homophones
- multiple meaning words
- adjectives
- verb tense
HOW TO CATCH A DRAGON 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 How to Catch a Dragon?
- Lexile® Measure: 520L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.9
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Adam Wallace. It was illustrated by Andy Elkerton.
What genre is How to Catch a Dragon?
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.
