Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for How to Catch an Elf will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, teaching ideas, and information about the book.
With themes of manners and gratitude, this How to Catch an Elf picture book by Adam Wallace is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. This will become one of my favorite Christmas read alouds!
Engage Your Students with How to Catch an Elf Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of How to Catch an Elf.
- 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 an Elf reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
HOW TO CATCH AN ELF SUMMARY
It’s Christmas Eve and Santa is ready to deliver toys to all the boys and girls. Luckily, he has his elf there to help him through the busy night. Children used to try and catch Santa, but he was too fast for them. Now the children are trying to catch Santa’s elf!
The two set out to deliver gifts, they’re ready to navigate the traps children have set out. Throughout the night, the elf tries and avoid traps made of tinsel, tape, candy canes and lasers. One time, he even gets trapped in tape but Santa is there to help him.
Their final stop of the night is at a grocery store. There, an avalanche of food makes a big mess and a cannon sends the two flying through the store. Thankfully, Santa and his elf make sure a great team they are able to deliver all the gifts safely. When the night is done, the two share a pizza and celebrate their success!
HOW TO CATCH AN ELF LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 600+ 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 an Elf, 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 an Elf reading comprehension questions focus on:
- point of view
- identify the main idea
- sequencing
- rhyme | rhythm | repetition
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- manners
- gratitude
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- pronouns
- irregular verbs
- conjunctions
- onomatopoeia
HOW TO CATCH AN ELF 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 an Elf?
- Lexile® Measure: AD540L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.9 – 3
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 an Elf?
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 32 pages long.
