Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for John Henry 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 courage, this John Henry picture book by Julius Lester 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 John Henry Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of John Henry. 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 John Henry reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
JOHN HENRY SUMMARY
When John Henry was born, everyone knew he was going to be special. In fact, animals came from all over to see the new baby. When his parents brought him out onto the porch to show everyone, John Henry jumped out of his mother’s arms and started growing. He grew so tall that he burst through the roof. From that moment on, John Henry started using his strength to help others.
He was able to help his father add onto their house and even cut down an acre of trees to turn into firewood. One time, John Henry challenged someone named Ferret-Faced Freddy, who was known for being mean, to a race. It was decided that if John Henry won, Freddy would have to be nice to others forever. It worked.
Throughout his life, John used his super strength to help others. When he left home, his father gave him two sledgehammers. On his travels, John Henry used the sledgehammers to bust through a giant boulder that was in the way of a road being built. He then came across a railroad being built. The railroad had to go through a mountain, but thankfully they had a machine to help. John Henry challenged the railroad boss to see who could make it it to the middle faster. John Henry was able to hammer so fast and strong that he won the challenge. Unfortunately, the hard work caused his heart to stop.
Through John Henry’s death, people learned that dying was inevitable, however what mattered was how you lived your life. John Henry lived his life using his strength to help others.
JOHN HENRY 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 John Henry, 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 John Henry reading comprehension questions focus on:
- cause and effect
- making predictions
- point of view
- sequencing
- summarizing/retelling
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- courage
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- multiple meaning words
- suffixes
- irregular verbs
- contractions
JOHN HENRY 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 John Henry?
- Lexile® Measure: AD620L
- Guided Reading Level: O
- DRA Level: 30-34
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.3-3.5
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Julius Lester. It was illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.
What genre is John Henry ?
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.
