Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Linus the Little Yellow Pencil 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 positive self-talk and growth mindset, this Linus the Little Yellow Pencil picture book by Scott Magoon 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 Linus the Little Yellow Pencil Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Linus the Little Yellow Pencil. 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 Linus the Little Yellow Pencil reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
LINUS THE LITTLE YELLOW PENCIL SUMMARY
Linus is a pencil who loves to draw. He decides to enter into an art contest, and had his eye on the grand prize. Ernie, Linus’s eraser, does not think that any of the drawings Linus is creating are good enough to win them the prize.
Ernie continuously criticizes Linus’s drawings and causes Linus to want to quit being an artist. Linus has an encounter with Smudge, and Smudge convinces him to keep drawing. Linus and Ernie go on to draw beautiful pictures together.
Students will learn about growth mindset and positive-self talk as they hear the story of how a pencil learned to believe in himself.
LINUS THE LITTLE YELLOW PENCIL 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 Linus the Little Yellow Pencil, 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 Linus the Little Yellow Pencil reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making predictions
- analyzing character
- analyzing illustrations
- making connections
- plot | problem and solution
- author’s purpose
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- positive self-talk
- growth mindset
- bullying
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- multiple meaning words
- quotation marks
- suffixes
LINUS THE LITTLE YELLOW PENCIL 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 Linus the Little Yellow Pencil?
- 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 and illustrated by Scott Magoon.
What genre is Linus the Little Yellow Pencil?
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.
