Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden 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 a theme of growth mindset, this Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden picture book by Edith Pattou 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 Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden. 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 Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
MRS. SPITZER'S GARDEN SUMMARY
Mrs. Spitzer is a teacher at Tremont Elementary School. Throughout this story, the narrator is comparing Mrs. Spitzer to a gardener planting new seeds, her students. At the end of each school year, her principal gives her a new packet of seeds which she will plant. Mrs. Spitzer tends to the new seeds, making sure they get everything they need to grow.
When the plants start to emerge, each one is different. Some of them take longer to grow while others grow quickly. Each plant is unique and needs something different. As the seasons change Mrs. Spitzer watches over her garden and cares for all of the plants. When the year is over, Mrs. Spitzer’s job is done. The plants go forward and continue to grow while Mrs. Spitzer prepares for the new seeds she will receive from her principal.
MRS. SPITZER’S GARDEN 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 Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden, 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 Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making inferences
- making predictions
- summarize / retell
- point of view
- author’s purpose
- identifying theme | message | moral
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- growth mindset
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- articles
- adverbs
- antonyms
- capitalization
MRS. SPITZER’S GARDEN 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 Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden?
- 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 Edith Pattou. It was illustrated by Tricia Tusa.
What genre is Mrs. Spitzer’s Garden?
It is a ficition 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.
