Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Olive, the Other Reindeer will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, teaching ideas, and information about the book.
With a theme of acceptance, this Olive, the Other Reindeer picture book by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. This will become one of your favorite Christmas read alouds for elementary students!
Engage Your Students with Olive, the Other Reindeer Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Olive, the Other Reindeer.
- 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 Olive, the Other Reindeer reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
OLIVE, THE OTHER REINDEER SUMMARY
It’s the holiday season and Olive the dog is on her daily walk outside. Music is playing and people sing along “all of the other reindeer.” Olive is too shy to sing outside, but when she gets home she sings along to the music: “Olive the other reindeer.” That’s when she realizes, she must be a reindeer!
Olive makes the long trip to the North Pole to help Santa Claus like the other reindeer. When she arrives, Santa allows her to join, knowing she won’t be able to fly. The reindeer tie her to the sleigh and they start off on their journey.
Throughout the night, Olive is able to help Santa and the reindeer with her unique qualities. She was able to chew branches to free the sleigh from a tree. She was able to smell gum drops allowing Santa to catch them before they were all lost and she was able to fetch all of the flutes that fell out of the sleigh. Most importantly, Olive was able to guide Santa’s sleigh home when the fog was so thick the reindeer couldn’t see. Olive used her strong sense of smell to follow the scent of Mrs. Claus’s cookies.
Olive, Santa, and the reindeer arrive back at the North Pole to celebrate. Santa even gives Olive a very special present, her own set of reindeer antlers.
OLIVE, THE OTHER REINDEER 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 Olive, the Other Reindeer, 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 Olive, the Other Reindeer reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making inferences
- making predictions
- analyzing character
- plot | problem – solution
- cause and effect
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- acceptance
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- action verbs
- multiple meaning words
- adjectives
- shades of meaning
OLIVE, THE OTHER REINDEER 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 Olive, the Other Reindeer?
- Lexile® Measure: 590L
- Guided Reading Level: M
- DRA Level: 20 – 24
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.4
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Seibold. It was illustrated by J. Otto Seibold.
What genre is Olive, the Other Reindeer?
It is a comedy and humor 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.
