Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Pecos Bill 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 goal setting, this Pecos Bill picture book by Steven Kellogg 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 Pecos Bill Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Pecos Bill. 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 Pecos Bill reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
PECOS BILL SUMMARY
Pecos Bill was known for being the greatest cowboy of all time. When he was just a baby, Bill’s family set off in their covered wagon to find a home out west where it was less crowded. However, when Bill was fishing off the back of the wagon one day, he fell off. Thankfully, he was pulled ashore by a coyote who took Bill in and then raised him.
One day, a man named Chuck came across Bill napping outside. He told Bill all about ranching and Bill thought he would give it a try. On his journey to convince a gang of outlaws to join him, Bill ran into a giant rattlesnake. He fought the rattlesnake and turned him into a lasso. Word spread about how Bill was able to fight such large, wild beasts, and the gang was impressed. They agreed to herd cattle with Bill. During his time as a cowboy, Bill invented lassoing and rodeos. The greatest adventure of his life though, was meeting Sue. She agreed to marry Bill on two conditions: he must get her a dress with the biggest bustle, and let her ride his horse to the wedding.
When Bill returned with a dress for Sue, the bustle was so big she bounced into outer space. Bill had to use a tornado to catch her and it blew them all the way to California. Bill was surprised to see his family had still not found a place to call home and was certain they wouldn’t find anywhere better than his home in Texas.
PECOS BILL 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 Pecos Bill, 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 Pecos Bill reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- analyzing setting
- making connections
- summarizing/retelling
- visualizing
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- goal setting
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- nouns
- action verbs
- antonyms
- adjectives
PECOS BILL 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 Pecos Bill?
- Lexile® Measure: AD1040L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 44
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 5.7
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Steven Kellogg. It was illustrated by Laura Robb.
What genre is Pecos Bill?
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 48 pages long.
