Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution 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 problem solving, this Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution picture book by Pat Miller 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 Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution. 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 Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
SQUIRREL'S NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION SUMMARY
It is the start of the new year and all of the animals in the forest have made their New Year’s resolutions, everyone except Squirrel. She starts off by asking Bear what a resolution is and if he has one. Bear explains what a resolution is and tells Squirrel that his resolution is to help their friend Skunk learn how to read. After talking with Bear, Squirrel is determined to come up with a resolution.
As she travels throughout the forest, Squirrel runs into many of her friends and talks about their resolutions. Skunk wants to learn to read, Turtle and Mole want to plant a garden, and Porcupine wants to be less grumpy. When Squirrel is eating lunch at the diner, her friends arrive too and they talk about how helpful Squirrel has been. When she visited Skunk, she helped her feel better. She climbed a tree to help Mole and Turtle find a spot for their garden. She also taught Porcupine some funny jokes. That is when Squirrel realizes what her resolution will be: to help someone each day.
SQUIRREL’S NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION 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 Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution, 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 Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution reading comprehension questions focus on:
- summarize/retell
- making connections
- analyzing character
- plot (problem and solution)
- sequencing
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- problem solving
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- nouns
- plural nouns
- action verbs
- shades of meaning
SQUIRREL’S NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION 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 Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution?
- Lexile® Measure: AD520L
- Guided Reading Level: N
- DRA Level: 24-28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.7-2.9
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Pat Miller. It was illustrated by Kathi Ember.
What genre is Squirrel’s New Year’s Resolution?
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.
