Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Strictly No Elephants 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 inclusion, friendship and empathy, this Strictly No Elephants picture book by Lisa Mantchev 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 Strictly No Elephants Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Strictly No Elephants. 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 Strictly No Elephants reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
STRICTLY NO ELEPHANTS SUMMARY
The main character in Strictly No Elephants is a boy with a tiny pet elephant. He is very excited for Pet Club Day, and is shocked when he sees a sign on the club door that says strictly no elephants.
The boy runs into a girl who was also turned away from the club because of her pet skunk. The boy and girl decide to form their own club, and state that all are welcome.
Students will examine the importance of inclusion and the characteristics of a good friend as they hear the story Strictly No Elephants.
STRICTLY NO ELEPHANTS 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 Strictly No Elephants, 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 Strictly No Elephants reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing illustrations
- making predictions
- author’s purpose
- plot (problem-solution)
- ask and answer questions
- analyzing character
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- inclusion
- friendship
- empathy
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- proper nouns
- contractions
- quotation marks
STRICTLY NO ELEPHANTS 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 Strictly No Elephants?
- Lexile® Measure: AD490L
- Guided Reading Level: M-N
- DRA Level: 20-24
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.6-2.7
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Lisa Mantchev. It was illustrated by –Taeeun Yoo.
What genre is Strictly No Elephants?
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.
