Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Big Test 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 expectations and best effort, this The Big Test picture book by Julie Danneberg 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 The Big Test Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Big Test. 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 The Big Test reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE BIG TEST SUMMARY
It is the end of the school year and Mrs. Hartwell and her students are back! It is time for them to show what they learned during the school year by taking the Big Test. Mrs. Hartwell spends the week getting them ready for the test. They practice sitting quietly, working alone, and filling in bubbles. As the week goes on, the students begin to get nervous. Many of them need to go to the nurse because they are not feeling well. When Mrs. Hartwell realizes how her students are feeling about the test, she realizes she must teach them one last lesson.
As the class heads to the library, the students are clearly nervous. When Mrs. Hartwell opens the door she explains the last part of preparing for a test is to relax and stop worrying! She has designed a day of relaxation where students can play games, taste test snacks, and make their own thinking caps! They are now ready to take the Big Test.
THE BIG TEST 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 The Big Test, 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 The Big Test reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making inferences
- summarize / retell
- comparing and contrasting
- analyzing illustrations
- making connections
- identifying theme | message | moral
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- managing stress and anxiety
- expectations
- best effort
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- verb tense
- adverbs
- interjections
- synonyms
THE BIG TEST 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 The Big Test?
- Lexile® Measure: 610L
- 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 Julie Danneberg. It was illustrated by Judy Love.
What genre is The Big Test?
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.
