Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Day The Crayons Quit 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 advocation and taking ownership, this The Day The Crayons Quit picture book by Drew Daywalt 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 Day The Crayons Quit Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Day The Crayons Quit. 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 Day The Crayons Quit reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT SUMMARY
Duncan’s crayons have decided to run away! They feel like Duncan has mistreated them, and are not going to take it anymore. Some crayons feel overworked and tired. Some crayons feel like they aren’t being used to their full potential. Other crayons are so worn down that they are just a stub.
Each crayon writes a letter to Duncan explaining why they left and providing different options for Duncan to use them properly.
At the end, Duncan hears the crayons’ concerns and creates a picture using all of them in better ways.
Students will love this story told from the point of view of crayons.
THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT 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 Day The Crayons Quit, 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 Day The Crayons Quit reading comprehension questions focus on:
- point of view
- analyzing illustrations
- plot (problem-solution)
- making connections
- author’s purpose
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- advocation
- taking ownership
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- adjectives
- punctuation
- capitalization
- commas
THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT 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 Day The Crayons Quit?
- Lexile® Measure: AD730L
- Guided Reading Level: Q-R
- DRA Level: 38-40
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 4.3-4.5
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Drew Daywalt. It was illustrated by Oliver Jeffers.
What genre is The Day The Crayons Quit?
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 40 pages long.
