Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Donkey Egg 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 putting forth your best effort and kindness, this The Donkey Egg picture book by Janet Stevens 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 Donkey Egg Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Donkey Egg. 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 Donkey Egg book companion to make lesson planning simple with The Donkey Egg reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
The Donkey Egg Summary
Bear’s farm was a mess and in need of repair. He didn’t seem to mind though and spent his days sleeping on the porch until Fox stopped by. Fox convinced Bear to buy a watermelon, telling him it was a donkey egg that would hatch and help tend to the farm. Bear took his job of caring for the donkey egg seriously. He kept it warm, safe, and happy. His neighbor, Hare, was training for a race and was always surprised to see Bear out of his chair, taking care of the egg.
Bear spent weeks caring for his donkey egg until one day, he started to fall asleep. The donkey egg started to roll away, down the hill. Bear and Hare chased after it but were too late, it smashed on the ground and seeds went everywhere. Bear decided to plant the watermelon seeds and Hare helped. When the two friends sold all their watermelon, they were finally able to get a donkey.
Book Information for Elementary Teachers
What are the reading levels for The Donkey Egg?
- 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 Janet Stevens. It was illustrated by Susan Stevens Crummel.
What genre is The Donkey Egg?
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.
The Donkey Egg Lesson Plan Ideas
Each of our 600+ 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 Donkey Egg, 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 Donkey Egg reading comprehension questions focus on:
- making predictions
- analyzing character
- plot | problem – solution
- identifying genre
- rhyme | rhythm | repetition
Literature-Based Social Emotional Learning Lessons
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- best effort
- kindness
Grammar, Vocabulary & Word Study
- interjections
- nouns
- capitalization
- adjectives
Get the Donkey Egg Book Activities
This Donkey Egg Book Companion includes 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
One Last Thing Before You Go… Grab this Free Reading Resource!
If you want to get more book ideas to read aloud to your elementary students, then grab this reading freebie for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom teachers. It includes:
- seasonal read aloud books lists for teachers
- printable reading logs to track students’ reading
- monthly reading challenges to motivate students to read more
It will have you covered for the entire school year, as well as the summer months! Grab this free elementary reading packet now!
