Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Legend of the Poinsettia 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 responsibility, this The Legend of the Poinsettia picture book by Tomie dePaola 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 Legend of the Poinsettia Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Legend of the Poinsettia. 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 Legend of the Poinsettia reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE LEGEND OF THE POINSETTIA SUMMARY
The Legend of the Poinsettia takes place in a village in Mexico. The main character is a young girl named Lucida. As the village prepares for Christmas, Lucida’s mother is asked to weave a new blanket for the manger scene. They are very proud to do this and Lucida is happy to help. However, as it gets closer to Christmas Eve, Lucida’s mother becomes sick and must stay in the hospital. Everyone is disappointed that the blanket will not be completed in time. Lucida tries to fix the blanket but it just gets tangled. She is so upset that she has nothing to bring to the church so she hides outside.
An old woman approaches Lucida and tells her everything will be okay. She teaches Lucida that the gift she brings does not matter, it is the thought that is important. Lucida gathers a bundle of weeds and brings them to the church. Everyone is surprised to see the weeds bloom into poinsettia. From that day forward the poinsettia flowers bloom every Christmas Eve in Mexico.
THE LEGEND OF THE POINSETTIA 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 Legend of the Poinsettia, 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 Legend of the Poinsettia reading comprehension questions focus on:
- analyzing character
- analyzing setting
- making connections
- plot (problem-solution)
- identifying genre
- identifying theme, message and moral
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- responsibility
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- proper pronouns
- adjectives
- prefixes
- suffixes
THE LEGEND OF THE POINSETTIA 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
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BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for The Legend of the Poinsettia?
- Lexile® Measure: AD680L
- Guided Reading Level: O
- DRA Level: 34-36
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.6
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola.
What genre is The Legend of the Poinsettia?
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.