Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Little Engine that Could will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, teaching ideas, and information about the children’s book.
With themes of resiliency and positive self-talk, this The Little Engine that Could picture book by Watty Piper is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too!
Engage Your Students with The Little Engine that Could Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Little Engine that Could.
- 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 Little Engine that Could reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD SUMMARY
The story The Little Engine that Could is about a little red train that breaks down when carrying toys, dolls, and great food to the boys and girls on the other side of the mountain. The toys and dolls ask passing engines to help them and pull them to the other side of the mountain but the trains say no.
The toys and dolls do not give up and they ask a Little Blue Engine if she can pull them. The Little Blue Engine says that she has never done that before but she sees that they really need her help. The Little Blue Engine agrees to try to pull them and repeats “I think I can, I think I can” while doing it. She is able to pull the food, toys and dolls to the boys and girls on the other side of the mountain.
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD 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 Little Engine that Could, 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 Little Engine that Could reading comprehension questions focus on:
- sequencing
- analyzing character
- identifying the main idea
- summarize/retell
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- resiliency
- positive self-talk
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- adjectives
- onomatopoeia
THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD 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 Little Engine that Could?
- Lexile® Measure: AD500L
- Guided Reading Level: K
- DRA Level: 16 – 18
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 2.7
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Watty Piper. It was illustrated by Loren Long.
What genre is The Little Engine that Could?
It is a classics 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 30 pages long.
