Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Rough Patch 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 transitions, grief and loss, this The Rough Patch picture book by Brian Lies 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 Rough Patch Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Rough Patch. 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 Rough Patch reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE ROUGH PATCH SUMMARY
The Rough Patch tells the difficult story about a fox that loses his best friend, his pet dog. The two did everything together, and their favorite activity was gardening. It is very hard for Evan, the fox, to continue gardening after the loss of his dog. Evan is angry for awhile and makes his garden the most sad and lonely place. However, overtime weeds start to grow in the garden again. Evan feels comfort from tending to them. Soon a pumpkin starts to grow and Evan cares for that, too. The pumpkin reminds him that the fair is coming up. He takes his pumpkin to the fair and enjoys reconnecting with old friends. Evan wins third place at the fair. He must choose his prize: ten dollars or a puppy.
Students will be thrilled to learn that Evan chooses a new puppy!
THE ROUGH PATCH 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 Rough Patch, 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 Rough Patch reading comprehension questions focus on:
- visualizing
- comparing and contrasting
- synthesizing
- analyzing illustrations
- identifying theme, message and moral
- making predictions
- cause and effect
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- transitions
- grief/loss
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- adjectives
- synonyms
- antonyms
THE ROUGH PATCH 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 Rough Patch?
- Lexile® Measure: AD580L
- Guided Reading Level: N-O
- DRA Level: 28-30
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.2-3.3
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Brian Lies. It was illustrated by Brian Lies.
What genre is The Rough Patch?
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.
