Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for The Very Last Leaf will love this post. It includes resource recommendations, teaching ideas, and information about the book.
With themes of growth mindset and overcoming fears, this The Very Last Leaf picture book by Stef Wade is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. You and your students will love it too!
Engage Your Students with The Very Last Leaf Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of The Very Last Leaf.
- 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 Very Last Leaf reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
THE VERY LAST LEAF SUMMARY
Lance Cottonwood is passing his courses with flying colors- classes such as Budding, Wind Resistance, Photosynthesis, and Pigment Changing. As fall approaches, Lance the leaf becomes fearful of his final exam in Falling. What if he lands on a windshield? What if he falls on dog ‘business’? These worries build up and make Lance want to stay in the branches like Evergreen trees.
Once talking with his teacher, Lance gets the nerve to fall! He meets his classmates on the forest ground and they celebrate passing their final exam. More importantly, Lance learns to conquer his fears and trust himself.
THE VERY LAST LEAF 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 Very Last Leaf, 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 Very Last Leaf reading comprehension questions focus on:
- retell
- making connections
- author’s purpose
- ask and answer questions
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- overcoming fears
- growth mindset
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- personification
- exclamation points
THE VERY LAST LEAF 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 Very Last Leaf?
- Lexile® Measure: AD570L
- Guided Reading Level: M-N
- DRA Level: 28
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.0-3.2
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Stef Wade. It was illustrated by Jennifer Davison.
What genre is The Very Last Leaf?
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.
